Beacon Issues XPR8400

[com501]

Take a soft pillow to bang your head against. I hate this kind of issue. The manual makes no mention that having two masters in the same subnet would be an issue, and I looked at the system I am running, reprogrammed two of the IPSC masters to the same subnet, remote programmed the other ends to point at the new master IPS and it worked. Of course, I'm using my own network with no restrictions on it. Sounds to me like the cable modem is causing an issue. You may end up with reprogramming the modem into bridge mode and using a router, if that works more reliably. At least you will have control of the addressing and routing at that point.

 

[Fatboy]

I have had good luck using a inexpensive hardware VPN-type device when deploying radio systems over IP links that I don't control. This is especially true if you need Multi-cast packets (for a Telex or MIP5k console). I have used the DCB UT-3302 extensively. I know this device may not be a good fit for this situation, but it may give you some options to simplify the roll-out. I have used it to simplify deployments when I only have 1 shot to make it work (mountain top access, oil rig, OCONUS, etc). FB

 

[com501]

Hardware VPN tunnels would be the best bet, end to end. Once established, not only do you have the benefit of buffering if your tunnel has that capability, but what goes in the tunnel STAYS in the tunnel and the transport layer can't mess with it, or block it.

 

[FMROB]

Ok, so making some headway. Was at the master site yesterday and installed two netgear routers, each assigned to a static ip address that is assigned to my modem. Created an internal ip and port forwarded 50000 for the working system and 50001 for the new master. The already installed system came back to life, no issues. The new master and peer seem to try to talk to each other, however it's random. If I key the master it will key up the peer, if I key the peer it will not key the master, unless -I quick key back into a session. I think my master site issues are resolved.

Secondly, rdac now works on both systems.

This brings me to my next issue. At the peer site, I have a cable modem with only 1 static ip and one port, but I need to connect 2 different dhcp peers to it. Right now I have a router plugged directly into the cable modem set for the assigned static ip and to provide dhcp. I think this may be causing the issue, again because the 2 peer repeaters would be on the same subnet, even though I am using different udp ports for each system.

Can I come from the single static ip port of the cable modem into a switch, then from the switch into 2 routers then into the repeaters? Would I then assign internal ips to the repeaters. And how could I separate out the subnets? I need an easy button quickly? Yikes

Rob

 

[Mars]

The new master and peer seem to try to talk to each other, however it's random. If I key the master it will key up the peer, if I key the peer it will not key the master, unless -I quick key back into a session. I think my master site issues are resolved.

What you have described is one of the symptoms of a misconfigured RSSI Threshold for FCC Type 1 configuration. I observed this exact issue at a site I was troubleshooting this past summer. I wrongly attributed the fault to RF (72kW) from ATSC UHF TV (co-located at the site) getting into the ethernet.

A quick, simple test you can perform to determine if this is your fault: Unscrew the BNC cable from your RX port on the repeater. Now try keying both repeaters to test for bi-directional operation. Problem fixed? If so, see this post:

http://communications.support/threa...apacity-Plus-Linked-Capacity-Plus-Audio-Holes

 

[FMROB]

Hum, that is interesting. Good catch, I have my repeaters set for about -120 or thereabouts. I was under the impression that it worked reverse. I will try this, and another trip to the site. I'm just confused on the dhcp thing on a single external static ip?

Another thing to maybe try is looking at rdac on the rssi level when the symptoms are happening, don't know if it would be quick enough to register over the web.

More to follow. Thanks for the info!!

 

[FMROB]

I hope everyone had a healthy and happy thanksgiving. I am at the point of jumping in front of a transit bus with dirty underwear on. It just cant be that difficult to get a second co located IPSC system up and running, but this is my luck.

Anyhow, is it fair to say that if you can communicate with RDAC to the system (master and peers) that IPSC connect should work?

Also, has anyone ever seen an XPR8400 after programming go into a re boot cycle where all the lights on the front stay on steady and the machine makes and looses connection to CPS? It will still let you read and write to the machine.


Thanks, Rob

 

[FMROB]

So I finally got it working. Between a combination adding routers at the master site to separate out the ports, and hitting the repeaters with new firmware it's working.

On .20 f/w upon connection the ethernet port the repeaters would freeze up and all lights would light up. This happened on 3 different units. I downloaded the brand new software and f/w today. Upgraded all units and now no issues. All is talking. Thx for the help guys, rob