I’ve spent hours now trying to get my data center to pull a good signal, with no luck. Here’s what I’ve done so far:
My data center is mounted on the highest point of my two story roof with a clear view of the sky (see attached pic)
The data center has a network connection. It’s connected to my home network and the light on my switch is blinking.
To confirm network I also tried connecting through a wi-fi range extender and the software showed a positive wired connection.
The light on the data center is solid green, but when I try and reset it to get a gps signal, it always shows “poor”
The rover gets an excellent RTK signal when I try NetRTK Service directly, and it’s postioned close to where the data center is (but on the ground). Unfortunately it only works in the open, and degrades severely under trees, and I have a lot of them, so that’s not really an option for me.
I’ve swapped out all three RTK antennas on the DC but no change.
In the RTK detail screen in diagnostics I have CNR values of 0.00 across the board.
No idea what to try next. Images of my DC install and diagnostics attached.
Hi. Sorry to hear of the challenges. Hopefully they will soon be resolved.
Bryan is the resident expert in interpreting the diagnostic screen data, so I’ll leave that in his capable hands.
But something you said stuck out in my mind: When using NetRTK your Yarbo isn’t working well, correct? NetRTK does NOT rely on the DataCenter’s RTK at all. So that suggests to me that at the very least, you may have an issue with your Yarbo’s RTK antennas. Sometimes the antennas don’t fully seat when you screw them in. Might be part of the problem here.
Have you updated your DC firmware to the latest version and completed a “reinstall data center” under the settings section of the app? Have you tried unplugging both the core and the DC power for 5 mins?
Hi there, our community members have already shared some useful initial troubleshooting suggestions, and we recommend trying those steps first to see if the issue can be resolved.
If the issue still persists after completing those troubleshooting steps, please feel free to submit a support ticket with detailed information, including the pictures you shared and the troubleshooting steps you’ve already tried. Our support team will then help further investigate and work with you to resolve the issue.
Hi @rgloverii. No, NetRTK does work, it’s just that I have a lot of trees on my property and I lose connection easily. I’m hoping (and expecting) that the DC will give me more stable coverage.
Thanks for the reply @bryan.wheeler. I have unplugged the core and DC power for more that 5 min. I’ve also reinstalled the DC many many times. How do I update the firmware? Will the app tell me I need an upgrade or is there a manual way to check?
Go into settings, Data Center, Data Center Setting and connect to your DC. You should then be able to check there for the firmware version. If it is not up to date, update it and then try the reinstall process again.
What version did it say you were on out of curiosity? How close are you to the DC when you take the scatterplot? How long do you let it populate? Sometimes it does take a minute or two to fully load in especially if you aren’t close. Are you using the supplied POE injector or a POE switch? Is the DC plugged directly into your home router or is it connected through a wireless bridge or mesh node, etc?
On the data center version page it reports: Current: V1.1.8 (latest).
I’m on the roof right next to the DC. Phone is almost touching it.
I just went back up there and let it run for 5 min. No change.
Using the supplied POE injector.
Connected through a hard-wired net tap in an upper room that is connected to the router through a switch in the basement. The router is all the way in the basement and no way to reach it directly from the roof.
Ok, well that DC firmware version is new to me. So definitely sounds like the latest. I think you’ve done everything you can at this point to have the best possible chance of success. Unfortunately, support is going to have to escalate this to the FSE’s (engineers) to figure out what is going on.
I would definitely stay with NetRTK for now. If the rover pauses for GPS issues, take a screenshot of your RTK, Data Center, Status, and HaLow sections of the diagnostics and post here and will see if it’s possibly something else. One other thing to consider is make sure your core is NOT connected to your home WiFi. If it is, delete the network and restart. It’s under settings, network, rover wifi. Also, toggle on Cellular if it is not on. That will help for failover if HaLow signal is poor.
Also note, that pausing and waiting for GPS is expected and you don’t necessarily need to do anything. It will wait for better signal and then start moving again. You can also tweak your PPVS settings higher for the in area to see if it can move enough to regain signal.
Thank you @bryan.wheeler so much for the detailed (and quick!) replies. Super helpfu! I did open a support ticket, so Iet’s see what they come back with. I saw on some other of your posts that you highly recommend turning off wi-fi? I’m curious to know why. Also, if I do that will I be able to connect to the rover outside of bluetooth range without the DC?
Will you be able to connect, yes. HaLow shows true and should be the primary connection method. Bluetooth when in range. As for recommending disabling WiFi, there is a bit of a known issue with some home WiFi’s and the core. Not everyone has great wifi coverage in the yard, and as it moves into and out of range it can cause some disconnect issues that a lot of the times cause more user frustration than it affects the machine, but sometimes it does impact the machine and the “GPS” correction data stream. HaLow is good enough and has better range. While WIFI isn’t an issue for everyone, it can be and trust me when I say it has solved a lot of user issues by turning it off. If for some reason you turn it off and can’t connect, you can get in bluetooth range and should be able to connect to put it back.
Thanks again. One other question while I have you. Under network I see DC Wi-Fi when I select it and get to the Connect Data Center, the radar animation just spins and nothing happens, even if I’m standing right next to the DC. I let it run for at least 5-6 min a couple times and get nothing. It doesn’t even time out, it just spins. What should happen? What is DC Wi-Fi and how is it used? Do I even need it?
I turned off wi-fi and it connected over cellular network. How does HaLow work? Is there something I need to do proactively to enable it?
It definitely sounds like there is something going on with your DC then. HaLow should not show true if it connects over cellular instead. Part of the Data Center install process is pairing of the HaLow WiFi between the DC and core. Then it writes the DC coordinates to the rover as part of the initialization step.
As for the Data Center WiFi section, that is not something that works with the current Y series DC’s. It’s an M series DC or DC 2.0 feature and that hardware is still being developed. So what you are seeing is expected as the DC 1.0 doesn’t have WIFi and won’t respond. It can only communicate with bluetooth for management.
Since your DC HaLow does not seem to be functioning correctly, I would say you can connect to WiFi again for now so that support can connect to troubleshoot. If you have good WiFi signal throughout your whole property, then in theory NetRTK should work fine. If you loose WiFi, cellular should pick up and take over.
Got it, and that all makes sense. I heard back from support a bit ago and they are sending me a new unit. Fingers crossed. Immensely grateful for all the tips and help trying to debug this @bryan.wheeler. Looking forward to getting up and running and being a part of this community.
Well, I got my replacement data center from Yarbo and just installed it. Happy to report that my network issues appear to be solved! Have not mapped anything yet (on and off rain today), but I drove the rover around the property and even with heavy overcast I had solid GPS over most of it (never fully dropped), and HaLow was green all the way. Whew.
Sorry.