Configuring SIM8200EA

[datasmasher]

Howdy! I am hoping someone can help me. I have a new WG1608 flashed with GoldenOrb_2020-06-10 and a SIMCOM SIM8200EA-M2, both from Alibaba. The router can see the modem, but I don't seem to be connecting. I am on a post paid TMobile plan with two yagi antenna's pointed at the nearest tower (about 2 miles away). I have been digging through the AT command manual, but so far I don't seem to be getting a connection. Any advise?

[Didneywhorl]

Try changing to MBIM mode and make sure the imei, pid and vid are set properly.

[datasmasher]

I am looking through the AT command guide to see how to switch modes. So far, I haven't found anything. I was able to get the module to switch to download mode, which was a bit tricky to get out of. I am going to continue reviewing the guide.

[Adm1jtg]

in the modem > network status screen does it show an imei and a phone number? and just a connecting status next to provider?

If you get a modem modem displaying and imei and phone number displayed then its almost always something to do with the sim or the config NOT THE MODEM.

Have you checked to be sure you have the apn set correctly?

[datasmasher]

Yes, I see the modem IMEI and the phone number. The modem connects, but network says:

General Information
Modem : SIMCOM INCORPORATED SIMCOM_SIM8200EA-M2
Modem ID : 1e0e : 9001
Provider : T-Mobile
Comm Port : /dev/ttyUSB2
Temperature : -
Protocol : QMI

Modem/SIM Information

Modem IMEI : 864284040032091
SIM IMSI : 310260276023431
SIM ICCID : 8901260272760234311F
SIM Phone Number : 1832#######
SIM Name :

Signal Information
Network :-
CSQ : 17
Signal Strength : 54%
RSSI : -79 dBm
ECIO : -
RSCP : -
Connection Monitoring Status : Disabled


Cell Information
MCC MNC : 310 260
RNC/eNB ID : 10F20 (69408)
LAC/TAC : 7D88 (32136)
Cell ID :0B (11)
Band : -
Channel : -
Maximum Qos :-

[datasmasher]

This card is 4xmimo. In the kernel log I see:

[15579.506999] epc = 004036e9 in comgt[400000+6000]
[15579.511698] ra = 0040369d in comgt[400000+6000]
[15590.393010] usb 2-1.4: new SuperSpeed USB device number 6 using xhci-mtk
[15590.430117] option 2-1.4:1.0: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[15590.437399] usb 2-1.4: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB0
[15590.446357] option 2-1.4:1.1: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[15590.453394] usb 2-1.4: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB1
[15590.462180] option 2-1.4:1.2: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[15590.469115] usb 2-1.4: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB2
[15590.477849] option 2-1.4:1.3: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[15590.484858] usb 2-1.4: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB3
[15590.493736] option 2-1.4:1.4: GSM modem (1-port) converter detected
[15590.500948] usb 2-1.4: GSM modem (1-port) converter now attached to ttyUSB4
[15590.511749] qmi_wwan 2-1.4:1.5: cdc-wdm0: USB WDM device
[15590.519889] qmi_wwan 2-1.4:1.5 wwan0: register 'qmi_wwan' at usb-1e1c0000.xhci-1.4, WWAN/QMI device, e6:67:c5:2d:60:cd

Should the modem appear this way?

[Didneywhorl]

Not sure, but I would get that bugger in MBIM and reboot. Its in the AT books for their other modems. I know Ive seen it.

[Didneywhorl]

SIMCOM isn't the most document happy company it seems

[datasmasher]

I was able to get help from jheld on the Rooter OpenWRT forum over at https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/thread/ ... #r67837810.

[Didneywhorl]

I was able to get help from jheld on the Rooter OpenWRT forum over at https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/thread/ ... #r67837810.

Do tell.

Let us know what you did.

[datasmasher]

On the Rooter forums there were several post from jheld talking about the module. He has written 2 updates to the existing modemsignal.sh and celltype.sh files, as well as two scripts to add the Simcom responses to the appropriate fields in Network Information. If you want to see what I did, take at:
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/thread/ ... 718#r14346
and
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/thread/ ... 718#r14351

There is still some work to do, but the modem does connect and CA is active occasionally. If you get yours to work, I would be curious as to the IP address the modem shows. I am seeing some strangeness and I am not sure if it is tmobile or something the modem is doing.

[gedster314]

I just ordered the Waveshare Raspberry pi hat with radio. Guess it's a little pricey I liked the idea of the kit. Looking forward to tinkering with it.

https://www.waveshare.com/sim8200ea-m2-5g-hat.htm

[datasmasher]

I would like to hear about other's experiences with the card. Sometimes my connection is great, sometimes, not so much. It would be helpful to me if I could understand other folks who are using this card experiences with it.

[R1250GSA]

I just ordered the Waveshare Raspberry pi hat with radio. Guess it's a little pricey I liked the idea of the kit. Looking forward to tinkering with it.

https://www.waveshare.com/sim8200ea-m2-5g-hat.htm

wow, that looks like a great find, a modern hat with M.2 and USB3.1
I hope you are using the new RPi4B-8GB.
I have been tinkering with the hat from SixFab with a EC25.

Keep us posted on your success and failures!

[Didneywhorl]

I just ordered the Waveshare Raspberry pi hat with radio. Guess it's a little pricey I liked the idea of the kit. Looking forward to tinkering with it.

https://www.waveshare.com/sim8200ea-m2-5g-hat.htm

I bought one and it came in and its been sitting on my pile of gear to play with one day, lol

[Didneywhorl]

wow, that looks like a great find, a modern hat with M.2 and USB3.1
I hope you are using the new RPi4B-8GB.
I have been tinkering with the hat from SixFab with a EC25.

Keep us posted on your success and failures!

I got a new rpi4 and the new rpi400 to play with when i finally get time. Hoping to try the SIM8200 deal from waveshare with them both.

[BrandonDillon]

Is this the same tech as what was just used to break the 5g speed record in Finland this week? Snapdragon x55 on the phones. That pi hat from waveshare looks awesome

[datasmasher]

It would be great if you could get the PI hat by itself.

[gedster314]

It took several weeks for the kit to arrive.

Regarding the Waveshare kit. The board is kind of a design mess. Sim bay (the old flip up style) is under the board so you have to pull the hat off the pie to change sims. 6 antenna ports on radio, 6 bulkhead adapters, 5 antennas, 5 holes to mount antennas, had to drill a hole for the 6'th bulkhead. The 6th is for GPS, they did include a GPS antenna. The board has to be powered by a wall wart that plugs into a micro usb port. No data for the micro usb port. Data has to go the type A port and the type A port does not power the radio. A fan header on the hat would have been nice instead of tapping from the Pi's GPIO pins, would be nice to run the hat without depending on a pi for fan power. If I continue to use the board I will probably tap power for the fan from the either of the usb port solder points.

The materials seem of reasonable quality. It came with absolutely no documentation on assembly but it wasn't hard to figure out. Their website had no documentation either, I had to download the radio docs from Simcom.

I say skip this generation of the kit. Maybe if they redesign the board. I assume that I jumped way early and that documentation and kit tweaks will come later. I can move the radio card, bulkheads, antennas, mounting boards, fan, gps antenna to something else if I have to so it's not much of a disappointment/loss.

[R1250GSA]

Well that is a bit disappointing about the Pi hat.
When do you expect to have the setup up and running?
What antenna are you using?
Good luck!

[krist]

I just got the Waveshare Kit too. For me it was the easiest way to get my hands ona SIM8200EA.
The board is indeed a bit of a mess. I have ordered a USB enclosure from The Wireless Haven, and will use that with a PCEngines board for trying things out.
I tried out so far with a Raspberry Pi4, and the latest Raspberry PI OS. That kernel saw the SIM8200EA just fine, and I was able to connect to the network. But speeds were disappointing.

I have ordered a extra device sim (my provider allows up to five sims on the same subscription) to put in it so I can experiment without having to constantly swap sims around (which is a pain on this kit...)

[Poorguyyy]

On the Rooter forums there were several post from jheld talking about the module. He has written 2 updates to the existing modemsignal.sh and celltype.sh files, as well as two scripts to add the Simcom responses to the appropriate fields in Network Information. If you want to see what I did, take at:
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/thread/ ... 718#r14346
and
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/thread/ ... 718#r14351

There is still some work to do, but the modem does connect and CA is active occasionally. If you get yours to work, I would be curious as to the IP address the modem shows. I am seeing some strangeness and I am not sure if it is tmobile or something the modem is doing.

Hi, I am looking to buy SIM8200EA-M2 as well, any new findings on how to get it connected to Tmo network properly? Does the newest firmware of wg1608 still need script tweaking in order for SIM8200EA to work? Thank you so much!

[krist]

I have now successfully connected to the network using this modem. This is what I did:
- I build a fedora33 system using a pcengines board, and connected the modem over USB

- I then just installed ModemManager.

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dnf install ModemManager NetworkManager-wwan
systemctl restart NetworkManager

- Then I issued the following commands:

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sudo nmcli con add con-name "WWAN" type gsm ifname "*"  apn "gprs.swisscom.ch"

And I was online...

But not everything is as I expected... For example if I look at signal strength I get:

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# qmicli -p -d /dev/cdc-wdm0 --nas-get-signal-info
[/dev/cdc-wdm0] Successfully got signal info
LTE:
	RSSI: '-65 dBm'
	RSRQ: '-20 dB'
	RSRP: '-105 dBm'
	SNR: '-9.2 dB'
5G:
	RSRP: '-32768 dBm'
	SNR: '-3276.8 dB'
	RSRQ: '-32768 dB'

Basically he seems to not be detecting in 5G signal...

Now around here 5G uses the uncommon n1 band. Maybe I need to configure something else first? Any suggestions?

[Didneywhorl]

Way over my head, lol.


Have you made any leeway? Sharing the info here will help many many people in the future.

[vectorized]

I was able to get help from jheld on the Rooter OpenWRT forum over at https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/thread/ ... #r67837810.

how did this end up going

[packlet]

I Picked up a 4-antenna version of the SimCom8200ea only to find it won't connect to AT&T here in the US.

compare supported bands listed in
https://www.simcom.com/service-1320.html
and
https://www.simcom.com/service-1394.html

Seems the 6-antenna version (at least by default) supports more LTE bands than the 4-antenna flavor and US bands are mostly missing from the latter.

Anyone know if the 4-antenna version can be AT-command'ed or flashed to support US LTE bands?...

TIA Paul.

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at+simcomati
Manufacturer: SIMCOM INCORPORATED
Model: SIMCOM_SIM8200EA-M2
Revision: LE14B01SIM8200M44A-M2
QCN:
IMEI: 864284xxxxxxxxx
MEID:
+GCAP: +CGSM
DeviceInfo: 44,172

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AT+CBANDCFG=?
+CBANDCFG: (0x0-0x100600000D400000),(0x0-0x87E20A0600D5),(0x0-0x7000000081A0080000D5),(0x0-0x7000000081A0080000D5),(0x0-0x0)
OK

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AT+CBANDCFG?
+CBANDCFG: 0x100600000D400000,0x800A0600D5,0x7000000081A0080000D5,0x70000000010000000000,0x0
OK

Code: Select all

AT+CBANDCFG=0x100600000D400000,0x87E20A0600D5,0x7000000081A0080000D5,0x70000000010000000000,0x0
OK

Code: Select all

AT+CBANDCFG?
+CBANDCFG: 0x100600000D400000,0x87E20A0600D5,0x7000000081A0080000D5,0x70000000010000000000,0x0

(note the second parameter was successfully changed from "0x800A0600D5" to "0x87E20A0600D5", but still no lovin'...