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Eptura Knowledge Center

Heartbeat not received

Why do screens report ‘Heartbeat not received’ on the Device Health dashboard?

Each screen sends a ‘heartbeat’ message to Condeco every 15 minutes to report it is active, and also to report its software version.

  • Screens are listed as Heartbeat not received when Condeco has not received a heartbeat notification for 60 minutes.
  • Screens are listed as Software update available when running out-of-date software versions.

Not every heartbeat message will be received by Condeco and this does not need to be a concern.

Any of the following scenarios may prevent Condeco from receiving a heartbeat message:

  • Allowlists not applied / denylists in place. 
  • Poor Wi-Fi connectivity. See below.
  • High network traffic – locally or globally.
  • Low network bandwidth.
  • High latency.
  • Network drops/general network connectivity issues.
  • Aggressive load balancing.
  • Unresponsive IOT servers
  • Device is offline.

Heartbeat diagnosis

When investigating why devices are not sending heartbeats we recommend the following checks.

Check the physical screen.

  • Is the screen powered up?
  • Is an error message displayed on the screen?
  • Has the screen hung?

Check screens on the Device Health page.

  • Is the firmware up-to-date?
  • When were the last successful heartbeats? Multiple screens losing heartbeats within a short window of time can indicate changes to the network / IP addresses, power, or network outage issues.

Check for Wi-Fi problems. 

  • Is the Wi-Fi signal too weak? To operate successfully, RSSI must be at least -60dBm for desk booking screens and meeting room screens. Note that the dBm is a negative number so -59 is better than -60.
  • Is the meeting room screen is connected to POE with a live Ethernet connection but is connecting to the network via Wi-Fi? If this is your desired connection method, turn LAN off on the device.
  • Work with your IT team to monitor signal strength, network status, stability, and the general connectivity health to devices, through network management tools.

Check for NTP issues.

  • NTP issues can prevent communications. The firewall logs may help to identify if NTP calls are being blocked by firewall rules.