Orbi not working with Heatmiser heating thermostats

[dar2008]

Have just installed my new Orbi RBK53 system (router with two wired sattelites). The router is connected to my VirginMedia modem (operating in modem only mode).

All my wired and wireless devices are connecting ok, with the exception of my Heatmiser wifi thermostats (I have 7 of these).

The thermostats operate on 802.11b at 2.4ghz. They require a fixed IP and can connect via WPA or WPA2 security (I have tried both).

I can see the thermostats attempting to connect to the wifi, but they fail - there is no way to read error messages on the thermostats.

Having researched on Google, the following are things I have tried in order to fix this:-

• Disabling 5ghz SSID on the Orbi
• Limiting the power on the 5ghz SSID on the Orbi to 25%
• Separating the 2.4ghz and 5ghz network names on the Orbi (via telnet)
• Disabling security on the Orbi (only momentarily)
• Adding the specific IP addresses to the Orbi for the thermostat MAC addresses
• Having the fixed IP addresses within the DHCP range
• Having the fixed IP addresses outside the DHCP range

None of the above have been successful. The Orbi is now set back to a single SSID name with both 2.4ghz and 5ghz enabled and 5ghz power set back to 100%..

Has anyone else managed to get Heatmiser thermostats to work with Orbi? They are a UK product, so largely limited to UK / European users.

For clarity, they worked fine on my previous modem / router setup (VirginMedia in the UK). In an attempt to isolate this issue, I setup a wifi hotspot from my mobile (on 4g), and the thermostats still connect fine to that, suggesting the issue might be with the Orbi and I just need to locate the magic setting!

Any / all ideas gratefully received.

Thanks in advance,

David

[dar2008 · Accepted solution]

I now have my Heatmiser thermostats working successfully with the Orbi. Here is what I did to achieve this:-

It was apparent that the themostats would not communicate directly with the Orbi so I purchased a cheap 2.4ghz Access Point (TP-Link WA801ND). 

The AP is connected via ethernet to the Orbi router. I've set the AP to broadcast with a different SSID to the Orbi, with only my Heatmiser devices connecting to it. 

All is working perfectly, and all for less than £25.

[FURRYe38]

Possible compatibility between these devices and Orbi if other devices work accept for these particular ones...

Can you get them connected on a older generation router using the same SSID and PW as the Orbi. See if they will connect there. Then turn off this router and turn on the Orbi and see if the devices will connect. 

I would check with Mfr of these devices to see what security modes are supported by the devcies, WPA and TPIK or both WPA and WPA2 and TPIK and AES? WPA2 and AES is most common now days and preferred now days. 

Mode B devices mostly support WPA and TPIK only. 

Try this with the Orbi, disable wifi security temporarily. Do they connect then? If not, then this is probably a compatibility issue with this devices. 

[dar2008]

Thanks for the response @FURRYe38...

"Can you get them connected on a older generation router using the same SSID and PW as the Orbi." - The SSID and password are the same as I had on my previous setup, with my Virgin Media Modem operating in Modem/Router mode. The thermostats worked fine.

"I would check with Mfr of these devices to see what security modes are supported by the devcies" - the only security modes supported are WPA, WPA2 and WEP.

"Try this with the Orbi, disable wifi security temporarily. Do they connect then?" - already tried this as one of my tests, but they did not connect.

"If not, then this is probably a compatibility issue with this devices." - I really hope this is not the case as in every other respect the Orbi is doing a great job. If I can't get my thermostats to work, I will be forced to return the Orbi:(

[FURRYe38]

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@dar2008 wrote:

Thanks for the response @FURRYe38...

"Can you get them connected on a older generation router using the same SSID and PW as the Orbi." - The SSID and password are the same as I had on my previous setup, with my Virgin Media Modem operating in Modem/Router mode. The thermostats worked fine.

"I would check with Mfr of these devices to see what security modes are supported by the devcies" - the only security modes supported are WPA, WPA2 and WEP.

"Try this with the Orbi, disable wifi security temporarily. Do they connect then?" - already tried this as one of my tests, but they did not connect.

 If they didn't connect with SSID in the OPEN, then this is a compatbility issue with these devices and Orbi unfortunately. 

"If not, then this is probably a compatibility issue with this devices." - I really hope this is not the case as in every other respect the Orbi is doing a great job. If I can't get my thermostats to work, I will be forced to return the Orbi:(

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[dar2008 · Accepted solution]

I now have my Heatmiser thermostats working successfully with the Orbi. Here is what I did to achieve this:-

It was apparent that the themostats would not communicate directly with the Orbi so I purchased a cheap 2.4ghz Access Point (TP-Link WA801ND). 

The AP is connected via ethernet to the Orbi router. I've set the AP to broadcast with a different SSID to the Orbi, with only my Heatmiser devices connecting to it. 

All is working perfectly, and all for less than £25.

[FURRYe38]

Thats a good solution for incompatibility issues. Glad you got it working. Be sure the channels used on the Orbi and this new wifi AP are far from each other, Orbi set to channel 11 and AP set to channel 1 on 2.4Ghz. 

Enjoy. 

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@dar2008 wrote:

I now have my Heatmiser thermostats working successfully with the Orbi. Here is what I did to achieve this:-

It was apparent that the themostats would not communicate directly with the Orbi so I purchased a cheap 2.4ghz Access Point (TP-Link WA801ND). 

The AP is connected via ethernet to the Orbi router. I've set the AP to broadcast with a different SSID to the Orbi, with only my Heatmiser devices connecting to it. 

All is working perfectly, and all for less than £25.

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