Pearl - Troubleshooting communication led status

Overview

This article is to help customers troubleshoot network communication when a communication-led status is seen on the Main Pearl unit.

When the communication led status is seen on the Pearl unit, this means the Pearl is not able to reach our SaaS for some reason. In order to help resolve the issue or narrow down the source, here are some steps.

Step 1. Wi-Fi Network Requirements

The first step is to make sure that your Wireless network is supported by the Pearl. You can review these details by referring to our article linked here Pearl - Wireless Network Requirements. 

Should there be any issues you can refer to our guide on adding a Wi-Fi extender as a workaround, the details are explained in our article Pearl - Adding a Wi-Fi Extender

Step 2. Wi-Fi Network Credentials

The Wi-Fi credential check is a step that is often forgotten. Since these credentials can be changed at the network level and let be transparent typos are also a known issue. Another source could be smartphones that automatically put a capital letter or leading/trailing blank space. To rule this out as a possible issue you can try one of the following: 

Option 1: Remove the Wi-Fi network from your smartphone "often called forget my network" and once done, reconnect your phone to that same network. You should be able to establish a connection and also have internet access. If the phone doesn't connect, please review your Wi-Fi network.

Option 2: Remove the Wi-Fi network from a pc or laptop "on Windows 10 it's called Forget network"  and once done reconnect your pc or laptop to that same network. You should be able to establish a connection and also have internet access. If the phone doesn't connect, please review your Wi-Fi network. 

If the above step worked and your smartphone, pc or laptop can connect and has internet access, proceed to reconfigure the Pearl with the same information making sure to avoid typos or leading/trailing blank spaces. You can refer to the following article PEARL - How to update Wi-Fi settings.

Step 3. Wi-Fi range

The Pearl unit has a much smaller antenna than a smartphone or a laptop which is sometimes misleading. This is also the reason that from the Pearl perspective the Wi-Fi at your location could appear Weak.

A simple test that can be done with minimal effort is the following:

1. Bring the set of Pearls within 10 feet of your Wi-Fi's access point with a clear line of sight.
2. Leave them on a desk/table for a day or two making sure they stay aligned together.
3. If needed you can also generate a few counts by using a thick piece of cardboard and breaking the beams in both directions to create in and out counts.
4. Review the Smartapp or T.M.A.S. to confirm the counts updated confirming communication, the Pearl Main unit should also stop indicating a communication issue by looking at its led.
   

If the above steps worked, we recommended adding a Wi-Fi extender closer to the Pearl area, details can be found in this article: PEARL - Adding a Wi-Fi Extender. 

If the steps above did not resolve the issue, make sure that the network requirements and credentials used are met.

Step 4. Local Network

To confirm that the PEARL unit is connecting properly to your network, you can refer to the below options. (you might also need the help of your IT team or someone that is Tech Savvy).

Option 1 (recommend): Login to your DHCP server of Access Point to confirm that you are seeing the PEARL units' mac address connect.

Option 2: Scan your network on top of the hours for the PEARL's Mac Address, for your reference: How to confirm local network communication

Step 5. Network security might be tight

The PEARL communicates by pushing the information to our T.M.A.S. SaaS platform, should you be doing any type of network filtering you will need to whitelist our software URL.

You can refer to the following article, PEARL - T.M.A.S. SaaS Communication

** Due to the vast amount of network configurations, and for security purposes, we do not provide technical support regarding your local network, you might need to provide the above link to your networking team for them to confirm.

Still experiencing issues

So you went over the above Issues and proceeded with the proper checks are your still experiencing issues?
In this case, the next step would be to reach out to our support team for help. We are reachable via one of two ways: 

Option 1: Email us at techsupport@storetraffic.com

Option 2: Chat with our support agents from our help.storetraffic.com, you can refer to these step should you have issues finding our online chat:  SMS Support Chat