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Tesla Added CTs and now Powerwalls are acting REALLY strangely

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UPDATE from a friend at Tesla:

"found the issue, your neurio has terrible connection to the gateway and it’s causing the gateway to get confused by what is actually going from and to the site so to prevent an energy overload, it just lets the grid take over. it’s a safety thing."

They're going to schedule a site visit for me to hardwire
I had a similar issue. In the end, they were unable to hardwire mine due to distance, so I upgraded the home WiFi. It has been great ever since.

Personally, I think that the neurio's have a pathetic range on their WiFi, even with the antenna outside a metal enclosure. My portable devices were showing 2-3bars at the neurio, and it couldn't hold a connection for a few measly bits of information. (A kb a minute?)

All the best,

BG
 
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I had a similar issue. In the end, they were unable to hardwire mine due to distance, so I upgraded the home WiFi. It has been great ever since.

Personally, I think that the neurio's have a pathetic range on their WiFi, even with the antenna outside a metal enclosure. My portable devices were showing 2-3bars at the neurio, and it couldn't hold a connection for a few measly bits of information. (A kb a minute?)

All the best,

BG
Yeah. I have a UniFi access point right in the garage so I’m really surprised that the reception is bad. That said I don’t actually see the thing on my Netwerk so I’m not entirely sure how it was configured. personal devices I have full bars and unify reports 100% experience but that might not mean much. Regardless I’m optimistic that hardwiring the thing will put an end to these issues.
 
Yeah. I have a UniFi access point right in the garage so I’m really surprised that the reception is bad. That said I don’t actually see the thing on my Netwerk so I’m not entirely sure how it was configured. personal devices I have full bars and unify reports 100% experience but that might not mean much. Regardless I’m optimistic that hardwiring the thing will put an end to these issues.
I think the Neurios are installed by default to connect to the gateway AP, not yours. There is a way to do the latter though
 
I think the Neurios are installed by default to connect to the gateway AP, not yours. There is a way to do the latter though
I don't believe that is the case. My gateway doesn't have much WiFirange either, though far better than the neurios. On my network, they communicate through intermediate access points with no trouble.

The gateway connects directly to the neurio via reserved IP addresses (though since the MAC address is also stored, I suspect they may be actually connecting directly via the MAC address). Most routers don't see the traffic as a result, as there is no lookup, it is also why WiFi extenders can fail as the address shifts.

If the network connection is unstable, I believe installers occasionally power up the neurio at the gateway to "bond" them, to enable them to communicate over the more extended network.

All the best,

BG
 
Yeah. I have a UniFi access point right in the garage so I’m really surprised that the reception is bad. That said I don’t actually see the thing on my Netwerk so I’m not entirely sure how it was configured. personal devices I have full bars and unify reports 100% experience but that might not mean much. Regardless I’m optimistic that hardwiring the thing will put an end to these issues.
I have an AP rated for something crazy like 200m positioned 30' away, going through one wall to finally get the neurio communicating reliably. (The prior iteration had an AP rated for 150' 55' away, and the neurio wasn't responding. Nuts.) That said, my neurio even has the 24" long "micro-cable extender" to get the antenna out of the service panel. On the bright side, coverage outside is fantastic from the new AP.

(Who thought WiFi from inside a metal service panel was a good idea? But I digress...)

The neurio s are hard to find on a network, since they don't call for a DHCP address since they have a static one, and since they only communicate with the Gateway, whose address they have, many routers don't even notice they are there. I believe that if you use one of Ubiquiti's more powerful routers, they will be seen. (e.g. I am not sure about an edge router or a UDM router.)

All the best,

BG
 
Yeah. I have a UniFi access point right in the garage so I’m really surprised that the reception is bad. That said I don’t actually see the thing on my Netwerk so I’m not entirely sure how it was configured. personal devices I have full bars and unify reports 100% experience but that might not mean much. Regardless I’m optimistic that hardwiring the thing will put an end to these issues.
If you have stucco on your house any connection through an outside wall is going to be tough. The wire mesh in the stucco, especially in newer construction, can cause a large attenuation of the signal. You essentially have a Faraday cage in your wall. Even my Unifi Wifi 6 LR AP is attenuated badly going through my garage wall.

So hardwire is always the best option.
 
If you have stucco on your house any connection through an outside wall is going to be tough. The wire mesh in the stucco, especially in newer construction, can cause a large attenuation of the signal. You essentially have a Faraday cage in your wall. Even my Unifi Wifi 6 LR AP is attenuated badly going through my garage wall.

So hardwire is always the best option.
Definitely stucco and definitely understand the Faraday cage concept; makes a lot of sense. Looking forward to the hard wire.
 
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I did not even know there was such a thing. What type of communications does the remote unit have?
I think this became a thing with Gateway 2. This new Gateway has its own integrated CTs that cannot be moved. In order to do any external Grid measurement, you have to use a remote Neurio. I don't know the capabilities of those specific Neurio units. The Neurio in my Gateway 1 has WiFi and RS-485.
 
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I think this became a thing with Gateway 2. This new Gateway has its own integrated CTs that cannot be moved. In order to do any external Grid measurement, you have to use a remote Neurio. I don't know the capabilities of those specific Neurio units. The Neurio in my Gateway 1 has WiFi and RS-485.
Hmm. The more I read about the GW2's the more I am happy to have the updated GW1 in my system. Seems like it's more flexible.

BTW while I do have the traditional CTs for the solar and PWs in another remote box from the GW that are fed to the Neurio, I also have a CT that is monitoring a load in my main panel (not backed up) and another one that is monitoring a remote sub panel that has a solar roof inverter on it. That sub panel is also in an aggregate of the backup loads, but rarely sees much of a load on it. When they first installed the solar roof they did not add a CT on the Neurio solar input so I kept getting negative loads on the backup load CT when my solar output was greater than my loads. They then added another CT solely for that sub panel to the input for solar. When Tesla was here we checked every permutation of loads and solar in my home and it all seemed to work correctly. I totally cannot figure out how the system is able to deal with the two measurements coming from the same sub panel to two inputs on the Neurio without loosing it's mind but it seems to work.
 
May I ask what the approximate distance was? Mine run would be ~3 meters at most.
IIRC, the installer told me that Tesla said that the neurio CTs could go ~10m (30'), but that the upper limit was site dependent (presumably due to local EMF noise). My remote neurio was probably triple that distance, so not even close to workable.

All the best,

BG
 
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