Wiznet makers

Network/internet outage monitor using WIZnet WS5100S-EVB-Pico

This project uses a WIZnet WS5100S-EVB-Pico attached to a spare Ethernet port on a local router and is used to monitor the Network/Internet for outages. The project was designed after chasing and tracking multiple home Internet outages. I needed times and dates for my Internet provider to track down an ongoing issue I had last year. It did turn out that the issue was the cable coming off of the junction box outside my house. I wanted a device that would sit passively and monitor my network/internet 24/7. The design is a starting point for a more elaborate monitoring device. Please see Future enhancements at the end of the project. I was lucky(?) enough to have an outage in the middle of the night during programming and testing. The monitor did detect and report the outage. I wrote the program after going through all the CircuitPython examples. I borrowed and modified code from may of them. Hope you enjoy and get inspired by the project.

The program will:

• Detect the Ethernet cable unplugged from the WS5100S or the Ethernet port on the router
• Detect Network or Internet outages
• Light LEDs to indicate connection ok, cable disconnected and Network/Internet outages
• Display tracking information through the serial port
• Publish program start time, up time and outage time MQTT messages to a broker
  • I used a Raspberry Pi as the broker and Node Red to post the information and write to a log

Design:

• The program is written in CircuitPython. Thronny was used as the editor.
• Program file name is code.py. This allows the program to autostart on powerup. Note ? the program will fail to start if the Ethernet cable is not plugged in.
• The program will try to resolve a .com URL. I used dns.google. The program was also tested with my router URL.
• The board and external green LEDs will be on during good connections.
• If the program can’t resolve the URL, the external green LED will turn off and the red external LED will turn on.
• If the Ethernet cable becomes unplugged, both the external and internal green LEDs will turn off and the external red LED will turn on.
• The program will check the URL every 2 minutes and if there is an outage, it will check every 30 seconds to determine if the outage has cleared.
• All information will be displayed on the serial port.
• Program start time, up time and outage time will be published as MQTT messages to a broker. Note ? outage time can not be sent until the network is back up.
• Use a Raspberry Pi for the MQTT broker. Use Node Red for data presentation and logging of program start time, up time and outage time. Note ? a broker must be available to the program to publish MQTT messages. If one isn't available, remark all publish calls in the program.

Circuit diagram:

GitHub - russel2512/Net_monitor (github.com)

Deployment:

This is an overview of the project deployment. You should have a general knowledge of RP2040. Information can be found at?https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-pico/?and?https://docs.wiznet.io/Product/iEthernet/W5100S/w5100s-evb-pico/.

This project was developed with CircuitPython 7.1.1 deployed on the WS5100S. A good reference can be found at?https://learn.adafruit.com/welcome-to-circuitpython. Version 7.1.1 of CircuitPython (adafruit-circuitpython-raspberry_pi_pico-en_US-7.1.1.uf2) can be found here:?https://adafruit-circuit-python.s3.amazonaws.com/bin/raspberry_pi_pico/en_US/adafruit-circuitpython-raspberry_pi_pico-en_US-7.1.1.uf2

Install Thonny IDE to program the WS5100S. It can be found here:?https://thonny.org/.?MU does not need to be installed.

Test CircuitPython with the WS5100S using the Blink example program.

Library deployment steps:

• Create?lib?folder on the board.
• Download and copy the following libraries from?https://github.com/Wiznet/RP2040-HAT-CircuitPython?to lib.
  • adafruit_bus_device
  • adafruit_io
  • adafruit_minimqtt
  • adafruit_wiznet5k
  • adafruit_wsgi
  • adafruit_requests.py
• One more library needs to be copied to the lib folder.
  • Download adafruit-circuitpython-bundle-7.x-mpy-20220413.zip from?https://circuitpython.org/libraries, upzip the file and copy adafruit_datetime.mpy to lib.

Copy the monitor code from?https://github.com/russel2512/Net_monitor.

• code.py (autorun)
• WIZnet_monitor.py (same as code.py, but does not autorun)

Connect the LEDs per the circuit diagram found in the GitHub project.

Setup a Raspberry Pi (Node Red is optional).

• For information on Raspberry Pi deployment, see?https://www.raspberrypi.com/.
• For information on Mosquitto MQTT broker, see?https://randomnerdtutorials.com/how-to-install-mosquitto-broker-on-raspberry-pi.
• For information on Node Red, see?https://nodered.org/docs/getting-started/raspberrypi.
• Import the text from?Node Red import.txt into Node Red. You may need to modify MQTT broker information. Server - 'localhost' works ok in my configuration.
• Change the username and password.? These will need to be change in both the code and Node Red.
  • username="rpi-pico"
  • password="wiznet"
• 

Final changes to the programs (code.py and WIZnet_monitor.py)

• Change the MQTT ip adress to the broker.
• Change IP_ADDRESS if the device is on a different subnet or if 192.168.68.200 conflicts with device on your network.

For the program to work correctly, a MQTT broker must be available or it will fail. A broker can be deployed on almost any device. If you don't have a broker available, you can go through the code and remark out all the MQTT calls.

YouTube video of board/program operation - https://youtu.be/2fmNqMajGyM

Serial Port display inforamtion with screen shots of LED status:

Normal operation

Ethernet cable disconnected

Network issue

Node Red screen shots:

Startup?

Cable error?

Network error?

Future enhancements: These are just ‘blue sky’ ideas. Some may not be valid or work. The biggest ‘got ya’ is the fact that the down/up information can’t be sent to the broker until the network is backup. This means the data will always cause a notification after the outage.

• Break up data for better data handling (ie, filling JASON fields and adding to databases)
• Deploy MQTT broker on PC and or Phone
• Use IFFT to send phone or text notifications
• Calculate downtime in the program or in Node Red
• Send Start, Up and Down data to external collection (ie ThingSpeak)
• Send notifications to a phone or PC directly from Node Red
• Add code to monitor multiple URLs, this could be used to monitor multiple servers or internal network devices (must have URLs)
• Change LEDs to a small display.
• Design a circuit board for the project.
• Design a 3D printed case.