HydroFLASH loses IP address

[davejulien]

A couple times a week I noticed my HydroFLASH is losing it's IP address. The screen reads that the WIFI signal is excellent but the IP address says 0.0.0.0. All remote access fails and the only way to fix it is with a reboot(unplug/replug).

I do have my router set to reboot through the week really late at night so it remains stable. Is it possible the device is not obtaining a new IP address correctly? I don't have an issue with any other devices in the house and we have many of them including a NAS and a wireless PC that is on 24x7. Thinking this is a firmware issue. I'm running the most current 4.00.01 version.

Any help appreciated. Thanks.

[Support]

The first question I always ask is:

What has changed since the problem started?

Did you recently start rebooting your router nightly when the issue began to show up?
You might try giving your HydroFLASH a fixed IP address vs DHCP and see if that resolves the issue, or stop the rebooting of the router to see if the problem follows that event.

My assumption is that it has been working fine for some period of time (helpful to know that) and it is now behaving differently.

[davejulien]

The only thing that has changed is the router reboot which I started last winter. Because I started in the winter I'm not 100% sure if the problem is with the router or Hydroflash. I do know Hydroflash is the only device I have an issue with not reconnecting and going to the 0.0.0.0 IP address. For now I've disabled the router reboot and power cycled my Hydroflash to see if that helps. Probably should have done this a while ago but have been very busy and just not up to playing with the sprinkler controller.

Hydroflash has always had a fixed IP address on my network.

I've had Hydroflash for several years now and it's always been stable up until this year. I too am assuming it's my router reboot causing the issue. If that is the case I'm wondering why Hydroflash has an issue reconnecting when everything else on my network does not? We have many wireless devices and this is the only one with connection issues.

Now that I have the reboot off I'll keep watch to see if the connection issue continues. If it does I may consider a new device in the spring if you don't have any fix suggestions.

Just a suggestion on my part... When a connection request is needed(like trying to get weather conditions) why not check for 0.0.0.0 IP address and, if detected, reestablish connection? Seems this might help the situation. I guess if I'm the only one with this issue then probably not worth fixing but this enhancement seems like a nice "catch all" to have in the code regardless. There may be other opportunities where Hydroflash can detect the 0.0.0.0 IP address where it can do this also.

Thanks for your time.

[davejulien]

Router reboots are not happening any longer. Today I checked and the Hydroflash is back to IP address of 0.0.0.0.

Any ideas? No power loses or anything since my last post.

[Support]

When it is in that state, do you have a solid Amber LED on the side of the WiFi module?

Log in to your HF and check the Wireless Settings to confirm you have it set for Frequency Band = BG not ALL.

The other thing I see is you stated HF always has a fixed IP on your network. Perhaps you mean "Reserved for HF and always assigned by your DHCP server" This is quite different than a fixed IP address in the fact that HF simply is operating in DHCP mode and will attempt to renew it IP address periodically (24hours). Please try setting it to a fixed IP address in your HF Wireless Settings page. Look for the link at the top that says TCP/IP. Usually you would have a range of IP addresses assigned by your DHCP server, say 192.168.1.100 thru 200, leaving those outside that range for fixed assignments.

Be sure to set your DNS values correctly and gateway which is usually your router IP address and then as a secondary you can choose your ISP DNS or another, otherwise lookup for Weather and Forecast, Mail etc won't work correctly.

Make that change and see if it resolves the issue. We will also look into a update that could potentially trap for this condition.

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