It’s just objectively true. You either have to use the “reset wifi” button or do a power cycle.
If it were a feature, the controller would automatically reconnect using the stored credentials (just like your iPhone does, eg).
I’m not sure what “they all come right back up” is referring to. My comment was specifically about dropped wifi connection and having to reconfigure the controller’s store router credentials, or else physically do a power cycle. I’ve had the unit about a month and have had to do this 3-4x now.
After a dropped wifi connection, either from a power outage, or a power cycle of my network gear. My point was that I don’t believe it is Rachio choosing or not choosing to have this feature…as mine, and many others reconnect without issue.
I could shut my Unifi AP’s off remotely right now, turn them back on and Rachio will reconnect like nothing happened. Currently, I have G3’s, but this was the case with my G1’s many years ago.
I’m not talking about a power outage. My controller randomly drops wifi. I’d have to dig deeper into my router’s logs to figure out why the controller is doing that. It’s possible I just have to bind it to a single node in my mesh system, but the point is that is not an event that is an issue for more robust systems (like and iPhone, eg). They automatically reconnect. In this case, my Rachio controller does not automatically reconnect and requires a power cycle.
Not trying to single out Rachio. It’s just common among many IoT devices. Usually because of cost constraints combined with much lower processing power and memory when compared to more robust systems.
I’ve searched this forum and “wifi dropping” seems to be a very common issue.
My Rachio 3 kept disconnecting from wifi. I’d unplug it, then it would start back up and be ok for 30 minutes or so, and then go offline again. I even bought a wifi extender thinking that the Rachio could not receive the signal from my router through the concrete walls of my house. That didn’t resolve it either. I seem to have found the answer, and my Rachio has stayed connected for 5+ days now. Turns out my Xfinity wifi has two “bands” which are 2.4G and 5G. Both of mine had the same name, and same password. We read on the forum that Rachio should only be connected to 2.4G. We think it may have been connecting to the 5G and then getting kicked off. So we logged into our Router, named each band something different so that Rachio wouldn’t have to “guess” which band it was supposed to connect to. I then forced it to connect to the 2.4G and it’s been fine ever since. Hoping this solves someone else’s frustration.
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A G3 rachio should be just fine on 5ghz. The earlier generations were only 2.4ghz which would occasionally cause issues with newer shared SSID wifi routers.
What you will find is that many devices will attempt to connect to the 5ghz channel, which in most cases is probably fine. But, 5ghz band is great for faster speeds, but has far less range and less ability to penetrate obstacles. So if it connects to 5ghz, but is a weak signal, you could see the behavior you mention. 2.4ghz has over twice the range in most cases, able to penetrate walls and obstacles much better, and the slower speeds are more than sufficient for IoT devices.
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