Hermes Lite No Ethernet connection

[Mike g]

I have been using a Hermes Lite for about 4 weeks now with reasonable results however; between swapping software, the Ethernet connection has ceased to connect.

On switch on I see the RUN led flashing and the ADC 100 led permanently on.

On connecting the ethernet from the PC the ADC 75 light flashes then stays on permanently, the green ACT light flaskes but nothing on the LNK led. both the RUN and TX leds flash in unison.

The IP address shows in the software (Thetis v2.8) but pinging the IP shows 100% losss.

I tried a factory reset by grounding the Mic/PTT line on switch on but this has no effect.

As firmware (gateware) can be loaded via the ethernet port I assume that the connection will not be affected by firmware.

I have changed computers, cables, software HPSDR; Quisk and Spark, no changes

Any thoughts from anyone please?

[Roger Critchlow]

Cabling issues?  Getting ethernet cables cleanly inserted into my laptop has always been subject to operator failure.

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[Alan Hopper]

Hi Mike,

if you are connecting direct to the pc it my be worth trying through a router, discovery working but the radio not running is normally a sign of a networking or ip assignment issue.

73 Alan M0NNB

[G3TSO - Mike]

Thanks for the suggestions but I have tried all the obvious things like cables, routers, ethernet switches and direct connections. The problem is in the Hermes. I have been trying to install Quartus to try and reprogram the eprom but thats another epic.

73 Mike

[Steve Haynal]

Hi Mike,

Have you tried forcing the factory image as described here:

https://github.com/softerhardware/Hermes-Lite2/wiki/Updating-Gateware#force-factory-image-boot

73,

Steve

kf7o

[Steve Haynal]

Hi Mike,

I see you have tried the boot from factory image. Was the TX LED still flashing when you booted from factory image?

The blinking TX LED in idle means the APIPA or fixed IP was used. Is that what you expect, or do you have a DHCP server on your local network? What is the IP reported by Thetis and the one you have tried to ping?

73,

Steve

kf7o

[J P Watters]

Mike,

Initially when I plugged an ethernet connector into the HL2, it did not really make a connection. Whether it was a new connector with a burr or the HL2 jack, it just didn't latch firmly. It looked and sounded like it connected, but it took a few insertions to make it engage to a seemingly engaged connection that worked. I really don't like when "wiggling" a wire fixes things. 

Over the years I have seen similar on other pieces of equipment with similar disfunctions. My Fluke Ethernet tester would always confirm the working or not working status. 

To make my HL2 "connect" to the network, I did a couple of things to make it unique from the default set. Updating the mac address from the default by changing that least significant digits. I also created a DHCP reservation so when plugged into the network it always had the same known address. And then as Steve suggested, update the factory image. As an Apple Mac user, I had to initially use a windows computer to update the firmware as the Mac version didn't update the firmware successfully with the initial factory image.

..jpw J P Watters

KC9KKO

Morris, IL USA

[G3TSO - Mike]

Thanks for the further suggestions. When I tried to force the factory settings it made no difference to the flashing leds, in fact there was no indication that shorting the jack had any effect at all. Since purchasing the Hermes I noted that it did not respond to setting a fixed IP. It either took on an IP from the DHCP server or defaulted to 169.254.0.0. Since it has stopped working it appears to take on the IP set in the software, or rather the software reports that IP but I have tried pinging all of the IPs and the result is the same, no communication.

I thought I would have a go at reloading the gateware but that has proved to be another eppic. The Quartus software does not connect to the USB blaster and requests server names and passwords, so following the Utube video on this did not work either.

All of this started when I investigated clattering relays which occurred with HPSDR but not with Spark SDR, then on going back to HPSDR communication ceased.

Mike g3tso/kd3cl

[G3TSO - Mike]

Just did another check on the IP address. Thetis shows 192.168.5.1 which is set in the table however HPSDR shows 10.10.3.110 which is one of the addresses in the table but not selected. Spark SDR shows nothing because it can't communicate.

Mike

[G3TSO - Mike]

Interesting comment re the MAC address, it has never shown a MAC address!

Mike

[James Ahlstrom]

Hello Mike,

The address 169.254.0.0 is peculiar. The last two numbers come from the HL2 Ethernet MAC address, and these should not be zero.  Also, ping will not work unless your PC and HL2 have a common subnet or a route. So the problem is to find the HL2 Ethernet MAC, and then the HL2 IPaddress. What are these, and are you on Linux or Windows?

Jim

N2ADR

[G3TSO - Mike]

Jim,

I thought it was a bit odd. I started running it through my network router so it acquired a IP from the DHCP server, I then moved it to using an Ethernet switch and this IP appeared, I then discovered that it would connect directly to the PC and it used the same IP. I am predominantly running Win 10 and have used Open HPSDR where it displayed the IP but MAC was always blank.

I could not get Quisk to load in Windows but managed to load it in Linux. Despite attempting to set a static IP the Hermes would never use it.

I have no idea how to find the MAC or the IP.

Mike

g3tso

[Steve Haynal]

Hi Mike,

For the boot from factory image, are you shorting the connections and then applying power to the HL2? Not shorting the connections after the HL2 has booted? I would expect then that the last two digits of the 169.254.0.0 IP would be different, assuming the software you are using is reporting a found IP.

Is the DHCP server also connected to your router? By using only a switch, you may have no DHCP server. The HL2 works best on a properly configured local subnet with DHCP server.

How did you try to set the static IP? The fixed IP in PowerSDR or Thetis is different and won't work. You can set a fixed IP or MAC with Quisk, SparkSDR or the hermelite.py library.

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/hermes-lite/BoIoVTurUGw/ChbzXdKcAQAJ

I think you will need to get a good IP address for your HL2. Maybe by putting the DHCP or router back and then doing the factory reboot. Once up, you should clear any fixed IP or fixed MAC settings that may have been set in SparkSDR or Quisk. Or set the exact fixed IP and fixed MAC that you want.

73,

Steve

kf7o

[G3TSO - Mike]

Steve,

Thanks. I was shorting the connections and then applying power for at least 6 seconds, no effect whatsoever. The DHCP server is in the router and allocated an IP,  I must admit I did try to set the IP in HPSDR and that didn't work. Once I found that it connected directly to a PC without any router I left it to do that.

I finaly got Quartus to work by reverting to XP, but any attemt to reload the Gateware failed saying the device is not connected.

I had a good look at the board and noted that the 25Mhz Xtal has a huge dent in, it but I can hear a 25MHz signal so I know its oscillating

I went through your first set of questions:

Quisk does not find the HL2

It gives an IP address used earlier 192.168.1.86 but that IP address is not shown at the router

If I ping that IP its says unreachable.

ERROR message says Hermes-Lite write queue timeout

Eeprom IP usage = Read Failed

Eeprom MAC Usage = Read Failed

73

Mike

[G3TSO - Mike]

This is the dented Xtal!

[ron.ni...@gmail.com]

Did you try running an ethernet cable directly from a computer to the HL2 (no router or switch in between), power cycling the HL2, and pinging the self-assigned IP address 169.254.19.221 ?  (assuming you haven't changed the MAC address of the HL2)

[G3TSO - Mike]

Ron,

That was most helpful, I tried pinging that IP and got nothing but, I followed that with a long reset and it suddenly burst into life so I now have the IP set to 169.254.19.221 and have the MAC no however its different on different software. It pings OK now.

73

Mike

[John Peterson]

Another potential problem is the firewall settings on the computer that is running QUISK, etc. This is a good candidate if you don't get any response when you ping the HL2.

I had this same problem when my HL2 first arrived, but I quickly discovered the firewall issue as I had personally configured my firewall to block pretty much everything, except from "trusted" hosts on my local network.

The default firewall settings are also often "unfriendly" when it comes to UDP vs TCP packets. If a router is involved, the firewall setting there could also be an issue.

Specific advice would heavily depend on the computers and operating systems in question..

73, John KD6EKQ

[G3TSO - Mike]

John,

thanks for that. I have not had any issues with the firewall, my problems started all of a sudden when I switched software.  I wonder are you using Quisk in Windows? I have made it work in Linux on another machine, but I cannot fathom out how to get it to work in Windows 10. I have Python 3.9 installed but where do the Quisk files go?

Mike

[John Peterson]

OK, the firewall is not a likely candidate if you can talk to the HL2 using other software on the exact same machine. Right after I hit send I realized that a simple experiment is to completely disable the firewall which usually is not difficult to figure out. (That's obviously not a final or long term solution if it starts working, as that disables important security features).

I have been running QUISK, and linHPSDR on a x86_64 Debian Linux system and have started to migrate things to a shinny new Raspberry Pi 4 running Raspian Buster. I just got QUISK working on the later this weekend.

I don't have a lot of experience with Windows, but QUISK should be fairly easy to install there using pip. One word of caution, Jim recommends using the Python interpreter available from http://www.python.org. Given that QUISK bundles shared libs for Windows, other Python interpreters (from say Anaconda or Microsoft) could be dicey in this case.

Jim has complete installation instructions for Windows here: http://james.ahlstrom.name/quisk/docs.html

73, John KD6EKQ

[Steve Haynal]

Hi Mike,

I don't think the dent on the 25MHz oscillator is an issue. If you can measure the 25MHz oscillator output frequency fairly precisely, we can check if it is within spec.

I think you are the third or fourth person to have this type of problem. For the past occurrences, the user had to boot in factory recovery mode and then check the fixed IP and fixed MAC settings in SparkSDR or Quisk and make sure there were as desired. Which software did you try just before this problem? I suspect that some software out there is programming the fixed IP or fixed MAC setting just by having a user select or fiddle on that configuration pane. Since you have a direct connection alive, I would use SparkSDR or Quisk to ensure you have proper fixed IP and fixed MAC settings. I would disable both for now. You may have to continue booting your HL2 in factory recovery mode to obtain the 169.254.19.221 address. SparkSDR is an easy Windows install. Does it connect now? For Quisk, are you using the pip method to install as described here:

https://james.ahlstrom.name/quisk/docs.html#Installation

73,

Steve

kf7o

[G3TSO - Mike]

Steve,

Thanks for that. The Osc is running at 25001.13 shown on my IC7300. It all booted up OK this morning on both Spark and HPSDR; the problem first started when I ran Spark SDR. This is when I noted changes in the IP then when I went back to HPSDR nothing. I was changing software to see if I could trace the cause of relay clattering on the Hermes/N2ADR boards. I had experienced different levels of clattering between my laptop and desktop PCs. In the end I purchased a cube PC dedicated to running the radio. When I changed the monitor to higher definition the clattering came back. The clattering doesn't occur when using Spark SDR and when reducing the video resolution in HPSDR so I think its loading of the processor that causes the clatter.

Unfortunately, I have failed to load Quisk in Windows after about 10 attempts, the instructions don't help at all, several of us have failed but it loaded OK in Linux however; thats on the wrong PC. I don't understand Pip or Python or more importantly where to put the Quisk directories to make them work.

73

Mike

[Steve Haynal]

Hi Mike,

You can check the N2ADR-SDR group for help with installing Quisk. But if you have SparkSDR connecting, you can use that to confirm or unset any fixed MAC or IP. 

73,

Steve

kf7o

[G3TSO - Mike]

Steve

Thanks, I have gone around in circles with Quisk, all I get are error messages. I have it on another PC in Linux. I have set the IP using SparkSDR but I can't get any transmit audio through that program, however; it did allow me to get at the IP and MAC addresses. Interestingly I tried Thetis both 32 and 64 bit versions but I get a continuous warble on the receive audio with both versions!

73

Mike

g3tso/kd3cl

[Reid Campbell]

Hi Mike,

I'm not sure if you are aware that there is a version of PowerSDR which has been updated to work better with HL2. The link is

https://github.com/mi0bot/OpenHPSDR-PowerSDR/releases/tag/v3.5.0_Beta_7

You first need to install the official release of PowerSDR as it sets up things like skins. The link is

https://github.com/TAPR/OpenHPSDR-PowerSDR/releases/download/v3.4.9/PowerSDR_mRX_PS_v3.4.9.0_Setup.msi

It isn't a proper install but a zip of an install and can be placed in an different directory (C:\OpenHPSDR is what I use) so should allow the original release to still be used. Then just run PowerSDR.exe.

Cheers

Reid
Gi8TME/Mi0BOT

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[G3TSO - Mike]

Reid,

Thats the version that I am running. I like it as a program but have encountered some clatering relays, seems to vary between computers.

73

Mike

g3tso/kd3cl/f4vra

[Reid Campbell]

OK, have you tried the changing Setup/General/HPSDR/Tx Buffer Latency & PTT Hang?

I used to have relay chatter and broken audio. My HL2 sits in a cupboard and I have to go through two Gig switch to reach it. I used to only be able to run 192K on Tx but setting the latency solved it.

Cheers

Reid
Gi8TME/Mi0BOT

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[Alan Hopper]

Hi Mike,

sorry to hear you had a problem with tx on spark. What audio input source was selected? A couple of things that can cause this are the drive defaulting to zero and having the audio muted(which mutes the mic as well).

73 Alan M0NNB

[G3TSO - Mike]

Alan,

Took a while to find where the audio was selected but eventually found it. I use the Mic jack and it has proved tempramental no matter which software I use. Now working OK and interestingly I don't get the relay clatter that occurs on HPSDR.

Reid,

I have tried adjusting those latency settings, but doesn't seem to make any difference.

73

Mike

[Steve Haynal]

Which version of gateware are you running?

73,

Steve

kf7o

[G3TSO - Mike]

Steve,

7.1p3 it was originally on 7.0

73

Mike