What is EnOcean?
For anyone that doesn't know, EnOcean are a company that produces IOT dongle type devices that can plug into access points (they do a lot more than this too). These dongles then wirelessly talk to (868MHz in the UK) smart IOT devices such as power clamps. So they operate on a different frequency than WiFi meaning no interference.
How EnOcean Works with Cisco APs
On Cisco access points a small docker container is installed on the AP that interfaces with this dongle and tunnels the data back to an EnOcean IOT connector (can be in the cloud). DNAC can be used to distribute this docker container or it can be done manually using the CLI.
The Problem
Issue Summary
What we have found when deploying this is that they don't seem to work on the controller and AP version 17.9.5 which is currently the gold standard release for the 9800-40 controllers. We have only tested this on Catalyst 9166 APs.
The issue is that the USB device isn't detected correctly by the access points and when deploying the docker container from DNAC we receive this error:
ERR_AH_-1043 error during app installation – requested USB device not found on the APWe receive a similar error when deploying via the CLI.
Initial Investigation
Initially we believed this was because the USB module type was not supported by the AP (PID/VID/VER 403/6015/1000) as it was not present when the show usb list command was entered.
Workaround Attempt
With the help of EnOcean we tried to manually allow this USB device type with the following commands:
# Add support for the EnOcean USB device
test usb load module ftdi-sio vendor-id 403 product-id 6015 version 1000
# Restart USB subsystem
test usb disable
test usb enableResult: Once this was done we could see the USB type now supported in the show usb list command. The EnOcean dongle is detected and seems ok from an AP perspective but the issue when deploying the docker/IOX container still presented the same error.
The Solution
Firmware Update Required
Upgrading the firmware to 17.12.4 fixes this problem and enables the application to be installed onto the access point.
Environment Details
- Controller: Cisco 9800-40
- Access Points: Catalyst 9166
- Problematic Firmware: 17.9.5 (Gold Standard)
- Working Firmware: 17.12.4
- EnOcean Device: USB dongle (PID/VID/VER 403/6015/1000)
- Frequency: 868MHz (UK)
Deployment Methods
EnOcean containers can be deployed using either:
- DNAC: Centralized deployment and management
- CLI: Manual installation on individual APs
Key Takeaways
- EnOcean operates on 868MHz, completely separate from WiFi frequencies
- Version 17.9.5 has USB detection issues with EnOcean dongles
- Manual USB module loading doesn't resolve the IOX container deployment issue
- Upgrading to 17.12.4 resolves the problem completely
- Consider firmware compatibility when planning IoT integrations
This was a frustrating issue that appeared to be hardware compatibility but turned out to be a firmware bug. Always worth testing IoT integrations on the latest firmware versions before large-scale deployments.