Nova-M modem query during ppp connection

Hi All,

Quick question that I seem to have answered but was looking for confirmation. I have a CAT M1 Nova-M (R410) that I am using to provide a gateway to a Beaglebone.

Periodically during my application I will need to detect the signal strength for the dongle - I am using the subprocess library to run “hologram modem signal” and “hologram modem operator” and I was running into issues where the device would return “ERROR: Unable to detect a usable serial port”.

I was able to overcome this in testing by disconnecting the device (“hologram network disconnect”), running the commands, and then reconnecting (“hologram network connect”).

Can someone verify that querying the signal strength and operator while a ppp connection is established is whats causing the issue?

Also what is the level of risk in disconnecting, running my queries, and then reconnecting repetitively? I am assuming that the “hologram network connect” and disconnect commands are just establishing the ppp connection to the modem and that the device is constantly connected to the actual cellular network the entire time - can you verify this statement as well?

Appreciate the help!

There is only a single available serial connection on a Nova R410 which the PPP connection uses when active. As you have discovered you will have to disconnect to free up this serial port if you want to query the modem.

You are right in that connect and disconnect just bring up the PPP connection, whether the modem is connected to a tower or not is not related to those functions. There should be no risk in connecting and disconnecting using this method unless you are doing it incredibly frequently but if you are using the CLI thats probably impossible because it waits for the connection to begin and end before returning.

My application cycles through this once every two minutes; so I could be disconnecting, running those commands, and reconnecting once every two minutes. I will do some testing on this front, but does that ring any alarms for you?

no, I mean like multiple times a second fast or doing scans every second. I think your application is well in the realm of safe

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