Reef Angel Forum

I've been bringing my Reef Angel back to life after a year of being dry. I've experienced a bus lock issue when using the expansion hub. I have 2 expansion modules in use, the RF expansion and the salinity expansion. Either one seperately plugged into the relay box will run for days. When I place the expansion hub in line, i get the flashing red within an hour or 2. This occurs with both or either one of the expansion modules plugged in individually. This is the first time I've used the expansion hub and the expansion modules and have never had it work.

Another note:
The salinity probe is extremely unstable also, but is probably independent of this problem as it functions the same when directly plugged into the relay box or the expansion hub.

Please advise, thanks.

That does look like a problem with your hub.
Are the connections all tight and good?
Can you try a different usb cable between the relay box and hub?

rimai wrote:That does look like a problem with your hub.
Are the connections all tight and good?
Can you try a different usb cable between the relay box and hub?

That's one thing i don't remember trying (I've been looking at this on and off for about a month). I unplugged the RF expansion box and placed the hub inline using the cable that was between the relay box and RF exp. box. I used the hub to relay box cable to connect the RF expansion to the hub. Now the cable in question is between the RF exp. box and the hub. If that fails, I'll replace that cable with the salinity exp. cable.

Thanks Roberto.

I've taken the RF module, which I know is good and tested all 3 USB cables I have (plugged directly into the relay box) for a minimum of 3 hours each without failure. With the expansion hub in line, failure seems to occur within an hour.

You may need to upgrade the firmware of the RF module.
Some people had some issues with the RF module too.
You may also need to update the update the libraries until the next release.
http://forum.reefangel.com/viewtopic.php?p=45151#p45151

rimai wrote:You may need to upgrade the firmware of the RF module.
Some people had some issues with the RF module too.
You may also need to update the update the libraries until the next release.
http://forum.reefangel.com/viewtopic.php?p=45151#p45151

Thanks Roberto, I'll look into those updates.

I've already implemented the RF.cpp change. The (byte) cast, if I remember correctly. It looks like I caught it on the day you posted it (1/8). I have yet to look into the RF module firmware update.

I performed the firmware update on the RF module. I was expecting some activity on the LED as I executed the batch file. I didn't see any and assumed the update failed. I put the module back together and hooked it back up through the hub and no failure has occurred in the last few hours? All seems well so far. I've hooked the salinity module back up too and will keep an eye on it.

I woke up to a red flasher this morning with both the RF module and Salinity module attached. I reset and removed the Salinity module.

So far I know that the 3 USB cables are good and the RF module is good when connected directly to the relay box.

The RF needs to flash red when updating. It behaves the same as when you are updating your RA. It blinks red for several seconds.
The important thing is to remove then RF radio. Without removing the radio, the module will not update.
Make sure to edit the file and change the COM port to the same one you use to upload codes to RA.

rimai wrote:The RF needs to flash red when updating. It behaves the same as when you are updating your RA. It blinks red for several seconds.
The important thing is to remove then RF radio. Without removing the radio, the module will not update.
Make sure to edit the file and change the COM port to the same one you use to upload codes to RA.

Yes, I removed the Ecotech board (I found previous instructions and followed them using the RF update .zip file that you provided). I got multiple flashes when I plugged the module into the USB input, just nothing when downloading. Windows told me that COM3 was allocated to the USB bus and 4, 5 was bluetooth. For the heck of it, I tried all 3 With the same result.

I'll take another stab at it later this afternoon.

Finally, after an hour arm wrestling with windows (missing libusb0.dll error and others, none of which I got yestereday) I finally got the firmware update programmed. Sorry for the rant . Now back to the problem at hand. I will replace both the RF module and the Salinity module via the expansion hub and see what happens.

The system has been stable over night with no failures. looks promising! Oddly enough (to me anyway not being overly familiar with the design of the system) the salinity probe has been producing a stable reading. With the exception of a few dropouts, it has held within a +/- 1 PPT range. Prior to this it was flopping all over the place. I was assuming it was a separate issue. All is well for the time being, I'll keep an eye on it. The timing is perfect as I am about ready to go to quarantine to begin stocking the new tank.

Thanks Roberto!

No failure for 2 days now. Firmware update appears to have fixed the problem!