RS4D not working in stand-alone mode

Hello!

I have been trying to set up our RS4D in stand-alone mode (to be able to demo at events and classroom visits). The Shake has been sitting in my office unused for some time.

I have followed all of the instructions in the Shake manual for setting up in stand-alone mode, but my Shake doesn’t seem to be operating properly. When I view the helicorder plot there are large gaps in the data, and if I try to see live/recent in swarm, data appears for a few seconds, then nothing for 10+ minutes at a time.

RSH.R303A.2023-12-01T15_17_20.logs.tar (2.1 MB)

I have tried re-burning the Shake OS on the SD card, checking the clock is synchronised and changing the power supply, but still no luck! I haven’t tried connecting it to our network yet due to IT firewalls.

Any advice?

Hello AmyPG,

Thank you for contacting us about this issue you are experiencing. Thanks also for the logs and for having already done some tests that I would have suggested (for example, the power supply one).

From the logs themselves, there are many lines that show this:

2023 335 15:17:16>>		Cannot process record, throwing it away.
2023 335 15:17:16>>	6C7','FFFF1ABE','FFFF0585','FFFEE75C','FFFEDF4B','FFFEE3F7','FFFEEF8E']}
2023 335 15:17:16>>		Cannot process record, throwing it away.
2023 335 15:17:16>>	6C7','FFFF1ABE','FFFF0585','FFFEE75C','FFFEDF4B','FFFEE3F7','FFFEEF8E']}

As you have already checked the power supply (sometimes an inadequate or underperforming one can be the reason behind these errors) I would recommend to check if all the connections between the sensor, the blue Shake board, and the Pi board are still solid and free from dirt or any other element that could compromise transmission. This is important, in particular if your Shake is located outside, or, as in your case, has been left unused for some time.

You can carefully disassemble it, blow or directly clean any dust or residue on the boards, then reassemble it and see if it will now show the same gaps in data.

If this doesn’t work, then I would suggest exchanging the Pi board (paying attention to the fact that doing this will change the code of the Shake) with a different one, if available to you, to see if that was the cause of the data gaps.

Ultimately, you can (if this wasn’t already part of your power supply check) try to use a different one to power up your Shake, and see if the results are positive.