Gli MiFi 150M 3G does not reconnect by itself after a signal lost

lb4rth · 2016-08-13T15:10:28.000Z

Hi all,

I have 2 GL-MiFi 150M Smart Routers and I like them, but there is a really big Problem with the 3G Connection.

I have installed them in a backpack for my workers. If they come in a area with no mobile Signal, the 3G goes down (led on the device stops). But after that it won’t restart again.

I tried to do a cron job to bring the wan interface back on, but it does not help. Only a restart of the device helps. Has anyone the same? Is there a solution for it?

OpenWrt Wiki – 6 Nov 14

Use 3g/UMTS USB Dongle for WAN connection

Use 3g/UMTS USB Dongle for WAN connection This tutorial explains how to setup and configure OpenWrt for using a USB 3g/UMTS-modem for WAN connection using the older (and slower) ppp protocol. Many modern (and most LTE) usb modems provide qmi, mbim,

<pre class=“code”>#!/bin/sh
if ! ping -q -c 1 -W 10 -I 3g-wan 8.8.8.8 > /dev/null; then
ifup wan &
fi

alzhao · 2016-08-14T23:55:40.000Z

Hi, seems 3g dongle could have problems if they lose connection. We are having a script to deal with this automatically. Sometime we need to hard reset the module using GPIO. A software reset of the wan interface may not help.

Hope to release the script with the firmware soon.

heavymetal · 2016-09-11T14:08:50.000Z

Hi @alzhao, is there a way to install the script into the current firmware to have it hard reset via GPIO when the LTE / 3G chip hangs?

How would I install it?

Thanks

justin · 2016-09-13T15:16:17.000Z

I’m interested in getting the MiFi as well, but was wondering if there was a solution to this problem yet?

Like @heavymetal, would you be willing to share a script that would do a hard reset alfie?

Thanks

alzhao · 2016-09-13T15:25:23.000Z

A hard reset is easy, the problem is that when should you decide a hard reset. A hard reset takes around 1 minutes.

To do a hard reset in MiFi, just do this.

First upgrade to v2.22, which is available here: GL.iNet download center. The control GPIO-LED name is a different

echo 1 > /sys/class/leds/gl-mifi:usbpow/brightness

sleep 1

echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/gl-mifi:usbpow/brightness

just wait and the the network should connect using the same settings.

heavymetal · 2016-09-14T04:30:03.000Z

Thanks @alzhao on how to hard reset the modem.

For anyone that is interested on getting the 3G / 4G card to reset on its own when signal drops follow instructions below:

Put the script below in /sbin/restart3g and chmod +x /sbin/restart3g

#!/bin/sh
date >> /tmp/restart3g.log
echo 1 > /sys/class/leds/gl_mifi:usbpow/brightness
sleep 1
echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/gl_mifi:usbpow/brightness

To have OpenWRT run the script when the 3g-modem interface goes down put this script in /etc/hotplug.d/iface/99-3g and chmod +x /etc/hotplug.d/iface/99-3g

I have updated the script below for firmware v2.22

#!/bin/sh
[ “$ACTION” = “remove” ] && {
if [ “$INTERFACE” = “3g-modem” ]; then
/sbin/restart3g
fi
}

Every time the 3g-modem interface goes down it will run the restart3g script to reset the modem and reconnect to mobile network.

lb4rth · 2016-09-24T14:51:39.000Z

I created and chmod +x the two scripts exactly as mentioned in the post above, but it does not reconnect after a signal lost. I’m on firmware v2.22

Does it work at someone else? What could I made wrong?

alzhao · 2016-09-24T15:20:48.000Z

@Lukas, can you execute the two script manually to ensure they works? If you copy from the forum, most likely the script will broke because of the double quota

lb4rth · 2016-09-25T12:30:49.000Z

The 99-3g had the Problem with the double quotas. But now I get a Syntax Error:

./99-3g: line 3: syntax error: unexpected “then” (expecting “}”)

My Script is like yours I think:

#!/bin/sh
[“$ACTION”=“remove”]&&{
if[“$INTERFACE”=“3g-modem”];then
/sbin/restart3g
fi
}

heavymetal · 2016-09-25T14:12:33.000Z

Hi @Lukas, I have attached the scripts from my router in this post.

Hope this will help with the syntax error.

lb4rth · 2016-09-25T16:15:08.000Z

I really appreciate your help guys. I’ll try it and will report then. (the restart3g is working)

lb4rth · 2016-09-26T21:00:51.000Z

And YES, it helped. With these Scripst it runs. Thx

heavymetal · 2016-09-28T12:00:03.000Z

Glad that is working for you @Lukas

@alzhao would this be integrated into the next firmware update?

Thanks

info6 · 2016-12-20T18:13:02.000Z

I just wanted to find out if this fix has been integrated in the version 2.24 firmware? If it hasn’t are there any changes that need to be made to get it to work in the V2.24 firmware?

Thanks

netmax · 2018-12-20T20:28:17.937Z

I have the same problem with my AR300m - that’s my “emergency access” into my homelab in case the regular line should be down. Unfortunately the stick connection “dies” here as well every few days and is not being restarted.

I’ve implemented the scripts in this thread but nothing happens

/sbin/restart3g responds:

/sbin/restart3g: line 3: can't create /sys/class/leds/gl_mifi:usbpow/brightness: nonexistent directory
/sbin/restart3g: line 5: can't create /sys/class/leds/gl_mifi:usbpow/brightness: nonexistent directory

Is the stick restart different on that model?

netmax · 2018-12-20T21:01:49.273Z

OK, I found that the commands

/sys/class/leds# echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/gl-ar300m\:usb/brightness
/sys/class/leds# echo 1 > /sys/class/leds/gl-ar300m\:usb/brightness

are switching the power of the 3G stick. But after powering it down and up again it does not initialize … which means the GL.Inet does not establish the PPP connection automatically.

/etc/init.d/network restart does not help.

What is missing here to bring the connection up again after rebooting the stick?

kyson-lok · 2018-12-21T09:04:25.398Z

If you use the official firmware, it should be connect automatically when hard reset(down and up) the usb stick. If it doesn’t connect, could you execute those commands and paste the output here.

cat /etc/config/network
dmsg
logread

netmax · 2019-01-05T13:00:40.466Z

@kyson-lok Unfortunately it doesn’t. I’m running the official firmware 2.27 without any modifications.

Please see the requested output attached: First the results of the commands with the stick not connected, then I switched it off and on again, then I did the readings of the logs again. The stick was still not initializing.

AR300M_3G.zip (21.3 KB)

Finally I trebooted the device, the stick does connect properly and I issued the log reading commands again:

AR300M_3G_after reboot.zip (9.6 KB)

kyson-lok · 2019-01-07T02:24:43.845Z

It seems the stick cannot be reinitialized after rebooting the stick. Not sure why.

[76052.789469] usb usb1-port1: unable to enumerate USB device
[165484.173705] usb 1-1: new full-speed USB device number 10 using ehci-platform
[165489.313758] usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error -145
[165504.603920] usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error -145
[165504.833919] usb 1-1: new full-speed USB device number 11 using ehci-platform
[165509.973974] usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error -145
[165525.264139] usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error -145
[165525.494135] usb 1-1: new full-speed USB device number 12 using ehci-platform
[165535.954252] usb 1-1: device not accepting address 12, error -145
[165536.074251] usb 1-1: new full-speed USB device number 13 using ehci-platform
[165546.534364] usb 1-1: device not accepting address 13, error -145
[165546.540725] usb usb1-port1: unable to enumerate USB device

netmax · 2019-01-18T13:40:54.706Z

I also have no idea why

It works without issues when I give the “reboot” command for the whole AR300M. So the AR300M does something different regarding the initialization on a reboot then on powering down the USB port/stick. Maybe something different with the USB port initialization itself?

How can the issue been solved?