TEG Cellular

[zƬesla]

I called Tesla support today about an unrelated issue and took the opportunity to also ask about my TEG cellular connection not showing a signal via TEG web most of the time. They indicated only 10% of installs have active cellular connections. So I’m curious how many people have working gateway cellular.

 

[BrettS]

That’s interesting and surprised me a bit. I would assume that it’s activated in most cases. I did have to push back a little bit to get my cellular connection activated and working though.

My install took place over two days, but the electricians pushed to finish everything on the AC side on the first day. They started around 7AM and finally finished at like 5:30PM or 6PM. It’s was a very long day for the electricians, but apparently they didn’t plan to come back on the next day. When the electrician who installed the gateway left he mentioned to the foreman that as he was installing cables he accidentally nicked one of the wires for one of the antennas in the gateway, but he wasn’t sure if he damaged it. He said that he was leaving a spare antenna just in case there was a problem.

During the second day they finished mounting the solar panels and ran all of the DC wires, then the foreman went to commission the system. We got it connected to ethernet and WiFi and he mentioned that he was struggling to get the cellular connection working. He said that it just wasn’t showing any signal at all and he thought that was kind of odd because he’s never seen that before. He said that he would just leave it with ethernet and WiFi. I was a bit reluctant to just leave it like that, especially since at one point after hurricane Irma my home internet connection was out for 3 days, but he said that he just couldn’t couldn’t get a signal at all. I was about to just let it go when I remembered what the electrician had said about the antenna wire and I reminded him of that.

We went back to check the antenna wires in the gateway and discovered that one had been cut nearly all the way though. He replaced that antenna with the spare that the electrician had left and it was then able to get a cellular signal and he was able to activate it without problems.

It certainly sounded like he normally activated the cellular connection on all of the systems that he commissions and he said that this was the first one that he was unable to activate it on.

 

[zƬesla]

My TEG is in the basement where there is probably bad reception to begin with. I asked the Tesla certified installer about running a wire and mounting the antenna outside the house but was told that wasn’t an option. They’re supposed to at least move it outside the TEG box, although still in the basement, when they come back to address something else.

 

[BrettS]

Do you have a gateway 1 or gateway 2? The antennas are already outside the box on the gateway 1. I’m not sure where they are on the gateway 2 though.

 

[zƬesla]

GW1 with black knobs on top. Hoping moving them closer to a basement window might help.

 

[zanary]

I have cellular, but I also have the Gateway 1, Revision 1 (the one without the black reset button) that they were distributing very early on with Powerwalls (September 2017 for me). I'm also being told that my gateway is not really supportable without the black reset button, so at some point they will be replacing my Gateway (don't know if it's on my dine or theirs until they schedule it).

 

[wjgjr]

Ours is connected and we know it works as we lost internet for over a day last week after road workers cut a cable. It is in the basement, but we are not too far from a cell tower so it shows generally good reception. This is a Gateway 1 (final revision, as I understand.)

When we installed, we were told they try to setup all 3 methods.

 

[gpez]

I've found that the cellular signal is orders of magnitude more reliable than the wifi signal. That said I've hardwired (ethernet) the TEG in to our home network so that I can query the API directly.

 

[BrettS]

GW1 with black knobs on top. Hoping moving them closer to a basement window might help.

If you’re feeling adventurous you could probably just try to move it yourself. I watched while the guy replaced the antenna and it’s just got maybe 3 or 4 feet of cable coiled up inside the gateway. You could uncoil the wire and move the antenna within 3 or 4 feet of your gateway.

Also, I believe that one of the antennas is for WiFi and the other is for cellular. At least in my case they had no problem connecting to my WiFi network when one of the antennas was damaged, but no cellular signal at all.

 

[zƬesla]

I have Ethernet. Would like cellular fallback as we’re rural and cable connection may not be reliable during an outage. I’ll leave it to the installer to do move it so there are no warranty questions later.

 

[miimura]

My Powerwall system has communicated with Tesla exclusively over cellular for 30 months. My Gateway is outdoors. The only time I've had problems was when there was a known AT&T network problem.

 

[Alonzo]

So, who pays for the cellular connection? Is it a one time payment or a monthly fee?

 

[jjrandorin]

So, who pays for the cellular connection? Is it a one time payment or a monthly fee?

Neither.. we dont have to pay for the cellular connection.

 

[GaitherBill]

With our TEG in the basement and the fact that we have terrible cell service means no cell connection.

It's hardwired and has the WiFi credentials set.

 

[Alonzo]

Neither.. we dont have to pay for the cellular connection.

Thanks. So, Tesla pays for the cellular for the full warranty period?

 

[wjgjr]

Thanks. So, Tesla pays for the cellular for the full warranty period?

I think it's for the lifetime of the device, not just warranty period. (Though I don't actually know what they say about cell networks no longer existing, as the Gateway 1 is on 3G.) Overall, it is likely not much data that is actually being sent, so it is probably a pretty low cost to Tesla.

 

[zƬesla]

I have to think Tesla has some decent cell service plan given cars probably use it too.