Cellular-Enabled Power Outage Detector with Twilio SMS Notifications - stops working after several hours

1

Hi,

I have followed Rob’s blog post on how to build the power outage detector, and after having initial success, the project has stopped working. I have checked the Notecard and it is working.

Nothing happens when I unplug the USB cable… the card will not wake up and transmit. I can connect to the playground and issue commands to the card, but other than that, nada.

Anyone have any idea as to what could be happening?

Thanks,

Mike

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2

I think it would be easier to diagnose if you could share a picture of your build?

Best,
Zak

3

I added a pic of the build.

Thanks,

Mike

4

Thanks for the pic Mike,

I’m not sure this is your current problem, but the tiny uFL cables hanging off of MAIN and GPS are a ticking time bomb for causing a short circuit.

Can you also share your setup script, while we wait for Rob to weigh in?

Thanks,
Zak

5

Yikes… I will take care of the wires now.

1 Like
6

Last question for the moment, what version of the Notecard firmware are you running?

7

I am using 3.4.1.15117. After I disconnected the LIPO and removed the LTE cable, and I connected the GPS cable, the Notecard came to life and started working again. As for the script, I just followed Rob’s instructions verbatim.

Thanks,

Mike

1 Like
8

Hi @mikec,

Just wanted to let you know that we are looking into this still and trying to reproduce the issue locally. Will be in touch!

Rob

9

Hi Rob,

I think it’s also possible a low voltage condition was occurring… I had left the board connected to my laptop ( while leaving the laptop running). I decided to plug the board into a 5 volt power supply to see if this made a difference. After I did this, I have not had any problems.

Thanks,

Mike

10

@mikec,

It’s also possible that if the antenna coaxes were shorting for too long, your LiPo battery voltage may have gone below the physical damage level of 3.2V. Thus, the LiPo may not keep a charge or may not be able to deliver current pulses to the Notecard and should be replaced.

Rob

11

Thanks for letting me know that. I’ll get a replacement.

Thanks,

Mike

12

I read in a separate post Blues is working on a LIC… this seems like a good fit for an autonomous power outage monitor.

Mike

13

@mikec - Just a quick FYI. I’ve switched to using a 20K ohm resistor in place of the wire in this project. It’s just a “safer” option. While the wire is safe in this config, with a slightly different set of commands you could potentially wreck your hardware!

Rob

14

Thanks for letting me know. By the way, would it be safe to directly wire my carrier to a wall outlet, or would I need a converter?

Thanks,

Mike

15

You really don’t want to send 120 volts directly to the Notecarrier :slight_smile:. I would stick with using Micro-USB and a quality wall adapter.