I’ve recently had a AIO installed. It kept dropping from wifi (know this is an issue) so have a TP link extender nearby which seems to hold the connection more or less. Since install I’ve never had the ‘home’ local monitoring enabled. I’ve tried having the router next to the AIO (20m cable!) adding the AIO IP address to manual search (which I can see on my eero app) and everything.
I’m on an eero network (thought having router next to AIO may help) and tried disabling everything on it but still no joy.
I’m pulling my hair out trying to fix so hoped anyone might have an idea?
I could LAN the AIO but my installer says they ‘don’t do that’ so I’m either going to have to try myself (questionable) or wondered if anyone knew of any Leeds based installers please I can pay for a really quick job?
Hey,
I have seen numerous posts over time regarding AIOs on WiFi. There’s so many contributing factors as alot of routers now combine 2.4ghz and 5ghz networks into one ssid and if the routers think they have a strong enough connect will try to auto swap to 5ghz. Unfortunately along with most IOT smart devices givenergy aren’t any different and doesn’t work with 5ghz.
Have you split your WiFi channels to a 2.4ghz network and a 5ghz one and forced your AIO to connect to the 2.4ghz one.
Does your extender / repeater rebroadcast both bands?
If you have tried having the router next to the AIO do you have a spare power socket nearby? Ideally you want it plugged in via Lan. So maybe power line adaptors to get you close?
It will require dipswitch changes in the AIO to make it run on Lan and the side panel(s) off to run the cable through the glands however I think int he end once it’s working you’ll be happier with the results.
Is your installer just not willing to run a massive long cable run or actually plug it into the AIO and configure it to run on LAN?
My AiO & Gateway also kept dropping their wifi connections but my installer was willing to change them to ethernet cable connections and they are now rock solid with a local connection to the GE app. The connection to the router is via a pair of power line connectors, which work very well. This arrangement certainly avoids the hassle of splitting the router’s SSID into seperate 2.4G & 5G radios.
Thanks Bob. I can see my inverter on the eero app connected at 2.4, I think it broadcasts both but will have a look if I can use my TPLink to force just 2.4.
Interestingly the installer hadn’t connected the little antenna so I fitted that tonight but not sure it’ll make much difference. It’s all connected still now but same can’t seem to get local ‘home’ monitoring working on the app as it can’t find the inverter - just says scan complete and nothing there. I’ve opened a port on my router and given the AIO a fixed IP too. Is this still just it being on wifi do you think?
I can cable the AIO in via LAN as I can use the existing trunking down the house and connect it to a splitter in my loft. If I do that and it ‘breaks’ presumably I can just flip it back to wifi as now? Just didn’t want to play around with it considering the installer is radio silent.
I won’t name them (can if not breaking guidelines) but it’s a computer says no / fob off response. I’ve even bought the cable for them and is an easy job, it was just whether I needed to do anything other than the dip switch. If it’s as simple as that let me know please and I’ll give it a go! Seems LAN is the way forward….
Hey,
So depending on your router and how it works. Your 2.4ghz and 5ghz WiFi networks might be on separate up subnets or may not be allowed to talk to each other properly.
E.g if your phone is on 5ghz it might not be able to talk to devices in 2.4ghz.
I guess a way to determine this would be to try and access the IP of the AIO as a standard webpage on your phone.
Hey, thank you. So I flipped it to LAN and could see the AIO on my network with a new IP address. Unfortunately still can’t seem to find the inverter in the app, both on search and manual search. Wondering if I’m missing something as can’t seem to find the answer! Any ideas sorry :)
Hey,
Good job on sorting to LAN.
I think you have from what you have said but Just to confirm you have done the following.
Loaded up your Givenergy App.
Gone on top 3 lines in top left.
Scrolled down to settings.
Gone on Local Monitoring.
Tried Scan for your inverter.
It should search and find it but if not tried adding the new IP manually by clicking the +
If so it might be worth a call with Givenergy support as you would be getting similar behavior on both Wifi and LAN which is very odd.
Edit: P.S on your phone try turning off your mobile data whilst you do this scan. Just so your internet is solely through your WIFI on your phone.
I found that the inverter seems to tie itself to a particular access point. If the inverter roams to a different one it gets knocked off line.
I run my own network so I was able to experiment until I got it working reliably.
This worked for me;
I made a separate 2.4 channel and SSID just for devices.
Blocked the inverter from accessing any nearby AP’s. I was able to do this on the AP’s themselves.
I ensured there was an AP nearby with a good signal. I used a powerline adaptor to achieve this.
I also reserved the IP via the inverters MAC address in DHCP.
The most important thing, I found was blocking it from roaming.
After I’d done all this, it works reliably, without issue.
Aside from being a bit of a faff, I did get the benefit of separated networks, all my 2.4ghz devices now run on a dedicated SSID and channel, which has helped with speeds generally around the house.
The new router EE have sent, me even has a dedicated channel for devices that don’t play nicely with 5ghz, which is a big step forward.
I hope this helps someone. It nearly drove me bonkers until I’d worked it out.
The givenergy inverters are comparatively old tech, they only work on 2.4GHz and don’t like node roaming or WPA3 security.
If you create a separate SSID for the inverters then Home mode in the app won’t work unless your phone is connected to that SSID. Its just the way it works
Thank you. If I LAN the inverter into a TP link which extends my wifi will that make any difference, or LAN direct into my router? Or because I’m on an eero mesh it is what it is
My inverter doesn’t have a LAN option only wifi, but I would think that if you LAN your inverter onto the TP link which is connected to the mesh then this would be all part of the same wifi network so local monitoring should work.
If you connect the AIO to the TP link via wifi and the TP link is on a different SSID then this is probably why the local monitoring wouldn’t work originally.
I had trouble getting my inverter to connect to my Mercusys mesh, it would connect and then disconnect very soon afterwards. This was due to running both a 2.4 and 5 network and when the inverter connected to the 2.4, the mesh tried to direct it to the 5, which the inverter can’t support.
I fixed this by turning off the 5GHz network, letting the inverter connect to 2.4, and thereafter I could turn the 5 back on and it all worked fine. I did also have to turn fast roaming off on the mesh
I’ve got both a TP Link WiFi extender in the closest indoor socket to the AIO & a small aerial that’s plugged into the AIO.
My AIO is in a detached garage, so signal still has 3 leaves of brick & block to get through.
But, it works, as long as I use the extender as my WiFi router on my device to (phone or IPad)
MY TP Link Powerline Extenders each had its own DHCP so there were several getting in each other’s way causing network conflicts. I switched the TPs’ DHCPs off, to ensure that my network router’s DHCP was the sole ip address allocator and it cured my inverter connection problem.
I had loads of issues, then it turned out that my installer hadn’t put the wifi antenna on the AIO. That, and a firmware update from GE means I think I have sorted mine. Does yours have a wifi antenna on it?
Haha. It didn’t no, but I sorted that myself and it’s plugged in now. It seems broadly and consistently connected to wifi now and more online than offline which is good. I just can’t seem to find the answer to why I can’t get home / local monitoring on, and never have. Think I’ve tried everyone’s suggestions but no joy, many different variants of the below but unable to find the winning combination
aio to separate TP link wifi, connect phone same ssid
Given aio static Ip and open port
LAN aio direct into network
Turn various things off on the eero network
Etc etc
I read on a different post about granting local network access on my phone but weirdly I don’t have that option come up so will try a different phone later.
Spoke to Giv and they politely advised that I’m not missing much, just not getting the data refreshed as quickly, which I guess won’t be too detrimental overall - but tbc when I start using intelligent import and export with octopus
I have an AIO in garage with weak wifi signal so my installer didn’t connect the wifi dongle, I use an ethernet cable a few m long to TP Link powerline extender. It works fine, if it occasionally goes offline, it reconnects.
I’ve only had to do a hard reset (unplug/replug) a couple of times in the last year. It finds the local connection automatically (manual search set to off in app). I don’t recall any issues following installation. If you haven’t tried it, I would disable the dongle and try ethernet.
I had a similar problem in that my AIO and gateway had a poor WiFi signal even when I put one of the mesh nodes within a metre. The answer was that they remember the node they first connect to and nothing will shake their loyalty. I solved this by logging in to the AIO and selecting the correct node manually.
The stats won’t matter when you are using intelligent octopus flux because Octopus control the inverter as they see fit. Its interesting to see what they are doing, but you hand over control with IOF, so just look at the daily profit you make instead !
I think that is the root cause of your problem, you need to grant local network access on the phone and if its not granted, you can’t get to local mode. I’ve seen one other person who has reported the same problem, he doesn’t have the local access option either. Your phone should first prompt you to approve the access when you first run the GivEnergy app but he’s uninstalled and reinstalled the app multiple times to no avail. I suspect GivEnergy have got something wrong in the latest app version that means it is no longer asking for the access it needs.
