Seatalk detection fail pattern

[Pantera]

I’m running the lastest version of openplotter 3 on a raspberry pi 4 under 64b
I have been noticing since months that sometimes my Seatalk instruments are nos being detected. This are connected via an optocoupler. No hat is used. 
After many months and reinstalls I have detected a pattern.

The times Seatalk instruments are not detected are when I start either signalk or Kip before letting the boot process end completely. In these cases the only solution I found is to reboot. 

But when I way a few minutes after booting, with Opencpn with auto run for example, if enough time has passed signalk will detect Seatalk no matter if it’s turn on before booting or even after starting signalk

Any thoughts?

[opaezosu]

Thanks for sharing this behavior. I am experiencing the same issue: Seatalk detected only some times. Next time I'm in the boat I will try what you describe and see if I get the same pattern as you.

I am also using an optocoupler, the LED is blinking when the instruments are powered, but SignalK sometimes does not receive any data.

Octavio

I’m running the lastest version of openplotter 3 on a raspberry pi 4 under 64b
I have been noticing since months that sometimes my Seatalk instruments are nos being detected. This are connected via an optocoupler. No hat is used. 
After many months and reinstalls I have detected a pattern.

The times Seatalk instruments are not detected are when I start either signalk or Kip before letting the boot process end completely. In these cases the only solution I found is to reboot. 

But when I way a few minutes after booting, with Opencpn with auto run for example, if enough time has passed signalk will detect Seatalk no matter if it’s turn on before booting or even after starting signalk

Any thoughts?

[opaezosu]

I forgot to mention that I have tried using a higher resistor instead of the recommended, but no luck. I am running the latest version of OpenPlotter on a Pi4

[opaezosu]

I was at the boat during the weekend, and for the first time I could not get the seatalk working at all: the led on the optocoupler blinking as always when the instruments are on, but this time SK did not read any of the data. I tried restarting the gpiod service several times, nothing, restarting sk also nothing. I tried manually setting the gpio hi/lo (it has worked before) to trigger the data acquisition, no luck this time. So I'm in a worse place now of what I was a week before. Cable connections did not change.

Any thoughts?

[Pantera]

I was at the boat during the weekend, and for the first time I could not get the seatalk working at all: the led on the optocoupler blinking as always when the instruments are on, but this time SK did not read any of the data. I tried restarting the gpiod service several times, nothing, restarting sk also nothing. I tried manually setting the gpio hi/lo (it has worked before) to trigger the data acquisition, no luck this time. So I'm in a worse place now of what I was a week before. Cable connections did not change.

Any thoughts?

I have detected that if I re-start pigpiod it starts working

In the terminal type: sudo systemctl restart pigpiod

good luck!

[opaezosu]

Thanks, yes I did try that, but no luck this time, it used to work. Do you happen to have a link to the optocoupler you are using?

I am suspicious of a sw update that happened a couple of weeks ago when I connected the boat's pi to the internet. 
Either that or the optocoupler acting up. I'll try reading directly from the gpio next time I'm in the boat to see if there is some activity in there.

Best

I was at the boat during the weekend, and for the first time I could not get the seatalk working at all: the led on the optocoupler blinking as always when the instruments are on, but this time SK did not read any of the data. I tried restarting the gpiod service several times, nothing, restarting sk also nothing. I tried manually setting the gpio hi/lo (it has worked before) to trigger the data acquisition, no luck this time. So I'm in a worse place now of what I was a week before. Cable connections did not change.

Any thoughts?

I have detected that if I re-start pigpiod it starts working

In the terminal type: sudo systemctl restart pigpiod

good luck!

[Pantera]

Thanks, yes I did try that, but no luck this time, it used to work. Do you happen to have a link to the optocoupler you are using?

I am suspicious of a sw update that happened a couple of weeks ago when I connected the boat's pi to the internet. 
Either that or the optocoupler acting up. I'll try reading directly from the gpio next time I'm in the boat to see if there is some activity in there.

Best

I was at the boat during the weekend, and for the first time I could not get the seatalk working at all: the led on the optocoupler blinking as always when the instruments are on, but this time SK did not read any of the data. I tried restarting the gpiod service several times, nothing, restarting sk also nothing. I tried manually setting the gpio hi/lo (it has worked before) to trigger the data acquisition, no luck this time. So I'm in a worse place now of what I was a week before. Cable connections did not change.

Any thoughts?

I have detected that if I re-start pigpiod it starts working

In the terminal type: sudo systemctl restart pigpiod

good luck!

You are right, I also updated and re'starting gpio stoped working.
The optocoupler im using is the most recomended one. This is the link 
https://es.aliexpress.com/item/100500324...pt=glo2esp

Cheers. Let me know if you can solve it!

[opaezosu]

Thanks, yes I did try that, but no luck this time, it used to work. Do you happen to have a link to the optocoupler you are using?

I am suspicious of a sw update that happened a couple of weeks ago when I connected the boat's pi to the internet. 
Either that or the optocoupler acting up. I'll try reading directly from the gpio next time I'm in the boat to see if there is some activity in there.

Best

I was at the boat during the weekend, and for the first time I could not get the seatalk working at all: the led on the optocoupler blinking as always when the instruments are on, but this time SK did not read any of the data. I tried restarting the gpiod service several times, nothing, restarting sk also nothing. I tried manually setting the gpio hi/lo (it has worked before) to trigger the data acquisition, no luck this time. So I'm in a worse place now of what I was a week before. Cable connections did not change.

Any thoughts?

I have detected that if I re-start pigpiod it starts working

In the terminal type: sudo systemctl restart pigpiod

good luck!

You are right, I also updated and re'starting gpio stoped working.
The optocoupler im using is the most recomended one. This is the link 
https://es.aliexpress.com/item/100500324...pt=glo2esp

Cheers. Let me know if you can solve it!

Ok, I got it working for quite some time last time I was on the boat. What I did was to ground the output signal pin momentarily (from output pin to GND pin) and magically the data started flowing. After a restart I had to do this again. I do not understand electronics very well, but we may have to do something to the input GPIO to drain it, otherwise it may remain high for too long, perhaps adding resistor somewhere. I am using GPIO 17 by the way. If someone here could please explain why this is happening, it will be really appreciated.

Best

[opaezosu]

I simply switched to GPIO 21 for the data pin and all has been working smoothly now for the past couple of weeks. Go figure, perhaps GPIO 17 (the one I was using) was bad from origin.

[Adrian]

Odd.. GPIO17 can be used by UART0 for the RTS signal, so maybe something messes with the pin configuration during boot. Do you have any device on UART0?