CNX 868 IQ (cyclonext) remains Idle in HA while physically cleaning

[fdarden]

Problem

With iAqualink Robots 2.5.1, a CNX 868 IQ (device type cyclonext) remains Idle in Home Assistant while the cleaner is physically running. A second robot on the same iAquaLink account, a Polaris VRX IQ+ (device type vr), updates normally.

Environment

• Home Assistant Core: 2026.7.4
• Home Assistant OS: 18.2
• iAqualink Robots: 2.5.1
• Affected robot: CNX 868 IQ / cyclonext
• Comparison robot: POLARIS VRXIQ+ ROBOTIC / vr
• The robots use separate config entries under the same iAquaLink account

Steps to reproduce

1. Add each robot as a separate integration entry.
2. Start the CNX 868 IQ and confirm it is physically cleaning.
3. Wait through several update intervals.
4. Observe that its vacuum entity and Activity sensor remain Idle, with 0 time remaining.
5. Reload only the CNX integration entry; the state remains Idle.
6. Start the VRX IQ+ comparison robot. Home Assistant changes it from Idle to Cleaning within about 12 seconds, and its cycle timestamp and remaining time update correctly.

Expected behavior

The Cyclonext vacuum entity and Activity sensor should change to Cleaning, and the cycle timestamp and remaining time should update.

Actual behavior

The CNX remains Idle with an old cycle-start timestamp and zero time remaining while physically cleaning. Its connection Status sensor reports Connected.

Sanitized debug trace

Target device selected: cyclonext - [serial redacted]
Started websocket listener for real-time updates
Established persistent websocket connection for robot [serial redacted]
Finished fetching [serial redacted] data ... (success: True)
Sensor activity value changed: None -> Idle
Finished fetching [serial redacted] data ... (success: True)
# Successful fetches continue approximately every 10 seconds

There were no authentication or connection errors after reload, and no real-time state-change event was observed for the Cyclonext robot. The VR robot updates correctly under the same Home Assistant instance, account, and network.

In 2.5.1, _update_cyclonext_robot_data appears to mark cleaning only when robot_data["mode"] == 1. Could the CNX 868 IQ payload's current mode value/type or state path differ from that assumption?

[galletn]

Hi @fdarden — thanks for the detailed report, it was genuinely useful.

This isn't fixed yet. Your hypothesis about mode was my first thought too, but I captured live payloads from two CycloNext robots and both report mode as a plain integer, so the type mismatch we both suspected isn't what's happening. I've added a defensive guard for it anyway, but the root cause is still open.

Worth noting you're on 2.5.1, and the 3.x line reworked how state updates are applied — so there's a fair chance this behaves differently there regardless.

Could you install 3.0.0-rc.3 (HACS → ⋮ → Redownload → enable "Show beta versions") and then, while the CNX is physically cleaning, use Download diagnostics on the device page? rc.3 includes the raw values the cloud sends, which is the one thing nobody has been able to capture so far. That file, taken while it's running, would very likely settle it.

Two smaller things in rc.3 that touch what you described:

• A new Last Cloud Contact sensor. Your Status sensor said "Connected" while the state was stale — that sensor can't distinguish "connected and reporting" from "connected but silent for hours". The new one shows when the robot last actually reached the cloud, which should make this kind of problem much easier to spot.
• If mode ever does arrive in an unexpected form, the activity now reports "unknown" rather than silently claiming "Idle", so a wrong state is at least visible as wrong.