Almond+ powers itself down

[tastewar1]

Today, my Almond+ (deployed about a week) has started to power itself down. Touch screen is unresponsive, no lights visible in unit. Unplugging and replugging brings it back to life, but not for very long. How can I arrange for a replacement? Would anything in the logs explain this behavior?

[LGNilsson]

We've had a few reports of this and we're working on the issue. It seems to be software related, not hardware.

[tastewar1]

Sounds like you're not interesting in shipping a replacement, then. Is there anything I can do to help diagnose? Anything in the logs that would confirm it is what you say it is (or not)?

I was suspecting heat, as it's in a "warm" closet. I turned it over, so that it's lying on its face, to help vent, and it hasn't powered down since...

[LGNilsson]

Well, it's supposed to be stood vertically, not laying down flat, hence the stand...
Even so, it shouldn't be a heat issue, as we've had three units running in a 50 degree C heat chamber for a month and they didn't reboot or crash.
If it turns out it's a hardware problem, we'll of course arrange for a replacement unit.

[sorphin]

Well, it's supposed to be stood vertically, not laying down flat, hence the stand...
Even so, it shouldn't be a heat issue, as we've had three units running in a 50 degree C heat chamber for a month and they didn't reboot or crash.
If it turns out it's a hardware problem, we'll of course arrange for a replacement unit.

Mine had been sitting on, and in horizontal position since I got it until yesterday... face was 'warm'... actually about as warm as it is now in the vertical position (which i don't like, but i'm dealing with)... no crashes, no heat issues. Usually about 75F here in the room that it's in.

[firefox87]

Hi Staff,
my almond+ has the same issue.
It power off it self and the only way to resolve the problem is to unplug and plug the power.

If the problem is related to temperature there is a possibility to monitoring the internal temperature? Or when the temperature is over 45C it reboot automatically?

Thanks,
Antonio 

[dataguy]

My experience is that the length of time with my unit before it hangs depends on the orientation, from shortest to longest:
Vertical (stand) = <2 hours, sometimes as short as 10-15 minutes
Horizontal (LCD face up) = <12 hours
Horizontal (LCD face down) = 12-24 hours
That's with no load, no Ethernet connections, no Wi-Fi clients after factory reset on R064, just sitting on the setup wizard screen with the LCD on.

[LGNilsson]

I've set up some units to run over the weekend, so it'll be interesting to see tomorrow morning if any of them have hung. They were running on R064 for two days no problem, different orientations, but we updated them to R065 on Friday.

Regardless, this shouldn't be a thermal issue, but the Almond+ does run cooler in vertical mode due to the fact that there are no cooling holes on the front (LCD side) which means a lot more heat is being trapped inside the Almond+ when it's positioned horizontally.

[tom871]

I too am experiencing this problem.  Running the A+ as my primary router, vertical position on the stand.  Initially set up Sat. 8/30, first occurrence yesterday, 9/5.  Updated to RO65 this morning.  3 more occurrences since then.

Lars, were any conclusions reached from your tests of last weekend?

Thanks in advance.

[LGNilsson]

We've gotten a unit back that has this issue and we're trying to work out what's going on.
None of the units I tested had this issue.
As soon as we know what's going on, we'll update everyone.

[carlosbermudez]

Got the same issue after a week using the Almond+. Mine starts shutting down as quick as 5 minutes after I unplug and plug in again. No lights are visible in the Ethernet Ports and the Touchscreen is not responsive.

I already did the manual firmware update recommended here: http://forum.securifi.com/index.php/topic,1396.0.html

For now I am back to my old router. Please let me know what data I can share to help you identify the cause of this issue.

[damien]

I have been having the lock issue on a couple of my Almond+ units today. Not even getting a few minutes until the main router locks up. So I saved the config and replaced it with my 3 Almond and reloaded the config. Same issue appearing.

So I tried to lessen the load on the unit by shutting down all services but DHCP/DNS. Still happening, so I don't think its overload.

At the moment I have disabled the wireless, and now its been up for some time.

Will keep this post updated.

Update : Updated to R066, tested with wireless back on and the freezing returned. The UI kept working this time, but internet accessibility disappeared until wireless deactivated and rebooted.

[dataguy]

FWIW, I had the same problem and worked with Support on various firmwares with no luck. They replaced the unit and this one has been running so far for 7 days on R066 with no issues. I could barely get 15 minutes at times on the problem unit.

[Semi]

I don't want to say 'mee too', but I have to  ... Almond+ powered itself down.

Maybe it's temperature is/was too high, it feels quite warm to me.

- Semi

[damien]

I have been having the lock issue on a couple of my Almond+ units today. Not even getting a few minutes until the main router locks up. So I saved the config and replaced it with my 3 Almond and reloaded the config. Same issue appearing.

So I tried to lessen the load on the unit by shutting down all services but DHCP/DNS. Still happening, so I don't think its overload.

At the moment I have disabled the wireless, and now its been up for some time.

Will keep this post updated.

Update : Updated to R066, tested with wireless back on and the freezing returned. The UI kept working this time, but internet accessibility disappeared until wireless deactivated and rebooted.

Some background. I have 3 Almonds, I had planned to have one as the main router, and the other two performing AP roles. The one as a AP has been working fine, except it claims its not connected to the net. The other two have been used as main routers, both displaying the same issue of lockup.

When they are locked up the UI is non responsive, but it appears that the rear ports are working and transferring data between them.

As stated above, I disabled the wireless on the main router, VPN, and SAMBA services and it worked for about 24 hours before locking up again.

For now I have reverted to my Netgear router, still have the Almond in AP mode working fine.