Network join errors after mdot firmware update

[John Greene]

We are in the process of updating our Mdot firmware to v3.1. Unfortunately, we are having some trouble getting an Mdot to join our private LoRaWAN.

We are using the following:
• Mlinux 4.0.1
• Conduit AEP 1.6
• Mdot 3.1 (compiled with mbed-os-5.7.7)

Here is a log from the Conduit:
2018-09-06T10:15:50.731348-05:00 mtcdt RADIO_MONITOR: Error: Radio did not respond to ‘AT’ command.
2018-09-06T10:15:54.426978-05:00 mtcdt lora-network-server: GW:00-80-00-00-a0-00-0e-4d|FRAME-RX|Parsing 1 packets
2018-09-06T10:15:54.432131-05:00 mtcdt lora-network-server: ED:00-80-00-00-00-00-c0-48|DEV-ADDR|Found End Device in DB 1ab5161
2018-09-06T10:15:54.451705-05:00 mtcdt lora-network-server: ED:00-80-00-00-00-00-c0-48|QUEUE-TX|JOIN SIZE: 17
2018-09-06T10:15:54.453027-05:00 mtcdt lora-network-server: ED:00-80-00-00-00-00-c0-48|JOINREQ-OK|JOINS: 1096 UP: 7649
2018-09-06T10:15:54.479457-05:00 mtcdt lora-network-server: ED:00-80-00-00-00-00-c0-48|JOIN-ACCEPT|DevAddr: 01AB5161
2018-09-06T10:15:54.480791-05:00 mtcdt lora-network-server: ED:00-80-00-00-00-00-c0-48|SCHED-TX|Use RX1 TOA:62 ms
2018-09-06T10:15:55.026670-05:00 mtcdt lora-network-server: GW:00-80-00-00-a0-00-0e-4d|FRAME-TX|IP: 127.0.0.1:33647 CH: LC9 DEV: 01-ab-51-61 FCNT: 00000001 REPEAT: 0
2018-09-06T10:15:55.026996-05:00 mtcdt lora-network-server: ED:00-80-00-00-00-00-c0-48|SCHED-TX|Q-SIZE: 1 PKT-ROOM: 242
2018-09-06T10:15:55.046349-05:00 mtcdt lora-network-server: GW:00-80-00-00-a0-00-0e-4d|UDP-TX|JSON-SIZE:298
2018-09-06T10:16:04.811760-05:00 mtcdt lora-network-server: GW:00-80-00-00-a0-00-0e-4d|FRAME-RX|Parsing 1 packets
2018-09-06T10:16:04.816907-05:00 mtcdt lora-network-server: ED:00-80-00-00-00-00-c0-48|DEV-ADDR|Found End Device in DB 1ab5161
2018-09-06T10:16:04.832289-05:00 mtcdt lora-network-server: ED:00-80-00-00-00-00-c0-48|QUEUE-TX|JOIN SIZE: 17
2018-09-06T10:16:04.833574-05:00 mtcdt lora-network-server: ED:00-80-00-00-00-00-c0-48|JOINREQ-OK|JOINS: 1097 UP: 7650
2018-09-06T10:16:04.857622-05:00 mtcdt lora-network-server: ED:00-80-00-00-00-00-c0-48|JOIN-ACCEPT|DevAddr: 01AB5161
2018-09-06T10:16:04.858936-05:00 mtcdt lora-network-server: ED:00-80-00-00-00-00-c0-48|SCHED-TX|Use RX1 TOA:132 ms
2018-09-06T10:16:05.404964-05:00 mtcdt lora-network-server: GW:00-80-00-00-a0-00-0e-4d|FRAME-TX|IP: 127.0.0.1:33647 CH: LC2 DEV: 01-ab-51-61 FCNT: 00000001 REPEAT: 0

Here is a log from the Mdot:
[INFO] Initialize radio…
[INFO] Initialize channels…
[INFO] Initialize datarates…
[INFO] Set radio to Private Mode
[DEBUG] Read file from flash: 256 bytes
[DEBUG] Read file from flash: 1024 bytes
[ERROR] SPIFFS_read failed -10004
[DEBUG] Setting to defaults.
[INFO] Initialize channels…
[INFO] Initialize datarates…
[DEBUG] Read file from flash: 256 bytes
[INFO] changing network join mode to AUTO_OTA
[ERROR] SPIFFS_remove failed -10002
[INFO] Read protected file
[INFO] Set radio to Public Mode
[INFO] Saved session was not Joined
[INFO] changing network name from “” to “Conduit01”
[INFO] changing network passphrase from “” to “Conduit01”
[INFO] changing frequency sub band from 0 to 7
[INFO] changing public network from on to off
[INFO] Set radio to Private Mode
[INFO] changing acks from 0 to 1
[INFO] changing link check count from 0 to 3
[INFO] changing link check threshold from 0 to 5
[INFO] saving configuration
[ERROR] SPIFFS_write failed -10015
[INFO] =====================
[INFO] general configuration
[INFO] =====================
[INFO] version —————— 3.1.0-mbed161
[INFO] device ID/EUI ———— 008000000000c048
[INFO] default channel plan —– US915
[INFO] current channel plan —– US915
[INFO] frequency sub band ——- 7
[INFO] public network ———– off
[INFO] =========================
[INFO] credentials configuration
[INFO] =========================
[INFO] device class ————- A
[INFO] network join mode ——– AUTO_OTA
[INFO] network name ————- Conduit01
[INFO] network phrase ———– Conduit01
[INFO] network EUI ————– c2f91257b68e8c93
[INFO] network KEY ————– 892d4d0fff0ea8ae6c514ae563ceb027
[INFO] ========================
[INFO] communication parameters
[INFO] ========================
[INFO] acks ——————— on, 1 attempts
[INFO] TX datarate ————– DR0
[INFO] TX power —————– 30 dBm
[INFO] antenna gain ————- 3 dBm
[INFO] LBT ———————- off
[INFO] attempt 1 to join network
[INFO] Send join request RxDelay: 5 Rx1Offset: 0 Rx2Freq: 923300000 Rx2Dr: 8
[INFO] Configure radio for TX
[INFO] Configure radio for TX
[INFO] Configure radio for TX
[INFO] Rx Window 1
[INFO] Rx Window 2
[ERROR] Failed to join network
[ERROR] failed to join network -4:Join Error
[INFO] join_network, TXDR=0x00000000
[INFO] join_network, RXDR=0x00000000
[INFO] join_network, FREQ=0x00000007
[INFO] join_network, R2DR=0x00000008
[INFO] join_network, R2FR=0x370870A0
[INFO] sleeping 3 s until next free channel
[ERROR] SPIFFS_remove failed -10002
[INFO] Read protected file
à[INFO] Saved session was not Joined000037
[INFO] attempt 2 to join network
[INFO] Send join request RxDelay: 5 Rx1Offset: 0 Rx2Freq: 923300000 Rx2Dr: 8
[INFO] Configure radio for TX
[INFO] Configure radio for TX
[INFO] Configure radio for TX
[INFO] Rx Window 1
[INFO] Rx Window 2
[ERROR] Failed to join network
[ERROR] failed to join network -4:Join Error
[INFO] join_network, TXDR=0x00000000
[INFO] join_network, RXDR=0x00000000
[INFO] join_network, FREQ=0x00000007
[INFO] join_network, R2DR=0x00000008
[INFO] join_network, R2FR=0x370870A0
[INFO] waiting 1 s until next free channel
[INFO] attempt 3 to join network
[INFO] Send join request RxDelay: 5 Rx1Offset: 0 Rx2Freq: 923300000 Rx2Dr: 8
[INFO] Configure radio for TX
[INFO] Configure radio for TX
[INFO] Configure radio for TX
[INFO] Rx Window 1
[INFO] Rx Window 2
[ERROR] Failed to join network
[ERROR] failed to join network -4:Join Error
[INFO] join_network, TXDR=0x00000000
[INFO] join_network, RXDR=0x00000000
[INFO] join_network, FREQ=0x00000007
[INFO] join_network, R2DR=0x00000008
[INFO] join_network, R2FR=0x370870A0
[INFO] sleeping 2 s until next free channel
[ERROR] SPIFFS_remove failed -10002
[INFO] Read protected file
à[INFO] Saved session was not Joined000037
[INFO] attempt 4 to join network
[INFO] Send join request RxDelay: 5 Rx1Offset: 0 Rx2Freq: 923300000 Rx2Dr: 8
[INFO] Configure radio for TX
[INFO] Configure radio for TX
[INFO] Configure radio for TX
[INFO] Rx Window 1
[INFO] Rx Window 2
[ERROR] Failed to join network
[ERROR] failed to join network -4:Join Error

The exact same code run on Mdot v3.0 works fine on AEP v1.4.17 and v1.4.3. And we have successfully joined with AT commands using Mdot v3.1/AEP v1.6. Note that the error at the beginning of the Conduit log “2018-09-06T10:15:50.731348-05:00 mtcdt RADIO_MONITOR: Error: Radio did not respond to ‘AT’ command.” is particularly odd as we are running code and not attempting to use AT commands.

Any ideas what might be going wrong?

[Ryan Klaassen]

Does the join delay match on both ends? There are a lot of SPIFFS errors as well. Do you normally see this many SPIFFS errors? The flash may be corrupted on the dot.

[Jason Reiss]

What setting is used on Conduit? Private MTS or Private LoRaWAN

The setPublicNetwork input has changed from bool to int.

For mDot::setPublicNetwork(false || 0) => Private MTS
For mDot::setPublicNetwork(true || 1) => Public LoRaWAN
For mDot::setPublicNetwork(2) => Private LoRaWAN

http://www.multitech.net/developer/software/lora/troubleshooting-lora-communication/

[John Greene]

Looks like it was the setting on the Conduit, Jason. We switched from the default setting of “Private MTS” to “Private LoRaWAN” and things seem to be working now. Thanks for that.

As for the SPIFFS errors, Ryan, yes, we always seem to have a lot of them. We were pretty sure corruption of the Mdot flash was not an issue as we duplicated the error on multiple Mdots and the old FW always worked. So, I am not sure how we resolve the SPIFFS errors issue but as they are not (or at least don’t seem to be) affecting things at the moment, we are going to leave their resolution for another day.

As always, your timely responses are much appreciated.

[Jason Reiss]

This error happens on a session save.
[ERROR] SPIFFS_remove failed -10002

First any existing session files are removed. Don’t know they are all gone until the delete fails.
Then the new session file is save.

There was an issue where multiple session files were created and an old session would be restored.

[Author]

Posts