My Flex 6400 rebooted while on Listening to a net

James Skala

I was listening to a net and a window popped up saying the connection had been lost.  I looked at my radio and seen a quick red flashing light and a click then my radio rebooted on its own.
The voltage on the radio was 14.10 and temp was 78.8.

Since owning the Flex 6400 remotely I leave it on all the time and I have experienced this connection has been lost window before but always thought something had happened with the internet.  But this time in the shack I caught it, seen it, experienced it.  

Diagnostic Observations

I have a voltage logger in place and voltages were good before and after the reboot.
I have a temperature logger in place and the temps were good before and after the reboot.
I was listening when this occurred.
No network dropouts as I was local to the radio on the same switch.
I physically observed this behavior.
Nothing in the Windows logs to report.
I checked the Fan in the Flex which looks good.
Vents on the Flex look clean free of dust and dirt.

I'm running at 3.1.8

What would cause this? 

What is the next step in diagnosing this self reboot?

Steve Sterling

99% of the time your symptoms would indicate a lost data connection, not a Flex reboot. As in your router rebooted, or the DHCP address lease renewal time came and didn't happen, etc. I had it happen when for some unknown reason, the router decided to give the Flex radio a different DHCP address at lease renewal time, which happened when radio was in use and caused the SSDR client (software on your computer or Maestro or front panel) to lose connection (looking for the radio at 192.168.1.25 old address when the router changed the radio to 192.168.1.221.) I had to restart the SSDR client, which then picked up the new DHCP address from the broadcast "I'm at this address now" that the radio does on local area networks (your house, not internet).  Maybe 1% chance it is actually a hardware glitch.
My best guess anyway.
73 Steve WA7DUH

James Skala

My Flex has a Static Address, my flex PC has a static address on the same local switch.  I am in the same room and visually checked the switch, power, etc.  So with that information, we can rule out DHCP, network issues.  Even if it was DHCP, network-connected devices don't require a reboot for a DHCP renewal.

Bill -VA3WTB

In some way it still points to a connection problem even though you think it's not. Guess you will need to keep looking for it.

James Skala

Then why the reboot.  In a Client / Server environment, servers don't reboot on the loss of connection.  I hear yall, and these are all great theories, but I want to see the cause of the reboot.  

Bill -VA3WTB

Any slight connection issue will cause the radio to reboot. It must maintain a solid connection to the computer running SSDR.

James Skala

I tested the "Slight Connection Issue" theory.
I unplugged the radio ethernet with an open Smart SDR client open for 2 Seconds.  The Client Paused briefly but once plugged back in everything was just fine.  So the  "Slight Connection Issue" theory has been debunked.

K3SF

another thought

dont know if you use the remote on/off feature
but
if you do
then check what happen to that connection that might have cause a momentary off/on sequence.

Paul K3SF

James Skala

I did notice that was turned on.  After this I have Disabled and I am monitoring it locally in the shack for this to happen again.

Bill -VA3WTB

I will make a correction. After testing further here, if any connection is lost, the client will lock out, but the radio will not reboot.

Mike-VA3MW

I have converted this to a support ticket. 

James, if you have the data from the Voltage logger, they may want to see the raw data.