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Disable WiFi on Gen 3 Wall Charger?
- Thread starter frederickson
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- gen 3 wall charger wifi
No, not officially to my knowledge. It would not be difficult at all to dramatically cut its range. If they allowed it to be turned off via software setting, how would the user ever turn it back on?
Gen3 HPWC disassembly, with overheating issues explained! shows the innards of the Gen3 and describes how to disassemble it. Pop the antenna connector (perpendicular to the surface of the board) at the top of the circuit board and the range will likely be reduced to less than a foot. I'd probably also put a chunk of electrical tape or somesuch over the antenna connector because it has a tendancy to return to its original position.
I intentionally am avoiding the debate about whether turning wifi off or down is the least bit necessary.
ATPMSD
Active Member
What most people want is for the unit to stop broadcasting the SSID, which is how it used to work. When the SSID was not broadcasting you could put it into commissioning mode where the SSID would broadcast for only 5-minutes. Now it does it all the time!
If you could somehow disable WiFI entirely the unit would never receive any firmware updates, and of course without WiFi it will not get them anyway. And without a WiFi connection Tesla cannot remotely diagnose problems with the unit
You should consider setting up a hot spot every so often and connecting the wall connector to it so can download updates, or if Tesla needs to connect to the unit. Maybe some day Tesla will wise up and allow us to turn off the continuous SSID broadcast, this would be a firmware update to the unit.
Thanks for the responses. I do use WiFi hotspot for a variety of downloads and hard-wired Ethernet the rest of the time.
I was referring to whether one could temporarily disable/enable the WiFi on the unit or actually turning off the unit altogether if so desired?
I agree that it seems strange to have a continuous SSID broadcast.
I was referring to whether one could temporarily disable/enable the WiFi on the unit or actually turning off the unit altogether if so desired?
I agree that it seems strange to have a continuous SSID broadcast.
If all you want is to temporarily disable the wifi signal for a short period for some specific reason, just shut off the circuit feeding the whole unit at the breaker box. But this would not make a good solution for regular use. I agree with Sophias_dad, your best bet is to disconnect the wifi antenna inside the unit. If you need the signal cut down more than that, you could also put a farraday cage around it.
The same way that they used to have the user turn SSID broadcasting on before Tesla changed the firmware to have it always broadcast, i.e. press and hold the button at the plug end for X seconds. Or have it always reboot with the wifi enabled so the user just has to power cycle it and the wifi will be re-enabled. Method 2 would be a bit less desirable from the user standpoint because any time you had a power outage or had to shut off the charger for some other reason, you'd have to go back and reconfigure it to shut down the wifi again.
I had this issue. I rolled back to the following firmware: WC3_1.4.4_firmware.bin.signed
Problem solved.
You will lose the power sharing capabilities (which I don't care about) if you do this. I refuse to upgrade my firmware until they give me the ability to disable the SSID broadcast, or they actually add something useful (like ability to see kWh usage through the Tesla app). I don't need my EVSE telling everyone in range that it exists.
Problem solved.
You will lose the power sharing capabilities (which I don't care about) if you do this. I refuse to upgrade my firmware until they give me the ability to disable the SSID broadcast, or they actually add something useful (like ability to see kWh usage through the Tesla app). I don't need my EVSE telling everyone in range that it exists.
ATPMSD
Active Member
Since updates are automatic, what is to keep it from reinstalling the current firmware?
I never gave it the password to my WiFi. What's the purpose of connecting the WC to *anything* unless it's actually pushing useful data to the cloud? (i.e. usage data)
I got it directly off of the Tesla website about 9 months ago. Kept a copy of it just in case I ever needed to roll back, and when the most recent version refused to let me disable the WiFi, I did just that.
ATPMSD
Active Member
Only if you want updates to he unit or to allow Tesla to remotely diagnose problems. Otherwise, no reason.
Well this is interesting. My WC started broadcasting an SSID and I logged in and checked the firmware and it was 21.36.5. I have no clue how it got that version because I had installed 1.4.4 on it and NEVER gave it my WiFi password. In fact, I had WiFi disabled entirely. I rolled back to 1.4.4 and it is again not broadcasting an SSID but does this thing connect to any open WiFi and try to update itself? I don't think there's ever been an open WiFi AP around here but I can't be 100% sure.
You connect it to your car when charging and your car has an internet connection (3G/LTE/Wifi). Pretty sure the car downloaded the update for your charger and pushed it over.
How would the car push an update to the WC? The WC was never, and has never, been connected to my WiFi network. Unless Tesla automatically creates a mobile hotspot in the vehicle and somehow instructs the WC to connect to it and download a new FW or has the WC communicate its SSID and password and using some non standard communication over the proximity pilot and control pilot (which by the way would be a security risk unless it's encrypted before transmission)...
In any case, it's still on 1.4.4 as of now. Will give an update if this changes.
The early wall chargers were supposed to transfer firmware updates from the car via the data cables. I thought that this went away with the V3 chargers.
Is your car connecting to your wifi? I wonder if the connection details are shared.....
Negative. I checked my router for any expired DHCP leases from the WC on the VLAN that my Tesla connects to; none were found. Last time my WC connected to my access point was back in July (I gave it my WiFi password just to test, then I did a factory reset and rolled back the FW). If it had connected to download a new FW, I would have seen it happen.
How about connections from your car? Because, that's what we believe is happening. Your car downloads the FW file from Tesla servers and then transfers/sideloads it to the TWC while it's plugged in charging. No connection from the TWC necessary.
That is possible, and that is the only place it could possibly be getting it from. And it did it again; I just checked this afternoon and it was again on firmware 21.36.5 and was refusing to stop broadcasting an SSID that begins with "TeslaWallConnector_" (and I rolled it back to 1.4.4 just last week). So I again rolled it back to 1.4.4 (it's no longer broadcasting the SSID) and this time I also removed my WiFi network from the car's list of WiFi networks. So the car now has no WiFi. If it's going to download the FW file, it's now going to have to do it over LTE.
Tesla needs to fix this issue ASAP. I don't need the WC advertising its presence to everyone in range.
I doubt the car deletes the FW file after loading it to the WC, so you're probably going to keep having it happen regardless of whether the car has internet access or not as it will just keep trying to update the WC with the already downloaded file.
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