Adding an AIMesh Node - why is this so hard?!?

[mmacedo]

Make sure Ethernet Backhaul Mode if disabled on AiMesh | System Settings:

 

[IslandGator]

Make sure Ethernet Backhaul Mode if disabled on AiMesh | System Settings:

View attachment 48858

You nailed it macedo!!!!! ... thanks alot!!!!!!! I cant tell you how appreciative I am of your efforts and all you guys who make this question/answer/discussion forum so valuable.

Regards///Gator

 

[IslandGator]

PS I fibbed a little about how far the boat dock was from the house. I said it was 200ft but actually its closer to 400ft. It's really impressive how powerful these ASUS routers are. On the exterior wall of my house there is is a 44" stem wall with a oncrete floor and and access to the entire 1st floor of the house. So it was easy to mount a AC68U on the interior wall behind the panel antenna which points toward the boat hose. Antennae is a 2.4/5Ghz on a single line. Line-of -sight from house to dock. See pics 1-3.

 

[IslandGator]

PS I fibbed a little about how far the boat dock was from the house. I said it was 200ft but actually its closer to 400ft. It's really impressive how powerful these ASUS routers are. On the exterior wall of my house there is is a 44" stem wall with a oncrete floor and and access to the entire 1st floor of the house. So it was easy to mount a AC68U on the interior wall behind the panel antenna which points toward the boat hose. Antennae is a 2.4/5Ghz on a single line. Line-of -sight from house to dock. See pics 1-3.

Pic 4 shows the panel antenna on the boat house to the right of the light
Pic 5 shows the AC1900P which runs the VOIP phone with 911 capability, Day/Night Camera monitored 24/7/365 all on UPS
Pic 5 Before you ask ... yes there is a beer cooler!

 

[IslandGator]

Pic 4 shows the panel antenna on the boat house to the right of the light
Pic 5 shows the AC1900P which runs the VOIP phone with 911 capability, Day/Night Camera monitored 24/7/365 all on UPS
Pic 5 Before you ask ... yes there is a beer cooler!

Pic 6 shows the boat slip with PTZ camera
Pic 7 Shows the the tough life of retirement. Top right, yes that dot you see is my Gator, Please no swimming after dark.

Thanks again for all the help recently and over the years

Regards////Island Gator

 

[jdeitch]

I have spent three days now trying to get two RC-AC68U's to aimesh.

It flat out doesn't work. Tried it wireless, tried it wired, tried every single trick in every single post on this website. It never sees the node to add it.
I'm basically baffled and out of options, and these units are about to go on eBay (or to recycle). It's absolutely ridiculous this is this hard.

One fun fact -- two identical RC-AC68U models. Same hardware. Same firmware. One insists on defaulting to 192.168.1.1, the other to 192.168.50.1.
I'm pretty sure this is why they fail, the default IPs don't match.
Again, these are the OEM IP ranges, with identical hardware (same revisison), and firmware.

If Asus can't manage their own quality control, it's no wonder this is the #1 topic on this forum where people have problems.

If anyone has any more suggestions before I chuck these useless units, please let me know.

 

[unsynaps]

The pairing systems of Asus routers is the most horrible thing that any intern could design.

I ONLY ever got them to pair with them physically connected to each other.
DIRECTLY. You can not just have it on the same network for some stupid reason. They must be directly connected.

 

[Strud]

Well, might be just your setup.
I have my ac68u and a Lira trio nodes correctly discovered and connected to the main ax86u using ethernet cable via TP-link switch, always works first try.

 

[jdeitch]

The pairing systems of Asus routers is the most horrible thing that any intern could design.

I ONLY ever got them to pair with them physically connected to each other.
DIRECTLY. You can not just have it on the same network for some stupid reason. They must be directly connected.

Tried that, too ... still didn't work.
The "node" unit just never appears in search.

 

[Smokey613]

I suggest running Merlin on the main router and run the latest AsusWRT on all nodes.

You can try connecting your nodes by network initially, even of it means putting them next to your main unit.

After they are recognized and showing up on your main unit, you can power them off and place them back where you want them. They should reconnect wirelessly. Also, do not change any of the AiMesh backhaul settings, just leave them at the default settings.

You do not need or want Merlin on your AiMesh nodes… of course, this is JMHO

 

[Smokey613]

One other note, make sure all your nodes are reset to factory defaults before the pairing attempt.

 

[L&LD]

@jdeitch, what is an RC-AC86U? What firmware version do you have installed? Did you perform a full reset after flashing the RMerlin firmware on them? Without using a saved backup config file, nor inserting a previously used USB drive that was used for amtm/scripts?

How are you trying to create the AiMesh? You should be fully resetting the 'node', and then let it sit there without going into the GUI or anything else. Use the main router to find and create the AiMesh network.

Plug in the node in the same room as the main router and if it doesn't connect like that, fully reset the node again and then try associating them once more with an Ethernet cable between the main router's LAN port and the node's WAN port.

 

[jdeitch]

Typo - meant RT-AC68U.

Have tried it both wifi and wired. The comment above about non-merlin on the node is interesting. Will have to try that.

It's about the only thing I've not yet tried.