Yet Another 2.4GHz Device Connection Issue

[opel1970]

I have yet another device with issues getting connected to the 2.4GHz network. This device is a MedaCube (https://www.medacube.com/), a medical device used for dispensing medications. Amazingly, I have gotten all of our other 2.4GHz smart home devices connected without issues, along with Amazon Kindles that are also only 2.4GHz.

This MedaCube, with a USB wifi adapter, has got me stumped. It can detect our Google mesh networks (main and guest) and can determine whether I input the PSK correctly or not. However, it never completes the connection. The MedaCube doesn't provide any diagnostic information, and of course, neither does the Google mesh setup. So I have no idea what to try differently to get this connecting.

I have tried all of the usual suspects: distance to the router, rebooting the MedaCube and the Google network, turning off existing devices, etc. Nothing has resolved this issue.

I just checked and our Google mesh is running version 14150.43.81, if it makes any difference. Why does this have to be so hard!?

Tim

[MichaelP]

Hello @opel1970 

I'm not familiar with that device, but the only thing I can think of trying would be disabling WPA3 (Google Home app, Wi-Fi bubble on main screen, gear icon in upper right corner – the WPA3 switch should be in the list). If that works, you might be able to enable it again after the MedaCube is connected for the first time. If it doesn't work, you may need to work with the MedaCube support team.

[opel1970]

I don't even have the WPA3 option enabled at this point. I've been working with the MedaCube support, but they say that since it can connect to a hotspot the issue isn't within MedaCube. I've been trying to get some more detailed information from them. The MedaCube uses a USB-wifi adapter, so trying to see if they have drivers builtin for a USB-ethernet, or USB-5GHz wifi adapter. So far I have just gotten that they don't support any other adapters, not whether there are drivers for any other adapters. 

Is there any way to get a log from the Google backend to see details about devices trying to connect?

[MichaelP]

If you can get it to connect to a hot spot, you might try shutting down your Google/Nest WiFi system temporarily and configuring the hot spot to use exactly the same SSID and password, then shut down the hot spot and fire the Google/Nest WiFi system back up again to see if it connects properly. I have to say that just because it can connect to a hot spot does not mean it's not their problem. The Google/Nest WiFi system will have multiple access points advertising the same SSID, and that may not be a situation their device was built to handle (which it should be – it's increasingly common in the home environment).

There are logs in the Google/Nest WiFi devices, but getting them out is... complicated. They are encoded as gzip-compressed text files inside a binary protocol buffer that is itself gzip compressed. It's really intended to be submitted to Google for forensic analysis in a bug report, not for end user analysis.

[Jeff]

Hi, opel1970.
I just wanted to jump in real fast to see if you saw MichaelP's latest reply and to see if you still needed some help on this or if you were able to get it sorted out. I saw that you were trying quite a few troubleshooting steps, so I'm hoping something clicked for you. If you are still needing some help, just let us know and we'll be happy to continue helping.
Thanks.

[opel1970]

We had tried all of the usual suspects for getting it connected, with no luck. I wound up getting a USB-Ethernet adapter on the off chance that whatever was driving the backend had drivers built-in, and amazingly it did. At this point it was much easier getting a network cable run to where this would be sitting than to get it connected to the 2.4GHz network. I also got a USB 5GHz wireless adapter, but it didn't have drivers for that. I may try contacting Google Support to see if they have any other options to get this going, but for now the USB-Ethernet adapter is getting the job done.

Thanks for the ideas and offers of assistance.

Tim

[Jeff]

Hi, opel1970. Thanks for letting us know you got things worked out. Good job on the troubleshooting efforts.

Before I mark this as resolved, is there anything else you might need?

Thanks,

- Jeff

[opel1970]

Nothing else at this point. We're still working through some other issues with this device, but I don't think it is anything that will actually get going with the Google Nest Mesh.  I think we are going to wind up getting a wifi extender to run essentially just for this device. Going to try out a friend's to see if it gets the job done.

[Jeff]

Thanks, opel1970. 

I'll go ahead and close this one up, but if you run into issues down the road, definitely feel free to open up a new thread.

Thanks,

- Jeff