GPS attempt requiring initial cell connection

Troubleshooting
1

Hello. I tried reading all I could to find something similar with no luck. I am using a NOTE-WBNAW with the new 8.2.2 FW. I have it connected to a Notecarrier-F using USB power. I was wondering if this is expected behavior or if there is a way around it. We are wanting to primarily use WiFi with the Cell fallback while also getingt a daily GPS. Here are my settings:

  • Continuous connection
  • Periodic location at 86400 seconds
  • Transport is wifi-cell

For testing I was removing the cell antenna to mimic no cell service. I believe I am noticing the GPS will not attempt to initiate until there is an initial cell connection. For example, on bootup I see the WiFi modem shutdown and the “transport to cell because GPS is needed.” Eventually it enters “Waiting for wireless connection”, as expected. It will stay in this mode and never return back to the WiFi connection. It will immediately initiate the GPS once I plug the antenna back in. Is this expected?

The hope is to not fall into a situation where there is no cell coverage and it gets stuck before it ever attempts GPS, thus never connecting to WiFi or Notehub.

Thanks!

3

Hi @WhiteShoes,

What’s the status of the Wi-Fi during this time? I assume it’s not available at all?

The Notecard can only activate its GPS module after establishing a successful network connection at startup to obtain the current time. Once the time is set, GPS remains available for use regardless of the cell/Wi-Fi connection status. If you’re using wifi-cell transport, it should be using Wi-Fi on boot to sync the time with Notehub (and falling back to cell if that’s not available).

Rob

4

@RobLauer Thanks for the very fast reply. The WiFi network is available. This is why I found it strange. I should also add that once it gets the GPS location it immediately connects to the WiFi network.

Thanks!

5

Hey @WhiteShoes,

We’ve been able to recreate the issue you’re having.

Notecard’s modem handles both cellular connectivity and GPS functionality. The behavior you’re seeing is something we intentionally added—we wanted to make sure the modem started up when it otherwise wouldn’t (because connectivity will happen over Wi-Fi).

BUT, it does seem bad that if cellular isn’t available, Notecard will never actually connect over WiFi when its GPS is enabled. We’re looking into this. Thanks for reaching out!

Thanks,

TJ

6

Ok after discussing this internally, this is intended behavior and not a bug (although our log messages and docs should be more clear, and we’ll be addressing that).

To use Notecard’s GPS you must be able to use cellular as a transport.

If you want to use Wi-Fi as a primary transport, and you need to retrieve GPS locations, and cellular isn’t going to be reliably available. you do have the option to use an external GPS module. With an external GPS Notecard does need its onboard modem at all—and therefore can use Wi-Fi module for connectivity exclusively while still having access to a GPS location through the external module.

Let me know if that makes sense and if you have any other questions. Sorry that our documentation is not super clear on this currently.

TJ

1 Like
7

@tjvantoll Hey TJ. Thanks for looking into this further and the explanation. What you are saying makes sense. This helps us know what to expect and what we need to do on our end.

Thanks again!

1 Like