GIV-HY5.0 + Vodafone Ultra Hub; can't connect inverter to WiFi

Hi all,

I'm looking for a little help. I upgraded my Vodafone half gig broadband to full gig and it came with a new router. I set it all up and have been trying to update the Givenergy dongle to use the new WiFi credentials to no avail.

I've run through the steps from various guides (log into 10.10.100.254, change the STA interface settings to find your home WiFi, add the password, apply, restart dongle)

At this point, you should be able to browse the internet on your laptop with the dongle still connected (WO22XXXXXX) but this isn't the case for me. Likewise, the Givenergy app (and cloud website) aren't receiving data.

I've done this about 500 times and ensured the WiFi password is correct, etc. I've checked the hub but cannot find the MAC address in the list connected, I've searched through the router logs and can see the handshake occurred but unsure what is wrong.

I've also switched on compatibility mode on the router which helps older 2.4ghz devices connect but that hasn't helped.

I'm slowly going mad, so any help welcome!

Some excerpts from the router log:

23.03.2024	18:41:50	data		Info    		wl1: STA e8:fd:f8:60:7b:49 WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
23.03.2024	18:41:50	data		Info    		wl1: STA e8:fd:f8:60:7b:49 RADIUS: starting accounting session 6591BC2E9D35F805
23.03.2024	18:41:50	data		Notice  		1711219310148 wl1      E8:FD:F8:60:7B:49  6144 0000 0000 0000 HOSTAPD  RX  M4_RX                    [CE:  1  32   2/0x0002/CE_A2C   32   8/0x0008/M4_RX    0x40000000 1711219310148] {CE_DATA-0000Bytes:}
23.03.2024	18:41:50	data		Notice  		1711219310138 wl1      AC:15:A2:A3:29:B0  6144 0000 0000 0000 HOSTAPD  TX  M1_TX                    [CE:  1  32   2/0x0002/CE_A2C   32   3/0x0003/M1_TX    0x80000000 1711219310138] {CE_DATA-0000Bytes:}
23.03.2024	18:41:50	data		Notice  		1711219310125 wl1      E8:FD:F8:60:7B:49  6144 0000 0000 0000 HOSTAPD  TX  M3_TX                    [CE:  1  32   2/0x0002/CE_A2C   32   7/0x0007/M3_TX    0x80000000 1711219310125] {CE_DATA-0000Bytes:}
23.03.2024	18:41:50	data		Notice  		1711219310124 wl1      E8:FD:F8:60:7B:49  6144 0000 0000 0000 HOSTAPD  RX  M2_RX                    [CE:  1  32   2/0x0002/CE_A2C   32   4/0x0004/M2_RX    0x40000000 1711219310124] {CE_DATA-0000Bytes:}
23.03.2024	18:41:50	data		Notice  		1711219310115 wl1      E8:FD:F8:60:7B:49  6144 0000 0000 0000 HOSTAPD  TX  M1_TX                    [CE:  1  32   2/0x0002/CE_A2C   32   3/0x0003/M1_TX    0x80000000 1711219310115] {CE_DATA-0000Bytes:}
23.03.2024	18:41:50	system		Info    		wireless.accesspoint.station event sent ap_name=wl1 macaddr=e8:fd:f8:60:7b:49 action=add
23.03.2024	18:41:50	data		Info    		wl1: STA e8:fd:f8:60:7b:49 IEEE 802.11: associated

23.03.2024	18:42:16	lan		Info    		DHCPOFFER(br-lan) 192.168.1.135 e8:fd:f8:60:7b:49
23.03.2024	18:42:16	lan		Info    		DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) e8:fd:f8:60:7b:49
23.03.2024	18:42:16	lan		Info    		DHCPOFFER(br-lan) 192.168.1.135 e8:fd:f8:60:7b:49
23.03.2024	18:42:16	lan		Info    		DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) e8:fd:f8:60:7b:49
23.03.2024	18:42:16	lan		Info    		DHCPOFFER(br-lan) 192.168.1.135 e8:fd:f8:60:7b:49
23.03.2024	18:42:16	lan		Info    		DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) e8:fd:f8:60:7b:49
23.03.2024	18:42:16	lan		Info    		DHCPOFFER(br-lan) 192.168.1.135 e8:fd:f8:60:7b:49
23.03.2024	18:42:16	lan		Info    		DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) e8:fd:f8:60:7b:49
23.03.2024	18:42:16	lan		Info    		DHCPOFFER(br-lan) 192.168.1.135 e8:fd:f8:60:7b:49
23.03.2024	18:42:16	lan		Info    		DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) e8:fd:f8:60:7b:49
23.03.2024	18:42:16	lan		Info    		DHCPOFFER(br-lan) 192.168.1.135 e8:fd:f8:60:7b:49
23.03.2024	18:42:16	lan		Info    		DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) e8:fd:f8:60:7b:49
23.03.2024	18:42:16	lan		Info    		DHCPOFFER(br-lan) 192.168.1.135 e8:fd:f8:60:7b:49
23.03.2024	18:42:16	lan		Info    		DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) e8:fd:f8:60:7b:49```

Have you turned off the 5Ghz signal on the router? If you have a 5Ghz and a 2.4 with the SSID, the inverter can't connect.

Once you've got the first connection done you can turn the 5Ghz back on. And set the inverter IP address to static on the router.

Are you able to set the router to use your old password and SSID, that way you won't have to change your inverter settings - but still will need 2.4 turned off for initial connection

geoffreycoan

Appreciate the reply, thanks! Unfortunately the hub doesn't allow for 5ghz to be turned off, or the SSIDs to be split. Our previous hub didn't allow this, but Givenergy didn't seem to mind.

I did want to use my old SSID and password but the existing password was not deemed strong enough by the new hub, which was super annoying.

I do suspect it's a hub issue. I have an old 2.4Ghz extender somewhere that I may set up with a unique SSID so I have a stable 2.4Ghz only network I can attempt to connect to.

geoffreycoan If you have a 5Ghz and a 2.4 with the SSID, the inverter can't connect.

I have a Google Nest mesh system that uses the same SSID for 5GHz and 2.4GHz that can't be separated or turned off but connecting the inverter was no problem for my installer. A 2.4GHz only station should not be able to see the 5GHz signal at all, so I don't understand for it can stop it connecting.

Agreed that a 2.4Ghz only device can only see that frequency network. However from my own personal experience setting my inverters up to my new mesh network, it could see the SSID when both networks were on but the inverter absolutely would not connect.

Turned all the mesh roaming etc options off, same result.

Turned the 5Ghz signal off, connected instantly and stayed connected.

And this is the same experience others have had on this forum. Its not just my inverters either, I got a wifi RGBW LED light controller recently, same thing, wouldn't connect when the 5Ghz was on, but turn the network off and it connected fine.

My understanding is that its something along the lines of "device sees 2.4 network, requests to connect on the SSID. Router responds with 'here, try connecting to this 5Ghz network with the same SSID instead', the cheap basic 2.4Ghz-only devices don't like that and then refuse to connect"

Maybe your Google nest mesh doesn't do this, and as I said its my paraphrasing of understanding what happens.

I picked up a cheap 2.4g WiFi repeater, set it up as a new 2.4g network and connected to that. It all works fine although it’s only updating the data every 5 mins. Is there a setting to change that?

mattm76 The inverters only push data to the portal every 5 minutes so sounds like its working as expected now.

If you connect your tablet/mobile to the SAME network as the inverter (your 2.4 in this case) and open the GivEnergy app the app will detect that you’re on the same network and switch to local mode which updates the app every 10 seconds. I believe the portal also gets updated every 10 seconds as well, but only when you’re using the app in local mode

It looks like I have exactly the same problem, with a Vodafone Power Hub. mattm76 it probably doesn't matter, but what brand of WiFi repeater did you get?

You need to turn on Compatability Mode on Vodafone hubs for the GE equipment to connect. This will give you a second SSID from the Vodafone hub that has some of the Wi-Fi bells and whistles turned off for the dumb GE kit. My GE kit is the only thing in my house that needs it 🙁

I think that the key thing here is that (if possible) you should run your 5GHz and 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks with different SSIDs. How your router can achieve this will vary from router to router.

A (cheap) Wi-Fi repeater with 2.4GHz capabilities sounds like an excellent fallback position

I don't think I have split my SSID's on my Vodafone router but I'm not at home right now to check and remember. I'll try to look this weekend and post back.

A cheap Wi-Fi Repeater will slow down the Wi-Fi for every single client on that band (2.4GHz) in your property. Now, your Wi-Fi probably operates much faster than the internet connection into the property, so most people won't notice this when accessing internet/facebook/netflix. But from a Wi-Fi standpoint (the connection from your device to the router, not from the router to the internet), repeaters are bad news.

Thanks @Andrew-CH1 and @Weasel, I did try compatibility mode on the "Power Hub", but for whatever reason it did not work. Vodafone also confirmed that there is no way to set different SSIDs with that hub.

In the end I bought a TP-Link AX1800 WiFi 6 OneMesh Router for £50 and completely replaced the Power Hub by plugging it straight into the OpenReach ONT. This was not totally straightforward to be honest as I had to extract my PPPoE username and password from Vodafone over chat, which took a while, and then after setting that it failed to authenticate. I was getting ready to cancel my Vodafone contract within the cooling off period, but remarkably when I left it overnight it eventually connected and has been up and running ever since.

My GE dongle connects to the TP-Link router fine and it turned out that I didn't have to set different SSIDs. I sometimes see problems connecting in "Home" rather than "Away" mode on the app (weirdly it works sometimes just not all the time) but otherwise everything is fine.