I have a Gen 3 controller that has slowly become worse and worse dropping off wifi. Rock solid the first year and now barely stays on for 15 minutes. Nothing has changed in my network. Using Orbi 960 system. I have dozens of IOT devices in the house demonstrating zero problems. And have a Gen 2 controller at my other house also using Orbi that is rock solid. Anyone can help ???
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@Frenchracer - run the RouteThis app, code is RACH, and see what Rachio support sees on your network.
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Thank you. Ran the app. Connected the Rachio to a 2.4 GHz only network. Worked for a while then dropped off. I am pretty sure there is something wrong with the controlled wifi chip. It worked well at the beginning and all my other IOT devices around the house have no issues.
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On Friday, a brand-new Rachio was installed. It will not hold WIFI for more than 12 hours. I emailed support every day and got no response. I have an Orbi 960 with 3 total satellites. I have coverage for a 12,000 sq ft house. My house is 5,000 sq ft. My EV charger and my Ring cameras in the front yard have never lost WIFI. Very disappointed in the Rachio 3.
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I’m having the same poor experience with my Rachio 3 (12 zone). This irrigation controller falls off my WiFi at approximately the same cadence as my lawn is actually getting watered, so I’m finding that I can’t trust it. I’d be curious to know if the Roaming assist feature on my router (i.e., to disconnect clients with RSSI <-55dBm) is involved, but alas the “troubleshooting” Rachio component in iOS isn’t designed to surface any useful information. It’d be nice if I could just hit the device at port 22 and do some real diagnostics, or if it had an ethernet port.
I’m not going to invite RouteThis to sniff my network. Also, the fact that Rachio claims router MAC address filtering is “not supported” is beyond frustrating. Does the MAC address change with each reboot, like code-rolling on a garage door? UPDATE: the MAC filtering is supported in Step 5; the Rachio guidance is just phrased badly in Step 3.
There are some silly engineering assumptions here (e.g., that an iPhone and the Rachio controller will talk to each other over wifi, or will be switched to each other L2, or that RouteThis is allowed) that are unfortunate.
If I find a reliable solution, I’ll post it.
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I found that created a dedicated IOT 2.4 GHZ network for my automation devices fixed the problem with my Rachio. Used to fall off wifi all the time and has been rock solid since. I think Rachio doesn’t like networks that have both 2.4 and 5 GHz on the same ID.
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Yep. I have exactly that. I have a dedicated, fenced IoT 2.4GHz network for my automation devices and nothing else. Well, my iPhone is allowed on that network, so I can swing my iPhone over there and run the app. I can see on the router that the connection goes up and down, which is actually normal. But I can’t see much on the Rachio side.
Actually, I think it’s the Rachio’s faux simplicity that I find most maddening. If I could just SSH to it and tail the logs somewhere, this would’ve been sorted seven hours ago.
This business of “Waiting for device to become active… This may take a minute or two” is for the birds. It might go right back to Costco.
Similar to you, this is my 3rd season with gen 3, no wifi issues until I took it off standby last month. Same network setup for these 3 seasons, mesh style. I’m leaning mostly towards either the wifi chip or radio of the rachio is going bad. Or there was some update rachio did in April/May that is causing this?? My network firmware has not changed during this time so I don’t think its network related per se.
Another thought I’ve had but haven’t messed with yet is maybe my rain sensor is going bad and something about its connection with the rachio is messing with its wifi connection. Most of the wifi loss over the past month, but not all, occur after it starts raining around the time when the rain sensor bypasses. Do you use a rain sensor or any other sensor directly connected to the rachio?
Edit: Just noticed my rachio says it has Nest integration connected. I don’t have a Nest. Clicking disconnect doesn’t work. Not sure if this is related to wifi issues.
New install and I had at the same issue with dropped connections on a router with Smart Connect (ie 2.4 and 5 ghz sharing common SSID). Separating the networks when you have a lot of IOT devices is a nightmare as all of the devices on which network you give a new SSID to need to rejoin. And some IOT’s make this a really difficult as they hide the network reconnection screen in a very deep hole. NO fun. So, I found two solutions. 1) If you trust it, open a guest network, set it to whichever speed you want and join the Rachio to the guest network. 2)If your router allows, create a mesh network and move the AP close to your Rachio. Mine is outside, so this was the best solution. By the way, the all weather plastic enclosure that you can buy from Rachio really degrades the wifi signal, so when you test it before install, it’s fine, but when you install it, not so fine. Rachio should try to find a better material for the outside enclosure.