Gen 3 Wall Connector

[WarEagleX]

I had the new Gen 3 Wall connector installed today. It seems that from an installation standpoint the big deal is that you connect to it via wi-fi to make the initial config. Instead of dip-switches to set the amps, you just select it from a menu, so the electrician was happy about that. The second thing is to connect it to your wi-fi so it can connect to the Internet. After that, you can connect to it on your home network to check the status and any errors. That's pretty much it.

The electrician did comment that Tesla is crazy for encasing it in glass since he thinks it definitely will get broken. But it does look pretty beautiful.

 

[GPinzone]

I'm hoping my local electric company will add the gen 3 charger to their rebate program since it has wifi capability.

 

[Yombad]

I'm curious if you can change the charging amperage on the new wall connector through the app? i.e. Your car is charging at 40A, can you lower it to 32A through the app?

 

[eprosenx]

I had the new Gen 3 Wall connector installed today. It seems that from an installation standpoint the big deal is that you connect to it via wi-fi to make the initial config. Instead of dip-switches to set the amps, you just select it from a menu, so the electrician was happy about that. The second thing is to connect it to your wi-fi so it can connect to the Internet. After that, you can connect to it on your home network to check the status and any errors. That's pretty much it.

The electrician did comment that Tesla is crazy for encasing it in glass since he thinks it definitely will get broken. But it does look pretty beautiful.

Thanks for posting this info!

I am not really thrilled about the max current setting being set in software. I think the rotary dial is a fantastic way to keep folks who don't know what they are doing from messing with it... I could see the Wall Connector "losing its brains" at some point and forgetting its settings too...

Very pretty though!

Also, I find it crazy that it only has a 2.4ghz WiFi chip in it.... Some WiFi networks these days don't even support 2.4ghz. I understand why Tesla did it (for range and penetration in tough RF environments and they don't need hardly any data speeds), but not having 5.8ghz enabled seems limiting.

 

[mrau]

I'm hoping my local electric company will add the gen 3 charger to their rebate program since it has wifi capability.

Our Electric provider (Consumers Energy) will only give rebates on models with WiFi if they allow the electric provider to have access to it. That is so that the electric provider can turn the Wall Connector down/off during high usage times. I am not sure if the Tesla Gen 3 Wall Connector has the ability to allow 3rd party access for that.

Also, to qualify for their rebate you must sign up for the Time of Use rate.

 

[WarEagleX]

I'm curious if you can change the charging amperage on the new wall connector through the app? i.e. Your car is charging at 40A, can you lower it to 32A through the app?

No, you cannot. You can only choose the Amperage of the breaker at the panel and it defaults to the charging amps. So in my case with a 50A breaker, it defaults to 40A charge. There's no way to specify 32 Amps

 

[WarEagleX]

Thanks for posting this info!

I am not really thrilled about the max current setting being set in software. I think the rotary dial is a fantastic way to keep folks who don't know what they are doing from messing with it... I could see the Wall Connector "losing its brains" at some point and forgetting its settings too...

Very pretty though!

Also, I find it crazy that it only has a 2.4ghz WiFi chip in it.... Some WiFi networks these days don't even support 2.4ghz. I understand why Tesla did it (for range and penetration in tough RF environments and they don't need hardly any data speeds), but not having 5.8ghz enabled seems limiting.

I wouldn't worry about it losing its brains since the settings are stored in non-volatile memory once saved. The chip could fail of course, but the failure rate of NVM is extremely low.

Most IoT devices broadcast at the 2.5Ghz spectrum because it enables greater distance from the AP, and its cheaper to not include dual 2.4 and 5ghz radios. And since IoT devices have very low bandwidth requirements they don't need the high-speed capability of 5ghz. As an aside, I have an Access Point installed in my garage to support the cars and my Nest Camera, so coverage is not an issue for me. But for most home networks they have a single router/wi-fi access point combo which most likely won't reach the garage at 5Ghz. Also, all networks still support 2.4Ghz even newer spec'd access points with 802.11ac and 802.11ax (Wi-fi 6) to be backward compatible with IoT devices. So no issues with compatibility for the foreseeable future.

 

[WarEagleX]

Our Electric provider (Consumers Energy) will only give rebates on models with WiFi if they allow the electric provider to have access to it. That is so that the electric provider can turn the Wall Connector down/off during high usage times. I am not sure if the Tesla Gen 3 Wall Connector has the ability to allow 3rd party access for that.

Also, to qualify for their rebate you must sign up for the Time of Use rate.

From what I see in the user interface there is no facility for any 3rd party access directly from the Internet as would be needed for your utility to connect. Actually there is no security (yikes) on the charger at all! You connect to the IP address and you're connected - except when you connect to it the first time to commission it and have to put in the password that is unique to the charger. Once it's up and running, if someone were to hack your home network they could change your amperage settings. The ability for utilities to connect to it may well be hidden from the end-user somewhere and it may be embedded so only utility companies can access it, but I haven't seen anything like that in there so far.

 

[nicholb]

Also, I find it crazy that it only has a 2.4ghz WiFi chip in it.... Some WiFi networks these days don't even support 2.4ghz. I understand why Tesla did it (for range and penetration in tough RF environments and they don't need hardly any data speeds), but not having 5.8ghz enabled seems limiting.

Another reason beyond what you mentioned is that you don't really want IOT devices on your 5Ghz. That band should be only used by your higher bandwidth devices. WiFi can only talk to one device at a time (higher end routers do increase that). The router just switches between devices quickly. The more devices you have accessing, the more switching the router has to do. Too many devices and you can run into performance problems. So best practice is to segregate your low demand device so they don't take resources from your high demand performance sensitive devices.

 

[garth_angst]

I'm hoping my local electric company will add the gen 3 charger to their rebate program since it has wifi capability.

Too late for me for PSEG LI. I got my gen 2 last year and was annoyed that it was excluded for the rebate, but without a wifi connection, I couldn't expect it. Wondering they they do a rebate if I get a gen 3 and sell me gen 2. I use it at 40 amps on my 50 amp circuit anyway.

 

[Fiver]

I wish it had a hardwire ethernet jack in addition to wifi. There's no denying the reliability (and speed) of Cat 6.

 

[DionG]

I was planning to get the Tesla gen 3, but I ultimately decided I wanted one with a Name 14-50 plug. Wanted to allow the option of portability if I ever need that. Highly unlikely I’ll ever need it, but you never know. Might loose a few miles per hour but 36-38 a hour isn’t to bad. but ended up ordering this morning the new juice box 40 2020 model which went live on amazon this morning. I’ll get it tomorrow Friday and the electrician will install Saturday morning. I wanted it before my model 3 arrives. The juice box 2020 40 wireless is supposed to be better quality longer lasting. So I am looking forward to it. I plan to get the gen 3 when I order the wife’s model y. So I won’t totally lose out

 

[jjvan]

From what I see in the user interface there is no facility for any 3rd party access directly from the Internet as would be needed for your utility to connect. Actually there is no security (yikes) on the charger at all! You connect to the IP address and you're connected - except when you connect to it the first time to commission it and have to put in the password that is unique to the charger. Once it's up and running, if someone were to hack your home network they could change your amperage settings. The ability for utilities to connect to it may well be hidden from the end-user somewhere and it may be embedded so only utility companies can access it, but I haven't seen anything like that in there so far.

Yes it's pretty scary that anyone on your WIFI network can connect to it and change the charging amps! I just installed mine today and that surprised me. I hope they add security with the next firmware update. The firmware version is 0.8.0 which suggests to me that this firmware is not really ready for primetime.

 

[jjvan]

I was planning to get the Tesla gen 3, but I ultimately decided I wanted one with a Name 14-50 plug. Wanted to allow the option of portability if I ever need that. Highly unlikely I’ll ever need it, but you never know. Might loose a few miles per hour but 36-38 a hour isn’t to bad. but ended up ordering this morning the new juice box 40 2020 model which went live on amazon this morning. I’ll get it tomorrow Friday and the electrician will install Saturday morning. I wanted it before my model 3 arrives. The juice box 2020 40 wireless is supposed to be better quality longer lasting. So I am looking forward to it. I plan to get the gen 3 when I order the wife’s model y. So I won’t totally lose out

You can easily connect the Tesla wall connector to a nema 14-50 plug if you add your own pigtail cord. This is what I did with my install.

 

[lowtek]

The firmware version is 0.8.0 which suggests to me that this firmware is not really ready for primetime.

Installed two of the Gen 3 Wall Connectors yesterday .. very easy .. but when both of them are up and running the web interface shows "Partially Configured" at the top .. but there's no indication as to why .. assuming they are detecting each other and the load sharing piece just isn't available.

Firmware: 0.8.4+g8984eea7a4b342

 

[jjvan]

Installed two of the Gen 3 Wall Connectors yesterday .. very easy .. but when both of them are up and running the web interface shows "Partially Configured" at the top .. but there's no indication as to why .. assuming they are detecting each other and the load sharing piece just isn't available.

Firmware: 0.8.4+g8984eea7a4b342

Interesting. Mine says "fully configured" but with just one wall charger. I noticed this morning that my firmware went from 0.8.0 yesterday to 0.8.4 today. That means it auto-installed the new firmware by itself with no notification to me. Feels like we are beta testers for Tesla.

 

[maxQdeltaV]

Installed two of the Gen 3 Wall Connectors yesterday .. very easy .. but when both of them are up and running the web interface shows "Partially Configured" at the top .. but there's no indication as to why .. assuming they are detecting each other and the load sharing piece just isn't available.

Firmware: 0.8.4+g8984eea7a4b342

Mine did the same today when I installed it. I just ran through the wizard again, making sure to click finish at the end and it went to Fully Configured.

 

[lowtek]

Yep, that did it! The “Finish” button didn’t show up on my desktop browser but did on mobile.

Thanks

 

[SethLow]

Same deal with the “partially configured”, even after rerunning the wizard and clicking on finish at the end. I have done that step twice now. I do see that I am running Firmware 0.8.4. Just me still seeing this issue. Only thought I have is that maybe I need to run the wizard while on the Tesla SSID vs running the wizard while on my home network. Will try that tonight when I get back home.

 

[lowtek]

Same deal with the “partially configured”, even after rerunning the wizard and clicking on finish at the end. I have done that step twice now. I do see that I am running Firmware 0.8.4. Just me still seeing this issue. Only thought I have is that maybe I need to run the wizard while on the Tesla SSID vs running the wizard while on my home network. Will try that tonight when I get back home.

Try with your mobile phone or a different browser .. that "Finish" button never showed up on Firefox for macOS ...