Starnote 1.4 — consistent {ntn-connect-failure} in Cyprus, requesting Skylo coverage verification

Hardware Starnote
1

Device: dev:4827e2cd4908 (Notecard WiFi 2.1, firmware 11.2.1.17592)
Starnote: firmware starnote-10.1.1.17591
Location: 35.122432°N, 33.319160°E (Nicosia, Cyprus)
Notehub product: cy.com.ebos.pantelisk:cirocco

Every NTN attempt runs 2–3 × 120s search windows and always ends with
{ntn-connect-failure}. The Sequans modem initializes correctly
({ntn-connecting}{ntn-power}{ntn-gps} → counter reaches 118/120 before failure).
Multiple attempts at different times of day.

Questions:

  1. Is Skylo provisioned and active for this device serial?
  2. Is there scheduled Skylo beam coverage for Nicosia, Cyprus (35.12°N 33.32°E)?
  3. What is the beam pass schedule/window for this location?
2

Hi @PantelisK and welcome to the Blues community!

According to Skylo’s coverage map, Cypress is definitely supported. Normally I would have you re-check your antenna placement, but since you’re already getting a GPS fix, that’s not likely an issue. Skylo uses GEO satellites, so when coverage exists it’s continuous, therefore I don’t expect that is the issue either.

We’re going to escalate this with Skylo and get back to you. In the meantime it might be worthwhile to update your Starnote firmware as well.

Thanks,
Rob

3

Hi Rob,

Thank you for the quick response and for escalating with Skylo. Here is all the
information requested.

card.version response:
{“version”:“notecard-11.2.1.17592”,“device”:“dev:4827e2cd4908”,“name”:“Blues Wireless
Notecard”,“sku”:“NOTE-ESP”,“ordering_code”:“WZ0XV1N0ZZAV”,“board”:“4.0”,“wifi”:true,“ntn”:
true,“body”:{“org”:“Blues Wireless”,“product”:“Notecard”,“target”:“s3”,“version”:“notecard
-s3-11.2.1”,“ver_major”:11,“ver_minor”:2,“ver_patch”:1,“ver_build”:17592,“built”:“Mar 8
2026 18:54:58”}}

Starnote firmware: starnote-10.1.1.17591

UTC timestamps of {ntn-connect-failure} events (2026-05-26):

  • Session 1: ~13:14:27Z (Window 1 fail), ~13:16:49Z (Window 2 fail)
  • Session 2: ~13:29:00Z (Window 1 fail), ~13:31:30Z (Window 2 fail)
  • Session 3: ~13:31:27Z (Window 1 fail), Window 2 was still running when log was cut

Each window runs a full 0->118/120 second counter before reporting {ntn-connect-failure}.
The modem re-cycles and starts a new window cleanly each time. This has been consistent
across all attempts.

Important detail about GPS — please confirm if this is valid:

We are operating indoors on a bench without a clear sky view for now but near the windows normal communication before but suddenly it stopped after 3-4 times of connection between testing of 3 days. So we are using a fixed
manual/static location injected via card.location.mode fixed (lat: --.------, lon: --.-------- . —
Nicosia, Cyprus) combined with ntn.gps on:true so the Starnote reads the location from the
Notecard rather than its own Quectel L76L GPS chip. The {ntn-gps} tag appearing in our
hub.status responses reflects the Notecard location being accepted by the Starnote modem —
it is NOT an actual GNSS satellite fix from the Starnote’s own antenna.

Is this manual location injection method valid for Skylo beam acquisition? Or does Skylo’s
network require a live GPS fix from the Starnote’s own antenna to authenticate/select the
beam? We want to rule this out as a contributing factor. To be clear in this particular way it was operational 3-4 times before so i don’t think that something on this side has some kind of bottleneck.

Full NTN status sequence (representative, from Session 3):
{ntn-idle}
→ {ntn-connecting}{ntn-power}{ntn-gps} (powering up)
→ {ntn-connecting}{ntn-power}{ntn-gps} (initializing modem, ~16s)
→ {ntn-connecting}{ntn-power}{ntn-gps} (waiting for satellite network 0->118/120 secs)
→ {ntn-connect-failure} (idle, disconnected)
→ cycle repeats

We will also update the Starnote firmware as suggested and test again afterward.

Thank you,
Pantelis

4

Hi @PantelisK,

Using a fixed GPS location is fine (assuming it is accurate of course!). To rule out other variables I would:

  1. Update Starnote firmware.
  2. Take the device outdoors with a clear view of the sky and re-test.

Thanks,
Rob