Homey Pro 2023 on firmware 13.5.0 cannot connect to TP-Link Archer AXE75 Smart Connect Wi-Fi

Questions & Help
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1

My Homey Pro (Early 2023), running firmware 13.5.0, can no longer connect reliably to my main Wi-Fi network.

Router: TP-Link Archer AXE75 v1.0
Main SSID: Malma
Configuration: Smart Connect / combined dual-band network

When I try to connect Homey to Malma, it reports that the Wi-Fi password is incorrect, even though the password is definitely correct and works for other devices.

Troubleshooting performed:

  • Homey connects successfully to the router’s separate 2.4 GHz guest network.
  • Homey also connects successfully to a mobile hotspot.
  • The main Malma network works normally for other devices.
  • A full power cycle of Homey and the router has sometimes changed the behaviour temporarily, but has not resolved the problem.
  • After unplugging Homey, it has previously failed to reconnect as expected.

This suggests that the Wi-Fi hardware and password entry work, but that Homey has a compatibility or reconnection problem with the Archer AXE75 Smart Connect network. The problem appears to have started in connection with, or become noticeable after, the Homey firmware update.

Could you please investigate whether firmware 13.5.0 has any known issues with Smart Connect, combined 2.4/5 GHz networks, or the TP-Link Archer AXE75? Please also advise what diagnostics or logs you need from my Homey.

2

You might want to reach out to Athom directly, as this is just a user’s forum:

3

ok, tried mail first and that referenced me here, but i might have selected wrong path… I’ll try again via your link :slight_smile:

4

After you are log in to the support portal, select your Homey Pro 2023 followed by ‘Other’ in the More section. Then scroll down the page where it says ‘Contact support’.

5

I’m troubleshooting repeated Wi-Fi disconnects on a Homey Pro (Early 2023). Other devices on the same Wi-Fi are reportedly working normally. As I had chance to look on the logs, here is analysis…

The Homey uses the Broadcom/Cypress BCM4345/6 Wi-Fi chipset with brcmfmac:

brcmfmac: brcmf_fw_alloc_request: using brcm/brcmfmac43455-sdio for chip BCM4345/6
brcmfmac: Firmware: BCM4345/6 wl0: Oct 28 2024 23:27:00 version 7.45.286 (be70ab3 CY)

(so no recent firmware change, but possibly something linked with NetworkManager or wpa_supplicant configuration in recent Homey OS versions)

The Wi-Fi profile configured by NetworkManager includes:

key_mgmt = WPA-PSK WPA-PSK-SHA256 FT-PSK

so FT/802.11r support is present in the connection profile.

The main problem is repeated loss of association followed by failed reassociation attempts.

Example:

wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=BSSID reason=6
wlan0: Trying to associate with BSSID (SSID='SSID' freq=2412 MHz)
...
wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-ASSOC-REJECT bssid=00:00:00:00:00:00 status_code=16

The status_code=16 association failure occurs repeatedly:

Trying to associate with BSSID
CTRL-EVENT-ASSOC-REJECT bssid=00:00:00:00:00:00 status_code=16
...
Trying to associate with BSSID
CTRL-EVENT-ASSOC-REJECT bssid=00:00:00:00:00:00 status_code=16
...
CTRL-EVENT-SSID-TEMP-DISABLED id=0 ssid="SSID" auth_failures=1 duration=10 reason=CONN_FAILED

There are also repeated disconnects with both reason=2 and reason=6:

wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=BSSID reason=2

and:

wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=BSSID reason=6

What is interesting is that the connection can work normally between failures. WPA key negotiation completes successfully:

WPA: Key negotiation completed with BSSID [PTK=CCMP GTK=CCMP]
CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to BSSID completed

Group key rekeying also succeeds repeatedly:

WPA: Group rekeying completed with BSSID [GTK=CCMP]

Shortly afterwards, however, the client can be disconnected again and enter another reassociation loop.

The main symptoms from the Homey side are therefore:

  • repeated CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED reason=2
  • repeated CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED reason=6
  • repeated CTRL-EVENT-ASSOC-REJECT ... status_code=16
  • failed association attempts showing bssid=00:00:00:00:00:00
  • temporary SSID disabling with reason=CONN_FAILED
  • repeated scanning/reassociation cycles
  • successful WPA/CCMP connections in between the failures

The Homey is reconnecting to the same BSSID on 2412 MHz, so this does not appear to be a normal roaming event between different APs.

As this behaviour started with the current Homey OS version, it looks like there may be a Wi-Fi regression or an interoperability issue involving the BCM43455/brcmfmac stack.

To isolate whether this is triggered by a specific WLAN feature possible fixes until Athom came up with solution, includes:

  1. Disable 802.11r / Fast Transition temporarily.
  2. Test a separate SSID using WPA2-PSK + AES/CCMP only.
  3. Disable WPA3/transition mode if enabled.
  4. Disable PMF or set it to optional instead of required.

So you can maybe give a try…