I have been struggling with sure signal problem for 3 to 4 weeks and may have found the solution.
Symptom
After 4 years of great service the sure signal suddenly stopped working on around 01/10/2014.
LED 1 (power led) on all the time
LED 2 (network) flashing.
other LEDs off
No service.
After going through all of the steps with a very helpful VF customer care:
- trace rt
- ping test
- broadband speed OK
- New ethernet cable
- soft reset
- hard reset
- VF invoked re-sync
- deregister
- register
- move to new location
still no joy.
But then I tried this.
Disconnected the sure signal power supply and powered the device from a lab Power supply.
While the device started up I measured the current.
- At power on 400mA then drops to 300mA
- As the device starts to talk to the VF network over the ethernet 300mA
- As the 3G radio comes up 800mA
And it all came up OK
Next step was to cut the cable from the sure signal original power supply and measured the voltage during power up sequece.
- At power on 12V
- As the device starts to talk to the VF network over the ethernet 12v
- As the 3G radio comes up voltage drops momentarily to 8 volts
the device restarts no connection.
So in tother words the problem is that the original power supply is not man enough to drive the sure signal at the moment that the 3G radio part comes on line.
So why has this suddenly happened and why are so many people affected all of a sudden.
Well it is true that power supplies do not last forever and mine is 4 years old.
But my theory is this:
Perhaps the original power supplies were always a bit borderline and perhaps they have all degraded a bit (you know capacitors drying out and componets getting a bit hot)
Perhaps Vodafone around the 01/10/2014 did some sort of firmware upgrade that has boosted the 3G signla but at the same time caused the sure signals to consume a bit more power. Thus might have been enough to push them over the limit (or a least a sample of them).
so my suggestion is this.
Nip down to maplin and buy a 12 v 2.0A power supply with the right connectior and give it a go. I think that it will solce the specific problem.
Let me know how you get on.
Peter
