OmniPro II Ethernet Issue

[Steve]

Hi Guys,

I used to be pretty active here but I've been gone for many years now. MY OPII has been chugging along happily for years but recently some automation stopped working. When I went to connect w/ PC Access to look at or reload the automations I could not connect. I tried everything via the network and just tried connecting direct via a crossover cable with no love. The 2 LEDs on main board illuminate, left steady and right blinks but I cannot see the port - no ping even from laptop direct to OPII. I've read a bunch of threads here, tried the disconnected battery and shutdown for a while, etc. I'm guessing even though the LEDs illuminate there must be some kind of hardware failure.

Anyone have any other ideas I can try or do I just need to admit hardware failure and start rethinking a new system?

 

[pete_c]

Sounds like a hardware failure to me.

More than likely you can back up your configuration via a serial connection and look for a used OP2.

 

[Steve]

Sounds like a hardware failure to me.

More than likely you can back up your configuration via a serial connection and look for a used OP2.

Thanks Pete. That's what I was afraid of. I do have a backup of everything in PC Access.

 

[RobinsonNi]

Hey;
Are you able to connect to it via a serial connection? Can you change the IP of the board via the serial connection, is the port flagged in your router as a static port and not "free IP" for your DHCP to use? My router did that with a few of my 5.7e displays.
Thanks,
Nick

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

That's a good idea, but he did say he connected direct via a crossover cable. Maybe also do a quick ping test while connected like that to ensure IP's and subnets of the system matched with the computer (assuming the computer had a hard IP setting while connected via the crossover cable).

 

[mavromatis]

If anyone is having Ethernet issues please email me [email protected]. I may have a working solution / chip replacement service.

 

[dan_n]

If anyone is having Ethernet issues please email me [email protected]. I may have a working solution / chip replacement service.

Could you check something for me? I noticed that out of all the crystals on the board, only the 20MHz ethernet crystal has no capacitors installed (newish Omni 2e). The capacitor pads C72, C73 on the back of the board are empty. Are these missing on all boards?

My hunch is that a gradual failure of ethernet over years is the clock drifting out of spec. Might be worth trying a $0.26 crystal and a couple of caps.

 

[dan_n]

Nevermind, I did the experiment. I added 22pF caps to that crystal and as expected the frequency decreased some (380ppm) but the non-working ethernet stayed non-working. I'll try the chip replacement unless someone here tries it with negative results.

I've seen pics of other boards without those caps so HAI must have left them out to get a slightly higher frequency for some reason.

 

[mavromatis]

Sorry just saw this -- yes, I have a bunch of good NOS Realtek chips. The chip swap works. I see you started an engineering thread! Awesome! This will be handy to keep these boards going into the future.

I had another person ask me about the phone line chip. They are getting a "phone line dead" after the phone rings. Then resets. My guess there is something wonky... however, I have not been able to figure out what circuits handle the phone line stuff. All the phone stuff works, it just they get a phone line dead event then after 1 second it goes back to OK. But no log.