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Turns out that minicom is not hanging. I am able to CTRL+A Z into the menu. But when I type "4b" to change frequency like the instructions say, nothing appears to happen. 

Hi, Having a similar problem. I have two Raspberry Pi  and following upgrade to "2012-12-16-wheezy-raspbian.img" over holidays both stopped working and minicom hangs (see attached image) not sure it is related as I have been making other changes also. You could try suggestions at http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/node/1311 - didn't resolve my issue.

Cheers

Peter

I got some very valuable information from Martin today about this!!

Regarding minicom, I suspect you have the PHP cron job that emoncms starts running in the background. you can't use both emoncms's cron and minicom at the same time, or you see gibberish; to stop the cron edit the crontab line and comment out the line that runs every minute and reboot.

Glyn and I have that same issue before, it was easily resolved by stopping the cron - the serial port can't be accessed both by emoncms and minicom at the same time.

I've added this to the wiki :-)!

 Thanks that worked on both RPi's for me:

Access cron using 

sudo nano /etc/crontab

then remove cron job by adding # to start of line below and reboot.

#*/1 * * * * root cd /var/www/emoncms/Modules/raspberrypi && php raspberrypi_ru$

Now you can use minicom and remember to reverse changes by removing # above and reboot.

cheers

peter

When I reboot RPi, it now stops updating remote URL. The Dashboard Raspberry Pi shows Cron job is running (green).

To rectify I  login to dashboard Raspberry Pi and change remote url and save, then revert changes so url is correct and save again.  Now posting to remote url.

I assume this is not normal behavior.

Cheers

Peter

Well done solving this. It seem that when an RFM12Pi system is ran for the first time (even using the pre-built SD card) cron needs to be killed then restarted. I have added instructions on how to do this to the 'ready-to-go SD card' part of the wiki, see step 12: http://wiki.openenergymonitor.org/index.php?title=Raspberry_Pi#Using_read-to-go_SD_card_image.

This is not ideal, the pre-built SD card needs to be as plug-n-play as possible for new users. Any ideas what could be causing this and how we could solve it? 

Hi Glyn,

Thanks for reply. I hope the following doesn't add to confusion but here goes. I used 2012-12-16-wheezy-raspbian.img and followed your very clear instruction.

Basically it works fine with ethernet plugged into my broadband router. I have power cycled several times with no issues e.g. it comes straight back and will post to remote URL within a few seconds. However I did # out cron job to look at rfm12b using minicom which may have helped (similar to step 12 above??).

The problem I'm experiencing seems only related to 3G dongle (both K3765 & K3520). Sequence - Unplug ethernet from broadband router and connect 3G dongle then power cycle RPi. Outcome - it comes back but doesn't post to remote URL (Note that www is available and I can google ok at this stage). Note Cron is running and green at the stage. Next I implement sequence mentioned in above post "To rectify "I  login to dashboard Raspberry Pi and change remote url and save, then revert changes so url is correct and save again". Outcome it immediately starts updating remote URL.

FYI I am using Zoo133 implementation of sakis3g which can be found at  http://zool33.uni-graz.at/petz/umtskeeper/. I've being trying to get 3G working for a while with mixed results, the NanodeRF with TP-Link W703n ( only 16€) flashed with openwrt looked very promising but when RPi became available I was smitten. I'm at early stage with RPI 3G but will share experience as testing progresses, the 3G connection has been stable for a few days now on two RPi's except when I have deliberately power cycle then I lose remote URL update. 

Cheers

Peter

P.S. Is there some way I could check cron activity or log events in both scenarios to narrow issue somewhat?  I noted cron jobs running after boot with 3G dongle (remote URL not updating) and then after sequence above to get it updating - the Cron jobs running are same before and after. I will test more scenarios over coming days and if I find anything interesting will post same. A bit ahead of myself as I'm not a programmer but found this link for starting stopping Cron. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6548746/how-to-start-stop-a-cronjob-u...

Hi. Fresh install using read-to-go SD card image and followed your instructions for same (except 12). Note I first tried sequence I used to get posting to remote URL above but it had no effect. Rebooted and followed instruction 12 and raspberry pi cron starts running and posting to remote URL as one would expect. 

From above it would seem like while issues are similar they're not the same, I will add 3G parts tonight to compare what happens, when I follow step 12. It will be interesting to see it this fixs my 3G issue.

Cheers

Peter

P.S Hadn't used ready to go SD before, worked great thanks ( ethernet to home router).  The ready to go SD is excellent and will save hours.

3G dongle working but won't post to to remote URL after reboot. The 3G connection comes up and I can browse internet, raspberry pi cron shows still running. Tried a number of fixs including restart of cron - raspberrypi_run.php. "To rectify the process used "I  have to login to dashboard Raspberry Pi and change remote url to false URL and save, then revert changes so url is correct and save again". 

This process obviously resets something for remote URL and API somewhere, or restores some missing data but I don't know what. Anyone shed some light on what above process may do or what may be restored or reset during process it may help with fix e.g.  cron job rather then manual process. 

Cheers

Peter

P.S. started new thread http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/node/1903

Still stuck! Cron has been commented out, as per the new instructions. 

First attached image is what I see when I load minicom. 

Second attached image is what I see when I unplug and replug my RFM12Pi.

Is this normal behavior? My Tx shield is up and running (blinking), but I see no data on minicom screen. Typing "4b" for 433MHz also seems to have no effect.

You need to reboot for comment out to take effect.

I thought RFM12B was 868Mhz which would need  8b

Using ready-to-go SD also I have commented out cron as discussed and then reboot RPi

I now get see attached see instructions below.

minicom -b 9600 -o -D /dev/ttyAMA0

then t

Don't forget to uncomment crontab when your finished and reboot.

Good Luck

Cheers

peter

Yes, I have rebooted after commenting out the cron line.

Still nothing in my minicom window.  I do not see your list of Available Commands on my screen.

Why have you typed "t"? I have tried this and nothing happens. 

Looking at the screenshot you sent before, it appears that the ATTiny isn't talking to the RFM12b module - a help message should appear after initialization, not just the program name.

Can you post close up picture of your RFM2Pi board ?

Also - there is no 't' command in this version of the software, any unrecognized command just shows the help message

Thanks for clarifying, not sure why I started, I just noticed that when I logged into minicom and typed t I got summary of commands and also configuration. Correct it works for any key.

cheers

Peter

Here is the image of the board.

I have verified continuity of the Pi header pins to the board. Thanks for your help in diagnosing!

Just a thought: is it possible the microcontroller on the board did not come flashed with firmware? I did purchase through the OpenEnergy store. 

Your soldering is excellent - the board looks great.

The microcontroller must be programmed as it outputs '[RFMDemo.Attiny84]' to the serial; 

Do you own an ISP programmer? Maybe you can try to set the fuses to 8Mhz if by chance they weren't set and re-flash with the latest firmware. If that's hard for you, I suggest contacting Glyn or Trystan for a replacement

Thanks for your help. Glyn is kindly sending me a new ATtiny.