Possible modem/cable failure?

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Kurasiu
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Possible modem/cable failure?

Post#1 » Sat Dec 03, 2016 5:12 pm

Okay, I have no idea what happened and I've been scratching my head for 2 hours now - still no solution. Here's the quick summary:

Today I decided to connect online and jump to PSO for some sweet Christmas events action. Fired up my RasPi3B, connected the LVI cable to Dreamcast and a problem occured - "failed to connect, check the cable/modem settings". I was stumped, because I wasn't using my DC for 2 weeks and haven't even touched anything on RasPi 3B/DreamPi/LVI cable.

At first I thought maybe the batteries (2 x 9V) in my LVI cable died, so I went to the store and bought a pair of new ones. Connected the new batteries and still nothing, failed to connect.

Then I thought maybe, just maybe (though, as I said before, I didn't do anything with it) the LVI cable failed, so I took apart the old one and soldiered a new one. Checked the voltage on the soldiered ends to the red phone wire - my multimeter showed 18,6V, so I thought that might do the trick. Nope, still failed to connect.

"Maybe that USB Modem or DreamPi is acting strangely", I thought to myself, so I fired up my old notebook with an actual modem onboard, connected everything and started VMWare with Crunchbag++ Linux (been using this method before I got Raspberry Pi, it worked before), trying to connect. Nope, STILL failed to connect.

At this point I started to panic, as maybe something happened to my DC. So I disconnected the DC modem to give it some good ol' cleaning. After that I once again tried to connect (using the old notebook) and - wow, success! It actually dialed and connected to the Sylverant server! Oh joy!

I turned off the ol' notebook and connected everything to Raspberry Pi, hoping to FINALLY play some PSO. But nope, the "failed to connect" error popped up again. And now it keeps popping up even using the old notebook method/cleaning the DC modem over and over.

I seriously have no idea what's wrong here. Maybe one of the LVI cable components (capacitor, resistor) failed? Or maybe... the DC modem is slowly dying? I couldn't connect on PSO, PlanetWeb Browser and DreamKey (inside the PSO). Some help would be truly appreciated!


Here's a log from the TTYS01 device, while I was using my old notebook:

12/03 21:59:00 yS1 send: \dATQ0V1H0[0d]
12/03 21:59:00 yS1 waiting for ``OK'' ** found **
12/03 21:59:01 yS1 send: AT[0d]
12/03 21:59:01 yS1 waiting for ``OK'' ** found **
12/03 21:59:01 yS1 waiting...
12/03 21:59:12 yS1 wfr: waiting for ``RING''
12/03 21:59:12 yS1 send: ATA[0d]
12/03 21:59:12 yS1 waiting for ``CONNECT''
12/03 22:00:10 yS1 found action string: ``NO CARRIER''
12/03 22:00:10 ##### failed A_FAIL dev=ttyS1, pid=1008, caller='none', conn='', name=''

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Kurasiu
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Re: Possible modem/cable failure?

Post#2 » Sun Dec 04, 2016 11:24 am

Today I enabled sounds on the internal modem of the old notebook to actually hear what is happening inside. I can clearly hear the Dreamcast trying to dial "555" (three "5" button beeps), but after that no "dial-up sound" plays, just a standard continuous dial tone, until NO CARRIER/timeout occurs.
I double checked all the soldier points on the LVI cable, and each one of them shows correct voltage/resistance...

Any idea what's going on?

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HuntrRose
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Re: Possible modem/cable failure?

Post#3 » Sun Dec 04, 2016 11:33 am

im terrible with technical stuff...

try 111-1111 ?

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Kurasiu
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Re: Possible modem/cable failure?

Post#4 » Wed Dec 14, 2016 3:32 pm

Thanks, but that didn't do the trick. :)

Still no idea about this one. When I tried to connect the other day, it actually connected twice (out of 10 tries), and I played some PSOv2 online no problem. Maybe one of the components in the LVI cable is faulty?

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Xerxes3rd
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Re: Possible modem/cable failure?

Post#5 » Wed Dec 14, 2016 5:37 pm

It kinda sounds like a loose wire in your phone cable. Check the voltage on the red wire by measuring it at each connector, then check continuity on the other wire in the middle pair (green, I think?). I suppose that there could be a faulty solder joint on the RJ-11 jack in the DC modem, but that seems unlikely.

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Kurasiu
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Re: Possible modem/cable failure?

Post#6 » Wed Jan 04, 2017 3:23 pm

Sadly, that's not it. :( I actually went and bought a hi-quality telephone cable, as well as a 18V/1A charger. Assembled it together and indeed, it shows a stable 18.38V current on the connectors of the LVI cable, so I'm sure it's working fine.

Didn't do the trick with the DC though, still unable to connect, still the same NO CARRIER error appears. :(

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Xerxes3rd
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Re: Possible modem/cable failure?

Post#7 » Wed Jan 04, 2017 4:07 pm

If you're using DreamPi, you can run

Code: Select all

sudo tail -f /var/log/messages
to see the DreamPi's output. Can you paste an excerpt here, preferably the section where it shows the AT commands? What game are you using for testing the modem? For testing I usually use Quake 3 Arena, since it shows which IP the DC has been assigned, and requires no port forwarding in order to work.

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Kurasiu
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Re: Possible modem/cable failure?

Post#8 » Thu Jan 05, 2017 4:43 pm

Here are the last messages from the DreamPi:

Code: Select all

Jan  5 21:23:48 dreampi Starting daemon
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi kernel: [   25.038062] nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (14812 buckets, 59248 max)
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi kernel: [   25.058657] uart-pl011 3f201000.uart: no DMA platform data
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi AFO routing enabled
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi Starting dcvoip process - Thanks Jonas Karlsson!
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi Starting dcgamespy process - Thanks Jonas Karlsson!
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi dcvoip: Public IP: 89.70.41.96
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi dcvoip: DC DEV: ppp0
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi kernel: [   25.289356] Netfilter messages via NETLINK v0.30.
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi dcvoip: LISTENING
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi Detecting connection and modem...
Jan  5 21:23:50 dreampi kernel: [   26.088598] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
Jan  5 21:23:52 dreampi Detected device ttyACM0 with speed 460800
Jan  5 21:23:52 dreampi Internet connected and device found!
Jan  5 21:23:53 dreampi kernel: [   29.248567] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
Jan  5 21:23:54 dreampi Dreamcast IP: 192.168.0.98
Jan  5 21:23:54 dreampi Opening serial interface to ttyACM0
Jan  5 21:23:54 dreampi ATZ0
Jan  5 21:23:54 dreampi OK
Jan  5 21:23:54 dreampi ATE0
Jan  5 21:23:54 dreampi OK
Jan  5 21:23:54 dreampi AT+FCLASS=8
Jan  5 21:23:54 dreampi OK
Jan  5 21:23:54 dreampi AT+VLS=1
Jan  5 21:34:37 dreampi Stopping dcgamespy process
Jan  5 21:34:37 dreampi Stopping dcvoip process
Jan  5 21:34:37 dreampi AFO routing disabled
Jan  5 21:34:37 dreampi Dreampi quit successfully


I updated the thing to 1.6, but the same thing happens, i.e. nothing, it just tries to connect and gives up after a while.
I currently don't have Q3A, tried to connect using PSO, WebBrowser 3.0 and DreamKey from Sonic Adventure. All three methods worked around 2 months ago. :(

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Xiden
Developer
Posts: 2219

Re: Possible modem/cable failure?

Post#9 » Thu Jan 05, 2017 5:08 pm

Kurasiu wrote:Here are the last messages from the DreamPi:

Code: Select all

Jan  5 21:23:48 dreampi Starting daemon
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi kernel: [   25.038062] nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (14812 buckets, 59248 max)
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi kernel: [   25.058657] uart-pl011 3f201000.uart: no DMA platform data
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi AFO routing enabled
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi Starting dcvoip process - Thanks Jonas Karlsson!
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi Starting dcgamespy process - Thanks Jonas Karlsson!
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi dcvoip: Public IP: 89.70.41.96
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi dcvoip: DC DEV: ppp0
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi kernel: [   25.289356] Netfilter messages via NETLINK v0.30.
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi dcvoip: LISTENING
Jan  5 21:23:49 dreampi Detecting connection and modem...
Jan  5 21:23:50 dreampi kernel: [   26.088598] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
Jan  5 21:23:52 dreampi Detected device ttyACM0 with speed 460800
Jan  5 21:23:52 dreampi Internet connected and device found!
Jan  5 21:23:53 dreampi kernel: [   29.248567] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
Jan  5 21:23:54 dreampi Dreamcast IP: 192.168.0.98
Jan  5 21:23:54 dreampi Opening serial interface to ttyACM0
Jan  5 21:23:54 dreampi ATZ0
Jan  5 21:23:54 dreampi OK
Jan  5 21:23:54 dreampi ATE0
Jan  5 21:23:54 dreampi OK
Jan  5 21:23:54 dreampi AT+FCLASS=8
Jan  5 21:23:54 dreampi OK
Jan  5 21:23:54 dreampi AT+VLS=1
Jan  5 21:34:37 dreampi Stopping dcgamespy process
Jan  5 21:34:37 dreampi Stopping dcvoip process
Jan  5 21:34:37 dreampi AFO routing disabled
Jan  5 21:34:37 dreampi Dreampi quit successfully


I updated the thing to 1.6, but the same thing happens, i.e. nothing, it just tries to connect and gives up after a while.
I currently don't have Q3A, tried to connect using PSO, WebBrowser 3.0 and DreamKey from Sonic Adventure. All three methods worked around 2 months ago. :(


You've replaced your LVI I believe correct?

I'm wondering if you Dreamcast modem itself has gone bad :/

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Xiden
Developer
Posts: 2219

Re: Possible modem/cable failure?

Post#10 » Thu Jan 05, 2017 5:09 pm

Kurasiu wrote:Today I enabled sounds on the internal modem of the old notebook to actually hear what is happening inside. I can clearly hear the Dreamcast trying to dial "555" (three "5" button beeps), but after that no "dial-up sound" plays, just a standard continuous dial tone, until NO CARRIER/timeout occurs.
I double checked all the soldier points on the LVI cable, and each one of them shows correct voltage/resistance...

Any idea what's going on?


Just for the heck of it, could you provide a picture of your LVI? Just curious if something is soldered up wrong

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