Sudden Wifi issue - RT-BE88U/Sensi Thermostat

[The_Bishop]

I have a RT-BE88U that has been working flawlessly for several months. Some time recently, however, my Sensi Touch 2 Thermostat lost connection to the internet, and despite all my attempts to re-connect it, it will not. However, if I set up a hotspot on my cell phone and use my wife's phone to set up the thermostat via the app, it connects perfectly. This leads me to believe that it's something that changed in the router.

When I try to connect the log shows:
Dec 29 21:16:32 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(645): wl0.2: Deauth_ind 34:6F:92:27:EC:5B, status: 0, reason: Unspecified reason (1), rssi:0
Dec 29 21:16:32 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(662): wl0.2: Disassoc 34:6F:92:27:EC:5B, status: 0, reason: Disassociated because sending station is leaving (or has left) BSS (8), rssi:0
Dec 29 21:16:37 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(685): wl0.2: Auth 34:6F:92:27:EC:5B, status: Successful (0), rssi:-44
Dec 29 21:16:37 kernel: SBF: dhd0: INIT [34:6f:92:27:ec:5b] ID 65535 BFW 65535 THRSH 2048
Dec 29 21:16:37 wlceventd: wlceventd_proc_event(722): wl0.2: Assoc 34:6F:92:27:EC:5B, status: Successful (0), rssi:-44

I have to stress that this was working fine for a few months prior to this, I haven't changed anything in the router or the thermostat at all. It's about 15 feet away from the router and signal has never been a problem before.

Firmware version: 3.0.0.6.102_39112-g7a02961_1472-g67069_BB0B

Anyone have any ideas for what to check? I'm frustrated.

 

[bbunge]

Usually thermostats use the 2.4 GHz band and like WPA2. I have my HX3 thermostat on a guest WIFI with just WPA2 and a simple SSID and password of 8 alpha numeric characters. No special characters or spaces. Also set the 2.4 GHz to 20 Mhz bandwidth.

 

[The_Bishop]

It's set up exactly the way it was before. Nothing changed. I've reset everything from scratch, it connected briefly until I changed some settings that required a router restart and now it won't connect again. Now I get an endless list of:

Dec 30 00:36:25 dnsmasq-dhcp[10334]: DHCPDISCOVER(br0) 34:6f:92:27:ec:5b
Dec 30 00:36:25 dnsmasq-dhcp[10334]: DHCPOFFER(br0) 192.168.50.52 34:6f:92:27:ec:5b
Dec 30 00:36:28 dnsmasq-dhcp[10334]: DHCPDISCOVER(br0) 34:6f:92:27:ec:5b
Dec 30 00:36:28 dnsmasq-dhcp[10334]: DHCPOFFER(br0) 192.168.50.52 34:6f:92:27:ec:5b

Starting to get real tired of janky Asus routers. These things used to be awesome but now, even with new ones, stuff goes wrong in rather short order.

 

[bennor]

It's set up exactly the way it was before. Nothing changed. I've reset everything from scratch, it connected briefly until I changed some settings that required a router restart and now it won't connect again.

So what settings did you change? And what happens if you revert those settings back to default or unchanged setting?

 

[wouterv]

Why blame the router instead of the thermostat?
Maybe the thermostat got an overnight firmware update causing the issues.
Usually the cheap WiFi chips in those IoT things are not fully according the Wi-Fi standards, causing all kind of connectivity issues.
Some years ago our new home heating came with a smart thermostat, after a year of struggling with Wi-Fi connection issues , numerous firmware updates of the thermostat, random rebooting of the thermostat, sudden heating full on (e.g. at midnight), I could exchange the thermostat free of charge for a solid manual controlled "round" thermostat.
I would not trust cloud controlled IoT applications anyhow.

 

[bbunge]

I had tested the Sensi thermostat and found it to be lacking in features, function and design. Ecobee is a far superior product and i believe it now supports 5 GHz. FWIW I had been in the HVAC trade for many years specializing in controls.
See my prior post for recommendations

 

[The_Bishop]

So what settings did you change? And what happens if you revert those settings back to default or unchanged setting?

Settings unrelated to the wifi, and reverting them didn't change anything.

 

[The_Bishop]

Why blame the router instead of the thermostat?
Maybe the thermostat got an overnight firmware update causing the issues.
Usually the cheap WiFi chips in those IoT things are not fully according the Wi-Fi standards, causing all kind of connectivity issues.
Some years ago our new home heating came with a smart thermostat, after a year of struggling with Wi-Fi connection issues , numerous firmware updates of the thermostat, random rebooting of the thermostat, sudden heating full on (e.g. at midnight), I could exchange the thermostat free of charge for a solid manual controlled "round" thermostat.
I would not trust cloud controlled IoT applications anyhow.

Because there wasn't a firmware change in the thermostat, and prior to the asus update to 3.0.0.6.102_39112 it worked flawlessly. Also it will connect just fine if I do so through the wifi hotspot on my phone.

 

[The_Bishop]

I had tested the Sensi thermostat and found it to be lacking in features, function and design. Ecobee is a far superior product and i believe it now supports 5 GHz. FWIW I had been in the HVAC trade for many years specializing in controls.
See my prior post for recommendations

It's great that you like ecobee, but the root issue is the thermostat worked fine until the last asus firmware update, 3.0.0.6.102_39112. There are also privacy concerns about ecobee.

 

[Justinh]

Because there wasn't a firmware change in the thermostat, and prior to the asus update to 3.0.0.6.102_39112 it worked flawlessly. Also it will connect just fine if I do so through the wifi hotspot on my phone.

Wait a minute ... You are saying it broke after the router firmware was updated? Your first post did not mention that.

 

[The_Bishop]

Wait a minute ... You are saying it broke after the router firmware was updated? Your first post did not mention that.

I could have sworn I did, but after reading my first post I didn't in any clear way. Yes, that seems to be when the thermostat went offline.

Just as a check, I just got done reverting the firmware to the prior version and it looks as if the thermostat is back online. I've turned off the auto firmware updates for now.

 

[bennor]

Settings unrelated to the wifi, and reverting them didn't change anything.

Were the setting changes due to you updating the firmware as you indicated in a later post?