Vodafone SIM in Spain not working [solved, wrong DNS sever]

[claus]

Hi all,
I am sorry to bother again, but I am stuck with LTE. I am trying to get going with the Vodafone SIM in my FiPy in Spain. I first activated the SIM in pybytes and then used the provisioning process hoping Pybytes would just start the connection. The process hangs during "attach". I then used the script as found at https://docs.pycom.io/tutorials/networks/lte/ which gives more details about the state and looking at the output of print(lte.send_at_cmd('AT!="fsm"')) I find that RRC_TOP_FSM goes from
CAMPED ->SCANNING(WAIT_RSSI)->SCANNING(WAIT_CELL_ID)->SYNCING(WAIT_SYNC)->SYNCING(WAIT_SCAN_DELAY)->SYNCING(WAIT_SYNC)->CAMPED
This happens again and again. The tutorial says "If the system returns multiple times from SYNCING to CAMPED, check the network availability, simcard placement and / or the firmware version". I checked simcard placement and firmware version is the latest (1.20.2.r1). So no network availability? The FAQ about the Vodafone SIM says "ok" for Spain.

Any help greatly appreciated!

[claus]

OK, so I got a few steps further. The FiPy comes with a CAT-M1 LTE firmware and the Vodafone card needs the NB-IoT firmware (see https://docs.pycom.io/updatefirmware/ltemodem/). It would have been nice to include this in the docs for the Vodafone cards (https://docs.pycom.io/cellularservices/vodafone/) it has taken me quite some time to it find out. I now have provisioned pybytes with the new network settings, and LTE connects, but I don't seem to get a pybytes connection:

Attempting to connect with network lte
Initialized watchdog for WiFi and LTE connection with timeout 1260000 ms
LTE init(carrier=None, cid=1)
LTE attach(band=20, apn=pycom.io, type=IP)
LTE connect()
LTE is_connected()
LTE connection established
connect_lte with start_mqtt is now removed please call communication_protocol or start_mqtt directly
MQTT Protocol
Socket create error: [Errno 202] EAI_FAIL
This is PybytesProtocol.start_MQTT
Socket send error [Errno 128] ENOTCONN
Socket create error: [Errno 202] EAI_FAIL
Socket create error: [Errno 202] EAI_FAIL
Socket create error: [Errno 202] EAI_FAIL
Connected to MQTT mqtt.pybytes.pycom.io
Pybytes connected successfully (using the built-in pybytes library)
This is pack_info_message()
__pack_message: b'310504a00581000000'
MQTT Protocol
Socket create error: [Errno 202] EAI_FAIL
Socket create error: [Errno 202] EAI_FAIL
Socket create error: [Errno 202] EAI_FAIL
...

The last message repeats and repeats. My LTE config is

'lte': {'apn': 'pycom.io', 'cid': 1, 'reset': False, 'carrier': 'standard', 'band': 20, 'type': 'IP'}

Not sure where to go now....

[Gijs]

Are you able to make a manual LTE connection using the LTE module like so:

from network import LTE
import time
import socket

lte = LTE()
lte.init()
#some carriers have special requirements, check print(lte.send_at_cmd("AT+SQNCTM=?")) to see if your carrier is listed.
#when using verizon, use 
#lte.init(carrier=verizon)
#when usint AT&T use, 
#lte.init(carrier=at&t)

#some carriers do not require an APN
#also, check the band settings with your carrier
lte.attach(band=20, apn="pycom.io") 
print("attaching..",end='')
while not lte.isattached()
    time.delay(0.25)

    print('.',end='')
    print(lte.send_at_cmd('AT!="fsm"'))         # get the System FSM
print("attached!")

lte.connect()
print("connecting [##",end='')
while not lte.isconnected():
    time.sleep(0.25)
    print('#',end='')
    #print(lte.send_at_cmd('AT!="showphy"'))
    print(lte.send_at_cmd('AT!="fsm"'))
print("] connected!")

print(socket.getaddrinfo('pycom.io', 80))  
lte.deinit()
#now we can safely machine.deepsleep()

Let me know!
(btw, I think this topic could be related to the issue you are having: https://forum.pycom.io/topic/6350/error-while-connecting-pybytes-with-lte), we solved it in the end by using:

>>> lte.connect()
>>> import socket
>>> socket.getaddrinfo('www.pycom.io', 80)
[(2, 1, 0, '', ('18.195.176.111', 80))]
>>> socket.dnsserver()
('172.31.16.100', '172.31.32.100')
>>> 

Before enabling pybytes

from _pybytes import Pybytes
...

[claus]

GREAT!! Thanks a lot, it is working!

[Guillermo del Campo]

@Gijs Hello Gijs! I'm having a similar issue and I don't know what else to try.

I have a Vodafone SIM bought from pycom, but I am not able at all to connect to Pybytes using LTE. If I do it via WiFi, everything works as expected.

This is mi pybytes_config.json file:

{"wifi": {"ssid": "", "password": ""}, "wlan_antenna": 0, "dump_ca": false, "server": "mqtt.pybytes.pycom.io", "ssl": false, "lte": {"apn": "pycom.io", "cid": 1, "reset": false, "carrier": "standard", "band": 20, "type": "IP"}, "device_id": "xxxx", "network_preferences": ["lte"], "ota_server": {"port": 443, "domain": "software.pycom.io"}, "pybytes_autostart": false, "username": "xxxx"}

When I try to connect, it certainly says:

>>> pybytes.connect()
Initialized watchdog for WiFi and LTE connection with timeout 1260000 ms
LTE connection established
connect_lte with start_mqtt is now removed please call communication_protocol or start_mqtt directly
Connected to MQTT mqtt.pybytes.pycom.io
Pybytes connected successfully (using the built-in pybytes library)

But when I try:

>>> pybytes.send_ping_message()

it stalls forever... same if I try to send a signal. Moreover, if I try:

>>> socket.getaddrinfo('www.pycom.io', 80)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
OSError: [Errno 202] EAI_FAIL

Please, can you, or anyone else, provide any help? I'm going crazy...

[Gijs]

Did you try the suggestion above? Let me know what the result is of socket.dnsserver() . As mentioned above, the EAI_FAIL error is related to an issue with the DNS server

[Guillermo del Campo]

@Gijs Yes... I tried with no success. This is the output:

>>> socket.dnsserver()
('0.0.0.0', '0.0.0.0')

[Gijs]

Please try setting the dns servers manually before starting pybytes, as mentioned in the other ticket. This is an issue with Vodafone where the DNS servers do not get set correctly. We talk about it in the other thread: https://forum.pycom.io/topic/6350/error-while-connecting-pybytes-with-lte
Like this:

from network import LTE
import socket
lte = LTE()
lte.attach()
...
lte.connect()
...
socket.dnsserver(0, '172.31.32.100')
socket.dnsserver(1, '172.31.32.100')
# check if get addr info works
print(socket.getaddrinfo('www.pycom.io', 80))
#make sure to have pybytes loaded, but not autoconnect at boot, if pybytes is not loaded, use this: https://docs.pycom.io/pybytes/api/
pybytes.start()

Sorry I did not get around to testing the script completely, but you should be able to make it work using a procedure like this
Best,
Gijs

[Guillermo del Campo]

@Gijs I also tried that, as I saw it on other post but it does not work... Here is the output:

Not starting Pybytes as auto-start is disabled
Pycom MicroPython 1.20.2.r4 [v1.11-ffb0e1c] on 2021-01-12; FiPy with ESP32
Pybytes Version: 1.6.1
Type "help()" for more information.
>>> from network import LTE
>>> import socket
>>> lte=LTE()
>>> lte.attach(band=20, apn="pycom.io")
>>> lte.isattached()
True
>>> lte.connect()
>>> lte.isconnected()
True
>>> socket.dnsserver(0, '172.31.16.100')
>>> socket.dnsserver(1, '172.31.32.100')
>>> socket.dnsserver()
('172.31.16.100', '172.31.32.100')
>>> print(socket.getaddrinfo('www.pycom.io', 80))
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
OSError: [Errno 202] EAI_FAIL

[Gijs]

Sorry, my mistake. The vodafone simcards do not resolve pycom.io, but should be able to resolve pybytes.pycom.io!
Let me know if that works for you

[Guillermo del Campo]

@Gijs Oh yes!! Thank you so much :) Now it works and I can send messages!

[Gijs]

Im looking to add this to the documentation, as it seems an intermittent issue, could you recommend the place where you first looked for this?

Let me know

[Guillermo del Campo]

@Gijs I think it should be here: https://pycom.io/webshop-2/services/cellular-services/faq-for-vodafone-pycoms-nb-iot-services/ or maybe somewhere around here: https://docs.pycom.io/tutorials/networks/lte/
I believe it's also important to highlight that the modem firmware may need to be updated and modified to the NB-IoT version, since I took some to realise that as well... my FiPys come with the LTE-M version installed.