Not connecting to nRFCloud

[Yano]

Hi, we have an nRF9160DK (0.8.3) and it does not connect to the nrfcloud.

We have updated to the latest firmware 1.0.0

We only have nb-iot here so we  didn't use the iBasis sim, instead using a vodafone V-Sim (which is active). 

Are we missing a step here?

Thanks

[Martin Lesund]

Hi Ian,

That's strange.

Could you confirm that you wait at least ~5mins after turning ON the modem and then send the AT+CFUN? command?

The first time connecting to an nb-IoT network can take some time.

[Yano]

Hi Martin,

just to be clear we are able to connect to the internet (we get all green LEDS and and IP address) also we have in log "Connected to LTE network".

Does that not show the fault is with connecting to server not the internet?

Ian

[Yano]

Thanks Didrik,

Just to explain what we did, since we have rev 0.8.3 there doesn't seem to be a way to register.

First it asks you for the SIM details which I assume is only for iBasis and since we have a Vodafone SIM we clicked the "already have an active SIM link" (Vodafone SIM is active and working). Since we have an old DK we press that link too.

Also below is the CMD line output for the commands.

Ian

Ian

[Yano]

Hi Dirdik,

We're under pressure here, so to speed things up we purchased a new DK rev 0.8.5.

But....it will not update its firmware.

Any ideas please?

Ian

[MJD093]

Yano, quick question.

Now that you have Vodafone NB-IoT SIMs, did you ask Vodafone if you can use dynamic IP addresses on their network with those SIMs?

Our trial NB-IoT SIMs from Vodafone only support connection to whitelisted IP addresses (of which we are only allowed to supply two addresses) and therefore would not support AWSs dynamic range of IP addresses for the AWS IoT core. Which is what you need to connect to in order to get to nRF Cloud.

[Yano]

Thanks for that.

Wow I never though of that, so effectively Vodafone won't allow the traffic through!

I will contact them and ask but it seem very limited.

How did you get over this problem?

[MJD093]

I set up an EC2 instance on AWS and set it to a static IP address. From there, I can send data to the EC2 instance which has a UDP Server set-up on it and it can forward data to elsewhere.

[Yano]

Cool sounds like a good solution, but first I'll ask Vodafone if they can add an IP range to our test, do you know the AWS IP address range? It does say in the form "provided that the IP ranges belong to the customer" but I'll try first.

[MJD093]

You would have to look that up on the AWS website. I can imagine they wouldn't be too thrilled at whitelisting that volume of IP addresses but worth a try. Also looking at our contract, I see the line you indicated. I doubt they would let you do this as you don't own those IP ranges.

[Yano]

I agree they don't seem flexible. I'm not familiar with EC2 instance how did you set up the IP forwarding? Where in the project did you change to a static IP address and did you get Vodafone to update to that static? Sorry some many questions. 

[MJD093]

You would need to create an EC2 Instance and then edit the options to request an elastic IP for that instance. Information on how to set-up EC2 Instances and elastic IPs should be in the AWS documentation. Note this all does require a paid AWS account, EC2 Instances all have different costs attached, this wasn't an issue for us as we use EC2 on applications.

You then need to create a UDP server, or whatever protocol server you plan to use and install it into the EC2 Instance's Linux machine.

Yes, you will need to get an Elastic IP and then request with Vodafone to change to that one. It will take like a week for them to make that change. Please note that the elastic IP is defined by AWS and not you so get the IP from AWS first.