A device disconnection puzzle

[#1]

Most of my devices are on 5Ghz. There’s one other device on 2.4, but it is new and this issue existed before I got that.

If I reboot either router or the heater, the connection comes back and they work again. It is as if the devices start communicating and then get stuck part way and give up.

[#2]

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@gke45 wrote:
...There’s one other device on 2.4, but it is new and this issue existed before I got that.

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And does this device definitely still work when the heaters enter the error state? Just trying to determine whether or not the whole 2.4GHz interface on the router starts struggling, or if it is indeed just these two devices.

[#3]

They are the Rio Arc heaters. They only make one model at the moment. Browsing around on Reddit does not seem to suggest people are having this problem.

I actually loaned one to a friend to try, and he found it worked just fine on the router provided to him by Sky.

I’m not knocking the Plusnet one though, as every other device I have is working perfectly on 2.4 and 5Ghz WiFi.

[#4]

@gke45

who was your previous ISP, do you still have their modem/router and if so what is it?

It may be possible to reuse it to replace the Hub One or to create a Wireless Access Point, this could go some way of proving if this is a Hub One wireless issue locally.

 A suggestion could be to make the DHCP lease time less than 24 hours, perhaps 12 hours, with the view that the client DHCP (the heaters) requests for an IP Address might wake the heaters wifi up, just a thought. You will see more IP lease request messages in you log because of this change.

Dan.

[#5]

Thanks @Dan
I have tried various lease times, from between 3 hours to 1 day, to 1 week. Nothing seems to have made a difference.
My previous router was a sky one, but I had to send it back when I changed provider. I can’t be certain that they worked perfectly on the sky router either because I didn’t need to use them during the summer and just left them off.

Now that I think of it, I have a very old router in a box somewhere I could have a go at rigging up as a secondary one running off the Plusnet one. Thanks for that idea. That’s this evening’s entertainment sorted 🙂

[#6]

Sorry @Bob  I missed this one.  All the other devices on 2.4Ghz work just fine when the heaters are in the error state.  (its a robot vac and responds to its app just normal).  

[#7]

Wouldn’t you know it, my really old router has kicked the bucket. If I come across a cheap secondary router somewhere I might try that solution again,

What’s working at the moment is a smart plug to manage the ‘off & on again’, with successful reconnection each time I do that.

Oh well. We tried. Really appreciate the ideas and suggestions. It’s been useful to think through options and narrow things down.

-G

[#8]

@gke45 - I'd normally offer to try replicating the issue but those heaters are a little north of what I'd get away with submitting as an expenses claim

[#9]

Looking at the original post, those MAC addresses have a Vendor ID of ExpressIF. Their ESP32 chip is used in a number of IOT applications and some googling seems to indicate anecdotal issues with Wifi disconnecting in some circumstances.

https://forum.arduino.cc/t/esp32-disconnect-after-sending-data-once-to-mqtt/879182/7

https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/issues/3362

https://microcontrollerslab.com/reconnect-esp32-to-wifi-after-lost-connection/

@gke45  might be worth seeing if the manufacturer will provide more information as to which chipset/board they are using for Wifi connectivity. That might enable Bob to do some more investigation.