Connection Failed every few days-Arduino Hard Crash. Needs a power cycle to reset.

[randy]

update:-

I changed the clone ethernet shield for a genuine one on board 1, and it made no difference - I still had connection errors. Then I changed the port for a higher one yesterday, and I haven't had a connection error since.

On Board 2, I changed the port to a high port. Will need to wait a week or so to see if the problem has gone away, but so far so good.

Fingers crossed this stops the problem.

I guess either the plugin or the Arduino is getting confused by unexpected packets that appear on those ports.

I don't know what the problems are in the 8900 region. Like I said, I could never find any evidence of traffic on the assigned ports, but experience has shown me that high numbered ports are the safest. HomeSeer tends to put a lot of activity up in the 49,000 region

[apluck]

update:-

I changed the clone ethernet shield for a genuine one on board 1, and it made no difference - I still had connection errors. Then I changed the port for a higher one yesterday, and I haven't had a connection error since.

On Board 2, I changed the port to a high port. Will need to wait a week or so to see if the problem has gone away, but so far so good.

Fingers crossed this stops the problem.

I guess either the plugin or the Arduino is getting confused by unexpected packets that appear on those ports.

[will40]

Connection Failed every few days-Arduino Hard Crash. Needs a power cycle to r...

I had same issue for 2 weeks and pulled my hair out.

I found it was a sign my Ethernet switch was failing.

Replaced and all was fine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[randy]

Thanks Randy, I'll try that tomorrow.

Out of interest, what caused you to try different port numbers, and why did that solve the problem?

I could see no reason why the boards were disconnecting. I had very tight control of IP addresses on the network and my DHCP range was well above where I was putting the Arduinos. At the time I used Netstat and found a lot of activity in lower port numbers around the 8900 that the plug-in uses as a default. I saw nothing in the higher numbers. As a first step, I chose new port numbers and the disconnects on the genuine board and shield stopped immediately. I have no answer as to why that solved the problem as Netstat showed the specific ports (8901, 8902 and 8903) to be free. After replacing the other two clone shields and one clone board my problems stopped. I never went back to the 8900s to see if the problems came back.

I then added a 4th board using the same port numbering convention, then switched all 4 shields out to POE shields.

You will need to upload new sketches if you change port numbers.

I would also recommend the 1.0.0.99 beta as Greig has addressed some connection issues, but they might be limited to USB connections.

[apluck]

Thanks Randy, I'll try that tomorrow.

Out of interest, what caused you to try different port numbers, and why did that solve the problem?

[randy]

I had some problems early on with intermittent disconnects. This was way back at version 1.0.0.16. I moved my port numbers to the 55000's using the IP address as last three. In your case they would be 55280, 55300 and 55320. That cleared up all of my intermittent disconnects on my genuine Mega and Genuine Ethernet shield. The other two with clone shields, one a genuine board and one a clone, still randomly disconnected. Switching to all genuine components stopped all of the random disconnects.

Now I have 4 genuine Mega 2560 boards, all connected with genuine (R2) POE shields and I have not had a disconnect in at least a year.

I also have events that trap disconnection or connection errors and send me a pushover message as well as automatic resetting of the boards if they remain disconnected more that 30 seconds. None of the events have run in over a year.

[apluck]

I have 3 boards in use for around a year, and an event which emails me every time i get a connection error.
---------------
Board 1 is a genuine Uno with a clone Ethernet shield. It has;
2 input pins, and
4 PWM output pins driving FETs controlling 12v LED lighting strips.
This board disconnects and immediately reconnects between 2 and 10 times per day. I could replace the shield with a genuine one and try that.
---------------
Board 2 is a genuine EtherUno with POE module. It has;
1 input,
5 outputs driving heating control relays,
1 PWM output which sets the flow temperature on my boiler, and
1 OneWire pin with 3 temp sensors for my hot water tank.
This board disconnects once or twice per week and then goes Connection FAILED. I cannot reset the board, and have to power it down and back up again.
---------------
Board 3 is also a genuine EtherUno with POE module. It has;
8 outputs driving a relay board;
1 OneWire pin with 6 temp sensors.
This board works perfectly and never disconnects.
---------------
In all cases, the relay boards are driven from a separate 5v regulator, and therefore do not take power from the Arduino 5V line.

Board 2 is causing problems as the heating stops working when it crashes! Any ideas on how to diagnose the issue? The EtherUno is actually a replacement board. Previously I had a normal genuine Uno with a genuine Ethernet shield. I have exactly the same problem on he replacement board.

Here are screenshots of the board configs

Thanks