Airmaster 4000D suddenly not connecting

[Matte82]

Hello.
I've been using an Airmaster 4000D since about April of this year. I'm using a connectall/Sprint based service/sim. For the most part once I got it running it has been solid. Every once in a while I reboot it, if it's acting funny. The last two Monday mornings it's not been working. Last week I rebooted it a time or two and all has been fine. Today I can't get it to connect for anything. I've checked all the cables. I'm using a cat7 cable from the POE injector to the unit itself. I climbed on the roof and checked the connection there. It looked good. It was clean and dry. I happened to have another POE injector and tried it. The one that came with the unit shows to have 350mA output, the one I tried shows 500mA. I haven't touched any of the setting, because honestly I forgot what all they do.

Anyway I'm including a pic of the main screen. It seems to see the tower and has a signal, but somewhere in after that there is a breakdown. I'm willing to get new gear if I need to. But would prefer to get this working if I can. I've called all the providers around me, and this is my best option. At least until Starlink gets going in my area.

Just let me know what you think, and what else I can try. I'm about to take my hotspot home and put the sim in it and see what it does.

[shoulin333]

I had the same thing yesterday. I noticed that the regular MCC MNC 310 120 won't fully connect. What I found was that 311 490 and 312 530 both connect and work.

[Seabirds]

I'm having the same issue on Calyx/Sprint. I have never been able to enter any settings in on the LTE tab (with the exception of ND&S) and obtain a successful connection, despite system resets and trying many many times and following every tutorial/post related to the 4000 and getting data from cellmapper. It either connects automatically or not at all, and when connected reliably drops the connection 10-15 per day necessitating a power cycle.

Just stopped connecting yesterday 12/7. I did remove the sim and placed in my mifi8000 and was able to obtain a connection to both band 25 and 41. Same deal as shoulin33 though, the normal MCC MNC of 312 530 won't connect, and I had to connect instead to a new MCC MNC of 311 490 which worked on the mifi8000 and was a faster connection by a little bit.

The mifi8000 thru Calyx supposedly had an upgrade recently that allows for roaming on TMobile, and when connected to 311 490, shows a bold R on the display but still lists SPRINT as the network. I am assuming that the mifi8000 is therefore roaming on TMobile when connecting to 311 490. Think this is correct?

I have tried to put the sim back in the 4000 and connect to 311 490, but no luck as I've never been able to connect with the nomadic setting checked, and there is no Earfcn data on the failed connection attempt like in the screenshot above. Connecting with with no settings in PLMN (automatic), the 4000 seems to find my old MCC MNC 312 530 and the connection is never successful.

That what I have discovered, hope it helps. If anyone has any suggestions for my issues, please post as I'm all out of troubleshooting possibilities, lol.

*An interesting observation- I do not have that blue Signal Quality % bar nor the Signal Quality item at all like in the screenshot above on my modems LTE - Overview page.

[Matte82]

So here's what I've done so far, which isn't much, but I did take the sim out of the 4000D and put it back in the coolpad hotspot. At the house it barely connects, but I took it into town, and it does connect. However it shows sprint in the upper right corner, but VirginLTE as the actual network it's on and roaming??!!?!? I thought Virgin had essentialy gone away in the merger.

When I get a chance I'll put the sim back in my 4000D and change the the other settings and see what happens.

[oddjob1266]

So my airmaster dropped at around 5:00 am today. Put the sim in the coolpad and it works (if you can call the coolpad as working) I was seeing it roam on virgin also.

I had a mifi 8000 from a quarterly memebership I stuck it in too. It connects for a few seconds and then says the sim is locked.

Back to the airmaster and no signs of life. Anyway to know what band the coolpad is connecting to?

[shoulin333]

I tried mine in the 4000D and nothing no matter what today.

I moved mine into a we826-T2 with an em7511 and it works great using 311 490 and locked to band 41.

[oddjob1266]

I tried mine in the 4000D and nothing no matter what today.

I moved mine into a we826-T2 with an em7511 and it works great using 311 490 and locked to band 41.

Is there any feasible way to make the airmaster use 311 490?

[Matte82]

I went into the settings changed it from mobile to nomadic, and that allowed me to add more network codes. I added the 311 490 and 310 120, as addition options. But it shows 312 530 as the "home" setting and I can't change it. Is there a list of codes I can try somewhere? And I'll google that too, but maybe someone has a nice list somewhere.

I'm thinking for now of getting something like this, but maybe not this exact one

https://smile.amazon.com/GL-iNet-GL-X75 ... 492&sr=8-9

I'm hoping something tmobile will work. I also have google fi for my phone, and don't get a great signal, but maybe something better designed for this usage, can pull a bit better signal, at least until I can figure out exactly what to do next. And I've read google fi uses tmobile for their data only sims. So maybe between one of them I can get by for a little bit.

I was already looking at something different. As I've also encountered HULU live not liking LTE networks. Spacelink was what I was really hoping to wait out, but I guess I may call the local cable company and see if they can install something for less than their last installation quote. Which admittedly was years ago, but they didn't like the house being 3/4 of a mile off the road.

[Didneywhorl]

You may be happier with a NEXRGO router with a Quectel EM06A modem, from thewirelesshaven.com, which supports B41 and 2xCA. This over the Spitz Gl.inet

[Seabirds]

I've had the sim in the mifi8000 for the last 24 hrs on band 41, and have been experiencing double dl and ul speeds from the airmaster and not one disconnect. The airmaster would disconnect 15 times a day and was a generally flakey connection, and I was never successful in being able to change any settings other than adding in ND&S. Never could switch to Nomadic.

The mifi8000 is definitely roaming on TMoblie, band 41 and Calyx has recently sent out updates to the mifi to allow roaming on TMobile. So far, this is the best connection I have experienced since the move to the country. Hope it lasts, lol.

Airmaster still won't connect to anything and I'm not even going to mess with it any more since my issue has been resolved. I am wondering though if the mifi would fit in the airmaster enclosure and be able to utilize the air master's antenna? If not that's cool as I'm looking forward to smashing the airmaster with a sledgehammer for all the grief and hours spent trying to get it to work right

Any recommendations for an upgraded modem for TMobile/Sprint/Band 41?

[oddjob1266]

So I have a mifi8000 also, but my current sim is from a coolpad membership. Is there any way to get that sim to work in the mifi?

[Didneywhorl]

So I have a mifi8000 also, but my current sim is from a coolpad membership. Is there any way to get that sim to work in the mifi?

Call Sprint business and have them swap devices for you

[Matte82]

So just now getting back to this. I tried calling mobile citizen monday, but waited almost an hour and didn't get through. So waited and tried again earlier Tuesday. But I turned on the coolpad in case they needed any info, and it connected. So I took it back home and put the sim in the airmaster and got it working. Sort of.

It's not getting as strong of a signal. I can get 2 bars if the stars align, and most of the time it just blinks. Even when I get 2 bars, in the info page it shows a signal quality of around 30%.

So today I brought it to work, which is right by an interstate with plenty of signal. And sure enough it connects and gets 5 bars, but the signal quality is still low. Is this something possibly hardware related/failing? I have a pixel 5 on google fi, and opened cell mapper, to try and manually put in the tower info. It worked (it didn't disconnect), but it didn't improve anything either. Still low signal quality and around 20-25mbps down.

I've also realized I can't set it to nomadic. It will not connect via nomadic, no matter what I do, or how many times I reset it.

So I'm thinking new hardware may be in order. I appreciate the suggestions above. However I will probably need to put it up on my antenna pole outside for better signal. Maybe not. But I barely get any cell signal at home, and the airmaster setting outside the window at head level doesn't get much signal. When I put it on the pole about 20' in the air it does better. Anyway the point being, as far as the router goes, something that's poe with a lan should work. I don't really need wifi. I have an asus router I'm using now.

Unless there's a better way. I've read running long antenna leads, can take away any advantage external antennas add. But maybe these newer routers pick up signal well enough to negate external antennas. I'd just prefer to not have to buy something to use inside and return it once I find out I need something outside. But that wouldn't be the end of the world either.

I'm going to keep reading and see what I come up with. But any suggestions and direction is greatly appreciated.

Thanks again

[Didneywhorl]

Most of the routers all have the same level of antennas for indoor use. You need pretty decent signal inside to get good connection. If you needed outdoor antennas for LTE before, you'll likely still need it with whatever you go with.

The WiFix WG3526-P is my poe router of choice. Here is one of my latest builds for an outdoor setup to go to a 4x4 MIMO antenna:

Wg3526p-EM160-OutdoorEnclosure.jpg

WiFiX Medium PCB enclosure
WiFix WG3526-P router
Quectel EM160 modem
USB3 to M.2 4G/5G modem adapter enclosure
4 MHF4 to Type N Female Bulkhead antenna pigtails 10"
SIM card gland for swapping SIMs without opening the case

All from thewirelesshaven.com stock.

You can turn off the wifi, its kinda weak with transfer speed anyway. I added 2 little wifi antennas fo the 2.4G channel to get access in case anything went wrong on the LAN.

[Didneywhorl]

The big white antennas attached were just for testing, though they worked well. Dual band Wifi antennas make great upper band LTE antennas

[Matte82]

That looks awesome. And like what I likely need. I'm still trying to wrap my head around all this stuff. There's just so many options out there. And I want it to be as future proof as possible, but it doesn't need to be bleeding edge. Honestly I was very happy with the 25 mbps I was getting. But I will definitely check out those parts. Thanks