New KR1 Firmware RK1006 FAILURE

barbosa · EVDO Newbie Joined: 22 Jun 2006 Posts: 2

I have the KR1 router with a Kyocera KPC 650 card. My service is thorugh Verizon and the laptop I am using is a Dell E1705. I have been using the same stuff that I just mentioned for almost three months without any down time due to problems with the equipment or service. Unfortunately, after the recent firmware upgrade that I completed, my connection has been flaky at best and data has moved significantly slower in both directions. Before the upgrade, I was accustomed to leaving my router on and connected to the Internet for days at a time without monitoring it. I saw speeds that started at about 400KB/ps and went up beyond 1000KB/ps (download). Uploads weren't as fast as downloads, but they have slowed down in comparison too since the upgrade! Since last night (when I did the upgrade) I have lost my connection for unknown reasons a total of four times and my average speed has decreased by approximately 25 to 50%. Since I use my computer for work and school, it is very important to me. What should I do? Should I roll back the firmware and hope for the best or should I try something new?

[Note: edited subject line for clarity -Admin]

Scott · Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 5:56 pm Post subject:

Forum Members: Please post your KR1 RK1006 firmware issues to this thread. Thanks, -Admin.

If you were unsuccessful, please note the following details:

Note our SUCCESS thread here: http://www.evdoforums.com/about2915.html

What to do if you see constant reboots, connection drops, or Wi-Fi drop-outs:

These other threads may be helpful:

http://www.evdoforums.com/about1994.html

http://www.evdoforums.com/about2168.html

http://www.evdoforums.com/about2866.html

http://www.evdoforums.com/about2892.html

Verizon dialing info:

0123456789@vzw3g.com

vzw

verizon

#777

Connect

Status>Device Info

http://192.168.0.1/st_device.html

To disable Wi-Fi on the KR1:

Go to the Basic>Wireless page of your KR1's configuration menu, click the 'Disabled' radio button, and then click 'Apply' on the lower right corner of the page.
What may be going on for those dealing with this sort of thing:

Our tech Victor has a Verizon Kyocera KPC650 EVDO card and a newly updated KR1 that was spontaneously rebooting. There is a forum member who also had this happen with a PC5740 card from Verizon: http://www.evdoforums.com/about2892.html

Early on, before the update, Victor was getting some connection drops I think, but mostly the Wi-Fi on his KR1 would drop out. I think he was using the KR1 for the first time on a car trip when he initially experienced Wi-Fi drop-outs. Having some experience with Wi-Fi setups, he manually set his Wi-Fi channel to channel 11. It seemed to help.

Post update of the KR1 to RK1006 it started rebooting over and over, and dropping Wi-Fi too.

After some reloads and reconfigurations it emerged that manually setting Wi-Fi to channel 11 (or channel 1) didn't help. Entering the full WAN(EVDO) settings had no bearing either (though for a minute there this seemed to help).

Once Wi-Fi was turned off, stability returned.

Why?... is the card leaking?

So was Victor's KPC650 card leaking or is it something new? Same for the other forum member, Fresca.

We know that some EVDO cards are known to leak causing reboots and Wi-Fi drops. Mainly the PC5220. But the AC580 appears to be runner up. We've even seen evidence that the KPC650 can do this too (or least it seems that way... Wi-Fi drops, errors in the log, turn off Wi-Fi and log errors stop, multiple KR1 replacements, problem not fixed). This hasn't happened that often.

Now that many of you will be using PC5740's for the first time, there may be some new conflicts revealed. We shall see.

We also have seen defective KR1's where the Wi-Fi would drop with any card used. Not sure why. (Wi-Fi radio board defect or leaking?). I have yet to take one of these and swap out the radio card or futz with internal connections to see if the problem goes away. I need a thirty-hour day! Wink

What we see is logs full of Wi-Fi errors and Wi-Fi connectivity disappearing (no access to Internet or the KR1's config menu). Spontaneous reboots aren't that common, but we have seen them.

We always like to check the ISM-band wireless environment when possible. You'd be surprised what you find when you look: 5.8GHz phones that actually use 2.4GHz, same with quasi 900MHz/2.4GHz phones, 2.4GHz wireless headsets conflicting, neighboring apartments with a new MIMO Wi-Fi access point knocking out other local Wi-Fi access points, even nearby WISPs creating conflict, etc. There's a lot of 2.4GHz out there.

In cases when KR1 replacement didn't fix Wi-Fi drops, and where we're fairly certain ISM-band conflict isn't causing issues either, we tend to suspect that the EVDO card is leaking. While it is possible to have two or three defective routers in a row I suppose, that doesn't happen all that often.

rskohn1971 · EVDO Newbie Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 10

First I want to again thank you for your help with getting my router working with RK1006. But I decided to switch back to RK1002.

Here are my issues:
I could not access the router wirelessly. Even with accessing the router through direct connection I had to manually input an IP address into my network connection. When I was directly connected I would lose my connection to the router sometimes.

The signal meter was doing nothing. It stayed at three bars and would never change even when I would lose my Verizon connection (solid light on KPC650 card).

I too seem to think the internet connection was slower. While I can't prove this since my verizon connection tends to be unstable and drops in speed quite often, it is just my opinion.

These may not be important for people with solid connections and directly connected to the router, but for me I have to occasionally reconnect and need to do so wirelessly.

Good luck everyone with RK1006, for now I am going to stick with RK1002 until I am convinced otherwise.

rskohn1971 · EVDO Newbie Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 10

Well I used to never have a problem accessing the router wirelessly. After changing back to RK1002 from RK1006 I seem to have retained the problem with 1006 in not being able to access the router wirelessly. Am I crazy?

Fresca · Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 11:50 pm Post subject:

Thanks again Scott for taking the time to document all this, it is greatly appreciated, believe me.

I’m not sure if I’m having the same problem as Victor – I’m not seeing any loss of WiFi, right up until the KR1 spontaneously reboots itself. If I manage to get a warranty replacement KR1 from Kyocera, I will let you know if that fixes my problem.

tz1 · Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 7:52 am Post subject:

I noticed something interesting with my modified firmware. With WiFi enabled, gpsd dies (either at startup if the GPS is plugged in, or sometime after plugging it in after it starts up). I haven't really probed it yet. And WiFi is still unstable though it seems better. But as the processes are supposed to be completely separate, it shouldn't matter.

I suspect an interrupt conflict (a misconfiguration with the Linux kernel).

My suspicion is when an errant RF event happens, an extra or wrong interrupt is generated killing the manager process or thread. GPSD requires the serial port which is probably in the same PCI-style IRQ controller.

tz1 · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 2:26 pm Post subject:

When you get bad results, please try it with the WiFi off and see if the problem disappears.

Scott · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:07 pm Post subject:

Scott · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:09 pm Post subject:

We have a recent updater who provided this bit of detail via e-mail (try it and see if it works for you):

visortgw · EVDO User Joined: 28 Oct 2005 Posts: 67

I am one of many victims of a failed RK1006 firmware upgrade -- all attempts to "unbrick" have failed. BTW, I successfully flashed to RK1002 when it was released without any issue. I talked to Kyocera/D-Link tech support (in some third world country), advanced tech support (in the USA), Kyocera customer/tech support NOT (in Ontario Canada), Kyocera customer service (in California), and Kyocera tech support/warranty support (in the USA). Apparently, D-Link has been flooded with calls over the past couple of days -- they had no such issues with the RK1002 upgrade. In fact, D-Link insists that they had zero failures during their testing; they just cannot understand what is going on. Finally (with a great deal of persistance on my part), I have a warranty replacement unit -- pre-flashed to the RK1006 -- firmware on its way.

Now I can see what buying from Booster-Antenna.com would have provided -- it is unfortunate that they were not yet selling the KR1s when I purchased mine (delivered on 1 February 2006).

NOTE: I used Windows XP Pro SP2 with IE 6 for the initial flash which I downloaded as a zipped archive from D-Link. Attempts to use Firefox v1.5.0.4 also failed during recovery also failed -- I received the "Wrong Image File is Selected!" error no matter what I tried with either browser.

EvDO card: Kyocera KPC650

Jimmy · EVDO Newbie Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 4

Not a bigee, but my KR1 signal level gauge doesn't seem to move when I hook up to my omni external antenna on top of the RV. When I compare in vzaccess manager I see a decent improvement. On the KR1 status page it reads 7 squares either way. Shouldn't it move, even a little?

Scott · Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 9:44 am Post subject:

It may not move at all. Check out this thread: http://www.evdoforums.com/about2878.html

Indio192 · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 22

OK, I have tried RK1006 again. tz1 suggested trying a wired connection when getting bad WiFi performance.

Here are the configurations. All are with a PC5220 and a Wilson Trucker antenna (I'm not using the * amp because I have a reasonable signal and am too lazy to drag out the wires).

Case I: RK1002, wireless enabled

Usng WiFi:response is fine for 1xRTT.
Using wired: response may be a little faster than WiFi, but not particularly noticeable.

Case II: RK1002 wireless disabled

Using wired: no noticeable change from Case I

Case III: RK1006 wireless disabled

Using wired: no noticeable change from wired Cases I and II

Case IV: RK1006 wireless enabled

Using WiFi: slow, halting response as reported in previous post above
Using wired: same as Case III - good response

These results are more qualitative than quantitative. If someone has an idea of how to do a quantitative evaluation, please suggest it.

In the meantime I'll return to RK1002. I can live without the signal strenght meter. (Also, RK1006 shows the correct primary and secondary DNS address whereas RK1002 does not).

Jim
Today in Elma, Wa

Michael · Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 7:35 am Post subject:

The PC5220 and KR1 are known to have problems, please see this thread:

Kyocera KR1 & PC5220 - ISSUE
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Indio192 · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 22

Sorry, Michael, I forgot to put on a disclaimer that I am aware of the problems with the PC5220 and the KR-1. Embarassed

What I am trying to determine through this thread is:

"Is there an improvement or (lack thereof) in PC5220/KR1 performance with the new RK1006 firmware?"

I purchased the KR-1 based on the initial advertisement that the KR-1 worked fine with the PC5220. During that early time period none of us fully understood the significance of the PC5220 not being listed as a supported card. Now that we have more experience with the pairing, we know that there are issues.

Hopefully, by posting our experiences we 5520/KR1 owners can make informed decisions about upgrading to the new firmware (surely there are other 5220/KR1 users out there besides me). Maybe some smart people like tz1 can even figure out a fix when (if?) Kyocera meets their obligation under the GPL license to release the KR-1 source code. Or maybe somebody can figure out a mechanical solution such as better rf shielding (mackieman's posting points to 5220 radiation leakage as being an (the?) issue with the 5220).

I hope other 5220/KR1 users will post their experiences with RK1006. Perhaps my problem with RK1006 is some location related performance issue and has nothing to do with RK1006.

I like the KR-1 and it works just fine for my use with the RK1002 firmware. I was looking forward to the signal strength meter in RK1006, but I am willing to do without if I have to sacrifice performance to get it.

Perhaps I should be posting my comments to the 5220/KR1 "issues" thread you (Michael) listed in your reply. If so, just move my post and I will make future posts to that thread. Confused

Jim
Fully aware that PC5220 and KR-1 have issues, but hoping new firmware will fix it - someday.