Im still having a problem with the sync pulse source saying "searching" while I'm receiving a sync from both the power port and the on-board gps. Also, for another AP, it says searching while receiving a sync from the power port but not a sync from the on-board gps.
Am I getting this issue because of the surge protection I am using. Currently, I have the AP's staged at the top of the tower. The CAT5 cables then come from the top of the tower and terminate into the transtector 1101-805 surge protection. From the surge protector, the cat5 then goes to the cmm4.
So the only thing in between the AP and CMM4 is this surge protection. Could this be a problem? Is there a recommended CAT5 surge protection to be used with the PMP 450's?
Expanding on what Logonix suggested, if you telnet into the unit you have three potentially relevant commands available - syncpowerport, synctimingport, and synconboard - each with either 'on' or 'off' as the parameter. "syncpowerport on" might be your answer. (of course if it disabled this when you selected 'remote AP' and failed to re-select it when reverted to 'standard AP' then it's still a bug that C will have to address)
I have been describing this issue to Cambium since about last November. I have a site with two 3.6GHz 450 sectors. They both do the same thing as yours from time to time.
There is no timing port sync, not even a cable in the timing port of the radios.
The on-board GPS is disabled via 'synconboard off' command. The iGPS really struggles at this site because of all the tower steel. We initially thought the on-board GPS losing and gaining lock constantly was causing the issue which is why they're disabled now.
Timing is coming from a PacketFlux SyncInjector.
Power is coming from a Phoenix Contact regulated industrial power supply.
There are NO! surge suppressors on either run. One cable is about 285 feet and the other is probably 305 or so. I left out surge suppressors on purpose to see if any power port timing issues would show up due to the cable length.
BOTH APs say they lose sync on the power port at the same time, yet the SyncInjector status says everything is perfectly fine, no loss in sync, no drop in the number of tracked satellites either. Then after 10 seconds or so, they both report receiving sync from the power port, but they're still searching. Reboot both and they immediately come up like nothing was wrong.
I have APs on other sites that exhibit similar issues with timing port sync. No power port sync on those. And more sites with either timing port sync, power port sync or both, and never have a problem. Cable lengths are anywhere from 90 feet to 315 feet.
This is just so weird and random that I have no clue what to even look to troubleshoot. And for whatever reason, this seems to happen much more on the 3GHz radios.
Have you tried on latest 13.4 Build ?, We have fixed the issue where Power Port says Receiving Sync but Sync status says searching. Please try and let us know.
Please let me know if you guys at Cambium figure anything out either by this forum, email, or phone. It is very important that this issue gets fixed soon because we are starting to deploy this unit throughout all of Michigan.
Sorry I just got back to your response of a cable being run from the timing port. There have been known issues of the unterminated cable acting as an antenna and causing sync interferrence. To check you can disconnect the cable at the AP and the issue could clear up. I was looking for some documentation on the fix. At this time I recalled an entry from member DLC on another similar forum issue. Here is the response which should help:
Do you have a cable in the timing port of the radio running down to the bottom of the tower? If YES. You are are picking up noise on pins 5 and 6 of the timing cable. I ran into this on multiple towers. It took a escalation at Motorola to a senior tech who remembered seeing this one time.
The fix is to solder a 10K-Ohm, 1/4 watt Resister between pin 5 and 6. This will put the noise to the ground and allow GPS Sync. You can get the Resister at your local Radio Shack.
What I did was go ahead and terminate the timing cable with a RJ11 end. Get a Female RJ11 connector to plug into the end of the cable and solder ping 5 and 6 together with the Resister making the connection. This will allow you to also make a reset plug that can connect onto the cable in the event you need to reset the radio.
You are God-sent, brother! I think your suggestion might actually work! And I do think I am getting issues from the noise on the timing port! I am going to check it out soon and let you know. Thanks for a great response.
The fix is to solder a 10K-Ohm, 1/4 watt Resister between pin 5 and 6. This will put the noise to the ground and allow GPS Sync. You can get the Resister at your local Radio Shack.
I have only 1 site presenting this issue, and I've tried to run the command 'synconboard off' in a telnet session, but I get an unrecognized command error. Am I missing a step?
synconboard, synctimingport and syncpowerport are available in 13.2.1 or later. There was a way to get those prior to 13.2.1, but it wasn't permanent so it didn't survive reboots.