Sometimes what should be simple is anything but. Given the wide range of Client devices (iPads, Windows PCs, Mac OS X, Android phones etc), the wide range of Serial devices and the multitude of connectivity options available via our Airconsole hardware, something at some point will invariably not work. When that happens there is a 3 step process to follow to generally figure out what is broken.



These breakdown into following steps:

1) Is your Airconsole hardware working?

2) Can you connect to your Serial Device with Airconsole's built in Web terminal (Quick Test)

3) If Web Terminal works, but Client App does not - troubleshoot Client issue

4) If Web Terminal does not work, troubleshoot Serial connectivity issue - Between USB port of Airconsole and serial port of device - then return to 3)


If everything works perfectly on (for example) a laptop running Hyperterminal, but refuses to work on Airconsole, then there is ability to capture diagnostics from Airconsole and send them to us for review. 


To prove each part is working in turn refer to below


SECTION 1: AIRCONSOLE BASIC HARDWARE CHECK


Rule out any hardware problem with your Airconsole unit. It should be booted up and ready for a connection.


1a) The easiest way to tell if your Airconsole is working is first to check its LED's. The possible LED states are in this document. Generally both the Bluetooth dongle LED and LED on the top of the Airconsole should be flashing intermittently. If they are not, then review the LED document and either report a hardware fault or correct the issue.


If you believe there is a hardware fault with your Airconsole, please first upgrade it to the latest firmware

Version 2.75 and later firmware allow for the downloading of a diagnostics file from your Airconsole that you can send to us at [email protected]


 Airconsole Firmware Diagnostics is available in version 2.75 and later of the firmware.

Select Admin -> Diagnostics and then tick the options for which files to attach and then download. Please run the diagnostics with the USB serial cable (including Bluetooth Module) and your serial device attached to the cable


SECTION 2: QUICK TEST IN AIRCONSOLE WEB TERMINAL and TROUBLESHOOT CLIENT ISSUES


Airconsole has a built in Web terminal which is the fastest way to determine whether the issue relates to a Client app (i.e. settings in software like PuTTY running on your PC, or Mac, iOS device or Android) or the issue relates to the physical serial connection between Airconsole and your Serial device. Follow 2a) below to connect to the web terminal and perform the Quick Test.


(2a) Connect to Airconsole Via IP network - either WIFI or Ethernet and then use any modern web browser to browse to Airconsole's IP address - i.e. http://192.168.10.1 . Note Quick test cannot be performed over Bluetooth.


Using WIFI to connect to Airconsole has the same defaults regardless of operating system:

- SSID = Airconsole-XX where XX is the last 2 digits of units Mac Address

- Password = 12345678

- Authentication = WPA2 Pre shared Key

- 2.4Ghz band


Airconsole has a single chip antenna with a range of around 10 meters in indoor environment or 30 meters outdoors. Failure to connect to the Airconsole-XX WIFI network is usually because of one of the following:


- Incorrect password - if the default has been changed from 12345678 then it can be discovered by connecting a wired ethernet cable to Airconsole and accessing the unit via wired rather than wireless. Alternatively Airconsole can be returned to factory default configuration by pressing and holding the reset button marked "R" that is recessed on the side of unit. Insert paper clip to hold down the reset button for 10 seconds then release. On release the LED on top of Airconsole will change indicating factory reset in progress.

- Out of range - Airconsole has a relatively small WIFI range in noisy WIFI environments

- Airconsole is no longer operating as an AP. In newer versions of firmware it is possible to operate Airconsole as a WIFI station only, connected to an external infrastructure Wireless AP. If Airconsole configuration has changed to operate in station only mode it will no longer accept connection requests from wireless clients. Restore Airconsole to factory settings or re-enable the AP mode via the web interface (over wired Ethernet).


Using Ethernet - connect Airconsole to LAN or directly to PC/Mac via Ethernet cable. Airconsole operates by default as DHCP server so will allocate client an IP address 192.168.10.x


Browse to Airconsole's Web terminal at http://192.168.10.1/terminal.asp


Select the serial port number (if more than 1) and press connect. Modify the Baud Rate, Databits, Parity, Stopbits and Flow Control settings to match your serial device. Click into the black terminal screen and hit enter or other key to generate response from your serial device.

Note on Internet Explorer, the ENTER key can return focus to the side panel not the black terminal box. This is a bug in IE. Please use Firefox, Chrome or Safari to avoid this behaviour.


If Web terminal CAN successfully connect to your Serial device, but your client application cannot Proceed to 2b)->2e) to troubleshoot Client Application.


If Web terminal CANNOT successfully connect to your Serial device (after correctly setting Baud rate etc), proceed to step 3) to troubleshoot your serial connection to Airconsole before attempting to make work in any Client application.


Airconsole supports many client operating systems (iOS, Android, OS X and Windows), and also supports connectivity via those operating systems either via IP (WIFI or Wired Ethernet) or via Bluetooth. The client configuration may have subtle differences between operating systems and connection type.


(2b) iOS / Get Console WIFI access

Connecting to Airconsole from an iOS device via WIFI is covered in the Quick Start Guide. Airconsole announces its serial port service via Apple Bonjour protocol (mDNS) so when the Get Console app launches, so long as the WIFI network is connected there will be a screen popup showing "Airconsole-XX detected via WIFI". When launching a Serial connection the Airconsole indicator will be green.


Even if the Bonjour announcement of Airconsole is not received or lost by the iOS device, Get Console app can still connect to an Airconsole serial port if the default settings haven't been changed. In this case the Airconsole text in Serial Quick Connect will be blue/grey and when the Serial connection is initiated it will be attempted via the default IP address 192.168.10.1.


What can go wrong?

- Any loss of IP connectivity between Airconsole and iOS device will result in connection failure - i.e. moving out of WIFI range

- Backgrounding the Get Console app for more than a few minutes will cause connection to drop, however Get Console will attempt to re-establish the connection on being returned to the foreground 

- Airconsole might crash if running very low on power. In this case the LED on the top of Airconsole will change to a solid dim blue light. Charge up Airconsole with the power switch off for a few minutes before switching back on to run via external USB power. Note you must physically switch the unit off and leave it off for 30 seconds while on external charge before turning it back on again otherwise the dim blue light will not go away and the unit will not boot.

- Airconsole will reject a connection from Get Console if there is no USB-Serial cable physically connected to Airconsole. The USB-Serial cable doesn't need to be connected to a serial device at the other end, but it must be at least connected to Airconsole USB port in order for Airconsole to accept incoming connections from Get Console app on iOS. In this situation a connection may be seen to connect and then immediately disconnect. In the Get Console session manager the connection will transition as per below:


 transitions immediately to ->



Fix this by plugging in the USB-Serial cable to Airconsole. If there is a USB-Serial cable connected to Airconsole and Get Console is connecting and then immediately disconnecting the Serial connection, then there could be something wrong with the USB-Serial cable itself. See Section (3a) below. Airconsole officially supports the FTDI based USB-Serial cable that is included, but also has support for various other end user supplied USB-Serial cables - i.e. based on Prolific and other non-FTDI chipsets. 


If Get Console connects to the Airconsole and stays connected (i.e. the connection shows in Blue in the slide out bar), but no terminal output is seen on the Get Console screen then the most likely issue is a configuration, pinout or other physical serial issue that exists between the Airconsole and the Serial Device itself. See section 3 below for troubleshooting tips on these issues.


2c) Android / SerialBot WIFI access

Connecting to Airconsole via Android with our free SerialBot app via WIFI is covered in this guide here. At a high level the process is identical to on iOS with Get Console app:

1) Join the Airconsole-XX WIFI network from Android WIFI settings

2) Launch SerialBot, and choose the "Serial-WIFI" connection type.


Unlike Get Console however, there is a specific syntax required to launch serial connections which is covered also in the Quick Start Guide


What can go wrong:

 - Coming into/out of WIFI range of Airconsole causes dropouts: Airconsole operates best at 10m or less range. This is because it has only chip antenna and is susceptible to noise from other WIFI devices.


 - Text on screen is so small that you can't read it: Use the Volume UP/DOWN buttons to increase font size


 - Airconsole with non-default setup - i.e. AP Client mode or IP address configured different to the default 192.168.10.1. In this case mDNS discovery can fail on Android / SerialBot. When Airconsole has a non-default configuration, do not use the "serial-wifi" connection type, rather use the "telnet" connection type, and specify the port "3696" after the ip address. In the below example the Airconsole has had its IP address changed to 192.168.15.229, so in SerialBot we use below connection rather than "Serial-WIFI":


when using Telnet rather than Serial-WIFI connection type, you can modify the Baud rate etc directly from the Airconsole webpage (via Chrome). Login with admin/admin. Go to Serial tab and modify. The changes are applied immediately.


2d) Windows Client / Application Settings (WIFI)


The simplest way to use Airconsole with Windows if a virtual COM port is required is to connect via Bluetooth. This is because Windows has built in Serial Port drivers over Bluetooth so there is no additional software to install. For setup tips for Bluetooth serial port on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 see these videos 


However If Bluetooth is not available then some virtual COM port drivers must be installed and then a connection to Airconsole made over IP network (WIFI or Wired Ethernet).


For IP connections (WIFI, wired ethernet) connections on Windows, 

 a) first prove IP connectivity between Airconsole and Windows PC, and prove as per 2a) that web terminal can access your serial device.

 b) install the Windows drivers and then check Windows drivers have created COM port

 c) check your client application settings - do they match the successful test performed during 2a) ? For example in PuTTY it is common for hardware flow control to be enabled by default, but it is NOT enabled by default in Airconsole Web terminal.



Get Console's Windows drivers to make virtual COM port are available here - The installation process is covered in the Readme guide included in the download. 


Alternatively another company not associated with Get Console makes free Windows COM Port drivers for RFC2217 compliant Serial adaptors (like Airconsole). You can download these drivers instead of our ones from HW Group - the free single serial port drivers 3.1.2 at time of writing are here


The Windows driver install will create 2 COM ports. Use the first COM port in your Windows application.


In this example the COM port to select in Terminal application is "COM3"

Control Panel -> Devices and Printers and select Airconsole and right click, and then select the Hardware tab. The COM port numbers will be visible on this screen. 


What can go wrong?

1) Windows firewall blocking tcp ports 3696 and 2167 can prevent Airconsole driver from reaching Airconsole on Serial-IP port. Check firewall settings and allow these ports if not permitted

2) Old version of driver was not removed before installing new version of driver. Please use the Control Panel -> Uninstall a Program to remove the Airconsole and COM0COM programs before installing newest driver from this site

3) IP address of Airconsole is different from the default IP address (192.168.10.1), In this case the Airconsole


2e) OSX Client / Application Settings (WIFI)


Nothing ever goes wrong with Mac so no need for this section :)


2f) Bluetooth Connection to Airconsole


If Web console can successfully connect to serial device via Wifi, but when switching to Bluetooth the serial device is not available, then follow the specific Bluetooth setup and troubleshooting guide available here 


One issue with Bluetooth on Airconsole can occur if there are multiple client devices that are or have paired with Airconsole preventing subsequent pairings or BLE connections from starting.


Airconsole's Bluetooth radio operates in EITHER 2.1 mode or 4.0 (BLE) mode. It cannot operate in both modes at the same time. If there is an active 2.1 pairing then a subsequent BLE connection (i.e. from Get Console iPhone/iPad) will not work as the radio is in 2.1 mode. To force break the stale 2.1 pairing, remove and replug in the bluetooth dongle from the USB-Serial cable and wait for the light to blink again.

If Airconsole has a BLE4.0 connection to (i.e.) a mac or iOS device, then another mac/iOS device can override and take over that connection. If you require that the first BLE connection to Airconsole cannot be broken/taken over by a second BLE connection attempt then change the Bluetooth pre-emption settings in Serial-->Advanced page.


SECTION 3: TROUBLESHOOT AIRCONSOLE TO SERIAL DEVICE ISSUE


If the Quick Web Terminal test could not generate any output from your serial device, then the most likely cause is a physical layer issue - either Pinouts

3a) USB-Serial Cable Issue


From Webterminal (http://192.168.10.1/terminal.asp) connect to the serial port (if multiport cable then select correct port number). If Connection immediately disconnects then issue is either 

   - Airconsole does not detect a valid USB Serial cable is connected to its USB port - reseat the USB cable and wait 5 seconds then try again.

   - The webpage needs to be sometimes reloaded in the browser to correctly reset a previous session. Reload terminal.asp webpage and then try to connect again.



3b) if "Connected" shows but no output from terminal, check pinouts of Serial port. The included cables with Airconsole have the pinouts as shown in this link


- Pinout problems are very common. The most common issues are with:

    - HP Procurve switches that use the reverse RJ45 pinout from Cisco and other vendors. Use a rollover cable connected to a RJ45 coupler to connect to these

    - DB9 Serial ports often have different pinouts to the beige "straight through" adaptor. Try the black "Null" adaptor that reverses the pinouts

    - DEX adaptors have 2 different polarities. We supply both a black (normal) and blue (reverse) adaptor for connecting to Vending machines and DEX/UCS interfaces

    - Some DB9 equipped serial ports need to have voltage set high on RTS pin, even though they do not need flow control enabled. Tick the RTS and/or DTR pin checkbox on the web terminal to see if that helps get connectivity to start.


3c) if "Connected" shows but no output on terminal then Airconsole has valid USB-Serial cable attached but no response is seen from serial device. First check Baud/Databits/Parity/Flow Control settings. These can be changed in the web terminal and the changes take place immediately.



SECTION 4: OBTAINING AIRCONSOLE DIAGNOSTICS


To obtain dianostic information please first upgrade Airconsole to 2.75 firmware

Version 2.75 and later firmware allow for the downloading of a diagnostics file from your Airconsole that you can send to us at [email protected]


 Airconsole Firmware Diagnostics is available in version 2.75 and later of the firmware.

Select Admin -> Diagnostics and then tick the options for which files to attach and then download. Please run the diagnostics with the USB serial cable (including Bluetooth Module) and your serial device attached to the cable


 -