When Your Roborock "running Valetudo" Goes Rogue

My trusty old Roborock V1 decided to ghost my Wi-Fi after we moved into our new flat. No problem, I thought. Same AVM Fritz!Box 7590, same settings—should be smooth sailing, right? Wrong. I couldn’t even access the Valetudo web UI.

“No worries,” I told myself, “we’ll just reset the Wi-Fi.” Press and hold Home + Clean. Suddenly, I’m greeted by the soothing voice of Portal’s GLaDOS: “Resetting Wi-Fi.” Perfect.

I grab my iPhone, connect to Valetudo’s temporary network, scan for available Wi-Fi… and see nothing. Checked the web, checked my router: I’m on channels 1 and 36—should be fine. Still nada.

Then, in a moment of frustration, I decide to manually set the channel. That’s when I notice something strange in the settings.

For some mysterious reason, my Fritz!Box had set the Wi-Fi mode to 802.11g+n only. Meanwhile, my Roborock is living in the past with a+b support. Bingo! Switched it to 802.11b+g+n, and BOOM—Wi-Fi connected.

Roborock is back online. Balance restored. Skynet postponed—at least for now.

UPDATE

In the meantime, my reliable FritzBox has run into the notorious 2.4 GHz failure. Although a repair would be possible, the cost isn’t really justifiable considering the device’s age—and it’s only a matter of time before the next component gives up. More information about the issue can be found here.