[Sara Damiano]

Woops, yes, the example has changed since then.  Sorry about that.

And, yes, you’re definitely not alone.  I think issues with LTE connections are the top forum topic here.  The LTE XBee3’s are so much trouble.  I wish I could find something better.

From your pictures, your hardware connections look right.  🙂

As you’ve read, the first connection can take near forever.  In the last update I simplified the clock sync, but that removed the control over how long to wait.

I put up a new program for you to try to see if you can get a connection:  https://github.com/EnviroDIY/ModularSensors/blob/master/tools/LTExBee_FirstConnection/LTExBee_FirstConnection.ino  It will set up the XBee, the carrier profile, the APN and then just sit and wait forever for a connection.

 

[Sara Damiano]

I’m sorry for not replying faster, but, no, there’s no way to delete or overwrite existing data short of deleting the entire time series.

[Sara Damiano]

To my knowledge T-Mobile, the last remaining 2G/GSM provider in the US, is pulling the plug December 31, 2020. AT&T and Verizon shut theirs down several years ago and the coverage area from T-Mobile has been getting smaller for a while.  This is nothing new.

Yes, to switch to 4G requires new hardware. The 4G module we are using is the Digi Xbee3 LTE-M module – which is both more expensive and more finicky than the 2G unit. I’ve never seen any bulk discounts offered on the Digi website or through any of their suppliers. We’ve been buying them in small batches as we need them. They’re usually in stock through a number of US suppliers. We’ve toyed with the idea of developing our own LTE board, but we haven’t pursued it.

As for selling the 2G unit – if you can find a buyer, that’s certainly better than trashing them. The death of 2G is imminent in the US (and I think Canada) but it’s not gone globally.

[Sara Damiano]

@nikeaulas What did you set the pin level to while you were waiting the extra time before the commands for the Campbell?

[Sara Damiano]

Yay!  I’m glad it worked!

[Sara Damiano]

Well compiler errors are never fun.

It looks like platformio didn’t complete the recursive dependency library installation correctly.  That sometimes happens when it’s trying to install all the dependencies for ModularSensors at once.

You can check what libraries it did install in the .pio/libdeps/mayfly folder of your project.  You might see some folders with names like _tmp_junk_.  If you do, you can just delete them.  When platformio attempts to download a library it first puts it in a temporary folder and then unpacks it and those remnants sometimes get left over when things go wrong.

To give it another chance to install the missing libraries, open up a new terminal in your project and type pio lib install.  You should see it go through and check for dependencies and for each say “is already installed” or install it.

If you really can’t get it to install the libraries that way, you can install the dependencies one at a time with pio lib install zzz where zzz is the name of the library.  You shouldn’t need to do that though.

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[Sara Damiano]

Ok, so for testing the XBee with what you have:

• check for any blobs of solder on the solder jumpers or any modifications made to either your Mayfly or LTE adapter – let me know if there are any
• check and re-check to make sure the pins in your bee stack are all aligned and in the right holes, ie, they’re not all shifted up or down 1 spot
• connect a (charged) lipo battery to one of the lipo jacks on the Mayfly
• use the short jumper cable to connect from the second lipo jack on the Mayfly to the lipo jack on the LTE adapter board.
• plug the Mayfly into your computer with the micro USB on your Mayfly (can be any type of USB on the PC)
• turn on the Mayfly with its switch

Now, program your Mayfly with a very simple program like this and let it run.

#include <Arduino.h> setup(){ // Set the reset pin HIGH to ensure the Bee does not continually reset pinMode(20, OUTPUT); digitalWrite(20, HIGH); // Set the sleep_rq pin LOW to wake the Bee pinMode(23, OUTPUT); digitalWrite(23, LOW); // pinMode(19, INPUT); } // Do nothing forever loop(){}

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#include <Arduino.h>   setup(){     // Set the reset pin HIGH to ensure the Bee does not continually reset     pinMode(20, OUTPUT);     digitalWrite(20, HIGH);       // Set the sleep_rq pin LOW to wake the Bee     pinMode(23, OUTPUT);     digitalWrite(23, LOW);       //     pinMode(19, INPUT); }   // Do nothing forever loop(){}

Make sure the LED labeled “ON” on the LTE adapter turns on.

There won’t be any output at all from the program to your PC – all you’re looking for is the ON light on the LTE adapter board in between the Mayfly and the XBee.  The ASSOC and RSSI lights may or may not turn on.  But if the ON light doesn’t come on, there’s something definitely wrong with either your connections or the XBee itself.

[Sara Damiano]

To modify the Mayfly to work as a carrier board you’d need to cut and re-solder jumpers SJ8 and SJ9 on the back of the Mayfly to connect Bee Tx and Rx to Tx 0 and Tx 1.  You would want to undo the change to use the Mayfly again normally.  I’ve never actually tried this modification and am not 100% positive it would work.

I suggest you just forget about connecting the XBee to your computer and give up on XCTU and m-center.  You really need a separate development board to make that connection work.

[Sara Damiano]

Ok, so you have a stack with a Mayfly, an LTE adapter board, and a XBee3 (3 parts).

You don’t have a separate development or carrier board.  All of my comments about the USB-C/USB 3 apply only to a separate carrier board.  If you don’t have one, don’t worry about that.

 

[Sara Damiano]

I’m not sure the best way to confirm that it’s totally bricked.  If you power it up and still have all the pins reading 0 voltage, that’s probably a bad sign.

[Author]

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