I was thinking it was a firmware mis-match possibly due to some initial 'handshake" rather than a model mis-match. In fairness, I did not roll-back router firmware to 3.0.0.4 to match the node to test it when a simple toggling off of the ethernet backbone still resulted in the ethernet backbone...
Not on SNBForums as I only joined recently and wanted to share my personal experience and hopefully add a little to the existing 'knowlegebase'. Sorry if that is a problem.
⚙️ Background
Many users (myself included) have struggled with AiMesh instability or node detection failures after upgrading their main router to the 3.0.0.6 (“3006”) firmware branch, while their AiMesh nodes are forced to remain on the older 3.0.0.4 / 388 branch.
Typical scenario:
Router...