BroadLink RM4 Mini - Can't Set Up Again

People here seem to love the BroadLink RM devices for IR control. I bought an RM4 Pro, which is in our barn and is connected to the LAN. I also bought an RM4 Mini and that is a royal pain. I had it connected to our LAN previously. I was trying to delete a remote I had added and apparently deleted the RM4 Mini instead.

First, I want to say I think the BroadLink documentation is pretty weak and lacking. I’ve tried resetting my RM4 Mini to AP Setup and Smart Setup. I’m figuring that AP Setup means “Access Point,” which is where it acts as a wifi AP so my phone can connect to it. I’ve tried that many, many times, and the RM4 Mini never actually connects to my wifi. Remember, it did connect previously and I accidentally deleted it from the app in my phone. Since then, I have not changed my password, either on the wifi APs for my LAN or in my BroadLink app. I’m using 2 TP-Link Deco M9s in my house for wifi. I have not touched them or changed any settings on them since I first connected the RM4 Mini to my LAN.

The only change I’ve made were with the DHCP server. When my RM4 Mini connected to the LAN, I used the MAC address and set up a specified lease for the RM4 Mini with a different name (since, at the time, I’d be adding the RM4 Pro later and didn’t want to deal with 2 devices that might use the same name). That worked fine.

Then, after I deleted the RM4 Mini from my BroadLink app, I deleted the lease info from the DHCP server and restarted it. (It’s part of my PFSense firewall.) I don’t know if that could be creating an issue with the RM4 Mini or not.

At this point, whenever I reset the RM4 Mini and reset it and try to add it again, during the setup, apparently, the RM4 Mini never joins my LAN through wifi anymore.

The only thing I’ve done that I can imagine having an impact was adding it in the DHCP server, then deleting the lease.

Well, this is weird. After this, I thought, “Oh, heck, try again.” This time my iPad was near me instead of my iPhone, so I grabbed that and tried it. It added right away.

Now that I think about it, when I was trying to add it previously, I went through the same thing - it wouldn’t add with my iPhone, but would with my iPad.

Why? Who knows, but I’m starting my relationship with this device without much of a state of trust for it.

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Thank you - your tip for using the iPad for the setup procedure saved my day!

So this happens when you have both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz on your AP. Your phone is connected to 5Ghz and the RM4 wants to use 2.4Ghz. If you temporarily disable 5Ghz or have the two bands split between different networks it won’t be an issue.