Hello! I am a relatively new raspberry shake user so please bear with me. I was attempting to use my Raspberry Shake 1D during demonstration at my university and noticed when I logged into rs.local the activity preview was blank, which was different from when I first set it up at home. I started digging through the manual and found that SWARM would be the best software for me to use for my teaching and was unable to find the SWARM.zip preloaded with the raspberry shake settings, so I followed the manual and set it up. When I attempt to open myShake in SWARM, I receive the error “The server returned no helicorder data”. I wasn’t sure what was wrong, but it seems like the raspberry shake is not communicating with the geophone? maybe? so I thought maybe I corrupted something by unplugging the shake after setting it up at home, so I reflashed the shakeOS onto the SD card and let everything install. after reinstalling everything, I still have the same “The server returned no helicorder data” in SWARM, and no apparent activity visible in the rs.local dashboard.
The hardware came assembled by you only about a month and a half ago. I’m out of ideas please help!
logs (59.5 KB)
Hello skendere, and welcome to our community!
Thank you for the logs and all the details of the operations you have done.
Yes, if you want to display live data from a Shake directly connected to your PC/laptop, SWARM is the most convenient choice.
The logs indicate that, for some reason, there is no Ethernet/WiFi connection available to the Shake, but let’s proceed step by step. Did you take these logs while the Shake was directly connected to your computer, or in a different setup?
What I would like to focus on is this portion: the activity preview was blank. Is this preview still blank even after you reflashed the microSD card? Or can you now see the live trace on that display, but still nothing on SWARM?
Let me know. Thank you!
Hi Stormchaser,
Thank you for getting back to me, I think I figured everything out. One of those situations where troubleshooting one problem, may have led to other problems, and eventually figured out the root cause.
-
After reflashing the SD card, it took a while (~10 minutes) to show any data in the helicorder but I think I was mostly being impatient.
-
Yes, there was no ethernet/WiFi because I had the shake connected to my laptop directly via an ethernet adapter, rather than a router. I was trying to “share the internet connection” through the laptop, but wasn’t getting anywhere. This meant that after reflashing the SD card, the shake never had an opportunity to connect to the web, which was one reason why SWARM was giving me trouble.
-
I eventually determined that the reason SWARM was not giving me live data was because the shake was time stamping everything as occurring in May 2023, and SWARM was requesting data for March 2026. I was able to sync everything by connecting the shake to my internet router which allowed it to update its clock, and then once I reconnected it to my laptop, I was able to view live data in SWARM without an internet connection. It seems like everything works offline now, which is great because we are using it in class today to monitor a simulated “volcanic eruption”.
Just slightly tricky for the uninitiated to enable it to work in real time in the field without it connecting to the internet. I’m planning on connecting it back home to the wifi for a while to let it update its firmware since it’s whatever’s available on the GitHub page.
This is my personal shake, but I am working to have my academic department acquire some tools to use in class for teaching. I appreciate everything y’all are doing!
–Stuart
Hello Stuart,
First, great job in troubleshooting step-by-step and for getting the Shake up and running via SWARM again!
Going point by point, so you have all the information:
- After reflashing, that waiting time is common; it can take between 10-20 minutes before the Shake is “ready” after all updates (if there are any) have been downloaded and implemented
- Understood, thank you. Yes, that was likely the cause of the SWARM issues you were seeing. I think it would be possible to share the internet connection via a computer, but it would not be straightforward.
- Yes! That’s what I would have recommended you check once the reflash was complete and the Shake was running again. For future readers, SWARM will not work if the date is not the current day, so if the Shake is not connected to the internet or a GPS module, you’ll need to update the date manually. A guide can be found here.
I would love to be in that class today! I wish I had a teacher who would simulate something like that during my school years.
Also, thank you for your feedback on the entire process. We’ll see what we can do to improve our instructions so they’re easier to understand for everyone.
If you’ll need anything else, you know where to find us.
I hope you and your students will enjoy your Shake!