Hey Wendell,
My non-technical theory is that the Ethernet module causes the freeze when you access the app to manually trigger the valve. Either because of a voltage spike that the controller doesn’t like when the Ethernet is actively used, or something in the TCP/IP software side of things that does not happen while using the WiFi chip.
To give you a little more confidence in trusting the WiFi, and I’m with you with not wanting to use WiFi long term, I have 2 OS 3.0 controllers running over 80 stations. All of these run daily during my peak growing season (greenhouse production). I can not confirm an instance that I have had issue with the controllers freezing in WiFi mode while the auto programs were cycling through. Only times I caught the issue was when manually accessing the controller mobile app to turn on stations…while using the Ethernet. For the record, I also can not confirm a time that I have had issue while using Ethernet and auto programs. This is what makes me think that it has something to do with manually accessing the controller through the mobile app while using Ethernet.
Sometimes I catch a station that is stuck on. When I reopen the app to see if I’m locked out, it will suddenly update the screen, the green highlighted station will update back to the default off appearance and the station will turn off. I can then check the Logs to see that the station ran for say 34 minutes instead of the manually set 10 minutes. I don’t always get a freeze where I HAVE to restart, but often I do.
I believe many people are able to essentially “set it and forget it” with their controllers and so they will not run into this issue, in Ethernet or Wifi modes. If this was not the case, there is no way only a few people would have noticed this issue, everyone would. I use mine extensively…taking advantage of the manual features daily, and so it hits me like no other. If that is not the case, then its just a problem on my end. If you are experiencing the same, then that validates that this isn’t just an issue with my setup…
Further, I still use the previous generation controllers in some of my greenhouses…all hardwired with Ethernet. I have one on the same network as the OS 3.0 systems that has this issue. None of the previous generation controllers have ever froze on me in this manner. I use them manually all the time. I have NTP Sync unchecked on my controllers, FYI.