Wall Display Connectivity on Unifi WiFi Networks

[bollar]

I pulled this out of the Home Assistant thread...

I have fifteen Wall Displays and find they're difficult to keep online in my Unifi network. Part of the problem is Ubiquiti's and I am working through that with them. However, the Wall Displays are uniquely troublesome and as a group perform poorly compared to the other 120+ IoT devices, most of which are also Shelly and are very stable. The issues appear to be:

 - The Unifi problem relates to slow DHCP and the Wall Displays timeout before DHCP service is completed. They show connected to WiFi on the Wall Display, but don't have an IP address or connectivity. They also show as connected on the Unifi side, but don't have any traffic. I don't know if a longer timeout would help, but other devices don't have this problem. Before the function was removed, I was able to work around this by setting a static IP address on the Wall Display. 

 - What I think is a Wall Display problem relates to signal strength. It's typical to have the Wall Display show: RSSI: -79 dBm (Weak) while the nearest AP is three meters away. I had Wall Displays at the ends of the house that were on the fringe of my network that refused to connect (but other Shelly devices located at the same spot would connect). I did an RF survey and moved APs to even-out coverage. I don't have nearby neighbors, so don't have to manage that kind of 2.4Ghz interference. I did find that moving the APs and changing the AP power output to "high" helped a lot, but created issues for other devices that are now connecting to a distant AP.

I don't know for sure how to fix any of this in the Wall Display, but thoughts I had:

 - Longer timeout for DHCP
 - Static IP addresses
 - Allow lower AP connection signal strength
 

[bollar]

Removed redundant post.

Edited October 21, 2024 by bollar

[Budda]

I've just received my first Wall Display today (updated firmware to latest too v2.2.1).

As soon as I was reviewing settings for the device in the Shelly mobile app I noticed it kept disconnecting from the network and then moments later reconnecting. Very annoying when trying to read through configuration options! The Wall Display device is sat on the desk in front of me by my laptop and mobile phone so WiFi signal strength is fine.

I've got all my devices on a Ruckus WiFi network - this is the only Shelly device to be having reconnection problems.

Edited October 28, 2024 by Budda

[bollar]

I'm still having issues with Wall Displays losing connection and needing to be manually connected to the network in Beta 4. It feels like it's more frequent than in Beta 3. 

I'm also getting Shelly Stargate not available messages more frequently. I'm not sure how to get any additional data to you since they don't have connectivity at the time.

[bollar]

I was able to get log files for this error.

WDLogs_0008227EDA37_241202_0948.zip

[bollar]

beta 5 is much more stable for me and I have only had a couple of issues:

1. One WD wouldn't connect to the network after the upgrade and a reboot wouldn't fix. I found that it was connecting to an AP on the other side of the house for some reason. Rebooting the AP forced the WD to negotiate with a closer AP and it has been stable since.

2. I'm still getting Shelly Stargate isn't responding messages -- several a day on some WDs.

3. I have occasionally gotten the blank screen with "refresh ui" message.

[bollar]

After a couple of weeks with Beta 5, the Shelly Stargate isn't responding message is most common. On some screens, it still happens multiple times a day and on some, it never happens. I haven't figured out what might cause it -- one of the screens is very simple, with four elements to change light switches and another is very complex with multiple pages with multiple elements on each page -- but other screens with a variation of the same complex page rarely if ever get this error.

Not so common now are the lost connection messages. In most cases, toggling WiFi off and on recovers connection.

The refresh ui message is also not so common, but for me, this appears to need a reboot.

[Arne Vanhove]

Hi Bollar (and others)

I'm experiencing the same issues. I have a Unifi controller with 3 access points (living room / hall / attic). Several Shelly devices with 2 walldisplays. One wall display is 1.5m + wall away from an access point and has no problems (signal -44dbm). The other Shelly wall display is maybe 4m away from the AP but the line of sight is diagonal through a brick wall. No other wifi device in that room has issues, execpt the Wall Display. 

I can see in my logs that the Wall display roams a lot. Signal strength was around -75dbm. The closest AP in my house is in the hall but it roamed often to the AP at the other side of my house or to the AP in the attic which resulted in very low latency and response times. I managed to bring down the signal to -61dbm by changing the channel the ap to a less conjested one (6) because I have a lot of 2.4ghz signals here in my neighbourhood. AFAIK, it is the client who chooses when to roam to another access point. So i'm guessing that treshold of the shelly wall display in combination with poor wifi reception is the reason the wall display loses connection or roams. In a few occasions I had to tap the screen before it connected again. Also, covering up the display with your hand drops the signal considerably. 

Problems

• The wall display has weak wifi performance, therefore roams a lot in my network
• Maybe there are issues with the "threshold" when the access point roams?
• With older firmware (prior to 2.3) I had a lot of disconnect issues. Will have to check with stable 2.3.0)

Things I did to try and resolve ( from -75dbm to -60dbm)

• changing the closest ap 2.4ghz channel to a less conjested one
• Changed orientation of the antenna's of my AP
• boosted signal from medium to high
• I locked the Shelly Wall Display to my access point in my hall within the Unifi controller. So even if the device wants to roam, it won't. Not entirely sure how unifi does this, but it probably tricks the Shelly -_- 

Below a screenshot of how it was before my changes (inkom = hallway / zithoek = sofa/living room). Here you can see the disconnecting issues

Below some roaming examples. I understand why the client roams, but it seems that especially the wall display has poor Wifi performance. As far as i can see, none of my other wifi devices are that "twitchy". 

Maybe repositioning the AP in my hallway will solve this problem ... but i don't find the behavior pretty normal. Does Shelly read this topic or can I report this somewhere? 

Edited January 14 by Arne Vanhove
typo's

[Arne Vanhove]

The connection today seems a lot more stable. The signal improvement (now -60dbm) and locking it with the unifi controller to 1 AP seems to work. I hope Shelly is aware of the poor wifi performance and maybe could make the roaming less agressive? Or make internal changes to the new ones? I'll keep you al posted. 

Edited January 14 by Arne Vanhove

[bollar]

I have installed 2.3 final and unfortunately I have seen all of the connection issues I reported above. I'm happy to help diagnose any of these with direction.

[bollar]

The Shelly Stargate isn't responding message may be related to the HA url that's being called. I have several Wall Displays that never get this error and pointed one of them to the same URL that a Wall Display that does get this message. It started getting the isn't responding message as well. What's interesting to me is that it doesn't necessarily seem to be file size -- some of the affected devices only have two lights and a cover -- and I have some that are pretty large and multi-tabbed and they don't seem to be affected, so maybe there's a hardware component as well.

[tvbshelly]

On 21.10.2024 at 03:39, bollar said:

Part of the problem is Ubiquiti's and I am working through that with them.

Have you found out anything new about the problem in the meantime? Is there anything you can configure on the Unifi side to improve the situation?

 

[bollar]

3 hours ago, tvbshelly said:

Have you found out anything new about the problem in the meantime? Is there anything you can configure on the Unifi side to improve the situation?

 

Here are the settings that have helped. I put the wall displays into their own SSID so the rest of the IoT devices could be managed with less restrictive settings. The one thing that still happens with annoying frequency is the Shelly Stargate isn't responding message.

It feels like Fast Roaming OFF and Minimum Data Rate Control set to 24 Mbps have helped -- but I'm not sure if that's factual. BSS Transition ON seems to be important.

Edited February 10 by bollar

[mapuo]

I just bought the WallDisplay x2 and was experiencing connection issues with my Unifi APs. This thread helped a lot. Thank you all.

I've created a new SSID for my IoT devices and there is this option "Enhanced IoT Connectivity" that I've clicked - it disables most of the following options, and it seems to work so far.

[Arne Vanhove]

Oh, I have been through these settings serveral times and never noticed this. I'll give it a try!

[bollar]

14 hours ago, mapuo said:

I just bought the WallDisplay x2 and was experiencing connection issues with my Unifi APs. This thread helped a lot. Thank you all.

I've created a new SSID for my IoT devices and there is this option "Enhanced IoT Connectivity" that I've clicked - it disables most of the following options, and it seems to work so far.

 

Yes, it helps, but it's not 100% yet. At this point, the most infuriating experience is when the screen is off and (apparently) the Shelly Stargate isn't responding error comes up. the WD acts like it's hung unless you can tap in just the right place to let it reboot.

At this point, my preference would be to have that error automatically reboot the device, if a reboot is the only solution.

Also, "minimum data rate control" and "BSS transition" aren't selectable when "Enhanced IoT Connectivity" is set. I've found BSS, in particular, makes connections more reliable.

Edited February 13 by bollar

[mapuo]

9 hours ago, bollar said:

Also, "minimum data rate control" and "BSS transition" aren't selectable when "Enhanced IoT Connectivity" is set. I've found BSS, in particular, makes connections more reliable.

Actually "Minimum Data Rate Control" can be customized in that mode, and as for the BSS:

Maybe the WD you've installed is in a weird spot with weak signal and tries to connect to another AP and this is why you've found that it helps?

In another thread I think I've saw someone to suggest pinning the device to one AP to prevent it from switching the APs, maybe this will help in your case.

You can try that from the Clients > select the WD > Settings (the cogwheel) > Lock to Access Point:

[tvbshelly]

1 hour ago, mapuo said:

Actually "Minimum Data Rate Control" can be customized in that mode, and as for the BSS

Unfortunately this is not possible for BSS:

With "Enhanced IoT Connectivity" on the setting for "BSS" is disabled:

[Arne Vanhove]

BSS makes connections more reliable because it "prepares" the client for the transition from one ap to another. I found this info to be very helpfull. 
https://community.ui.com/questions/Fast-Roaming-and-BSS-Transition-with-WNM/5f03443e-ec4d-4733-a2af-96d495913196

So as someone mentions in the thread I linked to, there is a possibility that Unifi does more then the standarisation of bss. Anyway, I have now enabled the "IoT-setting". Lets see how it performs. 

[tvbshelly]

2 minutes ago, Arne Vanhove said:

Anyway, I have now enabled the "IoT-setting

As I understand it, you deactivate the BSS feature when you activate Enhanced IoT Connectivity.

BSS may also have the following disadvantage (according to Unifi) : "Clients that do not support this feature may experience connectivity issues."

 

[Arne Vanhove]

8 hours ago, tvbshelly said:

As I understand it, you deactivate the BSS feature when you activate Enhanced IoT Connectivity.

BSS may also have the following disadvantage (according to Unifi) : "Clients that do not support this feature may experience connectivity issues."

 

Indeed. Anyway, the devices should not roam a lot in the first place. We will see how this affects the connection issues. 

[bollar]

13 hours ago, mapuo said:

 

Maybe the WD you've installed is in a weird spot with weak signal and tries to connect to another AP and this is why you've found that it helps?

In another thread I think I've saw someone to suggest pinning the device to one AP to prevent it from switching the APs, maybe this will help in your case.

You can try that from the Clients > select the WD > Settings (the cogwheel) > Lock to Access Point:

 

 

Thanks -- anything is possible, but seems unlikely. I've experimented with a lot of things across the fifteen devices, including locking to Access Points and the settings I posted above take care of network connectivity most of the time for me. Certainly not at all like the beginning where I had some that wouldn't stay connected at all. 

At the beginning, I had "very good" 2.4 Ghz coverage and in experimenting on this issue, moving APs and switching to older UniFi APs, it's now "excellent" as far as UniFi is concerned and all of my IoT devices are usually at -65 db or better. It's probably a best case scenario now -- the house is long and narrow and I don't have interference from neighbors, so there's little to no frequency overlap. I also have another 110+ Shelly devices and 70+ other IoT devices that were happy before and happy now, so for me, it's a unique problem for the Wall Displays.

The ones underlined in yellow are the ones with the Shelly Stargate issue. The bottom one has it right now and that's why there's no traffic. At least I assume so, since it's currently in a bedroom and the screen is off.

My most interesting finding recently was that the Shelly Stargate error may be HA related. As I noted a couple of weeks ago, I have two WDs adjacent to one another and one regularly has the Stargate error and one never does. Using the same url caused the test WD to also get the error. It was not the result I was expecting because they test WD has a pretty complex multi-tabbed page and normally performs without error. The url I copied onto it just controls a few lights.
 

 

[bollar]

For those of you working with WD and UniFi networks, the new Early Access UniFi Network 9.1.92 has a client analyzer that gives some interesting information. This sample is the WD most affected by the Shelly Stargate error. The three events:

1. A roaming decision.

2. A power failure at the house.

3. Installing this software. 

Connectivity at this level does not appear to be affected by the Stargate error.

[TheGui]

Hi there,

Im still stuck with my Unifi AP not able to keep connectivity with my Brand New Wall Display x2

Anyone found out how to definitively solve this ?

Or do I wasted 200€ for nothing ?

[mapuo]

12 minutes ago, TheGui said:

Hi there,

Im still stuck with my Unifi AP not able to keep connectivity with my Brand New Wall Display x2

Anyone found out how to definitively solve this ?

Or do I wasted 200€ for nothing ?

It works fine in my network. See my earlier post for details.

I've updated to the new version 2 days ago and it restarted and it connected to different AP.