IAuqalink is Offline

[BecMastaFlash]

Hi - I have a Jandy iAqualink RS One Touch Control System. I use an APP on my iPhone to control the system. 8 times out of 10 it works just swell. The rest of the time it says "Offline" and I must use the manual panel. Anyone have the same problem of this "Offline" thing? Any idea how to fix it? I am new to this and willing to learn so speak S-Lowly (ha ha)
Thanks. :?:

 

[Jandy pro]

Could be distance between antenna and router. Check on your one touch signal strength. Go to menu help diagnostics and keep clicking next it will say signal strength something to that effect and be out of 5 bars max, see if the signal is maybe very weak.

 

[Dixit]

Or if the system is put in Service Mode outside it will say offline.

Mine only has 1bar out of 5 when looking at the diagnostics and it works well. It has a 12-14" concrete wall it has to pass through to get the wifi signal but still manages to get it.

If that still doesnt do anything, Id recommend temporarily relocating the antenna closer to the wifi signal with less obstructions to see if that helps, you dont have to bolt it down, just put it somewhere it seems like less obstructions to wifi signal path.

Dixit

 

[Sharon11]

Rebecca,

I have the same exact problem. It will work fine for a month or two, no problems. Then all of a sudden it will either say "Waiting for connection" and never connect on my desktop computer or it will say Offline on my iPhone app! Did you ever figure out what the problem was? I'm thinking it has something to do with my router and/or service provider, I have Verizon. What provider do you have?

Please let me know if you found the reason for this issue

Thanks!
Sharon

 

[Dixit]

Have you checked the status once it is connected to see how many bars it is showing of wifi signal?

Like mine is always only showing 1 out of 5 bars of wifi signal, but Ive never had it go offline for me. Its about 40 feet away from my main wifi router except between that is probably a good 12-16" thick of solid concrete wall (basement and pool equipment wall).

Dixit

 

[Sharon11]

I have never had less than 2 bars, and it doesn't change when this happens. Like I said, it will work perfectly for months - then one day... gone! This is on a home down in California that I monitor from Oregon. So I will just get fed up with it and wait a week or so, then go back and check it and it's fine. It doesn't make sense!

 

[Dixit]

Dang that sucks and dont make sense either. Mines been humming along for 3months now without issues. Althought Im not actively monitoring it from my phone or web, I may look at it once in a week or so. But not often enough.

One of the Jandy techs did tell me it (iAqualink) has an issue with two particular Wifi Routers, cant remember which one. I have a Cisco Linksys E4200 and E3000 as Access Points.

Dixit

 

[Sharon11]

omg, with my luck it's my particular router! I'm not sure what kind it is because I'm not there at the house right now, but I know it's one supplied by Verizon...

 

[Dixit]

Out of curiosity what wifi encryption are you using on that VZ one? Is it standard WEP? WPA? WPA2? Or do you not know. Might want to call Jandy. I remember before buying my iAqualink I talked to a Jandy Technician (who no longer works there) and explained how there is two routers that have issues as well as a particular encryption mechanism that causes it. You could try to change the encryption like say if its on WFP change it to WPA2. See if thats any better. Although to change it you need to open the Wifi antenna box outside, plug the USB cable in and use the iAqualink program to re-program the Wifi SSID name and Encryption password. Something you definitely cannot do remotely, you will have to be physically there and with a laptop (preferred).

Dixit

 

[Sharon11]

Almost positive it's WPA2. Good suggestion though, I will have to try using different encryptions. We are heading down in November so I will try messing with it. The unfortunate part is that we are going down for my parents 50th Anniversary and arriving later in the evening. I was wanting to have all the pool lights on and spa and pool heated so it was inviting and ready to go when we arrived What a bummer, it's been working for the last two months no problem. I'm thinking it might have to do with the high winds down there and it getting kicked off / power outages and not coming back online correctly.

 

[Sharon11]

I believe my Modem/Router is an Actiontec, and like I said supplied by Verizon. Can I use another one or would I have to use this one since it is a modem/router combo?

 

[Dixit]

You have to use that one from the modem perspective. But you can put another WIFi router behind it and let that take all the wireless activity. Basically disabled the wireless on the VZ one.

Dixit

 

[Mike_W]

I never could get the wireless to work, even though my wife's laptop worked just fine in the same location. My router is a Cisco Linksys E4200. I ended up hardwiring my iAqualink system to my network with a Cat5 cable. I have been told that the Jandy wireless system is the early 802.11 B (wireless B) vs G or N that is much more common today. I have never had any issues since I set it up. You might also want to consider getting a wireless access point, protect it from the weather, and run cat 5 from the access point to the Jandy J box.
Mike

 

[Dixit]

I have been told that the Jandy wireless system is the early 802.11 B (wireless B) vs G or N that is much more common today.
Mike

Well I can say for certain its not a 802.11B. Has to be a G based. My E4200 is only setup to talk on G or N/A only. Nothing else. B is not supported on any of my Wireless Routers/Access Points.

Ive thought about hard wiring mine as well, but that means I need to basically drill into a 12-16" thick concrete wall just to pass the Cat5 through which to me wasnt worth it.

I will say this, on the initial setup, I could not get it to connect to the wireless. Even after setting up the SSID and Encryption. Before I bolted down the Wireless Antenna box, I decided since the cord is long, I moved it about 30 away near a window in the basement and tried again. And then all the sudden it connected. So then I said, let me move it back to the original location, and since then its been at the original location where it didnt work initially, and works fine there. I can stand next to it (the antenna is basically on top of the Jandy Circuit Breaker Panel and Service Board Panel) with my Android Phone and tell it to turn on the pumps and it works perfectly now. Just didnt make sense why it wouldnt connect to wireless initially there until I moved the antenna just to get it to connect the first time.

Dixit

 

[Sharon11]

Well, we just returned from our home in the desert. I ended up having Verizon send me out a new router in case that was the problem. I spent more time than I want to admit trying to set everything up and making sure it was up and running before heading back to Oregon. The entire week I controlled the pool 100% with the iAqualink, no problems. Used my iphone anytime we went somewhere testing it out. I even installed two wireless thermostats and a webcam while down there. Then... on the way back to the airport I figured I would give it a last check and guess what... OFFLINE! I was sick. The ONLY thing that was different from running it all week was that I turned the computer off at the house when we left! Would this really make it go offline? Isn't the iaqualink communicating directly with the router? The t-stats and webcam I installed all work perfect, so I know its not the router. I'm ready to pull my hair out!

Dixit, I'm in your shoes as well with the 12" concrete wall that I would have to drill through, then route through the attic and down to the router...sounds like a big pain! But at this point, it's a useless $500 piece of equipment for me

Any ideas on why it dropped signal and went offline after working perfectly for a week straight, from just turning computer off?

Thanks!
Sharon

 

[poolguy15]

Sharon -

With all due respect to some of the posters on this thread, much of what was written is speculation and not accurate information. Please read below.

"Waiting for connection" will be displayed when the iAqualink jbox is trying to connect with your router. If your Aqualink RS power center is in Service or Timeout Mode, you will see "No Operations Allowed Here" displayed instead of "Waiting for connection.

Your router DOES need to be broadcasting on 802.11B. Jandy iAqualinks do not currently support A/G/N routers. If you have a router broadcasting to anything other than B, that router may be backwards compatible with B and will need to be put into "mixed mode" to multi-cast appropriately.

The fact that you had a connection previously tells me that the router you had was compatible, broadcasting on 802.11 B and had dymanic host configuration protocol enabled. The issue, then, is not the iAqualink jbox, but the connection between the iAqualink and router. If your iAqualink jbox is located near any motors or there are several walls between the jbox and the router, you may not be able to connect. Also, if you have a lot of traffic on your router, you may intermittently see "Waiting for connection" as the router is sending and processing other information.

It is always recommended to hook these iAqualinks up with an ethernet cable whenever possible. You will no longer see "Waiting for connection" and the connection will be instantaneous. If that is not an option, you may consider using a range extender for your router, or setting up a wireless access point.

When you hook up the iAqualink with the new router, you will need to run the setup tool again. Remove the RS485 connection from the front board in your power center and plug it in to your computer with a USB connection. Make sure it's in WiFi mode inside the jbox. Setup tool should pop up automatically. When it does, run it and be sure to enter your SSID (may have changed with a new router) and password carefully as these are case-sensitive. Let iAqualink choose the security type. When setup tool is complete, reconnect the iAqualink to your front board at the power center. The red light will light up instantly. Yellow light should begin to flicker and become solid. When it does, you should see the green light flickering slowly. It will turn solid and you will be connected so long as you have no firewalls blocking the iAqualink, you are broadcasting to 802.11B on 2.4ghz and DHCP is enabled. Keep in mind that you have a new router and because of this, the settings you had previously are not saved meaning your router settings may need to be changed in order to be suitable for iAqualink to connect.

 

[Sharon11]

Hi Poolguy,

Thanks for your response. What doesn't make sense to me is that the iAqualink was working perfectly for a week straight on the new router, both from local computer and iPhone. It was only after I turned off the computer when we left that it stopped working. I get "OFFLINE" on the iPhone and "WAITING TO CONNECT" on the computer here in Oregon now. Does it make sense to you that by just turning off the computer would make it stop responding?

Is there anything I can do from here? Is there something fairly simple that my housekeeper could do down there for me? I can't have her physically access the iAqualink jbox, it is under the roof overhang and too high for her to retrieve on a ladder. I can't imagine that by turning the computer back on down there it would fix it, but then again... it doesnt make any sense that it stopped working just by turning it off. It literally went from working perfect with the computer "on" before we left, to no response 30 min later after computer was shut down.

btw, can iAqualink be set to a static ip address? I remember reading something on the Verizon support page that stated that webcams had to be.

Thanks for the help!
Sharon

 

[Dixit]

poolguy, where does it state that the iAqualink doesnt work on a/g/n bands? As I mentioned previously, Im not running B at all in my network and my iAqualink works perfectly fine, never had issues. My routers are E4200 as the main and three E3000 access points, all of them run dd-wrt firmware which I have specifically set for mixed a/g/n mode only, there is no B support in my wireless configuration. Its clearly connected to it on one of those a/g/n bands (most likely the G).

Sharon, Im more interested now on this computer. You said it was perfectly working fine while you wrere there and this computer was on, what is this computer? Is it a desktop or a laptop? Are you sure the SSID on the Jandy is not somehow set to an SSID off this computer which may have been acting as an "adhoc wireless" device? One way to test it I guess is have your houseeeper turn that computer back on, if it works (the Jandy iAqualink) then clearly the SSID is setup wrong in my opinion on the iAqualink.

BTW I also have wireless thermostats. I have four Filtrete 3m50 models and those operate just fine even on my a/g/n only wireless bands.

 

[poolguy15]

Dixit - See the link below. Use Control F or Command F and type in 802. It will find 3 instances that 802.11b is used by the iAqualink. Only one of them is in English though You may need to look a little deeper in to your router settings - if the iAqualink could connect on G, Jandy would face less-difficult questions. I'm sure they're working on a hyper N compatible iAqualink jbox, but who knows when it'll release.

http://www.zodiacpoolsystems.com/~/medi ... H/H0365300

Sharon - At this point, there is likely little your housekeeper can do because you switched routers. It is mandatory for the iAqualink to re-run the setup tool while plugged into your computer. WIthout this being done, the iAqualink will continue to not connect. Also, there may be some tweaking needing to be done in the router settings.

If this all had been done, I would recommend having your housekeeper turn power off at the modem, router and turn the breakers off to the power center. To reset this connection, wait 30 seconds, then turn the power on to the router, wait a couple minutes, then turn the power on to the router, then wait a couple more minutes for it start broadcasting, then turn power back on to the power center. The backup battery inside the power center on the back of the front board will keep the current programs from deleting.

I cannot think of a reason why turning a computer off would turn the router off. It surely would have no effect on the signal being broadcast from that router. This leads me to believe something else was shutdown when the computer turned off. It may have worked to turn the computer back on at the time of the issue, but with a new router we may never know.

 

[Sharon11]

The computer is a desktop. The only computer in the house and the one I set-up the iAqualink on. I've never changed my SSID and it's using the correct SSID as I see it on my routers page along with all the other wifi devices. I've used the iAqualink for months with the computer off, I dont get it! I'm going to try to access my router from here thru DNS and see if I can mess with settings. Unfortunately I am probably going to have to physically take the jbox down and reinstall -- which means another trip down there...

Poolguy15, would I have to rerun all the set up if the router I replaced was identical and I set it up identical - as soon as I set it up, the iaqualink found it and started working perfect for a week. Nothing else was turned off, I'm at a loss. And obviously the router is working fine because my webcam and t-stats all work fine! I'll have my housekeeper turn computer back on and see what that does - seems silly, but I dont know what else it could be?

Dixit, I have the 3M-50's too! lol. Very cool t-stats!