Aria scales won’t connect to WiFi

[sam_moore1987]

Spent nearly 2 hours on trying to set up scales. Previously connected but hadn’t synced for couple months so deleted it and thought easier to add again. Remember this from when I set it up originally, why are such expensive scales so difficult to set up! Following instructions no luck! 

[akobelan]

Did you drop your scale in any way? Even from 1" off the ground? If so, you can read my post on how I fixed my scale.

[Rich_Laue]

@sam_moore1987 is this the original Aria? 

Are you using the app to set it up? Or a web browser. 

After pulling the battery do you get the message Tap to Change? . where you able to connect your phone's or computer's WiFi to the scale? Was the app or web able to log into the scale? 

Instructions are found on page 2 of the user manual . 

The Aria gets setup through the app, no need to connect to the Aria scales WiFi. 

@akobelan you don't have another post in your history. It would have been good to put a link to the post. 

[akobelan]

I posted but my post was considered as spam. I’m working on it.

[akobelan]

After a few years of sitting on my workbench, I got my scale working. I've read everything about the problems people were having and anectdotal solutions that have been suggested and the general frustration many people have had.

While misconfigured routers, and spaces and/or non alphabetic characters in SSIDs may indeed cause the scales to stop working I think I found the reason why so many scales would fail suddenly.

There are 4 U.FL connection points on the main board of the Aria. Two connect the WiFi antennae and two connect the GainSpan WiFi module to the main board. The shorter wire (black on my main board) is under tension. Which means that repeated drops or movement across a bumpy floor will not in of itself cause the wire to detach, the connection will eventually "pop" loose owing to the tension it is under. I have lots of experience with U.FL wires that are too short. 

Pressing down of the contact points of the U.FL connectors will result in a clicking sound, that of the connecter reseating itself. I can't say for sure which ones were disconnected in addition to the GainSpan/main board connection, but any one of the contact points not seated correctly would cause a performance degradation or complete failure.

Well, my scale is working again. I replaced the batteries and made sure they each read 1.5v (new). I also inspected the wires to make sure there were no obvious cold solders that had detached or "pinched" wires. The wires could have been better fastened to the main housing during the manufacturing process. But that would have resulted in additional manufacturing costs, and less profit margin. 

I hope this helps some of you with non-working Aria scales. And I hope that the FitBit engineers have redesigned the Aria++'s to take that design flaw into consideration. (If you look at my profile, the background picture clearly shows the four U.FL contact points). 

[Rich_Laue]

My thought is that since the Aria has been made in 4-5 years, Fitbit probably isn't thinking about redesigning a model that isn't being offered for sale. 

Thanks for the insight.