AC86U sometimes powers completely off during reboot

[nlurker]

The problem is @RMerlin have never been able to reproduce this issue on his router thus he can't even start to diagnose it, perhaps one of us should send him a confirmed faulty unit of ours for testing.

It is not Merlin's problem. My 86U did it the first day, when I was running nothing but out-of-the-box stock firmware.

 

[Asad Ali]

It is not Merlin's problem. My 86U did it the first day, when I was running nothing but out-of-the-box stock firmware.

I didn't say it's Merlin's problem. I said RMerlin (aka Eric the lead coder of Asuswrt-Merlin) doesn't able to reproduce the issue when he tried to troubleshoot it hence he can't do anything to find a fix.

 

[madfusker]

AFAIK, they all do it, you just have to software reboot it enough times and you'll see it. Seems like the reboot command gets confused in code with the halt command. It's probably not worth his time to chase it down, but yeah, it would be nice to have fixed. I honestly haven't had to worry about it much as I make sure I'm around anytime I issue a reboot.

FWIW, I haven't seen it in my AX88U yet, but also haven't had to reboot much since I got it in early December.

 

[L&LD]

No, they don't 'all do it'.

I've installed many, many RT-AC86U's in the past year (in the low hundreds), only a small handful exhibited the issue on the first firmware upgrade (to RMerlin firmware), past that, there were even less that continued to show that issue (which were then promptly replaced with the same model) and a very few that continue to do it after many months, till today.

Those latter units don't need rebooting regularly though; the network just works. When I am called to do a firmware upgrade, I make sure I reboot them at least twice afterward and have no drama till the next time I'm called.

I've noticed that they are much more stable with a USB drive and a swap file enabled. When I reboot them, I 'safely remove' the USB drive from the GUI and the chance of the router staying off is greatly reduced.

 

[madfusker]

What is the difference in the "latter units"? Is there a hardware revision stamped on the bottom of the router? I have 6 units that are HW Rev 1.5 and production year 2018. They all do it. No USB sticks or devices on my devices.

 

[Chris_J]

This problem can be very annoying, especially if you forget that you have reboot scheduler on before you leave home for a while!

One thing I noticed was that it would do it much, much less when I had no USB drives / sticks plugged in.

 

[L&LD]

No difference that I can tell. Just that some I installed at around the same time a few months ago were affected and some weren't. I did offer the customers to replace them, but they said why? Their networks work much better than they ever have before, except for that single issue.

 

[NoSync]

The main caveat is to NEVER reboot the RT-AC86U when you are not in the same room to make sure it comes back up.

As a workaround, I installed a smart plug which can be programmed to turn off and on the connected devices even if the internet is not working, so when I need to reboot my AC86U I just unmount the connected USB drive and then program the smart plug to turn off at a X time, and turn on at X+1 min time. 10€, problem solved.

 

[TeHashX]

As a workaround, I installed a smart plug which can be programmed to turn off and on the connected devices even if the internet is not working, so when I need to reboot my AC86U I just unmount the connected USB drive and then program the smart plug to turn off at a X time, and turn on at X+1 min time. 10€, problem solved.

Can you please share details please about this smart plug?

 

[miazza]

Can you please share details please about this smart plug?

I was thinking to do the same with a Tasmota SonOff programming a pulse ON-->OFF every night at 3.00 a.m.

Did someone try to do the job via cron ?

 

[visortgw]

As a workaround, I installed a smart plug which can be programmed to turn off and on the connected devices even if the internet is not working, so when I need to reboot my AC86U I just unmount the connected USB drive and then program the smart plug to turn off at a X time, and turn on at X+1 min time. 10€, problem solved.

There are also smart outlets that monitor either

1. Presence of wifi network; OR
2. Internet access via hardwired (RJ45) port.

Either failing would potentially indicate that device did not power back up after reboot, initiating an automated power cycle. I have one of each ordered, and I will be testing within the next couple of days (once they arrive) -- I will report back my results.

 

[JDB]

There are also smart outlets that monitor either

1. Presence of wifi network; OR
2. Internet access via hardwired (RJ45) port.

Either failing would potentially indicate that device did not power back up after reboot, initiating an automated power cycle. I have one of each ordered, and I will be testing within the next couple of days (once they arrive) -- I will report back my results.

Do you have some links to these? RJ45 ones ideally?

Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[visortgw]

Do you have some links to these? RJ45 ones ideally?

Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Search for "ezOutlet2" on Amazon.

 

[elorimer]

There are also smart outlets that monitor either

1. Presence of wifi network; OR
2. Internet access via hardwired (RJ45) port.

Either failing would potentially indicate that device did not power back up after reboot, initiating an automated power cycle. I have one of each ordered, and I will be testing within the next couple of days (once they arrive) -- I will report back my results.

I have a slight concern that my problem would be losing power entirely while I am away, and the gizmo would turn the power off and on every 10 minutes for a week.

For $60 I might put an older router on an old phone with a data-sim, and a regular smart plug I could manually control.

 

[guho]

I have my AC86u on a UPB smart appliance switch, which is controlled from my ELK alarm panel. Since the AC86u is not my main router, I can still trigger the switch from the ELK via Internet, and if all else fails the ELK panel is also reachable by phone to trigger the UPB switch via touch tones ;-) Gives great peace of mind, after having had several episodes of this problem while away.

 

[unsynaps]

Search for "ezOutlet2" on Amazon.

Been looking for something like this that isnt $200+ that does not require some outside website to operate.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Been looking for something like this that isnt $200+ that does not require some outside website to operate.

Look at the 3Gstore Remote IP switch. $99 controls 2 outlets, $69 controls 1 outlet. Many options. No need to control it through a web site.

 

[^Tripper^]

As a workaround, I installed a smart plug which can be programmed to turn off and on the connected devices even if the internet is not working, so when I need to reboot my AC86U I just unmount the connected USB drive and then program the smart plug to turn off at a X time, and turn on at X+1 min time. 10€, problem solved.

I’ve been doing the same with a sonoff running tasmota. Cheap, simple and effective.

 

[miazza]

I’ve been doing the same with a sonoff running tasmota. Cheap, simple and effective.

As said in a previous answer, a SonOff Tasmota with pulsetime command on 3 seconds programmed every day at 3:00 a.m. works perfectly with a cost of 7 Euro on amazon.

 

[NoSync]

Can you please share details please about this smart plug?

I’m using a very basic TP-Link HS100. I set a cron to unmount my USB drive at 04:28 every night, and I programmed the smart plug to turn the router off at 04:30 and back on at 04:31. Works like a charm.