NWK300 Setup Guide

Introduction

This article covers basic setup and troubleshooting for the NWK300, an mPCIe carrier board paired with the Sierra Wireless EM759X series of cellular modem.

Product Manual

NWK300 Manual

EM759X Manual

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Drivers

• If you purchased Windows from OnLogic, drivers for the modem are already installed.
• Windows Driver Package
  • Release Notes
  • Installation Guide
• Linux Drivers Installation

SIM cards and Activation

• Locate the Extrovert booklet that came with your system.
• If an ICCID number is listed, your system already has a SIM card installed internally and is ready to activate. If not, you will need to provide a SIM card. See: Using External SIM slot and/or Installing A SIM Card
• Contact your wireless carrier. State that you want to activate a 4G modem and provide the numbers on the front of the booklet.

Modem Setup

• Ensure you are in an area with good signal coverage
• Connect both antennas and boot up the OnLogic PC
• Allow the PC to sit for a few minutes and see if a 4G connection is established. If not, continue with the steps below.

Windows

Opening the AT Command Terminal

• Download and install the latest version of the PuTTY tool. Download Link

• The first item to check is the firmware setting. It should match the desired carrier.

at!impref?

• In the example above, the generic firmware is loaded. The carrier specific firmware should be used instead.
• Run the following commands:

Note: if your carrier is not listed, download the correct firmware from the following webpage:

https://source.sierrawireless.com/resources/airprime/minicard/74xx/em_mc74xx-approved-fw-packages/

• If no connection is established after 5 minutes, open Putty and run the following 2 commands. Note that the COM port number may change after switching firmware. You may need to check device manager adjust Putty accordingly.

If the modem is still not working at this point, go back and ensure all previous steps have been completed. If so, skip to the Troubleshooting section.

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Linux

Ensure you are in an area with good signal coverage

• Connect both antennas and boot up the OnLogic PC

Opening the AT Command Terminal (Ubuntu Desktop
24.04)

• Open a terminal window (ctrl+alt+t)
• Install minicom with sudo apt update && sudo apt install minicom

• Run minicom setup via the command sudo minicom -s
• Select the “Serial port setup” menu option

• Press the ‘a’ key and modify serial device from “/dev/modem” to
  “/dev/ttyUSB2”. Press enter twice to exit this submenu

• Note: /dev/ttyUSB2 is the default for a system with no other USB serial devices. You can identifiy the correct at port using the cat/proc/tty/driver/usbserial the AT port will be the highest numbered QUALCOMM USB modem. In the below image this is 2 corresponding to /dev/ttyUSB2

• Select “Save setup as dfl” from the menu, look for the “Configuration Saved”
  popup
• Select “Exit from Minicom” to return to the shell
• While running AT configuration commands ModemManager will need to be
  disabled you can do this with the command sudo systemctl stop
  ModemManger.service
• Open the AT port with the sudo minicom

Updating the Firmware

Firmware updates can be downloaded from the Sierra Wireless website linked below.

• Firmware versions are carrier specific. Download the version for your carrier. Use Generic if yours is not listed.
• You will need to register for a free account to download.
• Firmware Downloads
• Run the executable and let it complete. Power down and unplug the system from power for 10 seconds. When you power it back up, the new firmware will be active.

Accessing the SIM card

The modem has its own SIM slot on the bottom side. This is the preferred location to install a SIM card. OnLogic installs all SIM cards here by default.

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Using the external SIM slot

The NWK300 comes with two built-in SIM slots. It does not have any provision for automatic SIM switching, so a user must intervene in order to change SIMs. SIM slot 1 on the card connects to UIM0 on the modem. SIM slot 2 on the card, or any motherboard or external slot, connects to UIM1.

• Open an AT command terminal by following the instructions in the Opening the AT Command Terminal section.
• Run the following commands in the AT terminal:

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4G and Ethernet

The default behavior of Windows is to prioritize wired connections over wireless connections. The modem will be automatically disabled when an ethernet cable is connected. This behavior may be undesirable if you with to use 4G while having access to the local ethernet network or use PoE cameras. You can override this behavior using one of the options below. But first, you will need to change the following setting under the Windows “Cellular” settings:

1. Group Policy

• Launch gpedit.msc from the start menu
• Go to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Network\Windows Connection Manager
• Change the Setting of Minimize the number of simultaneous connections to the Internet or a Windows Domain to “disabled”

2. Registry Edit

This setting will configure windows to ignore non-routable ethernet connections in network priority.

Easy Method

Download and run this file.

Manual Method

Not needed if you use the Easy method.

The registry value is HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WcmSvc\IgnoreNonRoutableEthernet = (DWORD) 0x1

Open the Registry Editor – press Windows key + R, type regedit and press enter.

1 – In the left side of the window expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, expand SOFTWARE, expand Microsoft and select WcmSvc.
2 – If the value IgnoreNonRoutableEthernet exists it will show up in the right pane of the window. If it does not exist you will have to create it (right click on WcmSvc > New > click DWORD (32 bit) Value, name the value IgnoreNonRoutableEthernet).
3 – Right click the value IgnoreNonRoutableEthernet and click Modify… in the “Value data” field type 1, leave the Base radio button on Hexadecimal and click ok.
4 – WcmSvc should now have the value IgnoreNonRoutableEthernet REG_DWORD 0x00000001 (1)

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Troubleshooting

• Before performing any troubleshooting, ensure you have completed all steps under Modem Setup and have activated your SIM card.

No Connection error

• If no connection is established after 5 minutes, open Putty and run the following 2 commands. Note that the COM port number may change after switching firmware. You may need to check /dev and adjust Putty accordingly.

Diagnostic AT Commands

• Open an AT command terminal by following the instructions in the Opening the AT Command Terminal section.

The commands below can help diagnose various modem issues. Tech support may request screenshots of the output of each of these commands. If you have reached this point and require additional help, please email support@onlogic.com and include a copy of these screenshots as well as your system serial number.

AT!ENTERCND=”A710”	Enters the password for certain password protected commands.
At!impref?	Display active firmware version
AT+CSQ	Display signal quality. Scale from 0-31, 31 being best signal. 99= no signal
AT+ICCID	Print SIM card number. If error, SIM is not configured correctly or installed.
At+cgdcont?	Shows the active APN
AT!GSTATUS?	Prints general status info
At+cgact?	Checks if paths to the network are active. Should output 1,1
AT+CGSN	Prints the IMEI of the modem
AT!PCINFO	Return the modem’s power control status.

Full list of AT Commands

Insert SIM Error

Connection shows “Turned Off”

• Open Putty and run the following 2 commands. This should force the modem into an online state.

Poor upload speed on Verizon

If good download speeds but low/zero upload speeds are encountered on the Verizon network, try setting the MTU manually for the wireless interface.

Open a terminal and run the following two commands:

sudo ip link set dev wwan0 mtu 1428
sudo ip link set dev wwan1 mtu 1428

Modem will not automatically connect at boot

This is a known issue with Windows 10 Pro build 1809. Upgrading your Windows build will resolve the issue.