Firmware 1.34.3 issues

[NinjaVece]

OK, after I demanded that Tesla update me to the next release after 1.34.2 issues (see teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/firmware-1-34-2-issues.146029/), the Friday - Sunday issues have disappeared (at least its Saturday now and the PW2 has worked appropriately Friday and Saturday so far).

However, I've found one bug. The Backup History was wiped and only the 'Installed on:' date is in that window on the Tesla App. No power outage events from mid-last year till now remain in the list.

Anyone else see this issue?

I'll probably be pushing for 1.35 to see if this is solved in that release or if Tesla has truly lost that data...

 

[miimura]

1.34.3 was just installed on my system yesterday evening. My backup history is still present. 20 Events, 29 total Backup Hours. 2 events and 17:20 backup hours were tests where I turned off the main breaker. 6 events were more than 5 minutes of outage. 1 year of usage.

 

[tjka4231]

I had 1.32.0 since my 2 Powerwalls were installed in early January 2019. This morning around 6am on April 6th I emailed [email protected] and asked that my Powerwalls be updated. Around 6 hours later they were updated to 1.34.3. All of the backup history is still there.

 

[sreehyd]

I have the backup history, But discharge doesnt stop after the period ends, It continues to discharge during "Off Peak" until it reaches reserve level.. This was the behavior since 1.32.0 and is still continuing after 1.34.3 update as well..

 

[bmah]

Admittedly this is slightly off-topic, but for those of you who asked for an update (or even those who didn't), how do you find out that the update happened? On Tesla Vehicles (er not counting the Roadster) the whole update process involves a bunch of user interaction, but the one Powerwall software update I've gotten seems to have taken place without any action on my part, and I only discovered it by accident after the fact, by scrolling up from the main page for the Powerwall in the iOS app. Are you supposed to get an alert or something for this?

(If not, I guess I'll need to add that to my data-logger...I think it's possible to query the version string via the API.)

Bruce.

 

[woferry]

It is possible to query via the API, it shows up in the "status" response. It does also show up in both the app at the bottom of the summary page, and on the gateway's webpage at the bottom. Mine came with v1.30.0 and hasn't updated itself yet, though it's still in standby waiting for PTO so maybe that has something to do with it. I figure I'll see how 1.30 behaves first, and whether it updates itself or if I need to kick it (it seems like you can request an update through the API, haven't tried that yet). Though I must say all of these FW versions are very confusing, seems like everyone's unit on here is running something different, and Tesla's page mentions a v1.35 but it seems like nobody is running that. And what's with all of these 1.34.x sub-versions?

 

[cwied]

The sense I get is that a lot of these versions contain tweaks for certain utilities or certain inverters they integrate with. The actual funcitonal changes seem to be relatively infrequent right now. Given that they're doing installations in several different countries with different rules (including VPPs in Australia and grid stabilization in Vermont), I suspect that many of the changes are applicable only to a limited target audience.

 

[NinjaVece]

Admittedly this is slightly off-topic, but for those of you who asked for an update (or even those who didn't), how do you find out that the update happened? On Tesla Vehicles (er not counting the Roadster) the whole update process involves a bunch of user interaction, but the one Powerwall software update I've gotten seems to have taken place without any action on my part, and I only discovered it by accident after the fact, by scrolling up from the main page for the Powerwall in the iOS app. Are you supposed to get an alert or something for this?

(If not, I guess I'll need to add that to my data-logger...I think it's possible to query the version string via the API.)

Bruce.

Bmah, the only way to find out if the firmware for the PW2 has been updated is to look at the Tesla App at the bottom or on the WiFi'd webpage at the bottom for the current version. Tesla does not inform you via text or App msg as to any changes.

 

[Shygar]

You could get creative and measure when you get a big download (like 90Mb) on your gateway. But otherwise I just look at the mobile app. Software version doesn't concern me too much anymore. We're going to be fighting for the latest software all the time .

 

[oleboyredw]

I think I’ve been on 1.32.0 for most of the time since my install back in November. I’ve watched others saying they’ve been upgrade but for me nothing. I was reading this thread, stopped to check I was still on 1.32.0 and guess what? Yep, I’ve been upgraded to 1.34.3.

Doesn’t seem to have fixed my drop-out problem.
:-(

 

[MorrisonHiker]

I think I’ve been on 1.32.0 for most of the time since my install back in November. I’ve watched others saying they’ve been upgrade but for me nothing. I was reading this thread, stopped to check I was still on 1.32.0 and guess what? Yep, I’ve been upgraded to 1.34.3.

The same thing just happened with ours. They were on 1.32.0 this morning and when I found this thread, I went and checked and found they were just updated to 1.34.3. We were also on 1.32.0 for a while, probably since January. Our 47 hours of backup history is still there and I just noticed that it is doing a second round of charging the batteries up. Earlier they made it to 85% or so before it started sending everything to the grid 4 hours before peak starts.

 

[miimura]

The same thing just happened with ours. They were on 1.32.0 this morning and when I found this thread, I went and checked and found they were just updated to 1.34.3. We were also on 1.32.0 for a while, probably since January. Our 47 hours of backup history is still there and I just noticed that it is doing a second round of charging the batteries up. Earlier they made it to 85% or so before it started sending everything to the grid 4 hours before peak starts.

Agree. Today is wonky. It started out good. We finally had some sun yesterday and with the short Peak period on the weekend it started this morning at about 83% SOC. So, it did not start charging until there was surplus solar. Good. However, at 10:15am it started discharging as if it's during the Peak period. Now it's 11:30 and I'm back to 83% SOC. I really don't like this new strategy. I understand that my batteries are now pretty full with cheap off-peak power from the weekend, but the weather is not going to be great this week, so I would rather it carry forward as much of that charge through the week as it can. If it doesn't want to charge and leave me those Part-Peak NEM credits, that's fine. However, to my thinking, there is no good reason to cycle the batteries more by discharging during Part-Peak unless there is some certainty that the energy will be replaced with off-peak energy. Friday evening is a good time and one could make an argument for Thursday evening too. Those are good times because the Peak period for the day has already passed and the weekend is coming.

If I call Powerwall support at this point, they will probably tell me that I am changing settings too much. Friday afternoon my SOC was getting low, so I reduced the Reserve to 25% from 50% so that it could make it through the Peak period on battery. The strategy worked and the weekend got the batteries full again. Now I have all this headroom for it to discharge and it's using it.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Agree. Today is wonky. It started out good. We finally had some sun yesterday and with the short Peak period on the weekend it started this morning at about 83% SOC. So, it did not start charging until there was surplus solar. Good. However, at 10:15am it started discharging as if it's during the Peak period. Now it's 11:30 and I'm back to 83% SOC. I really don't like this new strategy. I understand that my batteries are now pretty full with cheap off-peak power from the weekend, but the weather is not going to be great this week, so I would rather it carry forward as much of that charge through the week as it can. If it doesn't want to charge and leave me those Part-Peak NEM credits, that's fine. However, to my thinking, there is no good reason to cycle the batteries more by discharging during Part-Peak unless there is some certainty that the energy will be replaced with off-peak energy. Friday evening is a good time and one could make an argument for Thursday evening too. Those are good times because the Peak period for the day has already passed and the weekend is coming.

If I call Powerwall support at this point, they will probably tell me that I am changing settings too much. Friday afternoon my SOC was getting low, so I reduced the Reserve to 25% from 50% so that it could make it through the Peak period on battery. The strategy worked and the weekend got the batteries full again. Now I have all this headroom for it to discharge and it's using it.

I guess I spoke too soon. It looks like mine only charged the Powerwalls for a few minutes immediately after the update and is now sending everything back to the grid again.

I had 1.32.0 for several months and while I didn't always understand why it was doing what it was doing, I got used to have to how it worked. I'll be keeping a close eye on 1.34.3 to see if I notice any changes.

 

[PBBear]

FWIW, one of the changes in 1.34.3 (over 1.33.0, which I was on up to ~4pm local time yesterday) is internal reporting of voltages.
I have 3-phase power to the home (nominal 240V per phase).
Up to now, the gateway was summing the three phase voltages together and reporting the 'site voltage' (i.e. the grid) as 720V.
Now in this version, its averaging the three together, and reporting 'site voltage' as 240V. Much more intuitive.

 

[ulrichw]

FWIW, one of the changes in 1.34.3 (over 1.33.0, which I was on up to ~4pm local time yesterday) is internal reporting of voltages.
I have 3-phase power to the home (nominal 240V per phase).
Up to now, the gateway was summing the three phase voltages together and reporting the 'site voltage' (i.e. the grid) as 720V.
Now in this version, its averaging the three together, and reporting 'site voltage' as 240V. Much more intuitive.

Thanks for reporting this; My voltage mysteriously dropped from 240 Volts to 120 volts - I think it was an analogous change (I believe power supply here in the US is 240V split phase, and the update switched the scheme to reporting the single-phase voltage)

 

[JES2]

Agree. Today is wonky. It started out good. We finally had some sun yesterday and with the short Peak period on the weekend it started this morning at about 83% SOC. So, it did not start charging until there was surplus solar. Good. However, at 10:15am it started discharging as if it's during the Peak period. Now it's 11:30 and I'm back to 83% SOC. I really don't like this new strategy. I understand that my batteries are now pretty full with cheap off-peak power from the weekend, but the weather is not going to be great this week, so I would rather it carry forward as much of that charge through the week as it can. If it doesn't want to charge and leave me those Part-Peak NEM credits, that's fine. However, to my thinking, there is no good reason to cycle the batteries more by discharging during Part-Peak unless there is some certainty that the energy will be replaced with off-peak energy. Friday evening is a good time and one could make an argument for Thursday evening too. Those are good times because the Peak period for the day has already passed and the weekend is coming.

If I call Powerwall support at this point, they will probably tell me that I am changing settings too much. Friday afternoon my SOC was getting low, so I reduced the Reserve to 25% from 50% so that it could make it through the Peak period on battery. The strategy worked and the weekend got the batteries full again. Now I have all this headroom for it to discharge and it's using it.

Yep, they pull that same BS with me. (You're changing the settings too much!) One thing I have noticed about 1.34.3 is that the changes for the reserve seem to happen instantaneously. I raise the reserve once non-peak start and bring it down once I am in peak period in the morning. Gee, to bad we can't have Tesla automate something like that...

 

[MorrisonHiker]

I noticed today that the version number in the app didn't show up for a while after showing up fine yesterday. Before I could mention it here, the version finally showed up. I never noticed it before but I guess that section gets updated by a separate request.

 

[NinjaVece]

Yep, they pull that same BS with me. (You're changing the settings too much!) One thing I have noticed about 1.34.3 is that the changes for the reserve seem to happen instantaneously. I raise the reserve once non-peak start and bring it down once I am in peak period in the morning. Gee, to bad we can't have Tesla automate something like that...

JES2, Tesla PW2 Support has said the following to me: Reserve changes take about an hour to honor. Any other changes take a day to do so. For example, if you change the specs on an Advanced setting, such as changing Cost Savings to Balanced or edit the Weekday / Weekend settings, they will not be honored until the following day. Same with changing to Backup or Self powered mode.

Which means be VERY careful when you go into the CUSTOMIZE section. If you accidentally change a parameter when scrolling down through the options (has happened to me a number of times), you won't know the change has occurred until the NEXT day - at which point, if you change it back the following day THAT doesn't happen till the day after. Which means you are stuck with a goof for a full day if you accidentally change Cost Savings to Balanced (for an example).

Because of this delay and no feedback as to the change you might have accidentally made, I've suggested that Tesla make Backup, Self-powered and Advanced (Balanced and Cost Savings) options in a separate page that requires obvious checkmarks and perhaps an 'Are you sure you want to change this?' message.

Just something to be aware of.

 

[eml2]

Same with changing to Backup or Self powered mode.

I think changing modes honored within an hour, just like reserve %. You can see what mode you're on if you go to web UI and click on Summary.

 

[abasile]

Because of this delay and no feedback as to the change you might have accidentally made, I've suggested that Tesla make Backup, Self-powered and Advanced (Balanced and Cost Savings) options in a separate page that requires obvious checkmarks and perhaps an 'Are you sure you want to change this?' message.

I've never seen a delay as long as a whole day, normally no more than half an hour or so, but Tesla might be telling you this in an attempt to manage expectations.

Rather than changing the UI, though, we'd obviously prefer that they eliminate the delay! I can use the app to control our Tesla vehicles with not much latency, so why can't the Powerwalls work the same way? If there's a sudden need to charge an EV during peak hours (we're in PlugShare, after all), then I normally want to lower the reserve right away. But I don't want to keep the reserve low at all hours because that can cause the Powerwalls to discharge when I don't necessarily want them to.

Alternatively, if we had more control in configuring the Powerwalls' rule-based behavior, we might not need to play with the reserve percentage very often, and the delay wouldn't matter as much. This keeps coming up, so I just started a new thread: Powerwall feature request: Expert Mode