I’m going round in circles here, got a Pi Zero that has been running without issue for many months but of late has suddenly stopped giving Skyview or connecting to FA
With a few script files running I now know the Pi is still running when this occurs, it shows as still connected to my WiFi but I am unable to ssh in to it.
Checking the PiAware log it seems I suddenly am unable to contact other devices on the internet/network.
Below is small section of log file at time of failure;
Blockquote
Jan 12 10:48:19 zero piaware[624]: mlat-client(9580): Server status: synchronized with 302 nearby receivers
Jan 12 10:48:19 zero piaware[624]: mlat-client(9580): Receiver: 182.2 msg/s received 32.3 msg/s processed (18%)
Jan 12 10:48:19 zero piaware[624]: mlat-client(9580): Server: 0.0 kB/s from server 0.0kB/s TCP to server 0.3kB/s UDP to server
Jan 12 10:48:19 zero piaware[624]: mlat-client(9580): Results: 11.9 positions/minute
Jan 12 10:48:19 zero piaware[624]: mlat-client(9580): Aircraft: 8 of 13 Mode S, 16 of 18 ADS-B used
Jan 12 10:48:48 zero piaware[624]: 161305 msgs recv’d from dump1090-fa (644 in last 5m); 161236 msgs sent to FlightAware
Jan 12 10:53:48 zero piaware[624]: 161980 msgs recv’d from dump1090-fa (675 in last 5m); 161911 msgs sent to FlightAware
Jan 12 10:57:04 zero piaware[624]: data isn’t making it to FlightAware, reconnecting…
Jan 12 10:57:04 zero piaware[624]: multilateration data no longer required, disabling mlat client
Jan 12 10:57:05 zero piaware[624]: fa-mlat-client exited normally
Jan 12 10:57:05 zero piaware[624]: reconnecting in 55 seconds…
Jan 12 10:57:05 zero piaware[624]: mlat-client(9580): Disconnecting from localhost:30005: Lost connection to multilateration server, no need for input data
Jan 12 10:57:05 zero piaware[624]: mlat-client(9580): Exiting on connection loss
Jan 12 10:58:00 zero piaware[624]: Connecting to FlightAware adept server at piaware.flightaware.com/1200
Jan 12 10:58:20 zero piaware[624]: Connection to adept server at piaware.flightaware.com/1200 failed: couldn’t open socket: Name or service not known
Jan 12 10:58:20 zero piaware[624]: reconnecting in 49 seconds…
Jan 12 10:58:50 zero piaware[624]: 162586 msgs recv’d from dump1090-fa (606 in last 5m); 162324 msgs sent to FlightAware
Jan 12 10:59:09 zero piaware[624]: Connecting to FlightAware adept server at piaware.flightaware.com/1200
Jan 12 10:59:29 zero piaware[624]: Connection to adept server at piaware.flightaware.com/1200 failed: couldn’t open socket: Name or service not known
Jan 12 10:59:29 zero piaware[624]: reconnecting in 62 seconds…
Jan 12 11:00:31 zero piaware[624]: Connecting to FlightAware adept server at 70.42.6.224/1200
Jan 12 11:00:34 zero piaware[624]: Connection to adept server at 70.42.6.224/1200 failed: host is unreachable
Jan 12 11:00:34 zero piaware[624]: reconnecting in 67 seconds…
Other devices connected to the same access point appear to be working fine.
There might be some information in the “dmesg” or the “/var/log/syslog” about why the wifi connection is failing. But this looks more like a wifi hardware problem in the RPi Zero.
There is one fairly easy way to rule out or confirm the hardware problem by using an external USB wifi adapter.
Since you are using a RPi zero you would need to use a USB hub with an external USB wifi adapter OR disconnect the prostick for the external USB wifi adapter during the test.
You can disable the internal Raspberry Pi Zero wifi adapter by setting rfkill to yes.
piaware-config rfkill yes
With rfkill on, piaware’s boot system will look for any connected wifi USB adapters and setup with the same ssid and password you have in your piaware configuration on the wifi adapter.
You can go back to the internal wifi connection by turning rfkill back to no.
I’ve tried the same card in a Pi3 and had the same problem. Trouble is it is spasmodic so difficult to narrow down.
I’m actually thinking it is a DNS issue, I am experimenting with an advert filter running on a separate Raspberry Pi which acts as a DNS server. I may be causing an unknowing conflict somewhere.
No, it was a complete mystery. My wifi signal is good enough where it was located, it was fine up to that point and I just did a reinstall, can’t recall now if I switched SD cards but all is fine again with no repetitions of dropped WiFi.
What puzzled me at the time also was, I have one of those USB to UART connections and if I connected via that adapter I could SSH into the device, I tried various commands but needed a reboot in the end. At the time of using that adapter I accidentally connected the power pins of the adapter whilst the Pi was still plugged in to PSU - fortunately nothing happened but I understand not something to do
One of many computer mysteries, we take them for granted but with the millions of instructions they deal with it is a wonder they work at all.
I was having lots of connection problems the past few weeks. I ran in circles trying to figured out the reason.
Then, for unrelated reasons, I installed another wireless router configured as a range extender. It happens to be located half way between the RPis and the WAN router. Problem solved.
The root cause could have been some new interfering source in the area, or more likely, the WiFi power of the WAN router, RPis, or both is decreasing due to aging.
Something new, to me, happened yesterday. I was not able to access the RPi at all. No telnet, no graphs, no SkyView, and yet the Pi was still communicating and sending data to FA. I monitored for a while to confirm.
Tried again this morning, and it’s back to normal. Any ideas?
I have had exactly the same problem on rare occasions. It seems that my router can get itself into a state where it cannot route between a Wi-fi client and the local lan but is still able to route that client to the WAN ok. I suspect it is a firewall bug in the router. Rebooting the router fixes it for me. Maybe waiting would also fix it but I’ve never waited long enough.
Seems to be happening more frequently now. I suspect it has to do with the fact that the stations likely connect via the range extender, and the extender is of a different brand than the WAN router.
I ordered another router of the same brand of the extender, since the current WAN router has not been ‘on my good side’ for some time.
My past experiences with D-Link, Netgear, and Linksys have not been great. A co-worker suggested TP-Link, this is what I’m trying now.
May sure that you are using a channel that not many of your neighbours are using.
5Ghz has a heap if non-overlapping channels but less range than 2.4Ghz.
You may also want to try a USB wifi dongle. They have better antennas than the RPI built ins.
I have been using 5Ghz for a decade. It was more of a problem when we lived in an apartment(6 years ago). I check the rogues based on frequency. 5 times more on 2.4Ghz (97) compared to 5Ghz(13).
Having one (802.11N/AC) to three (802.11G) non-overlapping channels is annoying. I don’t really need the bandwidth, just the reliability. This is why all but one of my RPIs are ethernet attached(Most are powered by POE). The one that isn’t using ethernet is being used as a vlan sniffer (Wifi used for management). I have an ethernet dongle I could add to keep it off the WIFI.
It has been suggested that auto channel selection is not always the best. Using wifi analyzer on a mobile device I chose the least used channel and got a more reliable connection than using auto.
This was relating to my laptop rather than the Pi as I wasn’t experiencing problems at the time with the Pi.
