What dongle do you recommend?

[Jack Carnegie]

Hi guys,

What dongle works best in your experience?

A link for purchase would be cool ;)

I tried E173 but had no luck with it, so I was seeking to purchase few others just to try them out.

Tnx!

Regs,

Jack

[Maarten Bezemer]

Hi,

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012, Jack Carnegie wrote:

> What dongle works best in your experience?
> A link for purchase would be cool ;)
>
> I tried E173 but had no luck with it, so I was seeking to purchase few
> others just to try them out.

What's your problem with E173? There might be issues with either software
or hardware. I've had several 'vague' problems with other models as well,
but those seem unrelated to the dongle model.
For example, I couldn't get it to work with USB1, it needs USB2 to get
voice data through. Also, using a 'cheap' USB2 switch can have impact on
dongle stability. And finally, USB ports that cannot provide enough power
can be quite a dealbreaker. (I needed to solder a modified USB cable that
connected the +5V wire to the PSU's floppy power connector to get enough
power to the dongle.)

For another Mainboard, it clearly had issues with the chipset. Tried with
another (more recent) mainboard and worked like a charm.

That said, I've still got some weird issues with K3765 dongles with S/N
starting with R04 (R05 works better) on some networks. K3520 also works
fine. (Huawei versions for both! Not the ZTE versions!)

If you want to do some experimenting, try to browse through eBay, there
should be plenty.

--
Maarten

[Jack Carnegie]

What's your problem with E173? There might be issues with either software
or hardware. I've had several 'vague' problems with other models as well,
but those seem unrelated to the dongle model.
For example, I couldn't get it to work with USB1, it needs USB2 to get
voice data through. Also, using a 'cheap' USB2 switch can have impact on
dongle stability. And finally, USB ports that cannot provide enough power
can be quite a dealbreaker. (I needed to solder a modified USB cable that
connected the +5V wire to the PSU's floppy power connector to get enough
power to the dongle.)

Tnx for your reply Maarten.

My E173 works perfectly on Windows using Mobile Partner both sms and voice, but on Linux I can make outgoing calls with audio going out but not in.

When I hangup the dongle stays in state Dialing. I have to reset it to work again. Incoming calls just ring but nothing is shown in asterisk.

Setup: CentOS 6.2, kernel 2.6.32, Asterisk 18.10.1, chan_dongle v1.1 Rev10

Below is my dongle info, if you can provide any insight or recommend other software version I would be most grateful. ;)

a1*CLI> dongle show device state dongle0

-------------- Status -------------

Device : dongle0, 

State : Free

Audio : /dev/ttyUSB1

Data : /dev/ttyUSB0

Voice : Yes

SMS : Yes

Manufacturer : huawei

Model : E173

Firmware : 11.126.85.00.209

IMEI : 3*************0

IMSI : 2*************5

GSM Registration Status : Registered, home network

RSSI : 19, -114 dBm

Mode : No Service

Submode : No service

Provider Name : TELE2

Location area code : 3

Cell ID : 7186

Subscriber Number : Unknown

SMS Service Center : +385951000100

Use UCS-2 encoding : Yes

USSD use 7 bit encoding : Yes

USSD use UCS-2 decoding : No

Tasks in queue : 0

Commands in queue : 0

Call Waiting : Disabled

Current device state : start

Desired device state : start

When change state : now

Calls/Channels : 0

Active : 0

Held : 0

Dialing : 0

Alerting : 0

Incoming : 0

Waiting : 0

Releasing : 0

Initializing : 0

[Andrew Geddes]

Jack,

With CentOS I had issues with one way audio. I tried to compile the driver recommended to fix one way audio mentioned in the wiki but it would not compile. I switched to debian and the audio issue was fixed. It would have been nice to stay on CentOS because of the easy setup of PIAF but since I am only going to use this server to bridge calls I can live without Freepbx. Here is the version that I am currently running:

Linux debian 2.6.32-5-686 #1 SMP Mon Jan 16 16:04:25 UTC 2012 i686 GNU/Linux

The dongle that I am using is the Huawei 1752C. For me it has been very stable with good voice quality and very quick at sending/receiving SMS. The only issue I've had is a 200-250ms longer delay than ideal but it is not too noticeable. I currently have been testing with one but I have 3 more ordered. There is a seller on ebay selling them new for $36 out of Florida. There are cheaper ones out there but if you are looking to get several of the same type at a reasonable price it is not bad.

Thanks,

Andrew

[Alejandro]

I use E1756 and works really fine.

I use ubuntu server 10.04 LTS 64 bits as base system with asterisk 1.8. All runs smooth.

I have 2 E173 r6 units but they are firmware locked to manage audio and still have not found a firmware with voice support for them. They works fine to send/recieve sms.

Hope info is usefull

El 20/03/12 12:04, Andrew Geddes escribió:

[Jack Carnegie]

Hi Andrew,

I even managed to compile that driver, but no luck with the audio either.

I guess I'll have to try other OS-s, Tnx for the dongle recommendation ;)

[Jack Carnegie]

Your info is very useful since I started to wonder is it maybe the Asterisk version, but if you confirm 1.8 works, then it probaby isn't.

I'm gonna have to try out Debian / Ubuntu to see if it works.

[Allyson de Paula]

Hi Maarten,

That's my first post, and I have the same experience with K3765 dongle
(Vodafone Unlocked) - work's like a charm for a feew hours and then
he's gone away.

In the first I had a look in the forum archive for knowed
troubleshotting (USB Voltage +5V), usb_modeswitch, T^UDIAG=-1 / 0 ,
257, 267 ..., changed kernel to new tree 3.x and began to debug
kernel system capabilites because I suspected from module huawei-voice
running on kernel 2.x - but every new change becoming a new way to get
a kernel panic.

After that I hangup with huawei-voice debug and try to debug asterisk
with gdb to see a new path to solve or get new ideas.

After a lot tries I have decided to upgrade firmware and model to
E1762 and the problem persists, works like a charm for as feew hours,
then dongle dies!

I had try HAL restart, /sys (bind/unbind) (an options to the all USB
devices never suspend), changed udev rules, tried minicom with modem
manual restart/initialization string and nothing works :(

I need to reboot server, like a Windows machine :~~

If I get a way to restart modem without reboot server I can write a
daemon to work like a watchdog. If modem stops this watchdog will
restart then.

Any new idea to solve this problem?

Thanks in advance

Allyson dePaula

[Maarten Bezemer]

Hi Allyson,

In currently using a K3765 with firmware 11.126.03.09.00. So far, it's
been fine for weeks.
(Also tried the E1762 "upgrade" but I couldn't even get ppp data
connections using that firmware.)

When using it with one telco's SIM cards, it has some trouble keeping
a steady connection to cell towers when idle. However, when an active call
is made through the dongle, it suddenly thinks a "dubious" cell tower is
good enough to make the call. It usually doesn't change call towers during
a conversation.
Also, when it eventually manages to connect to 1 specific cell tower (as
seen on cell id from AT+CREG output), it will no longer wildly hop around
between different cell towers. Maybe it's a problem with my location and
having 'too many' cell towers that can be connected to. I've seen only 8
re-registering messages over the past 5 days. (Slightly modified the
chan_dongle source to add more detailed logging for those events.)

I didn't have any hardware lockup issues. Although I must say that I've
always used the dongle in 3G-only mode (not even 3G-pref mode), since I
remember having voice calling problems when in GSM/GPRS mode. Adding a USB
hub into the mix usually also breaks things, but not as far as locking up
the computer.

If you experience hard system lockups, I'd suggest you connect the dongle
directly to a usb connector on the mainboard io-shield, set the dongle to
3G-only mode, and try another PSU in the computer. If that doesn't help,
you might want to try and get Vodafone to replace the dongle and see if
that helps.
Or try using another computer (different hardware configuration) to see if
that helps.

I recently managed to do some more testing with E160 and E160G dongles,
upgraded to firmware 11.609.10.02.432, and those also work fine. (Needed
to patch chan_dongle code to do 7bit USSD for E160, but now even ussd
works for these modems.)

HTH..

--
Maarten

[Din Assegaf]

Hi Allyson de Paula ,

when you mean dongle dies! is it mean you lost port, example
/dev/ttyUSB2 is gone . (usually connected to three port USB0 USB1
USB2)

and try to check the light (modem), when it dim so weird longer than
usually in normal.

-
Syeh Abidin

[ruben....@gmail.com]

Hi,

I am been trying to use a Huawei 1752C in a raspbx using chan_dongle but I get the error AT^DDSETEX failed when I make a call, have you experienced this? the current firmware used is: 11.126.10.16.18

Thanks!