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FreedomFi Gateway Troubleshooting
The Helium Explorer & App as well as third-party websites such as HotSpotty are notorious for displaying an outdated status for your hotspot. In some situations, it can take multiple days to reflect the true and accurate status. You should always review your local dashboard for the source of truth as this will always have the latest status of your hotspot.
You can review your local dashboard by heading directly to http://freedomfi-gateway.local/ or alternatively if that link is not working, you can take your FreedomFi Gateway assigned IP address (which can be found in your router admin panel. Please note dependent on the make/model of your router, the steps to get here will slightly vary) and enter it directly into a web browser on the same network as your hotspot.
You should end up on a dashboard that looks like this:
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If your dashboard indicates that you are not relayed, you should be all set to go. Give the Explorer & App a few days and it should update to reflect the same.
We have found that in some situations particularly FreedomFi 5G Gateways can get stuck trying to scan the QR code on the bottom of the Gateway.
Please try to capture a photo of the QR code on a separate device, and then scan the photo itself with a separate phone or tablet that has the Helium App installed on it.
If your mobile web browser, like Safari, doesn’t allow you to access the camera to capture the QR code, it may be that the browser permissions settings prevent it. You can either change the permissions or try another browser, like Chrome or Firefox.
Please ensure you are scanning on a device that has the Helium app installed on it is critical, otherwise, you will just end up stuck during the wallet ID step.
Please note that there is no safe, or supported way to currently manually enter your serial number or wallet ID number. If you have successfully scanned the QR code on a device running the Helium App these fields will be automatically filled out for you and you will be allowed to proceed to the next step.
Even after being fully synced to the blockchain, the gateway can take up to 8 hours to participate in any form of PoC activity. Please be patient, and make sure not to power cycle your gateway.
There are many reasons why a hotspot may not have any witnesses. We shall detail a few below;
Your hotspot is not synced to the latest block on the blockchain. Your hotspot will only witness beacons once it has synced with the blockchain.
You may not have any neighboring hotspots that are close enough for your hotspot to “hear” their beacon, or there may be an obstruction between your hotspot and the beaconing hotspot, blocking the radio signal. Try increasing the elevation of your antenna. If your antenna is inside, try to have one installed outside. Some types of windows have a coating that can have a detrimental effect on radio signals.
There may be a fault with your antenna or cabling connection. Please check that all connectors are screwed on securely and that any connection points are correctly “sexed.”
If your hotspot is relayed, this can have an impact upon witnessing.
The way that the Helium explorer obtains information from the Helium miner can often introduce a delay in the information that is presented. This delay can be significant at times, up to days.
If you have connected to the local Dashboard on your FreedomFi 5G Gateway and the status indicators show everything is okay, often the best course of action is to be patient and not to do things such as power-cycling the hotspot as this can cause the miner to fall even further behind with syncing the blockchain.
In some scenarios, it can take miners a while to display as online, especially if they have been offline for a while, the miner will not only need to sync to the blockchain but may need to perform firmware updates, so it is best to let the hotspot complete this process undisturbed.
If the problem persists after 72 hrs. of not interrupting your hotspots progress, please contact our support here.
If you are facing an issue when attempting to onboard your hotspot, please reach out directly to our Technical Support team here.
Reward scaling is brought about due to HIP15/17 and is related to the number of hotspots in a given area and was implemented to encourage the even distribution of the network to improve coverage. For more in-depth reading, please see the original proposals here: HIP15, HIP17.
A great tool to understand and visualize the scaling in your area is HotSpotty here you will be provided with a fantastic overview, as well as what you can do to improve your transmit scale.
This can sometimes happen if a new firmware update is released that requires time to download, causing the gateway to go out of sync. Often, the best course of action is just to leave your hotspot connected to the internet and powered on and give it time to re-sync with the blockchain. Power cycling can often be the worst course of action since the hotspot can fall further behind during the reboot.
The average time taken for a Helium Hotspot to sync will vary on a case by case basis, as factors such as your internet speed and stability can impact the total length of time. But on average, it should be expected to take between 24-72hrs, but it can take longer in some situations.
Hotspots being Relayed are not directly connected to the internet, but through another Hotspot on the network, this can prove detrimental to your miner’s performance.
To resolve this, we need to open TCP Port 44158. This is done by adjusting your networks router settings. If you are unsure how to do this, please look at https://portforward.com/ where you will find guides for a majority of the most common router types.
A quick and easy way to see if you have stopped being relayed is to head over to the community created tool https://app.heliumstatus.io/ and check the “NAT type” of the hotspot to make sure it does not say “symmetric”.
The Helium Explorer & App as well as third-party websites such as HotSpotty are notorious for displaying an outdated status for your hotspot. In some situations, it can take multiple days to reflect the true and accurate status. You should always review your local dashboard for the source of truth as this will always have the latest status of your hotspot.
You can review your local dashboard by heading directly to http://freedomfi-gateway.local/ or alternatively if that link is not working, you can take your FreedomFi Gateway assigned IP address (which can be found in your router admin panel. Please note dependent on the make/model of your router, the steps to get here will slightly vary) and enter it directly into a web browser on the same network as your hotspot.
You should end up on a dashboard that looks like this:
If your dashboard indicates that you are not relayed, you should be all set to go. Give the Explorer & App a few days and it should update to reflect the same.
We have found that in some situations particularly FreedomFi 5G Gateways can get stuck trying to scan the QR code on the bottom of the Gateway.
Please try to capture a photo of the QR code on a separate device, and then scan the photo itself with a separate phone or tablet that has the Helium App installed on it.
If your mobile web browser, like Safari, doesn’t allow you to access the camera to capture the QR code, it may be that the browser permissions settings prevent it. You can either change the permissions or try another browser, like Chrome or Firefox.
Please ensure you are scanning on a device that has the Helium app installed on it is critical, otherwise, you will just end up stuck during the wallet ID step.
Please note that there is no safe, or supported way to currently manually enter your serial number or wallet ID number. If you have successfully scanned the QR code on a device running the Helium App these fields will be automatically filled out for you and you will be allowed to proceed to the next step.
Even after being fully synced to the blockchain, the gateway can take up to 8 hours to participate in any form of PoC activity. Please be patient, and make sure not to power cycle your gateway.
There are many reasons why a hotspot may not have any witnesses. We shall detail a few below;
Your hotspot is not synced to the latest block on the blockchain. Your hotspot will only witness beacons once it has synced with the blockchain.
You may not have any neighboring hotspots that are close enough for your hotspot to “hear” their beacon, or there may be an obstruction between your hotspot and the beaconing hotspot, blocking the radio signal. Try increasing the elevation of your antenna. If your antenna is inside, try to have one installed outside. Some types of windows have a coating that can have a detrimental effect on radio signals.
There may be a fault with your antenna or cabling connection. Please check that all connectors are screwed on securely and that any connection points are correctly “sexed.”
If your hotspot is relayed, this can have an impact upon witnessing.
The way that the Helium explorer obtains information from the Helium miner can often introduce a delay in the information that is presented. This delay can be significant at times, up to days.
If you have connected to the local Dashboard on your FreedomFi 5G Gateway and the status indicators show everything is okay, often the best course of action is to be patient and not to do things such as power-cycling the hotspot as this can cause the miner to fall even further behind with syncing the blockchain.
In some scenarios, it can take miners a while to display as online, especially if they have been offline for a while, the miner will not only need to sync to the blockchain but may need to perform firmware updates, so it is best to let the hotspot complete this process undisturbed.
If the problem persists after 72 hrs. of not interrupting your hotspots progress, please contact our support here.
If you are facing an issue when attempting to onboard your hotspot, please reach out directly to our Technical Support team here.
Reward scaling is brought about due to HIP15/17 and is related to the number of hotspots in a given area and was implemented to encourage the even distribution of the network to improve coverage. For more in-depth reading, please see the original proposals here: HIP15, HIP17.
A great tool to understand and visualize the scaling in your area is HotSpotty here you will be provided with a fantastic overview, as well as what you can do to improve your transmit scale.
This can sometimes happen if a new firmware update is released that requires time to download, causing the gateway to go out of sync. Often, the best course of action is just to leave your hotspot connected to the internet and powered on and give it time to re-sync with the blockchain. Power cycling can often be the worst course of action since the hotspot can fall further behind during the reboot.
The average time taken for a Helium Hotspot to sync will vary on a case by case basis, as factors such as your internet speed and stability can impact the total length of time. But on average, it should be expected to take between 24-72hrs, but it can take longer in some situations.
Hotspots being Relayed are not directly connected to the internet, but through another Hotspot on the network, this can prove detrimental to your miner’s performance.
To resolve this, we need to open TCP Port 44158. This is done by adjusting your networks router settings. If you are unsure how to do this, please look at https://portforward.com/ where you will find guides for a majority of the most common router types.
A quick and easy way to see if you have stopped being relayed is to head over to the community created tool https://app.heliumstatus.io/ and check the “NAT type” of the hotspot to make sure it does not say “symmetric”.