OpenSprinkler Drops WiFi Regularly

[Kevin Forth]

I like my OpenSprinkler device, but it’s very frustrating that it drops WiFi almost daily. I see many other forum posts with the same experience, so I’m concerned that there is no fix. If I reboot my router, the connection is restored, but this is a crutch.

I am running firmware 2.1.9 (8), hardware 3.2 (AC), app version 2.2.4. I have 11 zones, so I use the Zone Expansion unit.

I moved my router so that it’s only 25 feet from the OpenSprinkler controller, but the WiFi drops continue. I have a single access point, no range extenders, but I shouldn’t need one. When the connection is working, performance is good.

Router is an Asus RT-AX58U with firmware 3.0.0.4.386_43588-g814828f (latest version).

Has anybody found a reliable solution to this issue?

[Ray]

Unfortunately we do not know why the WiFi drops off in some cases. We were never able to reproduce the issue on our own test network. I don’t think it has to do with how far the router is to your controller, rather, it has to do with the router kicking the device off its network for some reason.

We did release a new version of the firmware 2.1.9(9) just today, which contains a new feature that allows using a program to trigger a reboot on a regular basis. So if you have WiFi reliability issues, you may want to give this a try to see if rebooting once per day or maybe per 2 days etc can help.

[Kevin Forth]

Thanks Ray, appreciate the reply. I’ll look at 2.1.9(9).

Cheers.

[Jaroslaw]

The new “reboot” solution is better than nothing but it is kind of hunting with a shotgun for mosquitoes. Firmware should regularly check if there is a WiFi connection. If not, it should try to reconnect. In my case, I have no drops problem, but from time to time it happens that my hose loses power supply. In such case, WiFi starts slower than OpenSprinkler and it can’t connect and is left in this state as it never tries to do this again.

[Kevin Forth]

Since I’ve used the daily reboot program, OpenSprinkler drops WiFi more consistently, within 30 minutes to 2 hours following each reboot. It doesn’t appear that the reboot function has helped. May be a bit worse with the reboots, as I could sometimes go 2 to 3 days without a WiFi disconnect before using the reboot program. Now it loses connectivity daily.

[Ray]

@Jaroslaw: the firmware already checks if WiFi is dropped and attempts to reconnect:
https://github.com/OpenSprinkler/OpenSprinkler-Firmware/blob/master/main.cpp#L562
Problems with WiFi may be more elusive than you think. The difficulty is that at internal testing, we’ve never observed WiFi dropping issues. We have 3 different test routers and none of them has any dropped WiFi issue. We’ve also testing unplugging and replugging WiFi router to simulate a WiFi drop, and the controller works fine after the router came back online. We suspect the WiFi issues some users experienced are during to their specific router or WiFi environment — there can be interference, the router may kick devices out for no obvious reason. In any case, if we were able to reproduce the issue we would obviously have introduced solutions to it. The fact is that during testing we couldn’t reproduce the issue so we don’t know what’s causing the wifi dropping issue.

[Jaroslaw]

I didn’t notice added check. Maybe it is because I can’t find firmware changes page on forum where all changes will be summarized.
Dropping connection can be problem on antenna (access point/router) side. Some antennas disconnect clients if their signal is below certain minimal strength/quality level. OpenSprinkler by design is more frequently located in distance from antenna.

[[email protected]]

But this error happens with wired connection too

[Betterkeks]

I had the exact same problem. I followed the advice of others also experiencing that exact same problem and created a virtual Wi-Fi network with Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) DISABLED. I created a virtual Wi-Fi network because disabling WMM really isn’t what you ordinarily want to do.

When I then bought some LIFX smart lightbulbs a little later, they ALSO kept dropping off, UNTIL I moved them onto the WMM-disabled Wi-Fi network.

I wonder if OpenSprinkler and the LIFX bulbs use the same chip.

@Ray, if you are interested let me know and I’ll share with you my exact router details and the firmware it’s running. If I enable WMM then boom problem reappears, if I disable it then voila the problem is gone.

Regards,
Stephan.

[Ray]

@Betterkeks: interesting, I had no idea about WMM (my router doesn’t have this option). But this is certainly worth investigating given the clear symptoms you reported. Let me know your router details and the firmware it’s running. The controller uses ESP8266, which is quite common in a lot of WiFi devices, particularly WiFi power sockets etc. I did a quick search of ESP8266 and WMM, and it seems to be an known issue:
https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino/issues/2795
I will be reading more about this and see if it can be solved in firmware.

[Betterkeks]

Router: Linksys WRT3200ACM
Firmware: DD-WRT v3.0-r44251

If you need help to set it up, let me know.

There are later versions of firmware, and moving to a later (but stable) version has been on my todo list for a while. However, please note that EARLIER versions exhibited the same behaviour for WMM and OpenSprinkler, so newer versions are likely (but not certain) to require the same workaround.

The ESP8266/WMM interplay is also discussed here and there on the DD-WRT forums.

[OpenSprinklerShop Germany]

Another tipp for better wifi:
– When connecting, when you access the 192.168.4.1 page, select your wifi, enter your password AND CLEAR THE CHANNEL (last field)
– If using a Fritz!Box: Disable “WLAN-Übertragung für Live TV optimieren” under the wifi channel menu

[Author]

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