UbiSwitch doesn't work when connected with our wall socket

BotBlox Hardware
1

– Copied from customer query –

We have purchased 5 Ubiswitch with baseboard now, but we have not found the user manual. Can you please point me in the right direction?
By simply powering it we don’t get it to work plug-and-play. Does it need initial configuring over UART to start working?

We connect power, a computer on one port and Internet connection on the other port (RJ45 ports on the baseboard), but no connection.

We use the PicoClasp connectors Port 1 and Port 3.

2

Ok, let’s start with the basics. UbiSwitch requires no configuration to work so let’s debug your setup. Can you answer the questions below.

  1. What power supply are you using? What is the voltage you are supply, and the current the board draws?

  2. Do you see the red light illuminate on UbiSwitch at power on?

  3. What baseboard are you using?

  4. Is the module plugged securely into the baseboard?

  5. What are the devices you are connecting to? Are they powered on as well?

  6. What cables are you using (I assume you’re using the ones we supply with the board)?

3

Answers below, and here is a picture of the setup:

Image_20240918_1311045971938268933071218.jpg

Ok, let’s start with the basics. UbiSwitch requires no configuration to work so let’s debug your setup. Can you answer the questions below.

  1. What power supply are you using? What is the voltage you are supply, and the current the board draws?

12 V, 0.17 A (has seen 0.3 A as well)

  1. Do you see the red light illuminate on UbiSwitch at power on?

We see two green lights, but no red on the baseboard. On the switch itself, we see one green light (possibly only the power LED, not sure we can see the MCU LED).

  1. What baseboard are you using?

The standard baseboard ( BB-UD1-B-1).

  1. Is the module plugged securely into the baseboard?

Plugged and bolted.

  1. What are the devices you are connecting to? Are they powered on as well?

Laptop computer and wall Ethernet connection. Direct network cable between them gives Internet connection so the assumption is that it should work similar with the switch inbetween.

  1. What cables are you using (I assume you’re using the ones we supply with the board)?

Yes, the supplied cables.

4

Another update

During powerup, there is a red light (MCU LED), but it stops after a few seconds.

There are also some blinking on the port 1-10 LED indicator lights for the ports that are connected on the baseboard.

5

Thanks for the information. A few more questions for you:

There are also some blinking on the port 1-10 LED indicator lights for the ports that are connected on the baseboard.

Blinking on the LED indicator lights implies ports are communicating. Does this blinking persist and do you see ports come up on your connected devices?

12 V, 0.17 A (has seen 0.3 A as well)

At what point did you see the 0.3A?

During powerup, there is a red light (MCU LED), but it stops after a few seconds.

This red light stays on while UbiSwitch is booting, then turns off after booting.

I note in your image that port 5 LED is orange? Is this solidly on, or is it blinking? Does it turn off when all ports are disconnected?

Have you tried one of the other modules and baseboards? Do you see the same behaviour?

6

Hi I fully understand there has to be questions, remote debugging is always a challenge, and we are very humble wrt possible faults we currently do not understand we may have done

Thanks for the information. A few more questions for you:

There are also some blinking on the port 1-10 LED indicator lights for the ports that are connected on the baseboard.

Blinking on the LED indicator lights implies ports are communicating. Does this blinking persist and do you see ports come up on your connected devices?

Yes, it is blinking still and the pc say it is connected, but it does not have ethernet access. When connected directly to the same plug in the wall by cable, it does have access.

12 V, 0.17 A (has seen 0.3 A as well)

At what point did you see the 0.3A?

This appears to be an internal misunderstanding. The power source is set to 12 V with a 0.3 A current limit. We have not seen that at any point.

So the observed current is 0.176A

During powerup, there is a red light (MCU LED), but it stops after a few seconds.

This red light stays on while UbiSwitch is booting, then turns off after booting.

I note in your image that port 5 LED is orange? Is this solidly on, or is it blinking? Does it turn off when all ports are disconnected?

In that picture, port 5 is connected to the wall plug Ethernet.

image.png

Here, port 1 is to the laptop

Port 3 is to the ethernet in the wall plug

But the computer does not find a wired connection.

Have you tried one of the other modules and baseboards? Do you see the same behaviour?

Yes, they have the same behaviour.

7

We just discovered we had a unknown problem with the wall so we got out some gear we usually connect direct to, and found that indeed it was our wall outlet that is not working properly. The one besides it does, so we thought we were testing it but not good enough.

We now have the switch working properly. We appreciate your patience and time in helping us finding this.

8

Thanks for letting me know