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Understanding the Onyx 4G Dongle: LED Indicators, Antennas, and Reset Functions

Learn what the LED lights mean on your Onyx dongle, how to connect compatible antennas, and what the reset button and white toggle switch do.

LED Indicator Guide

The Onyx (Soracom) 4G dongle has two LEDs — green and blue — that combine to create different colours and blink patterns to show the modem’s status.
When both LEDs are on together, they appear cyan.

LED Meanings

LED Pattern Description Status
Short blue blink → off Disconnected, not scanning for networks Idle
Long blue blink → off Scanning for networks Searching
Long cyan blink → short green blink Connected, idle, waiting to transmit data Connected (Idle)
Blinking blue Transmitting data over 2G or 3G Active Data (2G/3G)
Blinking cyan and green Transmitting data over 4G/LTE Active Data (4G/LTE)

💡 Tip: If you see no light activity at all, confirm the dongle is securely connected to the USB-C hub and that the tablet is powered on.

light-behavior-table

Antenna Compatibility

The Onyx dongle includes two built-in antennas and two CRC9 connectors for external antennas.

Built-in antennas

  • Located at the top and bottom of the device.

  • Provide strong signal reception in most conditions without external attachments.

External antennas

  • Use the CRC9 connectors to attach external antennas for improved connectivity in weak-signal environments.

  • The main antenna port is furthest from the USB plug.

  • The auxiliary antenna port is closest to the USB plug.

  • You can:

    • Connect one antenna to the main port (recommended), or

    • Connect two individual antennas to both ports.

onyx-antennas

📡 Note:
Soracom doesn’t specify exact antenna models, but any antenna that supports the LTE, 3G (UMTS), and 2G (GSM) frequency bands listed on the Soracom Onyx LTE USB Modem product page will work correctly.

Reset Button Function

Inside the Onyx dongle (under the removable cover) is a small reset button.

onyx-reset

  • Pressing this triggers a hardware-level reset, restarting the modem to its clean, initial power-up state.

  • It should only be used when:

    • The modem becomes unresponsive, or

    • Errors cannot be resolved by restarting the tablet or by standard software interaction.

⚠️ Caution: Only press the reset button if the dongle is frozen or not responding to any input. It will interrupt any active connections.

White Toggle Switch

When you remove the cover, you’ll see a small white toggle switch near the main antenna connector.
This switch is a design artifact — it serves no functional purpose and does not affect operation or configuration of the Onyx dongle.

When to Contact Support

If your Onyx dongle shows no LED activity, fails to connect even in strong signal areas, or remains unresponsive after a reset.

Please include a video of the dongle’s LED status and a brief description of the issue.