Sierra Wireless MC8790 on apu2c4

[vvasilev]

Has anyone been able to get Sierra Wireless MC8790 to work on apu2c4?

The modem is recognized by the OS:

ugen1.3: <Sierra Wireless, Incorporated MC8790> at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=ON (0mA)

However, I'm getting this in the ppp logs:

Dec 24 12:44:02 ppp: [wan_link0] CHAT: The modem is not responding to "AT" at ModemCmd: label.

Thanks!

[stephenw10]

How many ports are created? What have you tried?

Before you setup the ppp link try connecting to the ports using cu and see which responds to AT.

Steve

[vvasilev]

cuaU0.0 through cua0.6

[2.4.4-RELEASE][xxx@xxx/root: cu -l /dev/cuaU0.0
Stale lock on cuaU0.0 PID=15734... overriding.
Connected

and it just hangs. I suspect it might just require a specific init string...

[stephenw10]

You will have to make sure nothing else has it open. Disable/remove the PPP connection you have setup and reboot to be sure.

You might want to specify the connection speed there too.

Sierra devices don't usually require any init to respond there. Has that modem ever worked though?

It might be stuck in a mode where none of the ports are AT. Though with 7 exposed that seems unlikely. All are no response?

Steve

[vvasilev]

Deleted the PPP connection and rebooted. No change, I'm able to connect to all 7 but the connection just hangs on all of them (connection speed?). I got the modem on eBay, it's new but I can't tell if it's ever worked.

[stephenw10]

Usually you wouldn't have to select the baud there but if it's been changed in the modem perhaps you might.

The first thing I would do here is load it with some other OS and check it's not dead and responds on some port. From there you may need to change it's setup to present an AT port to FreeBSD/pfSense, the usb composition.

Steve

[Clouseau]

I have this LTE modem also and I have NOT succeed to get it work or any other LTE modem I have. Any help on this topic?

[stephenw10]

You also see the 7 virtual com ports? None respond to AT commands?

[vvasilev]

Yes, all 7 are present and I can connect to each one of them (I see a "Connected" prompt and then I'm no longer able to type).

ugen1.3: <Sierra Wireless, Incorporated MC8790> at usbus1
u3g0 on uhub2
u3g0: <Sierra Wireless, Incorporated MC8790, class 0/0, rev 2.00/0.06, addr 3> on usbus1
u3g0: Found 7 ports.

[stephenw10]

You may have 'echo' disabled in which case you won't see what the responses are. You should see a response to AT on one of those ports at least. The correct response being OK.

Steve

[vvasilev]

I booted the APU with OpenWRT and confirmed the module is alive. No response to AT on any of the ports under pfsense.

Manufacturer: Sierra Wireless, Incorporated

Model: MC8790

Revision: K2_0_7_24BAP C:/WS/FW/K2_0_7_24BAP/MSM6290/SRC 2010/02/09 00:19:18

IMEI SV: 15

3GPP Release 6

+GCAP: +CGSM,+DS,+ES

[vvasilev]

stephenw10, you were right... the modem did eventually reply on port 6

I'm getting +CPIN: PH-NET PIN", which suggests the card may be locked.

[stephenw10]

Do you see the same error with and without a SIM card?

It may be locked to a network rather than just locked entirely.

Steve

[vvasilev]

I get either OK or ERROR to any command I type with no SIM inserted (ATI is the only one that works as expected now). AT+CLAC is supposed to get me the list of supported AT commands, but even that one gives me OK or ERROR.

I'm going to look for a 4G module. Are you aware of any well behaved ones with pfsense? I'm looking at ME909S-120p V2 Mini PCIe / ME909S-120 Mini PCIe (can't find out what the difference is between the two), but I see the non-V2 version has worked for some people.

Thanks!

[vvasilev]

I swapped the Sierra Wireless module with HUAWEI ME909S-120p V2 and I got a working connection. It's been running fine for the last week or so with no issues at all. Wanted to update this post and let people know the modem works should they need to use LTE on APU2 with pfsense.