Rachio 3 Not Responding in Homekit (Again)

The last firmware update completely broke our controllers. I would like to see one of two things happen…

  1. Roll back our firmware to previous version so we have a fighting chance of making this work on our own. Or,
  2. Admit that you can’t fix this,

If # 2:
• Take the statement off the box which remains to this day “Works with HomeKit”
• Send us all $100 for our trouble

Then you can get back to watering grass…

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Just thought I’d add another user. It was working with the App, but not HomeKit. a Reboot sorted it this time.

BTW, running firmware 615. It doe snot show a 630/631 available. Has that been withdrawn?

Yes, 651 worked (for some of us). 631 broke it for all of us… I’m not sure if they pulled it and I don’t know a way of going back to 615. They just need to fix this

I’m still having problems and about to throw my device away. How is this not fixed yet? I have 50+ hk products and this is the only one that gives me non-stop and daily problems. I don’t care hk doesn’t provide much functionality, I am just tired of the constant no response. In my garage I have a new ATV, HomePod and a velope node. There is no rational reason I should have problems w this device. Time to get this fixed

I feel like many use cases for HomeKit could work as Siri Shortcuts. I’d love to create Shortcuts for Rachio - and could ask Siri to run them. And that wouldn’t require any special hardware. Just app changes.

Shortcuts and HomeKit are features that will be available in the new Rachio 4 - Coming This Spring!!! :joy:

Actually, shortcuts are coming with the Rachio 4…but connecting to HomeKit so you can use those shortcuts is currently slated for Rachio 6…coming fall of 2027.

In the meantime, get used to “No Response” on your home app for Rachio.

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:joy::joy::joy::joy: Funny but Sad and True :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

Hey Rachio Community! Thank you for your patience on this issue. We have been working with the Apple QA Team and Cypress (WiFi module vendor) for months on this. Their general feeling is that it is due to some mesh routers but clearly it seems like this can happen outside of that ecosystem. We are being asked for wireshark logs if anyone can send those over please use this URL to submit files. We will send these directly to Apple and Cypress for evaluation. Thanks in advance and for your patience on this issue.

:cheers:

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Wireshark logs during what process? During pairing? After it has dropped? We gather them from a desktop or laptop (There is no wireshark for iOS).

Would you prefer PCAP logs directly from our routers? If so, what endpoints are you looking for? (I will NOT send a capture of all my network traffic - but can filter it for specific endpoints).

Please provide additional information - I would love to provide data to help you figure this out.

Wireshark is a program for dissecting and interpreting packet captures, though on most platforms it comes bundled with a capture app. In this situation, the raw capture files are desired; interpretation by Wireshark is not required.

I’m not a Mac guy but believe that the HomeKit back end communicates over the internet with your hub, which communicates over the LAN with Rachio and other accessories. So, I would assume that capturing all traffic in and out of the hub would be sufficient, and if the hub were otherwise unused during the test, the capture would not include any sensitive personal information.

shows how to capture packets to/from an iOS device, such as an iPad configured as your hub.

Unfortunately, the captured traffic may show little more than the structure of communication, as I’d assume that the contents are encrypted and there is insufficient information in the packets themselves to extract the key. Possibly, some of the other tools referenced by the linked article would provide the information in plaintext format.

Depending on the details of your router, access points and switches, it’s likely that traffic between hub and Rachio would not be visible on the router’s LAN interface, even in promiscuous mode. Forcing Rachio and hub to use different APs could help.

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Yes - I’m extremely familiar with wireshark and with packer captures in general (I’m a VPN developer). I’m just wanting to know which endpoints to capture between.

@toonetown Great questions, following up with Apple.

:cheers:

As a side note - I do have Unifi hardware, but I do not have a mesh router in my setup. Not sure if that helps to isolate the issue as well.

@toonetown @Stewart

Is this helpful? The response I got from Apple/Cypress.

Primarily we need decrypted wireshark captures to observe what is causing the device to drop. PCAP logs directly from routers works best, We need to start the capture from beginning( since the initial authentication with AP enables to decrypt those packets).

If you have a Meraki system, this helps with collecting per station device wireshark traces.

Also it will be great if you can help provide the router/access point model details with which you see the device dropping connection.

That kind of works…

I can do a pcap from my router, that’s not a problem.

I can’t do a decrypted PCAP…because I don’t think I have access to the private keys to do the decryption. I’m assuming the information needed to decrypt will be in the PCAP from where he says “the initial authentication with AP enables to decrypt those packets”.

It’s not clear what is meant by “start the capture from beginning”. Is that before the Rachio is connected to my network? Before I’ve hooked it up to HomeKit? Or at some other point (i.e. before it disconnects from HomeKit - which is a bit harder to reproduce…it seems to happen at random)?

I also need to know what two nodes to filter the capture by. I’m assuming my Rachio, and “something” - is that my phone? My HomePod (which is my primary Home Hub)? Or between the HomePod and some endpoint on Apple’s end?

Responses from Apple/Cypress. Thank you!

From the time Rachio gets onto the network, yes before homekit. Its when Rachio connects to your home router.

Rachio and the Access point. Since the issue is we are getting disconnected from the AP. So the two nodes are Rachio and the Home router.

:cheers:

That’s not the issue that I’m seeing. I’m seeing the Rachio get disconnected from HomeKit (it shows “Not Responding” in the Home app) - but it stays connected to my access point just fine - and I can ping it, and access and control it using the Rachio app.

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Latest firmware is on hold.

I’m expecting to install my Rachio 3 in the next week or so and have followed this thread to see what I’m getting into with HomeKit. My biggest surprise is how many of you actually have HomeKit working reliably for anything! I have about 35 IOT devices on my eero mesh network, we are primarily Apple-centric with three iPhones, three iPads, and iMac, three AppleTV’s, and before the eero’s an Apple router. I have had trouble with every device I own either not working in Apple’s Home app, or working for short periods of time then requiring re-connections and pairings. Definitely for me much more trouble than it’s worth. So congratulations to the many of you who can reliably use Home with or without the Rachio 3. I’m not one of them, not by a long shot. But I’m not bitter. Well, maybe a little. Oh yeah, I’m bitter as hell.

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