3G/4G troubleshooting tips

The below steps can be useful in troubleshooting 3G/4G connectivity issues.

Check the basics

  1. Set up your S3 bucket as per our S3 guide
  2. Verify that you can login via CANcloud by loading your Configuration File
  3. Ensure that you have followed the SIM card setup guide
  4. In particular, ensure that your SIM is correctly inserted[1]
  5. Check that your SIM card is active and has not hit a data limit
  6. Ensure that you are testing the unit in an area with proper 3G/4G coverage
  7. Power the unit for 5 min and see if it uploads the device.json to your S3 bucket

If the device still fails to connect, proceed to the next step below.

Verify a connection to our S3 test server

  1. Download our test Configuration File: config-01.08.json
  2. Load the file in the config editor and modify the SIM details to match your SIM
  3. Ensure that the 3G/4G antenna is connected and has clear access to the sky during your test
  4. Create a backup of your original Configuration File on the device SD card
  5. Add the test Configuration File to your SD card
  6. Power on your device with a suitable power supply (7-32 V DC, >3W) for 5 min
  7. Log into the S3 test server via CANcloud and check if your device uploads the device.json
  8. If the device does not connect, review the syslog.txt file on the SD for further diagnostics
  9. If the syslog shows issues reading the SIM, review your PIN and physical insertion
  10. If the syslog shows that the SIM is accepted, but unable to connect, review your APN/roaming
  11. Optionally test with another micro SIM card (update the Configuration File accordingly)

If it is still not connecting, please send us an e-mail with a zip of the entire SD content, details on which SIM cards you have tested and a description of your setup.

If the device connects, proceed to the next step below.

Test your own S3 server access

Assuming you have verified that your SIM card works with our AWS S3 test server, you can try with your own S3 server.

  1. Log into your own S3 server via CANcloud via your browser
  2. Delete the device Configuration File on your own S3 server[3]
  3. On the device SD, update your Configuration File to use your own S3 server details again
  4. Check if the device is now able to connect to your own server (i.e. is the device.json uploaded)
  5. If the device is still unable to connect to your server, check the below:
    • Verify that all your server details are correct (see the S3 server guides for syntax)
    • Verify that you do not use https:// in your endpoint (if you have enabled TLS, disable it)[4]
  6. Open your Configuration File via Notepad and set the syslog value from 0 to 3, then save it
  7. If a syslog.txt is already on the SD card, delete or rename it
  8. Try the test again and review the new syslog.txt for details

If you’re still unable to get started after trying the above steps, contact us and describe your results from the above tests. In your mail, please include a zip with your SD card contents.

[1]Gold plating must face up and you should hear a small click upon insertion, as per the SIM card guide. You can check if the device has loaded your SIM card correctly by opening the device.json after a power cycle and checking if the cellular_iccid field contains your SIM’s ICCID
[3]The device will automatically upload the Configuration File from the SD card when it connects to an S3 server. If a change is made after this to the Configuration File directly on the SD card, the device will perform an over-the-air update and download the Configuration File from the S3 server. To avoid confusion, it is therefore recommended to delete the S3 Configuration File during troubleshooting
[4]HTTPS transfer is an advanced feature. For troubleshooting purposes we recommend to first get the simpler HTTP transfer to work. If you are using a MinIO S3 server and you have enabled TLS, you can temporarily remove the TLS certificates and restart the server