Had an Inverter (Gen 3 so built in dongle but this should apply to all) and 9.5 battery installed on a Friday (8/3/24). The installers got things commissioned quite late in the day (with several calls to GE). The app was showing data so all looked OK but it wasn’t until over the weekend I realised it was Away mode only. The “Local Search Failed – No home connections found. “ messages were appearing for Home. For commissioning, I had connected the inverter to my Eero Guest network (thinking of security…) so that is the starting point. Cue much time spent trying to fix - hopefully, the following may be of help - jump to Step 2 if you havent used Guest.
Initially, I (and a helpful friend) suspected an issue with how Eero talks to DHCP servers to assign IP addresses so there was some investigations in that area (we are a bit techie so curiosity...). In the end, it was nothing too technical but it was/is a fiddly set of steps to get it working. It’s no wonder installers/users have challenges. This assumes you have decent Wi-Fi coverage.
Key points
- You have to use the main and NOT the Guest network if you want Home access (OK for Away only). Having the inverter on Guest will not work as there is no access from the IP address of the inverter to the rest of your home network where your app is. This is security by design of guest networks. Whilst this is for Eero, I assume is equally applies to other vendor implementations.
- You need to ensure you toggle your device (phone or laptop) to the appropriate Wi-Fi network during set up – see steps below.
- Any users have to be on the same network and on Eero Access Points (APs).
- Configuring the inverter to know about your Wi-Fi. Do this using this your phone/PC device - I used a Macbook and an Android phone. I would suggest having two devices available.
KEY TIPS - The inverter Access Point signal is weak and competes with other signals so
i. Sit next to the inverter.
ii. Turn off the auto-connect feature to your other Wi-Fi networks (in Wi-Fi settings). If you leave auto-connect on, the device will keep switching back from the inverter to a stronger Wi-Fi signal.
iii. Turn off 5Ghz Wi-Fi - Eero app > Settings> Troubleshooting > My device wont connect > press My device is 2.4Ghz Only (Note this lasts for 10 mins so keep in mind)
• The inverters Wi-Fi SSID (its broadcast name when you search for networks) will be the serial number of the inverter. The password is the serial number of the comms unit – both are on the rights side of the inverter. Once you are connected you will log on to the application that manages the communications.
• In the STA Interface setting page, do a Network Search - this took a few tries before the your main network showed up for some reason so keep trying until you see it. There may be more than one instance (one for each Eero Access Point device you have in range) - pick the one with the highest signal strength (>65%).
• Apply and restart the module as per instructions (a minute or so).
Setting up the GE app to actually connect the inverter comms unit to your Wi-Fi.
Hamburger menu > Settings > Setup Wi-Fi Dongle
• Make sure you are still connected to the inverter Wi-Fi (and 5GHz still off)
• Press “Next” and it will search for Wi-Fi networks, select your main network, “Next” and enter the Wi-Fi password for your network).
• Once completed ** Switch your phone/PC device back to your main Wi-Fi **Getting the inverter IP address (you’ll need this for step 4)
• Go to the Eero app and look for the inverter (device is called hfa-21 by default but I renamed mine) – find and copy the IP addressSet up the Local Monitoring in the GE app
• Menu (hamburger lines) > Settings. DO NOT Scan for your inverter but instead click Search for inverters manually (at least I found scan never worked)
• Delete/over-write the default IP address with your address. Now Scan.
inverter should show up, select and confirm.
Now you can turn auto-select back on for your home Wi-Fi networks. 5GHz will turn itself back on.
Any users wanting to access will have to be on the same network (one of the Eero APs). I found it wouldn’t work from a POE range extender even though the network name was the same.
Even re-doing these steps to write this guide, there were some glitches. The connection to the inverter kept dropping – I don’t know why but a bit of persistence (go get a cup of tea), turning Wi-Fi off and on and re-starting the inverter module seemed to work eventually. Also using a combination of a phone and laptop. Good luck.