Troubleshooting LTE Gateways
Troubleshooting LTE Gateways
This guide will take you through the different issues we have seen in the years arising around the installation of the Polar Gateways and some of the issues that might occur during the life of the gateway.
Check Power to the device
There are two lights on the Gateways Faceplate that must be illuminated to ensure there is power on the unit.
- POWER – is solid on means there is power on the Gateway.
- WORK – Flashes when the Gateway is operating normally.
If either of these lights are not on, please see below: - Ensure there is 12-36V DC across the + and – terminals on the top of the Gateway.
- Check the power supply providing power to the Gateway.
- If we have confirmed the Gateway is being fed the DC voltage but is not turning on the unit will have to be returned for inspection.
Check connectivity to the Polar Portal
Connectivity of the Gateway to the Polar Portal can be seen on the Gateways faceplate. The lights that need to be illuminated on the Gateway Faceplate are as follows:
- NET light is on and flashing – this means the Gateway is connected to the GSM Network, the light flashes twice when connected to 2G and flashes 4 times when connected to LTE networks.
- LINK A light is solid on – This mean that the Gateway is connected to the Polar Portal
- SIGNAL Low, Good, Great. These signal lights will come on depending on the current signal strength. The Exact signal strength percentage can be seen on the Gateway setup page.
It is important to note here that the Gateway will function with Low signal but it’s not ideal and the best signal should always be found to ensure consistent operation.If these lights are not on see below:
- If NET light does not come on it means, there might be no network in the area, or that the device is not able to connect to a network.
- Find out exactly where the Gateway is installed, in a panel, in a room, underground or a location pin of the Gateway to establish why there is no network.
- Is the client calling you from the same place as the gateway is installed?
If there is network in the area but the light is still not coming on:
- Check the Antenna and cable.
- Check that the antenna cable is screwed onto SMA on the Gateway securely.
- Check the antenna cable for damage.
- Make sure that the aerial of the antenna is securely screwed into the base of the antenna.
- Make sure the antenna cable run does not run parallel to any high current or high-power lines.
- Wait 5 min with the device powered on, sometimes it can take time to find a network and connect.
- Restart the device and wait a further 5 min.
If none of these steps are yielding any results it may be that the Polar Monitoring Network service provider is having technical issues. Please then get hold of the Polar Technical team to do further diagnostics.
Signal strength is low:
- Put antenna as high up as possible.
- Put antenna far away from other objects:
- Walls
- High current or high-power lines
- Transformers
- Steel structures
- Never place antenna inside the enclosure.
- If all steps above do not improve the signal strength consider purchasing a higher gain antenna.
Gateway is Connected but no data is reading on the platform:
- Check Serial Parameters on the devices connected to the Gateway
- Slave ID matches the Polar Portal (generally Slave ID 1)
- If there are multiple devices connected to one Gateway, then we need to make sure each Slave ID is unique and the same as on the Polar Portal.
- Baud rate 9600
- Stop and parity bits – 8, no,1
- Device is set to communicate on Modbus RS-485 RTU
- Not Modbus Ascii or any other communication protocol.
- See User manual for device specific parameters to change as per device
- Check RS-485 Cabling, A to A and B to B. In case make sure RS-485 + to RS-485+ and RS-485- to RS-485-.
- Make certain of this for all RS-485 connections in the chain
- Make sure that common grounds are connected in the chain
- Make sure shielding is earthed on 1 side only, and that the cables in the chain all share the same shielding.
- If data is still not showing after the above steps have been confirmed, we will then need to narrow down the cause of the issues. This will be done by disconnecting all RS-485 devices from the network and starting by connecting them back onto the Gateway one at a time. Once each device is detected we will then move onto the next. Until we find where the issue is.
Please feel free to contact Electro Mechanica if any issues arise in the steps above.
For more information on how to setup a gateway click the following link: