Artemis Global Tracker transmists, but later shows error and will not transmit again

Development Boards Artemis
1

Hi,

I am transmitting using the Iridium modem and have an issue.

My code is based on the A Better Tracker example by Paul Clark, see https://github.com/sparkfun/SparkFun_Ar … balTracker

The modem will transmit and after some transmits, it will send the error

Transmission failed with error code 3

and also

modem.clearBuffers failed with error 3

When it tries to transmit anytime after these errors it will give

modem.begin failed with error 5

Any clue as to why this could be happening?

Thanks

2

Do the example codes behave the same? (do they throw the same error after x messages?) Test it using the default sketches and circle back

3

Hi,

I tested the example15_BetterTracker (https://github.com/sparkfun/SparkFun_Ar … terTracker)

The only change was on line 82:

#define DEF_TXINT 5// DEFault TX INTerval (Minutes)

Instead of 5 I used 130

The same issue: Sending messages, then:

Transmission failed with error code 3

Clearing the MO buffer.

*** modem.clearBuffers failed with error 3 ***

Putting the 9603N to sleep.

And after this all messages show:

Starting modem…

*** modem.begin failed with error 5 ***

Getting ready to put the Apollo3 into deep sleep…

4

TS-Russell:
Do the example codes behave the same? (do they throw the same error after x messages?) Test it using the default sketches and circle back

Yes they do. The only change was the transmission delay (I was using 140 minutes). Same errors: first error code 3 and then error code 5. I tried resetting the rx before waking the modem, and still had the same issue. It is also not deterministic: sometimes it takes a while (more than 10 send attempts (either successful or unsuccessful)) to get to error 3, while other times it happens in the third attempt.

5

Maybe try clearing the buffers more often? Can you send smaller messages more often?

Are you using the additional supercapacitors? https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/ar … e-assembly

6

TS-Russell:
Maybe try clearing the buffers more often? Can you send smaller messages more often?

Are you using the additional supercapacitors? https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/ar … e-assembly

I tried clearing the and re defining the modem class, clearing the rx multiple times. I was using supercapacitors and had the same problem, removed them and the problem persists. If send more often I have not had the issue, but have not tested extensively (because it could be expensive). When I reset the controller everything works fine again, so maybe it is not a hardware problem… my current workaround is to perform a software reset and catch it during init so it will not repeat unwanted instructions… but it is not ideal.