My controller looks brand new. The label on the underside is pristine. The serial number matches what’s shown in my Rachio account. The controller was added using the barcode. I would hope that Rachio could keep the SN and MAC in sync. I don’t think there’s any mismatch.
I got another reply from hfiennes who matched my Wireshark capture to Electric Imp server logs. His theory is that the Rachio code in the controller is getting stuck in a loop, blocking network responses and a subsequent reconnect. This would be due to a hardware fault rather than a “bug” which should affect lots of users. This is a “certified factory refurbished” unit. Maybe it was a defective return that wasn’t thoroughly tested.
I still don’t understand how my controller can be “offline” while talking to the cloud for 10 minutes. That makes me think there’s some Rachio backend config problem. This was the explanation from franz in several similar posts.
–David