ELK M1XEP issues - any thoughts?

Hello,
 
I have an ELK M1 with an M1XEP connected to it.  It's been working great since I originally installed it about 2 years ago.  I've been doing a lot of expansion lately and just cleaned up my panel the other day.  I turned it off, rerouted some cables, etc.  When I brought it back online I wasn't able to access the M1XEP interface.  Since then I've been doing a lot of troubleshooting with it.  I can't do anything to get it to connect.
 
 
I've always had it configured with a static IP, 172.17.x.x.  It lost this address.  I now see it at it's default of 192.168.0.251 but no matter what I do I can't change it.
 
If I use the "find" feature in the ELK-RP setup, it finds it at 192.168.0.251 and lets me select it but will not let me change it at all.  The windows in the Ethernet Setup for "Reboot", "Send" and "Receive" are all grayed out no matter what.  I haven't been able to click on any of them since this problem started (in any window of the setup tool no matter what I change).
 
If I setup my PC on that subnet I can ping it at 192.168.0.251 (still can't change anything through setup).
 
I've tried using the JP2 jumper on it to toggle back and forth between static and DHCP.  The LED on the Ethernet port responds correctly (one blink or two) but never puts it in DHCP mode, it keeps it's 192.168.0.251 address in either case and if I watch the DHCP server it never sees a request from the XEP.
 
I've replaced the Ethernet cable, serial cable, power source (moved it from it's wall wart to the aux power on the panel), switch port, switch.
 
Has my unit gone bad?  Is there any process to have Elk replace it out of warranty or do I get to overpay for a replacement for something that costs way too much for what it is in the first place?  Can't wait to have $400+ invested into an Ethernet interface.
 
Thanks in advance for any help!!

Grant
 

Hard to guess if it went bad - I recently updated the firmware on mine - cant remember the problems it was supposed to help. If you are routing through a managed switch, or changed it from one network to another it could have implications. Did you change where it physically connected whilst cleaning up you box?

Monk said:

Hard to guess if it went bad - I recently updated the firmware on mine - cant remember the problems it was supposed to help. If you are routing through a managed switch, or changed it from one network to another it could have implications. Did you change where it physically connected whilst cleaning up you box?

Click to expand...

 
I didn't change where it is physically connected (i.e. same switch port, until I started troubleshooting).  I have this same problem even when connected to it with a crossover cable.  It is definitely an issue with the Elk interface.  Wondering if I can "update" the firmware even if it is on the latest version, maybe that process would "wake it up"?

I had a similar problem when I installed a new router as the new router had a 192.168.0.1/24 whereas old router used a 192.168.1.1/24 network. I just changed the new router’s netmask to /16 and then proceeded to change the XEP configuration once I could reconnect.
 
Have you tried M12GO or another application that uses M1 XEP API?

Direct connected, can you ping the unit's default or prior IP?

DELInstallations said:

Direct connected, can you ping the unit's default or prior IP?

Click to expand...

Yes.  I can ping it's default IP but ELK RP won't let me make any changes to it.
 

d.dennerline said:

Have you tried M12GO or another application that uses M1 XEP API?

Click to expand...

Because of your question, I loaded M1 2Go and it cannot discover the XEP.
 
ELK RP sees it every time (with it's default IP).  I can ping the default IP if I move my PC to that subnet and I can get ELK RP to talk to it (i.e. I can make some changes to the board), but I cannot get it to change the IP of the XEP.  Those options just remained grayed out no matter what I do.
 
Also, I've been using the same serial cable that comes with the XEP to connect to my PC... it works fine.  The ELK definitely sees the XEP and it is enrolled.  When I power it off, the panel reports "Ethernet Trouble".  When it is powered on, that clears.
 
Any other thoughts?  Headed out of town in a couple of days and I would obviously feel MUCH better if I could check in on things remotely!
 
Thanks for the help guys!

On the M1XEP Setup window, click on the TCP/IP Settings tab.  Click in the spot where it says "Use a static IP address" and you will be able to enter a static IP address for the M1XEP.

jpmargis said:

On the M1XEP Setup window, click on the TCP/IP Settings tab.  Click in the spot where it says "Use a static IP address" and you will be able to enter a static IP address for the M1XEP.

Click to expand...

 
Correct, I can enter a static IP, or change any of the settings on that page, no problem... BUT the buttons to "Reboot", "Send" or "Receive" those settings remain grayed out and unclickable no matter what I do.  It won't accept any changes that I make.

You need to connect to the XEP ('connection' icon in the main RP menu bar -> network) for those options to be enabled.
 
Try this, more or less.
Open RP. 
   XEP setup.  Find.  Use Selected.  Copy.  Close.
   Connection->network.
   XEP setup.  make the TCP/IP changes.  Copy.  Send.  Reboot.  Close.
Close RP.
wait a few minutes
Open RP.  Connect.

I had the same problem today. Ended up that the MAC address of the M1XEP changed!  An the new default IP was 192.168.3.???  which is not the standard default 192.168.0.251. Very strange but first thing to try is find the XEP in ElkRP software and go from there.

box986 said:

I had the same problem today. Ended up that the MAC address of the M1XEP changed!  An the new default IP was 192.168.3.???  which is not the standard default 192.168.0.251. Very strange but first thing to try is find the XEP in ElkRP software and go from there.

Click to expand...

 
That is curious.  Are you sure?  I'm pretty sure Elk doesn't have MAC address spoofing.  I'm pretty sure the MAC is hard coded into the board.

Been documented that the MAC can change on an XEP, usually to a BAD (sic) MAC

Lou Apo said:

That is curious.  Are you sure?  I'm pretty sure Elk doesn't have MAC address spoofing.  I'm pretty sure the MAC is hard coded into the board.

Click to expand...

 
The M1XEP doesn't have MAC address spoofing.  But the MAC address is stored in a protected location in flash memory on the XEP.  This problem has been around for a while, and was discussed in this other thread.
 
My theory is that some bug in the firmware overrides the protected location and writes an incorrect MAC address there.
 
Usually, it seems that the MAC address switches to 00:40:9D:43:35:97 and the IP address becomes 192.168.3.64

RAL said:

The M1XEP doesn't have MAC address spoofing.  But the MAC address is stored in a protected location in flash memory on the XEP.  This problem has been around for a while, and was discussed in this other thread.
 
My theory is that some bug in the firmware overrides the protected location and writes an incorrect MAC address there.
 
Usually, it seems that the MAC address switches to 00:40:9D:43:35:97 and the IP address becomes 192.168.3.64

Click to expand...

 
 
How about that.  Well I am as surprised as all the other folks on that thread.  Typically network adapter chips have a permanent ROM burned MAC with only fancy ones allowing that to be over-ridden.  Though I think even those still have a hard coded one hiding in the background when using mac spoofing.  It kind of defeats the whole concept of MAC to not have it hard coded.  Maybe Elk isn't using a NIC chip but rather firmware written onto a more generic chip to function as a nic.  I haven't looked up all the chips on the board to even have a guess, but somehow it wouldn't surprise me.
 
I especially like the badbadbad mac.  It's like someone was playing a joke.
 
Has anyone ever heard of this happening on something aside from an Elk XEP?  

I found some equipment from a company a few weeks ago whom expected that only (1) of their devices would be on a single network at any given time. As such they coded their device MAC's to be 11-22-33-44-55-66 by default; I'd never seen this before as I'm familiar with the provide OUI's. We had (3) of them on a particular network and were obviously not getting reliable communication with any of them. It was only after investigating that we found duplicate MACs. On these particular devices, they allowed a serial connection for configuration and a simple "mac = 12-34-56-78-99-98" command would change the MAC address.