Hey guys
I got this up and running last week with the help from Andrew, running latest openwrt on raspberry pi 4b with the waveshare 4g SIM7600G-H hat using the mbim protocol.
Im quite happy to do beta testing, debugging, just let me know.
There is barely any information (I couldn’t find any) on the actual difference between MBIM and MM (Modemmanager).
Is one more secure than the other?
Why would I chose one over the other, ..specifically for the raspberry pi, with a waveshare 4g sim hat. (I’m guessing this is not used much with openwrt, which is why I’m happy to do any testing if devs need a guinea pig.)
As suggested I’m currently using MBIM, and it cuts out randomly anywhere from 4 hours to 25 odd hours
Watchcat does a ping reboot and I’m back online.
If this was necessary let’s say once a day, I’d set it to a time when I’m asleep, but I’ve read people are getting months of uptime and I’d prefer that if it’s possible.
I’d even swap back to MM protocol as that never cut out on me (on the first 3 days of set up, which I then swapped to qmi, and finally MBIM)
Rather than swap back to MM, is there anything I can do to get a stable connection?
If I do want to swap back to MM for testing, do I need to change the settings of the modem (using picocom) from 9003 to something else?
As far as I know, wireless broadband should not be expected to maintain a sustained connection for long periods of time. You might be lucky, but you should not count on that.
I use MM to reconnect as fast as possible, when the connection is lost, then watchcat to restart the interface, when the traffic stops.
Do you think it’s a limitation within the SIM 4G hat itself? Or software?
In my street there is no cable, or fibre, or 5g. So I have to use a 4g sim with a modem/router supplied by my isp. It’s a Huawei, and I wanted to get rid of that and use openwrt. I then found the hat which can be used with a raspberry pi, and here I am.
When you say you use mm to reconnect, how is that?
When setting up an interface, you add the name and then Protocol. If you choose mm here, how does it act differently from the mbim protocol?
How does mm watch and reconnect? Mbim does the same thing I’m sure, if connection is lost it times out, error, just waiting for a “signal?” (The modem and SIM card might not be connecting to the nearest cell tower?) is there a way to check or monitor this?
When I use the SIM card in my modem / router supplied by my isp, I can have uptime for years. Only time it cuts out was if there is a power outage in my street, so I don’t believe it’s a mobile broadband issue?
Btw- after it last cut out I enabled “force link” on the SIM interface and disabled ipv6 everywhere. My isp doesn’t support it’s so that may be causing issues?
I have no idea what protocol, software or hardware my isp router uses, it’s all proprietary, and the modem/router (m/r) is near welded together, I’d need to saw through it to see inside
All I know, is I’ve had services run for months on end using the m/r provided by my isp, no downtime, and the only time I did have downtime was when our isp “Optus” was hacked and electricity outages in our street.
My ISP drops the connections every twelve hours, and there is nothing I can do about it. But each time, MM restarts the connection immediately, so I have never had any downtime longer than a few seconds.
I’d love to know what my isp provided modem/router is doing to keep connection stable and continuous? Maybe coz it’s supplied by them, they allow it operate without “checking/pinging” the SIM card, which after 12 hours for you (24hours for me) we lose connection and must restart?
Would running dmesg help in finding what happens at the moment of disconnecting? Or would I need to use wire shark or similar network monitoring program? Is it even possible to determine the cause of the disconnection?
I’d love to help openwrt if anything is possible. Like I said, I can offer 24/7 debugging, testing, I am NOT reliant on my internet so I can afford to have it go down multiple times a day for testing purposes.
If I am prepared to be on hold for more than an hour or more to speak to a technician, coz no one in store knows anything, they only know how to sell a phone.
