Solar Assistant not connecting to internet via wifi

[Franszo]

Hey guys,

I recently acquired a Solar Assistant unit.

Initially I connected via wifi and the unit connected to the wifi and not to the internet. After some fiddling it was connected to both the wifi and the internet.

But then over the weekend the unit's connection to the internet went down.

Here's some facts:

1. When I connect the unit via LAN (to exactly the same router and thus same firewall rules), it connects to the internet.
2. I have multiple SSID's running in the house, some on 2.4GHz, some on 5GHz. I can connect to any of these and the unit connects to Wifi but not to internet.
3. Only thing I did in the meantime was to enable MQTT Broker to monitor the output, no commands submitted to the unit, then disabled it again.
4. I'm on the latest version of the Solar Assistant firmware: 2023-02-28

Any ideas?

 

[Zapper77]

Did you try a reboot?

 

[dmkjr]

Hey guys,

I recently acquired a Solar Assistant unit.

Initially I connected via wifi and the unit connected to the wifi and not to the internet. After some fiddling it was connected to both the wifi and the internet.

But then over the weekend the unit's connection to the internet went down.

Here's some facts:

1. When I connect the unit via LAN (to exactly the same router and thus same firewall rules), it connects to the internet.
2. I have multiple SSID's running in the house, some on 2.4GHz, some on 5GHz. I can connect to any of these and the unit connects to Wifi but not to internet.
3. Only thing I did in the meantime was to enable MQTT Broker to monitor the output, no commands submitted to the unit, then disabled it again.
4. I'm on the latest version of the Solar Assistant firmware: 2023-02-28

Any ideas?

Having the same issue with a new installation of Solar Assistant. Did you ever find a solution? Working fine on LAN.

 

[Zapper77]

I manually entered my ssid

 

[dmkjr]

I manually entered my ssid

Well then maybe I'm clueless. I only see the option of manually entering SSID. Was there an option somewhere to search?

 

[Zapper77]

Well then maybe I'm clueless. I only see the option of manually entering SSID. Was there an option somewhere to search?

My pi3lts didn't want to connect to the internet on one of my routers (no clue why). The only thing that I can think of with the router is the wifi is setup to use one SSID for both the 5 and 2.4 band. My Pi initially connected to the router but failed to reach the internet. I connected to my other router that's further away but it splits the 2.4 and 5ghz band SSIDs.

 

[Ampster]

I always prefer wired connection when I can, or convenient. That is why I have no experience diagnosing WIFI connections. My phone and Laptop are the only reliable one I have found.

 

[dmkjr]

My garage doesn't have a hard line connection. I was able to get it, not sure why it didn't like WLAN and ETH0 hooked up at the same time. Also, it appears you are locked into the RPI nic. I tried to add external WLAN to no avail.

 

[robby]

I always prefer wired connection when I can, or convenient. That is why I have no experience diagnosing WIFI connections. My phone and Laptop are the only reliable one I have found.

Wired is always better but I have used SA with WiFi and it's pretty reliable once you get it working.
It seems like most people have issues getting SA going but once it's working it is very reliable.

 

[wattmatters]

Network connection issues are rarely the fault of the RPi (or SA). It'll invariably be something about the network itself which is the root cause. Some routers and pseudo mesh systems are just not good at managing connections, especially when device count increases. The reasons why are beyond me.

I'm about to replace my ISP supplied network because of this very same issue. But it is affecting other items, not just my SA RPi (e.g. my Fronius inverter and IoTaWatt). For now they are connected via ethernet, except the IoTaWatt which doesn't have ethernet. Have instead created a second network and it is connected to that just fine.

 

[Stormsoul]

I am also having the same problem. I am on 2.4 band. I can log into it, it sees the wifi, I switch over to LAN, click the link to register and it says device is not connected to the internet. I have rebooted and tried everything I can.. this is frustrating. I have a TPlink gaming router i wonder if i am banding or sharing 2.4 an 5 and it does not like that.

 

[Awsmits]

Add me to the list of SA owners who cannot connect to the internet. When I’m on the SA WiFi network it receives the info from my Growatt just fine. But when I try to configure the LAN I have on my boat in the Configuration page, it response that I am not connected to the internet, and I should try Bluetooth (except the Orange Pi isn’t BT capable.

I have tried getting help from SA support, they responded once with unhelpful advice, and now don’t respond at all. Not happy with their “support”.

Curiously, when setting SA up, I was assigned a site with a “.za”. Is this correct for a USA survey, and could that be the problem? If you are in the USA, shouldn’t the site include “.us”? Is there anyway to “reset“ the Pi and reinstall?

 

[Adam De Lay]

Curiously, when setting SA up, I was assigned a site with a “.za”. Is this correct for a USA survey, and could that be the problem? If you are in the USA, shouldn’t the site include “.us”? Is there anyway to “reset“ the Pi and reinstall?

This happened to me as well. You can fix it by following the info on this link: https://solar-assistant.io/help/access/regions

 

[Awsmits]

Cool! I’ll give it a try and report back. Hopefully it works…Thanks, Adam!

 

[Crowz]

Make sure the ssid is different for the 2.4 and 5 ghz network on the router and make sure your connected to the one that is 2.4 ghz one.

I use a wired connection from the pi to a wifi repeater since this boost the signal and is more reliable.

It also allowed me to put a real wifi antenna on the repeater for a large boost in signal strength.

 

[Awsmits]

How do I know if my boat WiFi router is 2.4 or 5 GHz? I am using a cellular router (MoFi 4500). I can also access the marina WiFi, but I don’t know if it’s 2.4 or 5 GHz.

So the SA only connects to 2.4GHz?

 

[Adam De Lay]

If you can't get the WiFi to work, the MoFi 4500 looks like it has 4 network ports on the back you could use to hardwire your raspi into.

 

[Awsmits]

If you can't get the WiFi to work, the MoFi 4500 looks like it has 4 network ports on the back you could use to hardwire your raspi into.

True, I know I could hardwire it to the MoFI 4500, but routing the cable between the router and the Orange Pi on my boat would be a challenge. Trying my best to avoid that.

 

[Adam De Lay]

When you look at the control panel for your router, where you would configure your WiFi name and password, look around in the settings to see if there's an option or checkbox to "combine 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz signal" or something like that. Maybe "use same settings for 2.4/5Ghz". If there is an option like that, uncheck it and label 1 network as "mywifiname 2.4" and "mywifiname 5" and see if you can connect straight to the 2.4Ghz network.

Some devices are really finicky about merged networks.

 

[wildbillpdx]

Initially I connected via wifi and the unit connected to the wifi and not to the internet.

If the unit connects to the WiFi but not the internet there is a problem with firewall rules. If it was a problem with 2.4 vs 5gHz you wouldn't connect to the Wifi.