Reply to "MTH Wifi Unit can't find TIUs"

mattrain posted:

Hey guys, I continue to experience issues with the DCS Wi-fi App and have attempted various troubleshooting attempts at no avail. It's become extremely frustrating in that I end up not running any trains when I'd like to out of frustration of the app connectivity issues and stop even trying - at the risk of sounding melodramatic, it's impacting my enjoyment of the hobby! I'm actually starting to scour Ebay looking for used DCS remotes to see if that gives me consistently better connectivity. Here's a log of my attempts to isolate and remediate, perhaps someone can review and ensure I'm not missing anything obvious - maybe @MTH RD or @Barry Broskowitz could review my attempts below or provide guidance? Happy to provide any logs out of the app or WIU if that will help

Full disclosure, I work in IT infrastructure, so I've been using some toolsets to assist in troubleshooting (e.g. VMware Fusion, Flame 2 for Mac for Avahi/Bonjour Snooping, PFsense Firewall). I have yet to whip out WireShark in earnest, but that's we're I'm heading next.

Problem Summary:

1. Frequently, DCS WiFi App is unable to connect to WIU/TIU, despite multiple refreshes of the app, rebooting the phone, rebooting the DCS components
2. When a connection is established to the WIU/TIU, frequently the App loses connectivity while performing operations, resulting in loss of control of trains, track, and accessories - I've had a number of occasions where a locomotive's horn or whistle "sticks on" when the app loses connectivity mid-command.  This seems particularly prevalent when addressing variable track power voltage

Despite multiple troubleshooting approaches and attempts to isolate the issue, I cannot find a reliable solution to allow me to consistently connect using the DCS WiFi Android App.

Hardware:

Handheld Devices used (All Android):
1. Google Pixel, Android 9 (Pie) - connected to home WiFI (same subnet and layer 2 network as WIU)
2. Samsung Galaxy SII, Android 7 (Jelly Bean) - Connected to MTH_DCS-365C (dedicated WIU network)
3. Virtual Machine (Android x86_64) Android 7.1 (Nougat) - NAT connectivity with the physical workstation, on same layer 2 network as WIU

MTH DCS Components
1. DCS TIU Rev L (USB)
2. DCS WIU

Firmware/Software Versions:

- App: 3.1.0 Build 49
- WIU: MTH WIFI DCS 20160107-1007 / LuCI mthdcs-v1.1rc1-1-gd26bd7d Release (git-15.205.28457-77acfe0)
- TIU: v6.10

Configuration:
TIU powered via an external 12v/2A Power Source
WIU Wifi switch set to "MTH"
WIU cabled to home network via CAT-5E cable, DHCP address set statically from router (pfsense) (note this wired configuration is outlined in the DCS WiFi user guide - set the WIU to "MTH" but cable the device to the network)
"Default" device is my Google Pixel phone, so ideally I'd be able to connect and us it for controlling the trains

With the above setup, I see transient connectivity issues, with successful connection rates only about 10% of the time when using a wireless android device

Troubleshooting Steps:

1. Ensure all Android devices with the DCS Wifi App installed are either powered off or not connected to local network other than the device being used to control the WIU
2. Attempt Refresh within the app using the refresh icon
3. Close DCS WiFi App on Phone
4. Reboot Phone
5. Reset the application and restore previous locomotive/track/accessory data via an exported configuration file
6. Connect with Samsung phone (direct connection via MTH_DCS-365C SSID)
7. Reboot WIU
8. Reboot TIU
9. Reboot both WIU and TIU
10. Reset the TIU
11. Confirm layer 3 connectivity via IPv4:
12. Verify Avahi/IPv6 Discovery:
13. Try "Home" wifi connection only on WIU (e.g. unplug the Cat5E and set the setting switch to "Home" rather than MTH)

 

Findings:

1. Greatest success rate is when using the Android VM on my laptop, although even that only has about a 70% successful connection rate
2. Greatest failure rate is when using my Google Pixel on my home Wifi network (~10% successful connection rate)
3. Despite confirming layer 2 and layer 3 connectivity, frequently the DCS WiFi app is unable to successfully connect to the WIU/TIU
4. The WIU System and Kernel logs aren't particularly illuminating - I see some generic warnings, but no red flags:

Fri Jun 29 14:10:20 2018 daemon.warn avahi-daemon[1151]: WARNING: No NSS support for mDNS detected, consider installing nss-mdns!

Fri Jun 29 14:10:24 2018 daemon.warn dnsmasq[1199]: no servers found in /tmp/resolv.conf.auto, will retry

 

Questions:

1. How does the DCS WiFi app "discover" the WIU? I assume it's via Avahi/IPv6 discovery or mDNS.
2. Can multiple DCS WiFi apps be connected to the same WIU at the same time? My testing indicates the answer is "No"
3. When establishing connectivity to the WIU, presumably there is a handshake to the TIU. Is there a way to reliably determine whether the DCS WiFi app is connected to the WIU, but the WIU is not communicating to the TIU?

 

 

we get that "no WIU/TIU found"  all the time too.  we just click ok and then it works for a while.

we do not even have our wiu hooked up to anything else but the tiu.

just not sure these wiu's are all that robust.