USB to Serial Disconnect

I am trying to use VirtualHere as a USB to Serial hub in order to Virtualize a home automation system. At this point the longest I can get it to stay connected is about 16 hours.
I have tried a couple different usb to serial dongles in my testing. Right now I am testing one with the FTDI chipset, this one seems to last only about 4 hours, the prolific chipset seemed to last much longer.

I have attached the messages log and the syslog, the only thing I can see is that at about 7:11 the connection gets removed.

Messages:

Aug 9 02:11:46 raspberrypi kernel: [ 4.869986] usb 1-1.3.2: Detected FT232RL
Aug 9 02:11:46 raspberrypi kernel: [ 4.930750] usb 1-1.3.2: Number of endpoi nts 2
Aug 9 02:11:46 raspberrypi kernel: [ 4.936901] usb 1-1.3.2: Endpoint 1 MaxPa cketSize 64
Aug 9 02:11:46 raspberrypi kernel: [ 4.990751] usb 1-1.3.2: Endpoint 2 MaxPa cketSize 64
Aug 9 02:11:46 raspberrypi kernel: [ 4.997316] usb 1-1.3.2: Setting MaxPacke tSize 64
Aug 9 02:11:46 raspberrypi kernel: [ 5.037771] usb 1-1.3.2: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0
Aug 9 02:11:46 raspberrypi kernel: [ 6.665108] bcm2708-i2s bcm2708-i2s.0: Fa iled to create debugfs directory
Aug 9 02:11:46 raspberrypi kernel: [ 7.434275] usbcore: registered new inter face driver snd-usb-audio
Aug 9 02:11:46 raspberrypi kernel: [ 10.888902] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): re-mount ed. Opts: (null)
Aug 9 02:11:46 raspberrypi kernel: [ 11.478858] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): re-mount ed. Opts: (null)
Aug 9 02:11:46 raspberrypi kernel: [ 17.503456] FAT-fs (mmcblk0p1): Volume wa s not properly unmounted. Some data may be corrupt. Please run fsck.
Aug 9 02:11:46 raspberrypi kernel: [ 20.696554] smsc95xx 1-1.1:1.0 eth0: hard ware isn't capable of remote wakeup
Aug 9 02:11:46 raspberrypi kernel: [ 22.292701] smsc95xx 1-1.1:1.0 eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1
Aug 9 02:11:46 raspberrypi kernel: [ 27.643572] bcm2835-cpufreq: switching to governor ondemand
Aug 9 02:11:46 raspberrypi kernel: [ 27.643607] bcm2835-cpufreq: switching to governor ondemand
Aug 9 02:11:47 raspberrypi kernel: [ 29.797077] Adding 102396k swap on /var/s wap. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:102396k SSFS
Aug 9 02:11:49 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: >>> Starting v1.8.6 (Built: Jul 26 2014, 23:15:50)<<<
Aug 9 02:11:49 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Using default configuration /root/config. ini
Aug 9 02:11:49 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Serial:00000000f804e48a
Aug 9 02:11:49 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Server licensed to=00000000f804e48a max_d evices=unlimited
Aug 9 02:11:49 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Using large URB's
Aug 9 02:11:49 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: TCPServer bound to port 7575
Aug 9 02:11:50 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Successfully advertised service 'VirtualH ere USB Sharing' over dns-sd (Bonjour/avahi)
Aug 9 02:11:54 raspberrypi kernel: [ 36.931038] usb 1-1.3.1: reset full-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
Aug 9 02:11:54 raspberrypi kernel: [ 37.120056] ftdi_sio ttyUSB0: FTDI USB Se rial Device converter now disconnected from ttyUSB0
Aug 9 02:11:54 raspberrypi kernel: [ 37.120179] ftdi_sio 1-1.3.2:1.0: device disconnected
Aug 9 02:11:54 raspberrypi kernel: [ 37.201118] usb 1-1.3.2: reset full-speed USB device number 6 using dwc_otg
Aug 9 02:12:43 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Connection 1 successfully removed
Aug 9 02:13:10 raspberrypi kernel: [ 66.921503] usb 1-1.3.1: reset full-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
Aug 9 02:13:11 raspberrypi kernel: [ 67.101599] usb 1-1.3.2: reset full-speed USB device number 6 using dwc_otg
Aug 9 06:25:14 raspberrypi rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" swVersion="5.8 .11" x-pid="2136" x-info="http://www.rsyslog.com"] rsyslogd was HUPed
Aug 9 07:11:39 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Connection 2 successfully removed
Aug 9 07:13:12 raspberrypi kernel: [18068.734544] usb 1-1.3.1: reset full-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
Aug 9 07:13:12 raspberrypi kernel: [18068.914595] usb 1-1.3.2: reset full-speed USB device number 6 using dwc_otg
Aug 9 07:14:06 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Connection 3 successfully removed
Aug 9 07:20:12 raspberrypi kernel: [18488.801938] usb 1-1.3.1: reset full-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
Aug 9 07:20:12 raspberrypi kernel: [18488.981963] usb 1-1.3.2: reset full-speed USB device number 6 using dwc_otg
pi@raspberrypi /var/log $

Syslog:

Aug 9 06:25:14 raspberrypi rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" swVersion="5.8.11" x-pid="2136" x-info="http://www.rsyslog.com"] rsyslogd was HUPed
Aug 9 07:11:38 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Removing connection 2 (timeout)...
Aug 9 07:11:38 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Device 1131 UNBOUND from connection 2
Aug 9 07:11:38 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Device 1132 UNBOUND from connection 2
Aug 9 07:11:39 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Connection 2 successfully removed
Aug 9 07:13:12 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: 192.168.0.99 connected
Aug 9 07:13:12 raspberrypi kernel: [18068.734544] usb 1-1.3.1: reset full-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
Aug 9 07:13:12 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Device 1131 BOUND to connection 3
Aug 9 07:13:12 raspberrypi kernel: [18068.914595] usb 1-1.3.2: reset full-speed USB device number 6 using dwc_otg
Aug 9 07:13:12 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Device 1132 BOUND to connection 3
Aug 9 07:14:03 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Removing connection 3 (timeout)...
Aug 9 07:14:03 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Device 1131 UNBOUND from connection 3
Aug 9 07:14:03 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Device 1132 UNBOUND from connection 3
Aug 9 07:14:06 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Connection 3 successfully removed
Aug 9 07:17:01 raspberrypi /USR/SBIN/CRON[2588]: (root) CMD ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Aug 9 07:20:12 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: 192.168.0.99 connected
Aug 9 07:20:12 raspberrypi kernel: [18488.801938] usb 1-1.3.1: reset full-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
Aug 9 07:20:12 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Device 1131 BOUND to connection 4
Aug 9 07:20:12 raspberrypi kernel: [18488.981963] usb 1-1.3.2: reset full-speed USB device number 6 using dwc_otg
Aug 9 07:20:12 raspberrypi vhusbdpin: Device 1132 BOUND to connection 4
Aug 9 08:17:01 raspberrypi /USR/SBIN/CRON[2599]: (root) CMD ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Aug 9 09:17:01 raspberrypi /USR/SBIN/CRON[2606]: (root) CMD ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Aug 9 10:17:01 raspberrypi /USR/SBIN/CRON[2613]: (root) CMD ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Aug 9 11:17:01 raspberrypi /USR/SBIN/CRON[2620]: (root) CMD ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Aug 9 12:17:01 raspberrypi /USR/SBIN/CRON[2627]: (root) CMD ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Aug 9 13:17:01 raspberrypi /USR/SBIN/CRON[2635]: (root) CMD ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
Aug 9 14:17:01 raspberrypi /USR/SBIN/CRON[2664]: (root) CMD ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)

Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks;
Paul Miller

#2

Hi Paul, the way virtualhere works is the client pings the server and server pings the client every 4 seconds. If no response is received within 9 seconds the connection is dropped (i.e timeout). What i think is occuring is that your network connection is actually going down and up at that point. To test this theory, could you run ping in another session continously (i.e if windows ping -t) on server use ping only. If the ping times out around the time the virtualhere connection timeout then it is a network problem, if ping doesnt miss a beat when virtualhere drops then it could be a bug in the virtualhere mechanism. Also make sure you have the very latest raspberry pi firmware using rpi-update.

#3

Michael:
Thank you for the information.
I had done the firmware updates but I also did the "apt-get update" and "apt-get upgrade" yesterday, at this point I have been up and running for over 24 hours. We shall see how that goes.
I can also do a ping as well. Just wasted exactly sure how you wanted the ping. Did you want me to ping the raspberry pi from the client PC ?

Thanks;

#4

Ping the client from the pi using the ping command and redirect to a log file. Then if the connect does drop, look up the log file and see if there is a dropped ping. The virtualhere ping mechanism is pretty solid so i would be surprised if it has bugs...

#5

Michael:
I have just reloaded everything and I just can't seem to find a copy of my license. It is possible to email the license again.
Thanks;

#6

sure, can you email me your serial number and ill look it up (mail [at] virtualhere.com (mail[at]virtualhere[dot]com))

#7

Looks like it was either the drop or the switch port. I have connected the PI with a new cable directly to the switch and that seems to have fixed that problem.
Thanks;