Ethernet not working.

asif

Hi,

Not sure if this has been answered before, but I can't find a specific answer anywhere.

Please can somebody explain how the Ethernet connection works on the ASIAIR?

I'm running APP 1.4.3 firmware 5.05

There is a Wired Ethernet option in the ASIAIR settings, but its showing "NOT CONNECTED" and I can't enable it.

The ASIAIR is connected to the router (192.168.1.1) via an Ethernet cable but I can't see any activity lights on the front of the ASIAIR or the router. The port on the router is definately working as I've connected another device to the same port and that gets a connection / DHCP IP from the router.

Currently, the device is running in WIFI STATION MODE and conected to the home SSID XXXXXX and has a valid IP on the home network in the range 192.168.1.XX

I would like to run an Ethernet cable from the ASIAIR UNIT (back of the house) to the front living room (a bit of distance away, a number of walls and the wifi signal is not the best the further you get in the garden- so connection drops quite a few times)

Can you use a wired ethernet cable to boost the signal, so the tablet in living room can still pickup the device as it would've got an IP over Ethernet??

Thanks.

w7ay

>> There is a Wired Ethernet option in the ASIAIR settings, but its showing "NOT CONNECTED" and I can't enable it.

That GUI in the ASIAIR is a status indicator, not a user switch.

When you are connected to an Ethernet switch or router through the LAN connector, the ASIAIR will automatically connect to the LAN and turn the indicator in the GUI on. The ASIAIR access point ("hotspot") will be concurrently active.

Take a look at the RJ45 LAN connector on your ASIAIR. There are two LEDs on the connector, one of them is orange and the other one is green (both LEDs are green on some Ethernet switches). On the ASIAIR Pro, the orange LED indicates that it is connected to a 1 Gbps router or switch, and the green one is the activity LED (which should be flashing pretty constantly).

If you see neither LED, there is some problem with the connection to your router/switch. If you only see the green light, check if your router/switch supports Gigabit Ethernet -- if the router/switch supports Gigabit Ethernet, check if the Ethernet cable is at least a CAT-5e or CAT-6.

If the green activity light does not flash, perhaps check the router settings (DHCP turned on? etc). Perhaps, test with a different router or Ethernet switch if you have one. As a sanity check, make sure the RJ45 plugs at both ends are fully seated.

There should also be two LEDs on your router/switch's RJ45 jack (although both may be green LEDs). You can also check the connection status of those LEDs.

I have only tried LAN connection with a TP-Link Travel Router (no Gigabit support) and an eero router (has Gigabit support), so I have limited experience with the ASIAIR LAN port.

Good luck,

Chen

asif

Chen

I have tried the same cable with a different device (including another Raspberry PI) in the same port in the router/switch and that works ok. The DHCP correctly assigns an IP address.

Also, as the device in the ASIAIR is a Raspberry PI 3, I have also tried another SD CARD with a standard OS build (Raspbian buster) and that too works ok and the Ethernet port lights / shows activity, which implies there is an issue with the firmware or build on the ASIAIR that is stopping the ethernet connection from working...

Note: this issue was present when i installed ASIAIR v1.02 and then the later ASIAIR 1.2 image (when firmware was on 2.61), (I used this guide:

https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/manuals/How_to_Restore_ASIAIR_OS.pdf to download the OS and install it to the ASIAIR) and also after the firmware update the app does to take it to 5.05

Is there any way to force / enable the ethernet port (from one of the config files in the boot folder (config.txt or cmdline) or check its status ?

asif

Further to my last reply, I've been playing around today with the Files on the SD CARD to try and get to the bottom of my issue with why I can't use the ETHERNET port on my ASIAIR.

The BOOT FOLDER specifically was my interest as thats the only partition that I can see on a windows machine just by simply mounting the SD CARD.

I am using another PI install (BOOT folder) for my reference....

I backed up my current ASIAIR SD CARD and then decided to see what was different between the ASIAIR install and another PI install.

I cleared the BOOT folder from the ASIAIR, leaving just the cmdline.txt, config.txt, zwoair_license file and the image folder.

I copied the overlays folder, all the bcm27XXX.dtb files, the fixupXXXX.dat files, the startXXX.elf files and kernelXX.img files to the ASIAIR and booted it up..with ta HDMI cable connected so I could see what was being output. Granted, there were some errors , but the ASIAIR booted up fine and low and behold the ETHERNET PORT is working now.

I started the application on the android up and also to my surprise, it shows as connected to my wireless 5GHZ n/ac wireless connection (it wasn't doing so before) and the APP shows its Ethernet is connected (YAY!!!) and has got a DHCP IP address.

The app is also now and again popping up a message "failed to find words", which doesn't affect the functionality, but not sure what it means...

There is a caveat though... When I disconnected my ethernet cable; I wasn't able to connect the APP back to the ASIAIR, until i reconnected the cable, so depsite the ETHERNET working now in tandem with my 5GHZ n/ac wireless connection, the 2.4GHz connection doesn't seem to work now.

I've reflashed the ASIAIR now with my backed up SD IMAGE and I'm back to where I was when I started this:

connection to SSID ASIAIR_XXXXX DIRECT working

connection over WIFI STATION MODE (2.4GHz) working

WIRED ETHERNET showing Not connected.

w7ay

>> The app is also now and again popping up a message "failed to find words", which doesn't affect the functionality, but not sure what it means...

I think the message says "failed to find network?" I see that message occasionally when I do not have a solid WiFi connection. I think the ASIAIR is hunting for a previously connected network.

However, I have not seen that message when I direct connect the ASIAIR to an extender or router. (The ASIAIR does ask me to rescan when I change the LAN connector between two different routers.)

For the ASIAIR to search for a network again might imply that after you had successfully connected through the LAN network, you then lose it again.

Since removal of the connector and reinserting it again also causes you to completely lose LAN connection, both of these symptoms may indicate that you could have some intermittent contact. Perhaps you have a faulty RJ-45 connector on your ASIAIR, since the cable itself works with other devices.

Take a look inside the RJ-45 connector of the ASIAIR (magnifying glass and flashlight :-) to look at the contact pins. The contacts are just springy wires.

See if the contacts are all lined up neatly and equally spaced from one another.

I have more than once had an RJ-45 (and RJ-9, RJ-11) connector where one pin is slightly bent and not correctly making contact with the plug's contacts. If you find one springy pin that is not aligned, use a tweezer or thin long needle nose pliers to _gently_ nudge it back so it lines up with the other pins -- don't apply much force since they are all fragile springy wires. Just push the misaligned contact a little with the tweezers.

Good luck,

Chen

asif

Chen

I think you misunderstood my last reply.

There is nothing wrong with the the RJ45 (ETHERNET port). That is working fine as I've proved by using the ASIAIR as a standard RASPBERRY PI with a default RASPBIAN STRETCH installation.

When I also changed the config files in the BOOT FOLDER to a default RASPBIAN STRETCH installation (kept the overlays, zwo_license, cmdline and config files) the ETHERNET PORT works too. (The only caveat with this was the "failed to find words", which somebody else has also had as per ZWO's facebok page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/ASIAIR/permalink/1578175445679006/)

However, using the standard ASIAIR out of the box firmware upgraded to 5.05, the ETHERNET PORT doesn't work at all for me, it doesn't even light up when the ASIAIR is powered up. This implies there is an issue in the firmware or the BOOTLOADER.

Is there a image other than ASIAIR 1.2 I can re-flash the ASIAIR with? Is there a reason that ETHERNET PORT is not getting initialised on startup?

note, my network setting for router is as per below.

IP: 192.168.1.1

MASK: 255.255.254.0

GATEWAY.168.1.1

Thanks.

w7ay

>> Is there a image other than ASIAIR 1.2 I can re-flash the ASIAIR with?

Interestingly, I started with a freshly restored copy of firmware 2.61 (ASIAIR app 1.20). It booted up an (original) ASIAIR. The ASIAIR app (iOS) v1.4.3 recognized that it need to update from firmware 2.61 to firmware 5.05.

However, the firmware updating failed.

So, at least in my case, I could not go from the v2.61 firmware (used in app version v1.20) to firmware v5.05 (used in app version 1.4.3).

You can email ZWO to ask them to do a regression test to update from the v2.61 firmware to the latest firmware. They should already have done that regression test, but you never know, and it did not work for me.

I am pretty sure I had updated to firmware 5.05 through the app v1.3, then various beta 1.4 beta apps, and then finally to app v.1.4.3.

If you run Android, perhaps you can update the firmware incrementally from the old APK files for app v1.2 to v1.3 to v1.4 to v1.4.3. There is no such option for iOS.

By the way, the network activity light (the one that constantly flashes) on the RJ-45 connector of the original ASIAIR is orange and not green. The second LED is never active since the original ASIAIR is not capable of 1 Gbps Ethernet.

Clear skies

Chen

asif

Thanks Chen. I will email ZWO Support.

asif

Thank you to ZWO support (Ji) for taking the time to look into this but I have finally managed to resolve the issue with my ASIAIR's Ethernet port.

I decided to go back to the earliest version of the OS I had which was 1.02 (and not install the recommended version of OS 1.2)

I Flashed this OS onto the SD CARD and then as the port was still not working,

I incrementally installed the Android App versions from: v1.0 all the way up to the lastest version v1.4.3.

This allowed me to gradually update the firmware on the ASIAIR according to the version of the APP.

I'm now on the latest version of app and firmware and ethernet port is working now.

PMTeam@ZWO

asif wrote:

Thank you to ZWO support (Ji) for taking the time to look into this but I have finally managed to resolve the issue with my ASIAIR's Ethernet port.

I decided to go back to the earliest version of the OS I had which was 1.02 (and not install the recommended version of OS 1.2)

I Flashed this OS onto the SD CARD and then as the port was still not working,

I incrementally installed the Android App versions from: v1.0 all the way up to the lastest version v1.4.3.

This allowed me to gradually update the firmware on the ASIAIR according to the version of the APP.

I'm now on the latest version of app and firmware and ethernet port is working now.

Glad to hear that. Anytime.

ericbrotman

My Asair ethernet has never worked properly since I purchased it in October 2020. The yellow and green light never blinked as they are supposed to. I tried a variety of routers, locations, cables, and every possible setting suggested in the ZWO Facebook Forum and this forum. Nothing worked. I purchased a new ASAIR a week ago from High Point Scientific. Plugged it in and the lights immediately activated like Christmas. The ethernet setting connection worked great. No need to fiddle with a bunch of obscure settings. It just worked. A week ago I submitted a support request to have my original ASIAIR replaced or fixed. To date, I have heard nothing back from ZWO. I am hoping this post will stir ZWO to respond.

Tech@ZWO

ericbrotman

We have replied to you twice so we have no idea what is going on? Maybe you can check your trash/spam box first.
Please contact dealer and add that note. Thanks!