Batrium Timeout problem

Headrc

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Jan 27, 2018
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My Watchmon 4 is now experiencing a timeout problem. It is not receiving from the Longmon's. I have checked all the wiring on the Longmonsand I have tried doing a Longmon/Cellmon Network test. But there seems to be no communication between the Watchmon and the Longmons. The red transmit light is on but the green receive light is not on the Watchmon. All of the Longmon's green lights are on but they do not flash any indicating message being sent.If anyone has any suggestions on this please advise.
 
Test for a low voltage cell section, if one cells longmon gets under ~2V they stop talking
If the cells voltages are all OK, try reducing the loop of the longmons by bridging some out, eg unplug some longmons & connect the comms cable past to the next one up, etc.
Eg instead of normal loop Watchmon > C1 > C2 > C3 > C4 > C5 > C6 > C7 > C8 > Watchmon,
try Watchmon > C2 > C3 > C4 > C5 > C6 > C7 > C8 > Watchmon
or maybe Watchmon C4 > C5 > C6 > C7 > C8 > Watchmon, etc
until you isolate the faulty part (cable, connector or longmon itself).

See this article:
https://support.batrium.com/article/27-how-to-test-the-cmu-network-for-faults-with-a-watchmon
 
Thanks, I tried reducing the network down to just one last night (the first one) ....and that pack is not low voltage. It is 3.75 ....as all of the others are at this time. That did not cure the problem.
 
What did you do when this happened? If you replace the first node and for instance run the 2nd node? Dont forget that when you change the chain you NEED to resync it with the proper amount of longmons. If you dont do that it wont work properly. With that said the green should turn on if your wirings are done and it have signal

Please recheck the wiring a 3rd time.
 
I wanted to tidy up all the wiring in the battery case. So I shut the whole system down and did just that. This process did consist of pulling each Longmon communication cable, tidying up the wiring and then plugging it all back in. It did not consist of disconnecting the Shuntfrom the Watchmon itself, but did require disconnecting the communication cablesfrom the CMU and plugging them back in. Reconnecting the whole communication network between the Longmon's was done starting at the lowest cell, without the Watchmon itself being powered. I then powered it back up after the whole network had been reconnected. And then I got a timeout error. I tried doing a network test but got nothing back. I cannot resync because there is no communication between the Watchmon and the network.

So I then started checking all the wiring. It makes sense that it is the wiring but I continuity checked all the cables and everything checks out fine.

I will once again go through all the wiring. I wonder if it might be technically OK to just loop the whole communication of the Watchmon's transmit and receive together and bypass the network in total to verify if the Watchmon itself has a problem. But I do not want to do anything that will harm the Watchmon while I pursue this.

Also, I cannot find exactly what the reset button on the Watchmon does on Batrium's website. I assume it resets everything back to the factory settings in the Watchmon's internal memory? And I don't know how that could affect this communication problem but I could try that as well.
 
Just try with 1 longmon attached and nothing else and crosscheck all wiring for that.

Thats where I would start on wiring issues. Can you give us an image how it looks?
 
daromer said:
Just try with 1 longmon attached and nothing else and crosscheck all wiring for that.

Thats where I would start on wiring issues. Can you give us an image how it looks?
Yes ....what kind of image are you looking for ? A photo? Or a screen shot? Of what exactly? Thanks ...Richard
 
Another option perhaps if you make no progress with the interconnections ...


image_hxatmr.jpg
 
A picture of the wiring.
 
Ok ....here are some photos. I pulled the CMU off the back of the battery case so I could a better picture. The wiring on Watchmpn is down to bare bones ...just the Shunt and the CMU cable. Watchmon is power by the USB.

I thought about a factory reset but I have not done it yet. A question comes up about the reset button on the Watchmon itself .... is that just a factory reset for the internal Watchmon memory as well? Meaning it does he same thing ....or something extra compared to the factory reset in the software?





image_tdbczk.jpg

image_valxru.jpg

image_vvrioe.jpg
 
Have you tried with 1 longmon and a resync with configuration of 1 mon?

Did that mon then blink properly but watchmon did not recieve anything or no data at all to the first one? Doing that you can quickly identify at which end of that mon the problem is. The mon that doesnt blink is where the data is lost.
 
I tried isolating down to one Longmon ...using two different Longmons ...but not all 14. I could not resync with either of them. I also did a factory reset in the software with no positive results. So other than the problem itself it is the Watchmon ...I do not know. It is going to be a pain to try each individual Longmon only to find out it is the Watchmon. Are all Batrium systems this finicky?
 
You didnt answer all my questions. Do the single longmon blink? If not the issue is before that longmon. Then crosscheck continuity all the way from the watchmon contact to the longmong contact. Not partly but all the way...

Im pretty sure the issue lies with you rearranging causing an issue to a cable OR you are sure you did not mix the signal wires? If you do that you burn the watchmon....


No this issue is not really an issue unless you have caused some issue with it. But Yes it is tricky to trace the error since it is complex systems.
 
Sorry ...no the one Longmon does not blink when I isolate it to one Longmon. And no I did not mix the signal wires.
 
And you did check continuity then? Between watchmoon Contact and the longmon Contact?
 
Yes I checked continuity. Now the Watchmon is not even indicating that it is sending messages with the red transmit light on itand I receive no timeout message. This is after trying to test a couple more of the Longmon's. And yes, I disconnected power to the Watchmon each time I moved ahead to test another Longmon. So now the Watchmon seems to be completely dead in the water. I tried a reset on the Watchmon itself too after that happened and this did not correct anything.So I just do not see how it cannot be the Watchmon itself at this time.
 
Headrc said:
Are all Batrium systems this finicky?

Have you seen the thread Hugh posted recently ?

He gave his apparently dying WM the kiss of life via a firmware refresh, his symptoms started similar to yours.

One of my spare WMs visited Hugh while he was awaiting delivery of his replacement, if it helps get you up and running again pending Batriums intervention I'll happy send it on another holiday to you.

https://secondlifestorage.com/t-Watchmon-failure
 
Thanks Sean once again! I will try the firmware refresh ....although the firmware was updated. I believe you are located in UK? Right? Taking you up on the offer (which is kind of you) means International shipping back and forth. So I will see what Batrium has to say about a replacement/repair if in fact it is the Watchmon. This has got me thinking that a backup Watchmon is in order ....seems like a lot of you folks have those ...there must be a reason for that. What is the experience of Batrium actually repairing their products?
 
The firmware reset did not fix the problem.


On this topic ...doe anyone know exactly what these connectors are for the Longmons? They are certainly not JHT ....but they are an achilles heal in the system so having a supply for replacement would be a good idea.
 
And a new observation ....now I have found that without the Watchmon transmitting and receiving that the Longmons seem to shut down after a period of time ...meaning that the green LED's no longer stay lit. If I unplug the connectors with the power source form the cells they come back on.
 
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