Mine was also the same each time I ran the command. But leaving it running overnight gave me a much different result.
Try leaving it running overnight and see what you get.
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The GE/Jamco switches ( I’ve mostly used their Z-wave toggles ) have worked sell for me. I especially like the fact that they look like a regular toggle switch.
There are some other brands as well. I like the fact that they don’t get out of sync ( like a 3-way switch ) since they self center. They provide the mechanical backup in case network goes out. Yes, z-wave, but I’ve found that a SmartThings hub with the home kit bridging set up is a very useful homekit accessory. It’s enabled me to utilize all of the previous accessories that I had with my Wink set up. It also gives me the option to purchase cheaper Zigbee and Zwave accessories when the direct homekit sensor is priced stupidly expensive.
Yes, this can be a common problem with WiFi ( or other radio devices —I’ve helped design WiFi products and AP/routers etc. for a number of years )
What happens is that if the config isn’t right for when it’s near the edge of its range it drops and tries to repeatedly reconnect. A normal reconnect causes the radio to switch to a more active transmit power mode — to describe it simply ). This causes higher emissions which basically heat up the device. When done properly if it doesn’t connect it will sleep a random interval and try again. When done wrong it can keep the radio on — radio waves, like other electromagnetic waves, generate heat as they pass thru materials.
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This terminal command I found gives interesting results.
dns-sd -Z _homekit._tcp local
Also found this Reddit thread
Also this HomeKit troubleshooting page.I might try turning off auto channel after reading it.
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There actually was an update from Franz!
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Thanks for the update Dane
Is there a reliable way to contact Franz?
That’s interesting. Mine has never connected to 5GHz band, only 2.4. Eero uses the same SSID for both bands. There is an option called band steering that switches devices to 5GHz if available but never worked for Rachio…
I just checked again and the Rachio is still hanging out on 5Ghz-2. I moved a Synology router node to the garage and turned on traffic control with the Rachio on high priority… It’s been rock solid since. The terminal command shows a really fast connection. With the node in another location I would see the Rachio on 2.4 most of the time with a weaker signal (which makes sense that it would move to 2.4 with distance and walls). I will leave things like this a while and watch.
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I tried putting mine on my 5 ghz network but it seemed worse or at least no different.
I have all my HomeKit on 2.4 ghz and my mobile devices on my 5 ghz network.
As I have not had to actually manually reconnect the rachio since turning off IP6 I don’t want to mess with it.
My Trådfri Gateway started working properly, when I turned off the Avahi daemon running on my pfSense appliance. Will try to add the Rachio 3 to HomeKit next.
@franz: I was able to add my Rachio 3 to HomeKit for the first time today. The key was to turn off the Avahi daemon running on my pfSense box.
Not sure, what the daemon does that gets in the way of having HomeKit devices communicate properly with their respective apps, i.e., my iPhone or the Apple TV, which is my Home Hub.
I’d be happy to help troubleshoot for the sake of others’ HomeKit performance.
I have to google whet that was. Looks like it is a firewall. You probably need to open up whatever ports the Rachio uses.
Avahi is an open-source implementation of Apple’s Bonjour zero-configuration networking. When other Macs simply show up in a Network window in the Finder, even though there is no domain name service (DNS) for host names of devices on your LAN, it’s because they broadcast their addresses via Bonjour. Avahi implements a compatible service on Unix and Linux hosts.
With the pfSense router being essentially a Unix computer running the FreeBSD operating system, the Avahi package was supposed to help with device discovery across subnets. I have wired devices (on Ethernet) on a 192.168.1.x subnet and wireless devices on a 192.168.4.x subnet.
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Welcome to to the No Response club.
This is what has been working for me.
Put iPhone or iPad in airplane mode.
Wait for everything in HomeKit to show no response.
Take iPhone or iPad out of airplane mode.
Open up HomeKit and watch as everything goes back online and hopefully the Rachio.
If not you then need to go to your Rachio and hold down the WiFi button and add it back in but this does not remove it from HomeKit so it should be working once added back to wifi.
Or just buy a controller that actually works as advertised.
@Tzterri: The No Response club for me is a step in the right direction. I was in the No HomeKit At All club before.
Now that you have it in HomeKit you should be able to get it reconnected. As long as you don’t hold down the stop button on the controller it won’t be deleted from HomeKit.
What’s the procedure, exactly? I would like to try it. I know it’s been described above, but at ~1,200 posts it would be difficult to find.