Stewart, Franz,
I have submitted a Bug Report to the iOS Apple Seed Team for iOS 13.4, with no response yet. I will be sure to let you know if I do hear from them.
The controller has not gone Off-Line for over a week now, which is promising. I ran a WiFi Scan, using the iPhone Airport Utility (the hidden WiFi Scan facility); the 2.4GHz band is very poor, RSSI -80, and swamped by stronger (-70 to -75) WiFi at the Rachio 3 install location emanating from WiFi installations in our neighbours homes.
Yesterday (Thursday 20 Feb), I received and installed the WiFi Smart Mesh Booster, re-ran the Airport Utility, and am delighted to note the WiFi Scan now measures RSSI -65 at 2.4GHz (and -73 at 5GHz), and now dominates the neighbours WiFi installations.
I will monitor and get back here again if I see any OffLine or Power Cycle events.
Stewart, Franz,
After three weeks, I am pleased to be able to tell you that operation has been perfect, on both of my Rachio 3 Controllers.
No Off-Line incidents, and…
not one Power-Cycle (almost a daily event in early February).
Thank you for your help, very much appreciated.
Robert.
PS: I have not tried to test “re-freshing” the Rachio 3 WiFi connection using my iPhone 11 Pro, since I used the iPhone 6 to refresh the WiFi connection, since it has been solid since I added the WiFi Smart Mesh Booster to my home network.
I cannot add my gen3 controller using iPhone 11 peo max or iPad Pro with iOS 13.4. No problem with previous versions.
Good to know it is not me or my mesh network. Unfortunately I do not have any devices running on other iOS versions other than an old mini pad but it is stuck at iOS 9. App does not support it.
I am using Plume Mesh network and the controller was on that network and working. I decided to do some work on my irrigation system adding zones and wanted to start fresh and add the gen 3 back to HomeKit, so I removed the controller. That is when I got stuck trying to add it back.
iOS 13.4 looks like they changed how or what it uses to add WiFi devices. The Rachio app pulls up airport setup dialog box even when I do not have airport express app loaded.
Craig,
See if you can borrow a friends older model iPhone (6 or 7), install the Rachio App on it, connect the iPhone to your WiFi Network and use the App to setup your Rachio 3.
It will connect just so easily.
I have not had to revisit the WiFi setup of my front garden Rachio 3.
My original problem was that the Rachio 3 was at the fringe of my single WiFi Hub range, and would regularly loose the WiFi connection. I added a WiFi range extender, and have not seen a WiFi drop out on the Rachio 3 since.
Nor have I tried to revisit and test the Rachio 3 the WiFi connection setup using my iPhone 11 Pro; its working, and I have no desire to mess with it at this time.
On Feb 15th, I submitted Feedback to Apple Development, with detailed diagnostics.
To date, the issue remains open, with no similar reports, so maybe, just maybe, it is a Rachio 3 firmware issue.
