Using the Iridium Modems for Tracking

[Manoj]

Hi, we tried to test the iridium system today. Initially when the system was powered on both the iridium and GPS signals were strong but after a while we lost the iridium signal and status light kept blinking. What might be the problem?

[David MSGC]

I don't think the flashing led necessarily means anything is wrong, I have to double check the documentation on the status LEDs but one of the LEDs will flash if your position does not change by a certain amount. If the Iridium LED is off then this means it does not have a connection to the Iridium network. Same with the GPS LED it will flash or be solid based on different conditions(flashing for 2D fix, solid for 3D fix) but will be off if there is no GPS information. Make sure you have clear view of the sky, the antenna connections are tight, and there are no other sources of interference near by. ie gopro camera, other radios etc.

Did your location show up on the website? If not what is the last 4 digits of your IMIE number and what times were you trying to use it? I can check if we received the Iridium data to help troubleshoot.

Iridium Light Configurations and their Meanings:

Power LED: lights up when power is applied to the 9602-LP and power-on button is pressed.
GPS LED: stays solid when there is a valid GPS position fix, blinks when there is 2D fix or using dead reckoning, and stays off when unable to obtain a position fix. Users have to watch closely for the LED since it can briefly stay on.
Iridium LED: stays solid when the Iridium signal strength is between 3–5 bars, blinks when the Iridium signal strength is between 1–2 bars, and stays off when the Iridium signal strength is at 0 bars. Since the Iridium modem is on over a short period during a location report, this LED will light up very briefly and users might not be able to see if not watched closely.
Status LED: when first entering Tracking Mode, the LED will not light up. This LED stays solid if the last SBD transmission had a valid GPS fix and successfully received by the gateway, blinks if the last SBD transmission was unsuccessfully sent or did not have a valid GPS fix but one was sent since the unit was turned on, and stays off if no SBD transmission with a valid GPS fix was sent to the gateway.
Emergency LED: lights up when the Emergency button is pressed or the Input S0 is activated.

[Manoj]

We did not try to login to the website since we not get a lock on the iridium network. We tested between lot of buildings maybe that was the problem.

The last 4 digits of IMEI are : 5700

[David MSGC]

Go ahead and look at the website when you turn the modem on. When it shows up on the map or does not show up it can help troubleshoot and let you know what/when it was working or not working. ie if you get too close to a building and it stops reporting and move away from a building and it starts again you now know it was the building and not how the antennas were configured etc.
Looking at the website now your modem was reporting and showing up on the map every 30 seconds from 17:04:31 to 17:16:59 UTC time on April 11th. There was a 7 minute gap between 17:07 and 17:14, depending on what was going on during this gap could be a good troubleshooting/learning experience, were you close to a building at this time, were the antennas being positioned differently? etc.
It looks like you had a pretty good GPS position, the data points are fairly consistent.

[manoj]

We did not switch on the servos. We were hand pointing the antenna and moved the iridium system in the football field.

[David MSGC]

Apr 13, 2017 15:13:25 GMT -7 manoj said:

We did not switch on the servos. We were hand pointing the antenna and moved the iridium system in the football field.

If you are hand pointing and not using the servos you don't need Iridium, or maybe I'm not understanding what you are trying to do.
What are you trying to do?