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WiFi doorsensors & LED strip won’t pair

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Pairing

Some users report issues with pairing a eWeLink supported WiFi doorsensor or Sonoff L2 LED strip. Mostly the device can not be found on the network. The device also seems to not support compatible pairing mode.

First some background on the issue

Most of devices supported by eWeLink are built on the Espressif Systems ESP8266, ESP8285 or ESP32. The WiFi doorsensors and Sonoff L2 LED strip however are built on the Opulinks OPL1x00 chipsets (at the moment of this writing at September 9th, 2021 it is about the OPL1000 and OPL1200). And that is were it goes wrong.

Whereas the ESP8266, ESP8285 and ESP32 chipsets do support the WiFi protocols 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n the OPL1x00 chipsets only supports 802.11b. All these protocols are protocols for the 2.4 GHz frequency band. The 802.11b WiFi protocol is one of the first (and thus oldest) WiFi protocols and therefore conform current standards named WiFi 1. This protocol is very outdated, supports only very slow datarates (which is fine for a WiFi doorsensor) and has security flaws. 802.11n is also named WiFi 4 and therefore more modern.

The issue

Many modern routers and accesspoints do not have the 802.11b protocol enabled by default and some might even not support it anymore. In this case the app will only search on the WiFi protocols you are connected with (most likely 802.11g or 802.11n) and isn’t able to search at the 802.11b protocol since the router / accesspoints doesn’t offer the protocol at your wireless network unless you were able to enable it manually. All this will cause the discovery of the devices (with Opulinks OPL1x000 chipset) in the eWeLink app to fail.

Solution

A solution is only possible when your router / accesspoint has the ability to turn on the 802.11b protocol manually and when you are willing to take the possible security risks which goes along with the 802.11b protocol. Please refer to the device manual of your router / accesspoint on how to enable the 802.11b protocol on your router / accesspoint.

If your router / accesspoint doesn’t allow you to enable the 802.11b protocol then the WiFi doorsensor and Sonoff L2 LED strip can’t be used at your WiFi network.

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