WAR 2 Turbo Power

[phendry]

I was playing around with a link last night which is between 2 x 2 port WAR's over about 18km. The link has been up since Friday but last night I thought I'd try the link in turbo mode however once I changed them one of the WAR's died and refused to come back. I went to site this am to see what was happening but couldn't get into the WAR board at all. In fact the LED on the switch which the WAR is plugged into comes on for a few seconds then goes of then comes on for a few more seconds. This says to me that the board is rebooting.

I'm assuming this issue is power related. The WAR I can no longer get into is on the other end of about 85 meters of cat5 (up a tower) and the PSU is 24v 1a. Does a CM9 in Turbo use more power than in standard mode? If so, any recommendations on a minimum PSU that will get this board back to a state where I can disable turbo?

[lonnie]

It seems like the watchdog is kicking in. Can you kill power for a few minutes and then power it back on? You can try up to 28V so if you have access to a lab type adjustable supply it might help it.

The Turbo mode does increase power but it also increases RF bandwidth. If you are in a DFS band (5.4 to 5.7) you might be getting a reboot from that whereas the previous smaller RF channel did not see the signals.

[phendry]

Power had been of for 6 hours (since this am) but still has same issue. I'm not so sure it is the watchdog as it seems to reboot after about 3/4 seconds and I would have thought the watchdog wouldn't kick in that quick. It's rebooting to quickly to even send a single ping response before it reboots. The DFS function is disabled so I don't think it's that either. Do you know if a 24v (1a) power supply should be enough to run a 2 port WAR board with 2 x CM9's over 85 meters of cat5?

[lonnie]

3/4 of a second is not the watchdog. It is also not Turbo, since the system does not yet have the Atheros loaded in that time. Not looking good and replacement would seem to be the cure.

24V is enough to power a quad with 4 radios at 100 feet up a tower --> from our own experience. We can actually get the system to boot with the 15V supplies but it is touchy and sometimes will not complete the boot. Once it boots it is fine.

The 24V is adequate, and in fact all of our remotes use 24V Solar Power so this is our standard supply voltage.

[phendry]

3/4 of a second is not the watchdog.That should read 3 to 4 seconds not 3/4 of a second. 85 meters (280 feet) is a bit further than 100 feet. Is anyone else running poe to a WAR at this distance?

[phendry]

Have spent the last 2 days trying to sort this. Have tried multiple power supplies, re-terminated the cat5 and even cut a couple of meters of the length but no change. The current supply in use is 24v (5a). Any other ideas?

[lonnie]

Get as close to 28V as you can using a variable lab supply. Do not exceed 28V.

If that does not work you will have to replace it.

[phendry]

I'll see if I can track one down. Is there a list of things that can cause the watchdog to reboot the board?

[lonnie]

The list is short --> Operating System crashed. That can be software or hardware related.

[phendry]

Took a variable lab power supply to the tower today and ran it at 28V but still no joy. I am going to climb tomorrow with another WAR2 board pre-loaded with v1.0.6 which I believe has a couple of changes related to the watchdog in it.

[tony]

Once your WAR2 board has been replaced, can you boot up the original with the radio cards and see if it comes up? After that, you should be able to upgrade it.

Turbo mode should not effect anything, however if you are not using CM9 radios, and the card in question does not support Turbo (like many 5006X cards), then problems can pop up in earlier releases.

[phendry]

The WAR2 board is as it was when we received it from you guys. I.e it has 2 x CM9's in it along with pre5 release software. Hopefully it will work ok on the bench and more importantly that the pre-installed v1.0.6 board works up the tower. Failing that I have a WRAP ready to go in it's place ;)

[phendry]

Board swapped and new board looks to be working fine. I will have a look at the old board when I get a chance later today or tomorrow and let you know. Hopefully an IOS upgrade should fix it.

[phendry]

Managed to take a look at the board. Tried to power it up on the bench but still could not access it. I removed both radio cards and could then access it. Upgraded the flash and the rom and replaced both cards and now board seems fine. I don't think I'll be playing with turbo mode anymore though :(