Since v6.xx but lately more with 6.13 we have several routers (usually SXT’s or rb411’s) that reset the wireless back to basic default after power cuts… ONLY the wireless config. Everything else stays ok…
These power cuts are cuts that come-in in a very un-regular pattern, usually during rain/thunderstorms.
The power grid is very poor in my region. On average 2-4 short lived cuts with an occasional longer (10-40 mins) cut EACH month! And its only a small percentage of boards affected, but the more clients we get, the more this issue comes up now..
How can I make ROS to test the wireless and if failing to connect to AP, board should reboot and start up with a backup config loaded. (Than off course scheduler should also make regular backups…)
What more can be done to prevent radio’s to reset?
While not a direct fix for your problem , is it perhaps possible to run a UPS to these units ? I’ve had non wireless routerboards exhibit very similar problems and we concluded that something probably got damaged on the units when there was a non scheduled powercut.
I am sure you can write a script to perhaps look for an VSSID or something unique in your wireless config and import the values from local memory or remote fs.
UPS, hmmmm why did I not think about that… (now I’m sarcastic, sorry, bad day today.)
No, even the cheapest UPS costs about the same as a lowest price CPE antenna. Meaning I am suddenly having to double the cost of install… PER client.
Nowaday with the low rates it already takes 6-8 months to earn back my investment in a client… a ups will drive that a couple of months up. And by the time I start earning money from the client… I have to buy him already a new ups… (We worked with UPS’s before in our office but after XX-many power cuts they are waist as well. I spend a fortune on UPS and after a couple of years none of them are still working. So no solution…)
I think MT should find a solution. It’s ridiculous that a part of a router resets itself when we have short power cuts.
Actually now I think about it, it even happened to me when I just powered up a board with the standard power plug but it made 2 or 3 times quickly contact (so the board started to start up) before proper contact was made, that the board than also lost its radio settings…
This never happened to me several versions of the OS before…
I would make more sense for Mikrotik to give a option to install a tiny on board battery on routerboard, so when power cuts out the board shuts down gracefully, and this would be handy also for retaining logs and date + time settings?
Yes! That would be an great idea! Just a cmos battery like in PC’s. Can be kept small and cheap. In case of a power cut OS should be aware and shut radio down (to save power) while board/nand remains powered up for at least 10 seconds.
If power not back within these 10 seconds (or 5) board should shut force shutdown anyway to be booted again only if mains is back. The second mains is back cmos is alive again to prevent board to shutdown again in case mains power would fail again during the next 10 seconds etc..
Or what about a connector on the board to hook up 2x 9V flat rechargeable batteries? Than keep the board running for a while. If voltage drops below certain level, board shuts down and only starts up when voltage is at certain level again (when mains is up and charging)
If this would increase the price by a couple of dollars, big deal… much cheaper than full ups…
Capacitors can also give trouble and what size is required for this, if replacement was required then physical space for larger capacitor(s) is another consideration.
Maybe just an correction of some bug in the OS would do the trick… I mean, I never had such issues before, where the power cuts are an issue here for years already.
It’s only on the v.6.?? version, especial the last version 6.10 and higher, where I seem to have the problem developed.
Just today had another board back fm a client (just replaced the CPE, is faster for the ‘no know’ installer) and found that only a portion of the wireless has been changed.
Protocol, band and frequency were still set right, but the SSID field was filled with the routerboard name, and the radio name was set to “MikroTik” and default auth. was set to ‘on’.
Since my CPE’s need the ‘connect to’ lists to work and default therefore is set to ‘off’ and the SSID field has to be empty, this was the reason the CPE was disconnected from the AP.
Also found that both chains were still enabled, were default setting is only chain 0 is enabled.
So, a partial reset, but enough to make it disconnect and become unreachable for a remote session…
You don’t need to test wireless and don’t need to reboot. Just make a script that loads wireless config every time after reboot. I guess this should work until this bug is fixed. I didn’t test that, so maybe there are some glitches with this idea.
I found similar situation with RB411U (used in test project as 3g/LTE router mounted in car) (ROS 6.7)
Loss wireless interface connfiguration and/or disable wireles interface. It happens randommly on 3 different boards.
Now we migrating ro RB912 and v6.19. And look what happens.
Possible it related to vibration in car.
