The Ethernet Disconnect and No Uplink alerts call your attention to a copilot or camera that has lost its connection to the attendant.
Symptoms
Your first step is to confirm that there is at least one symptom in the dashboard, plus at least one symptom with either the copilot or the camera.
Sometimes there will be only be an alert in the dashboard, but there will be no symptoms with the copilot or camera. These cases are false positives and can be ignored.
In the dashboard
You will see the Ethernet disconnect alert and/or the no uplink alert. Clicking on the alert, you will see the hostname of the affected device. A hostname beginning with "atp" is a copilot; a hostname beginning with "atz" is a camera.
In the case of an Ethernet disconnect alert, it will specify whether it refers to an extra or a missing device:
- Extra device. Usually this means that a device was physically installed on the bus but it has not yet been allocated. This is easy to fix: after confirming that the device is on the bus, allocate it.
- Missing device. This might mean that a device was physically removed from the bus but it has not yet been deallocated. This is also easy to fix: after confirming that the device is not on the bus, deallocate it.
However, sometimes the device is there but the connection between it and the attendant has failed. The rest of this document deals with that situation.
With the copilot
Any of the following:
- Black screen displayed for more than five minutes
- “Waiting for Network” displayed for more than five minutes
- “Downloading Routes and Students” displayed for more than five minutes
- Anything other than a solid green and a solid orange light illuminated where the copilot's cable plugs into the attendant
With the camera
Any of the following:
- The camera is not available for selection in Recent Review, Offload Video and/or Live Video
- Anything other than a solid green and a solid orange light illuminated where the copilot's cable plugs into the attendant
How to fix it
First steps
Be in the bus lot in a location with good Wi-Fi. Confirm that the bus is online.
Confirm that the device in question is there. If the device in question is a copilot, confirm that its screen is on.
Confirm that each port on the attendant that has a cable plugged in has a solid green and a solid orange light illuminated. If you do not see both lights, do the following steps. After each step, stop to see if both lights have come on.
Unplug the cable on both ends (the attendant end and also the device end). If the device is a copilot, confirm that the screen goes out when you do this.
Inspect the cable, plugs, and the sockets where it had been plugged in for signs of obvious damage or wear.
Plug the cable back in on both ends, confirming that it plugs in with a firm snap. On the attendant end, plug it in to a different unused port. If the device is a copilot, plug it in to one of the four rightmost ports, different from the port it had been in.
Unplug both ends of the cable, and use a known good spare cable to connect the attendant and the device. If this works, then the original cable is bad (see below).
Unplug the cable on the device end, and plug it into a known good spare device. If this works, then the original device is bad (see below).
Once the green and orange lights on the ports turn on, confirm that the following symptoms have cleared:
- If a copilot, confirm that the screen comes on. If previously you saw messages such as "waiting for network" or "downloading routes and students", those messages either no longer appear or clear themselves within five minutes.
- If a camera, confirm that you can view it where previously you could not.
If the cable or device is bad
If you determined that the original cable is bad, it needs to be replaced. You may replace it yourself. You may obtain a cable locally, or write us at
support@transportant.com.
If you determined that the device is bad,
deallocate the old device and
allocate the new one. Then report the hostname and symptoms of the old device to
support@transportant.com so that we can provide you with a shipping label for its return. If the device is in warranty, we will promptly send you a replacement at no cost.
If you are unable to fix it
If the symptoms persist, write us at
support@transportant.com for assistance. Mention the hostname of the device in question, its symptoms, and what you have tried.
False positives
A false positive is when our system erroneously signals an Ethernet disconnect and/or no uplink alert although there is no underlying problem that needs to be fixed. A false positive can be identified by there being no symptom with the copilot or camera. We don't like false positives any more than you, and we are working to reduce them.
In the meantime, one feature sometimes associated with false positives is the
battery wakeup voltage check. Most buses with a daily wakeup time set do not suffer false positives, but for reasons still under investigation, a few buses do. If you have a bus with repeated false positives, contact the support team at
support@transportant.com to explain the problem and ask if that bus has a wakeup timer set. If it does, consider asking the support team to disable it.
Ports and lights
On the attendant's ports, a green light indicates that the attendant is providing power to the port and to any copilot or camera plugged in to it. The orange light indicates that there is communication between the attendant and the copilot or camera. When the attendant is on, you should see that every port has a green light, and additionally you should see an orange light on every port with an attendant or copilot plugged in to it.
On v3 attendants, there is a port labeled Aux. For the purposes of this article, this port and the cable that plugs in to it should be left alone. v4 attendants do not have this port.
When the alert will clear
Once the underlying problem has been fixed, the Ethernet Disconnect and No Uplink alerts will not immediately disappear from the dashboard, but they will clear themselves after a couple of days. This is expected.