Mikrotik RB4XX with Sierra Wireless MC7710

RouterOS General
41

Hi,

I’ve also been working with this combo for some time and I had the same experience with the MC7710. It has to be in Direct IP mode, and there is a small sw-tool you can use to change that, or you can change it with AT-commands (I don’t remember exactly how right now), and the Device ID defines the correct mode. You don’t want to use QMI, you want DIP, which means modem should be Device ID 0x68a3. My test worked fine for a month or so, then suddenly RB says lte1: no response. Whatever I did I never got the RB talking to the MC7710 until I loaded in a new FW into the modem itself, and for that to happen I had to take the modem into a Windows machine and upgrade it using a sw from Sierra Wireless. This is not an option if your system is at a remote location.. Right now the system got messed up again the same way, and I can’t really reach it for modem FW upgrade… Onboard the system now is the DIP-version of the SW called SWI9200X_03.05.24.00. Once I loaded this sw the issue with the “lte1: no response” was gone, and the system worked, and I tested 80mb/s on 4G-network.. however now it stopped again… I need to talk to Sierra Wireless about this.. perhaps I will try a newer RB sw version first in case.. but I believe the modem is the problem…

42

Hello,

One situation when the MC7710 gets unresponsive with the current ROS drivers is the loop: send: AT!SCACT=1,1 and modem responds +CME ERROR: no network service. When this contienues some minutes / maybe 20 or so times, the modem does note respond any more. Looks like the context activation is too much for it when it has not been registered to the network.

This loop was somewhat adjusted when MT guys debugged it with me (abt an year ago). The system works decently, when the modem has learned the network and network is available. However, if the network disappears, you are really out of luck with boxes that do not offer USB power reset, like RB411. You can get the modem alive again with power cycle with boards like BaseBox 2/5.

43

You can also try to send a reset command using info commands user command by sending such AT command AT+CFUN=1,1 then maybe that would help the modem to recover.

44

You can’t run LTE info command unless the interface is up & running!
(failure: Configuration running, please wait!)

btw. very nasty feature of LTE info command is that if you lose your terminal / winbox/ webfig when the info is running, you can’t run it again before resetting the interface. (says “info already running”).

Or is there a way to stop the lost info command?

45

You can try to disable the interface first and then run the info command from the console/terminal.

46

Yes, but the seem not to work. The modem does not respond and after “no response” I see in the log “resetting the modem” and after that AT+GMI. However, as the modem does not respond, the AT+CFUN=1,1 command is never sent.

For the modem lock itself, seems that the firmware 03.05.24.00 does not survive when it gets into the " +CME ERROR no network service" loop. This FW makes it one second loop, whereas .23.02 gets into 1/minute loop.

47

maybe there is a newer firmware from sierra that has a fix for that?

48

Hello, I am trying to make this work on a 912UAG-2HPnD. Is there any reason why this is not gonna work with this board?

I am trying with a Sierra Wireless MC7710 card. I can not see the card at all in the 912UAG.

With the same (5.25) version on a RB411 it works fine.

49

Have you switched the port type from USB to mini-PCIe?

http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:USB_Features#RB912_USB_port_type

50

No :frowning: and that was the problem!

Just wanted to answer it myself, but you were faster! Thanks!

51

I’m looking for a way to automate this, to ensure maximum availability. I was thinking of writing a scheduled script that detects when the received packets on the connection has remained constant over a time period, while the number of sent packets increased.

I.e. every 5 minutes,

  1. Compare number of sent packets with previously recorded.
  2. If higher, compare the number of received packets with previously recorded.
  3. If unchanged, disable and re-enable interface
  4. Record number of sent and received packets to global variable

Can anyone give me some guidance on how to approach this script?

52

hey guys, any pointers on what SMA antenna to buy?
thanks

53

In my expirience, Sierra modem reset by AT!RESET. AT+CFUN=1,1 not help, at least not in any case.

I detect wwan statis by ping and reset modem in this way:

# Modem reset for SierraWireless
/interface lte set $wwan modem-init=AT!RESET
:delay 1;
/interface enable $wwan;
:delay 10;
/interface lte set $wwan modem-init=ATZ
:delay 10;
/interface enable $wwan;

May be too paranoid.