How does the Tesla wall charger communicate with Tesla?

[David Rolfe]

Sorry if this is a well known question, but I can't seem to find an answer.

I have a Tesla wall charger which is misbehaving.

Tesla have told me that because they know the ID of the charger it doesn't have to be plugged into the car in order for them to talk to it.

Since the charger doesn't have WiFi am I right in assuming 3G or 4G data connectivity on it? Does this means they can do over the air updates to *chargers* as well as cars?

David R

 

[ACarneiro]

Is this a v2 or v3 Wall Connector?
If v2 then I have no idea what they’re going on about as it’s a “dumb” charger with no built in connectivity…

 

[Teddy69]

When was yours installed? the v3 is quite new.

Mine was installed last week, during install you connect to it's wifi hotspot, then you connect the charger to your home wifi. It then can get OTA updates etc

the v3 has a sticker on the side with all the settings, bit like any modern router.

I'm not aware the v2 has any internet connectivity.

 

[David Rolfe]

It was installed late 2019, and it doesn't have any connectivity info on the outside. Telsa are claiming they can communicate with it once they have the TPM they can communicate with it, which raises the question of *how*....

It's tripping the 40amp breaker multiple times per day...

Thanks for the responses, BTW!

 

[MrBadger]

That looks and sounds like a Gen 2 - ie no direct connectivity but there may indirectly be some via the car where the charger actually is located...

Just out of curiosity, when you press around the 'Tesla button', do you ever see small water bubbles appearing?

 

[Plagued]

It's tripping the 40amp breaker multiple times per day...

Even when not charging?
My brother had an issue with his continuously tripping a 40A breaker when charging, turned out that the sparky that fitted it hadn't tightened the breaker terminals tight enough and that was generating a lot of heat causing it to trip.
Solution was tighten the breaker terminals....

 

[David Rolfe]

That looks and sounds like a Gen 2 - ie no direct connectivity but there may indirectly be some via the car where the charger actually is located...

Just out of curiosity, when you press around the 'Tesla button', do you ever see small water bubbles appearing?

I've seen moisture get into the panel behind the red button, but only in tiny quantities.

DR

 

[David Rolfe]

Even when not charging?
My brother had an issue with his continuously tripping a 40A breaker when charging, turned out that the sparky that fitted it hadn't tightened the breaker terminals tight enough and that was generating a lot of heat causing it to trip.
Solution was tighten the breaker terminals....

Electrician showed up and checked everything. It's when it tries to charge. The guy derrated the charger so we can't hit the house's 63amp limit, but it's now got a lot worse.

 

[Adopado]

Electrician showed up and checked everything. It's when it tries to charge. The guy derrated the charger so we can't hit the house's 63amp limit, but it's now got a lot worse.

sheesh ... he clearly just guessed the problem instead of diagnosing it! I'm not sure I can go with "and checked everything" otherwise he would have found the real cause of the tripping! It would be blindingly obvious if it was simply overloading the house limit somehow. Was the electrican from the installer? Frustrating indeed.

 

[David Rolfe]

sheesh ... he clearly just guessed the problem instead of diagnosing it! I'm not sure I can go with "and checked everything" otherwise he would have found the real cause of the tripping! It would be blindingly obvious if it was simply overloading the house limit somehow. Was the electrican from the installer? Frustrating indeed.

To be fair he took the cover off both the charger and the fuse box, and spent a good 45 minutes on it. I;d been told by Tesla to "get it checked by an electrician before you connect it to the car again", so that was his mission. The guy was from one of the two approved installers in Ireland. At the time I had it installed in 2019 there were none, so things have got better.. Latest is he's coming back next Thursday and I will get Tesla on the line at the same time, but if this is a 'dumb' charger and they can't get meaningful diagnostics out of it short of replacing it I don't see what the path forward is...

DR

 

[GRiLLA]

My guess is that with v2 chargers they report some data via a car when it's connected, charger tells the car, car tells Tesla. The service folks can probably look at the last data that it sent to diagnose problems, if they can find it by it's ID.

 

[Adopado]

Latest is he's coming back next Thursday and I will get Tesla on the line at the same time, but if this is a 'dumb' charger and they can't get meaningful diagnostics out of it short of replacing it I don't see what the path forward is...

Warranty replacement with any luck ...

 

[MrBadger]

The guy was from one of the two approved installers in Ireland. At the time I had it installed in 2019 there were none, so things have got better.. Latest is he's coming back next Thursday and I will get Tesla on the line at the same time, but if this is a 'dumb' charger and they can't get meaningful diagnostics out of it short of replacing it I don't see what the path forward is...

As an aside, it should be on a 4 year warranty if fitted by Tesla approved installer.