Powerwall+ Wifi Connected but using Cellular

[kairojya]

I have a Powerwall+, Powerwall2, and Backup Gateway 2 installed in June 2021. The solar gateway / inverter / thing-on-top-of-the-Powerwall+ is connected to my home network via wifi. I have a 2nd gen eero system (J010011) in a 1,900 sq ft 2-story home. I’ve been polling the system using the unofficial local API for 3 months and have started having more and more connectivity issues the past couple weeks since around the time the Powerwall system upgraded to 21.35.0. Sometimes the issue resolves itself but usually I have to intervene. What happens is that I can’t reach the solar gateway from any machine on my network, despite the gateway showing that it is connected and working via the eero app (it shows periodic activity, even when I cannot ping the IP from any other machine on my network). Whenever this happens, the Tesla iOS app works fine.

I’ve been restarting the eero network to resolve the issue when it occurs. However today I decided to direct connect to the gateway to see if I could learn anything. Interestingly it showed like this, with a check mark next to the Cellular connection. This leads me to believe that the Powerwall has decided that the wifi network isn’t good enough so it stayed connected but switched to using cellular primarily.

I removed the Powerwall from my wifi network and reconnected via this UI, and then saw a check mark next to Wi-Fi, and was able to reach the gateway from other devices on my network (and resume polling it for data logging).

Is anyone else experiencing similar behavior? I’m unsure whether I’m having coincidental wifi issues (probably) or whether the latest firmware is less happy with wifi connection than previous firmware. I would run Ethernet to the solar gateway but a Tesla install auditor told me in July that Tesla plans to stop using the controller in the Powerwall+ for installs like mine, and the controller in the Backup Gateway 2 will run this system. This means that I’d need to run Ethernet to my BG2 which is external to my house where my Powerwalls are inside my garage.

 

[gpez]

I have a Powerwall 2 and I could not get it to connect and stay connected to my home wifi reliably. I have a Unifi wireless network system and the Enphase gateway, which is literally 3 feet away from the TEG, has no problem with the wifi but the TEG would drop and disconnect constantly. I even went as far to put a wifi repeater on the other side of the garage wall directly behind the TEG, still no luck. It wasn't until I ran come cat6 under the house out the garage and to the TEG that it stayed solidly connected.

 

[kairojya]

I have a Powerwall 2 and I could not get it to connect and stay connected to my home wifi reliably. I have a Unifi wireless network system and the Enphase gateway, which is literally 3 feet away from the TEG, has no problem with the wifi but the TEG would drop and disconnect constantly. I even went as far to put a wifi repeater on the other side of the garage wall directly behind the TEG, still no luck. It wasn't until I ran come cat6 under the house out the garage and to the TEG that it stayed solidly connected.

Thanks for the info. I plan on running ethernet to the upper box of my Powerwall+. I don’t know how to refer to the thing. I know that it is an inverter but in my system it also acts as the gateway supposedly, where my Backup Gateway 2 is not in full control like it would be in a non Powerwall+ system. Speaking of, the BG2 also has an ethernet port which I believe is not used currently but I’ve heard conflicting information between my Tesla install crew and an install auditor from Tesla’s QA team: supposedly the BG2 will act as the main controller in my type of system in a future update, and running ethernet to the unit above my Powerwall+ will be useless.

In any case, my current problem is I don’t even have the TEG SSID broadcasting.

 

[morph3ous]

I have a Powerwall 2 and I could not get it to connect and stay connected to my home wifi reliably. I have a Unifi wireless network system and the Enphase gateway, which is literally 3 feet away from the TEG, has no problem with the wifi but the TEG would drop and disconnect constantly. I even went as far to put a wifi repeater on the other side of the garage wall directly behind the TEG, still no luck. It wasn't until I ran come cat6 under the house out the garage and to the TEG that it stayed solidly connected.

I found I had to disable the setting ‘High Performance Devices’ for the wireless network on the Unifi Controller. It was constantly trying to switch the TEG to the 5Ghz band which the TEG can not use.

 

[dailo]

I had my PW+ connected to 5Ghz but saw it drop a few times a day. Switching it to 2.4Ghz only SSID has been stable so far.

 

[gpez]

I found I had to disable the setting ‘High Performance Devices’ for the wireless network on the Unifi Controller. It was constantly trying to switch the TEG to the 5Ghz band which the TEG can not use.

Interesting. The wifi repeater I had was "dumb" but maybe the TEG was still getting band steered. I'm still not convinced that was the problem as I have RSSI set for 5ghz pretty high so it should prefer 2.4ghz...

 

[morph3ous]

Interesting. The wifi repeater I had was "dumb" but maybe the TEG was still getting band steered. I'm still not convinced that was the problem as I have RSSI set for 5ghz pretty high so it should prefer 2.4ghz...

In your situation with the repeater, I doubt that is what it was in retrospect… It seems like it would not be able to band steer through a repeater. It was something that had happened to me, so just wanted to put it out there in case.

 

[peterh1]

I have been having a similar issue with Powerwall (BG1) and Eero mesh network. The powerwall is regularly disconnecting from the wifi network every day or so and reverting to the cell connection. I tried to manually reconnect it by logging directly into the gateway. This usually works but not this time until after I restarted the entire eero network. Not sure if it's an eero issue or the powerwall issue (or both).

 

[gpez]

I have been having a similar issue with Powerwall (BG1) and Eero mesh network. The powerwall is regularly disconnecting from the wifi network every day or so and reverting to the cell connection. I tried to manually reconnect it by logging directly into the gateway. This usually works but not this time until after I restarted the entire eero network. Not sure if it's an eero issue or the powerwall issue (or both).

I saw this answer on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Powerwall/comments/quqqmo

Ok good news. I spun up a new 2.4GHz wireless network dedicated to the TEG and the SPAN.IO. The new network is acting a bridge to the my core network, so the DHCP server, and routing is exactly the same as it was prior to the change.
I just got off the phone with Tesla Tech support where the rep indicated they have seen issues with the new TEGs that support 5GHz have issues connecting to a single network name that has a 2.4 and 5Ghz band. I asked if they would be creating a ticket and he said that they will log as is feedback and not formal ticket. I asked why and he said they have not received enough complaints about it.
So, if you are having issues with the TEG connecting to your network and you have a multi-band setup, call Tesla and explain your situation, hopefully they will generate a ticket and issue a firmware fix.

tl;dr it seems that the TEG does not like APs that broadcast 2.4ghz and 5ghz on the same SSID. If you can, create a new SSID with just 2.4ghz and that seems to do the trick.

OR just wire it via ethernet (and then clear the TEG wifi settings).

 

[BGbreeder]

Interesting. The wifi repeater I had was "dumb" but maybe the TEG was still getting band steered. I'm still not convinced that was the problem as I have RSSI set for 5ghz pretty high so it should prefer 2.4ghz...

@goez thanks for the Reddit info!

I think that the operative word here is "should". Tesla does some unusual things in their WiFi. To be fair, some of the design seems to be attempting to make things better buttoned down; I am just not sure that their current implementation is optimal.

FWIW: After a variety of minor issues, I have mine locked into a 2.4GHz only SSID, and it behaves better. I am not sure, but I think some of my issues were the TEG moving to 5G, and losing the neurio, because the TEG apparently expects to be able to communicate directly to the neurio, which I believe is a 2.4GHz only device.

All the best,

BG

 

[pexcom]

Frequent Powerwall 2 WiFi Disconnects

Hi all. I've had my twin powerwall 2 installation now for a few years and I use home assistant to do some of the local monitoring, and that all works great. Home assistant sends me a notification if the powerwall becomes unreachable on the network and sometimes the disconnect/reconnect will...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[janthony6]

I've tested this quite a bit:

Powerwall 2- it uses Wifi5 according to my Unifi setup. It will connect fine on any network that has 2.4 and 5ghz combined. It will prefer 5ghz. No need for band steering.

It does not like DFS channels. If you have DFS on, it will not connect to 5ghz. For the longest time, I was using DFS 100 for the AP that it was close to so it would only use 2.4. As soon as I switched to channel 36, it connected to 5ghz and stays connected there.

It does not support WPA3. No Tesla products support WPA3.

 

[janthony6]

Further testing - the channel for 5ghz matters. My Sunpower PVS6 and Powerwalls might have the same wifi chip. Neither of them like the 5ghz UNII-3 channels. I tried using channel 149 and they both went offline. Switched back to channel 36 and they picked up right away.

 

[BGbreeder]

That is a truly weird implementation of WiFi.

 

[shareef777]

Seeing similar issues. Last night updated my Unify Network to automatic and the TEG disconnected. Reverted my wifi settings and the TEG still won't connect. Opened a Tesla support ticket and after having me "turn it off then on" he gave up and escalated the case with a 2-3 week response time SMH.

Any ideas?