Rachio 3 won’t stay connected

My Rachio 3 keeps going offline and comng back on. I get the solid blue for a bit and then it goes to the blinking white bars and back to the solid blue. Then repeats that cycle. I’ve unplugged the Rachio and unplugged the modem/router, and plugged them all back in. The signal strength at the Rachio inside the garage is good, at least on my phone, and even on my solar control box farther away on the outside of the garage. (Suggestion for the app to show the WiFi signal strength) As a result when it rains and trips my rain sensor, I get these notifications constantly. What can I do to fix this???

@Mattikatt Fairly certain the rain sensor is not wired correctly, I’d start there in WiFi troubleshooting.

Can you provide make/model and wiring pictures for smarter people than me like @DLane and @Gene to identify?

:cheers:

It’s Hunter Rain-Clik. I wired it following the directions for that on this site. I’ll add a picture when I get home tonight.

Also, the changing from solid blue to white flashing to blue happens when the rain sensor is not tripped. It’s been happening for weeks without the sensor being tripped.

Ok, it will be easier when we can start ruling things out for WiFi connectivity. Troubleshooting on multiple fronts can get us into trouble. Once the rain sensor notifications go away we can focus on WiFi. This doesn’t look healthy for the system.

:cheers:

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@Gene - looks like @Franz is calling us out!

@Mattikatt - one option would be to disconnect the rain sensor and observe the WiFi behavior. If that is the wireless Hunter Rain-Clik then I’ve seen the third wire not being hooked up correctly cause this. And I vaguely recall someone swapping the same colored wires and that solving the problem. This is how it is hooked up, correct?

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:slight_smile: Good to be remembered :wink:

I agree with @DLane, hooking up the orange cable (which is normally open output) to 24 VAC + termianl while white is connected to 24 VAC - would essentially short circuit the power supply and cause the rachio to reboot. Make sure you keep the orange wire unused. (Only Yellow, blue and white cables should be used in configuration shown by @DLane).

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That’s correct. I followed this wiring diagram. The orange wire is unused. Here is a picture.

I have a video of it with the rain sensor hooked up and a video of it with the rain sensor completely disconnected. The behavior is the same, no change. I tried to add them here but it won’t let me.

It has been connected to my 2.4gHz network.

I held the WiFi reset button for a long time (never saw flashing yelllow) and eventually saw orange lights turn to green lights. This time I connected it to the 5gHz network. It connected and seems to be working ok. I think it’s only done the disconnect thing once or twice since then.

I wish there was better WiFi stats or information in the app to help troubleshoot.

@Mattikatt, when you remove the rain sensor, did you try disabling it from the app too? I would ensure that it’s disabled from the app and disconnected prior to troubleshooting WiFi just to eliminate other variables. :smiley:

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No, I did not. I very very very seriously doubt the rain sensor had any bearing whatsoever on the trouble to begin with. Like I said, this was happening long before the rain sensor was tripped.

Sure, that makes sense. Although it was happening prior to the rain sensor being tripped, it would reduce variables and also reduce the amount of noise when we do want to troubleshoot it further.

It’s supposed to rain again today. Right now the sensor is deactivated. We’ll see if it trips and the problem happens again, then I’ll believe it has something to do with the sensor.

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