Troubleshooting & Support

If you're experiencing issues with your Transit Tracker, please check the following troubleshooting steps. If you still need help, you can ask on GitHub Discussions.

Common Issues

Display is completely blank when powered on

Try using the brightness buttons to increase the brightness of the display.

Trouble pushing configuration via USB

Related error messages: "Liveness check timed out", "Not connected", "Request timed out"

If you are having trouble pushing your Transit Tracker's configuration via USB, please try the following steps:

1. Unplug your Transit Tracker from your computer and plug it back in.
2. Restart your browser.
3. If you have any routes set in the configurator, try removing them and pushing an empty configuration first.
4. Try re-running initial setup from the configurator.
5. Try using a different USB cable (some cables are power-only and do not support data transfer).
6. Try using a different USB port on your computer.
7. If you're using a USB hub, try connecting directly to your computer instead.

Can't flash firmware on Linux

If you are using a Linux machine and are having trouble flashing the firmware, you may need to give your user permission to access the USB device. For most distributions, you can follow these steps:

1. Run the following command to add your user to the dialout group:

   sudo usermod -aG dialout $USER

2. Log out and log back in for the group change to take effect.

3. Try flashing the firmware again.

If it's still not working, consult your distribution's documentation for more information on managing USB device permissions. If you are using something like Flatpak or Snap to run your browser, you may need to give it additional permissions to access USB devices.

Status Messages

If you see a status message on your Transit Tracker instead of the schedule, that can help diagnose an issue. Here are the possible status messages and their meanings.

"Waiting for network"

Problem: Your Transit Tracker is not yet connected to your Wi-Fi network. This can happen if the signal is weak or the Wi-Fi password is incorrect.

Solution: You can re-connect the Transit Tracker to your Wi-Fi network by following these instructions.

"Waiting for time sync"

Problem: Your Transit Tracker needs to synchronize its internal clock over the internet before it can display the schedule. This usually happens automatically after it connects to Wi-Fi. If you see this message for a long time, it's probably having trouble connecting to the time server.

Solution:

1. Make sure your Wi-Fi network has internet access.
2. If you have any sort of firewall or network filtering on your router, make sure it allows UDP connections to *.pool.ntp.org.
3. Restart your Transit Tracker.
4. If all else fails, try re-flashing the latest firmware in the configurator.

"No base URL set"

Problem: You have not yet configured your Transit Tracker in the configurator. (Technically, this means your Transit Tracker does not know where to get the schedule data from.)

Solution: Go to the configurator, select some routes, and save the configuration.

"Error loading schedule"

Problem: Your Transit Tracker is having trouble loading the schedule data from the server.

Solution:

1. Make sure your Wi-Fi network has internet access.
2. If you have any sort of firewall or network filtering on your router, make sure it allows TLS connections to tt.horner.tj (if you haven't changed the server you're using).
3. Restart your Transit Tracker.
4. Re-save your configuration from the configurator.

If you are still seeing this message intermittently, then it's very likely a Wi-Fi issue. The Matrix Portal S3 board Transit Tracker uses only supports 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi networks and it is a low-power device, so interference and congestion will affect it more than usual. To mitigate this, try tweaking the following options in your router's settings:

• Broadcast separate 2.4 and 5 GHz networks
• Choose less-congested Wi-Fi channels for the 2.4 GHz network
• Disable band steering, if available
• Toggle on any options related to optimizing IoT (Internet of Things) devices

The location of these settings will vary based on your router's manufacturer, and even from model to model, so we unfortunately can't provide step-by-step instructions for all of them, but we've compiled a list for a few below. If you can't find the settings for your router, please open a discussion and we can help you troubleshoot.

Ubiquiti / UniFi Network Application

Create dedicated 2.4 GHz network

1. In Settings → WiFi, create a new network. Name it anything other than your primary network.
2. Set Radio Band to 2.4 GHz.
3. Set Application to IoT.
4. Create the network.
5. Connect your Transit Tracker to this new network.

Optimize channels

1. Set Default WiFi Speeds to Conservative.
2. Go to Channel AI, then select the 2.4 GHz band on each AP.
3. Set Channel to Auto. Your APs will restart.

TP-Link

Follow TP-Link's guide here.

If you are still experiencing issues after optimizing your router's settings, then please open a discussion.

"Loading..."

Problem: Your Transit Tracker is trying to load schedule data for the first time, but it hasn't finished yet.

Solution: If you see this message for a long time, it's probably having trouble connecting to the server, and you should try the steps for "Error loading schedule".

"No upcoming departures" / "No upcoming arrivals"

Problem: There are no upcoming departures or arrivals for the selected routes at the current time.

Solution: If the routes you're tracking are still in service for the day but you see this message, it may be due to one of the following:

• You have set a time offset in the configurator.
• You haven't selected the correct routes.
• There is some other problem with the schedule data. This can sometimes happen close to major service changes.
• Your transit agency has changed the internal ID for a stop or route. If this happens, you should unselect and re-select the affected routes in the configurator, then save the configuration again.