Tesla Gateway v1 cellular upgrade/replacement?

[Troglodytes]

Anyone aware of a means to upgrade the Tesla Gateway V1 cellular 3G modem?

Tesla installed Q.cell panels, SolarEdge invertors, Tesla Powerwalls, and Tesla Gateway (v1) at the end of May 2020.
AT&T announced the end-of-life of their 3G cellular support in July 2020 with an expected end date in February 2022.

Gateway had previously been connected via Ethernet over house electrical wiring and had the 3G cellular option as a backup.

Last night during a grid outage was the first time I had noticed that this function was gone and that it had some sort of effect on how I use, reach, and monitor the system.

The outage last night also impacted the Internet service provider beyond the house too.

Without the cellular connectivity even with having paired the phone to the Gateway/Powerwalls I was unable to do anything with the system.

The app while connected to the Internet via my phone was able to get the last known state of the system and continued to report that for about 15 minutes of the outage.

The app eventually reflected the outage with a message about not having current information.

We had power through the duration of the grid outage, but no way through the app to monitor remaining charge levels in the batteries.

I could of course, buy a cellular modem for the house or one that uses the Ethernet port of the gateway. But, that is less desirable to me than seeing if Tesla might have an upgrade program for the cellular model and continue to have them pay for the cellular connection fee with the carrier.

Edit: I could have web browsed to the gateway to see the status, but I would prefer to use the app only. As well as that requires being physically present by the gateway too.

 

[BGbreeder]

You might look into an LTE USB modem that could/would be compatible with your (existing) router and then set it up as a failover WAN. It is a pretty standard setup. That way your home Ethernet would still be connected to the outside world and to your Gateway.

I know of no way to upgrade the cellular modem in the gateway, and more to the point Tesla hasn't suggested one.

Sorry.

All the best,

BG

 

[CrazyRabbit]

Contact Tesla, powerwall needs cellular communicator so Tesla can shutdown a runaway Powerwall. V2 has separate communicator.

 

[jjrandorin]

Contact Tesla, powerwall needs cellular communicator so Tesla can shutdown a runaway Powerwall. V2 has separate communicator.

There is no upgrade to the cellular on a version 1 gateway that I have read about, and tesla specifically notified me (and I assume everyone else) with a version 1 gate way about the sunsetting of the cellular connection on it.

I received the following email on December of 2021:

====================================

Action Required—Connect Powerwall to Wi-Fi​

Update Your Powerwall Connection​ ​ Starting in January 2022, many cellular service providers will retire their 3G networks. Your Powerwall currently uses the 3G network to access the internet and will need a Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection to ensure continued system performance. Without an internet connection, Powerwall will not be able to connect to the Tesla app, receive software updates or access remote support.​ Connect Powerwall to your home Wi-Fi: Open the Tesla app, find ‘Settings’ and select ‘Configure Wi-Fi' Select your Wi-Fi network Enter your Wi-Fi password and select ‘Connect' After a few minutes, you will see a checkmark appear next to your Wi-Fi network name confirming that the connection was successful.​

 

[CrazyRabbit]

sad... makes me worry about safety. i wonder why tesla is willing to risk the safety of the Powerwall, so far it has been a "unicorn", one fire and you will only be able to install on powerwall 250 feet from your house (sarcastic).
i would be willing to purchase a new communicator myself. what is tesla doing with cars?
Enphase cellular communicator is USB... very easy to replace.

 

[jjrandorin]

sad... makes me worry about safety. i would be willing to purchase a new communicator myself. what is tesla doing with cars?
Enphase cellular communicator is USB... very easy to replace.

You would have to ask old model s / x owners. I dont think any 3/Y owners (the cars I have and the subforums I moderate here) have 3G modems in them. I think tesla offered upgrades to the car modems though.

I am struggling to understand a "safety" concern here though. You said something about "shut down a runaway powerwall", for example. whats a runaway powerwall and how would having a cellular connection stop one?

The OP even (rightly) self corrected their statement of "I had no way to monitor the system" (which is false) to "I could have browsed to the gateway and monitored but I would prefer to do it in the app".

I see an inconvenience, not a safety issue, with no cellular. Would I update it if they offered it? Probably, as long as I didnt have to pay for the cellular service. Would I do it and pay for cellular service? No. Would I prefer to see everything in the app if the power was out? Yes, I would. I just dont see a safety issue here, especially since there is likely to be physical access to both the physical powerwalls, and the breakers.

Its entirely possible I dont see an issue because I only have 2 of them though, not 7 or 8 of them, so im not saying there couldnt be one, just that I dont see it.

 

[CrazyRabbit]

A fault in the battery. If the software doesn’t shut down the Powerwall at least Tesla would have the ability to remotely shut it down.
It looks like the cellular communicator and wifi module are separate on GW2. So there “should” be a path there…

 

[jhn_]

A fault in the battery. If the software doesn’t shut down the Powerwall at least Tesla would have the ability to remotely shut it down.
It looks like the cellular communicator and wifi module are separate on GW2. So there “should” be a path there…

If there is a runaway li-ion fire, being able to connect via cellular is not going to put it out!

 

[CrazyRabbit]

If there is a runaway li-ion fire, being able to connect via cellular is not going to put it out!

Not saying fire, shorts can occur in individual cells.
On thing I like about Tesla battery packs is they design the bus to each cell to act as a fuse.
But Tesla can detect problems BEFORE a fire occurs. They could even drain the powerwall to the grid to safe it, but I don’t know what Tesla has implemented.

 

[power.saver]

But Tesla can detect problems BEFORE a fire occurs. They could even drain the powerwall to the grid to safe it, but I don’t know what Tesla has implemented.

That doesn't seem to be their track record. So many people have inverters that shutdown due to fans or coolant leaks, and gateways with misconfigured CTs that only we can figure out when they say everything is okay. I doubt they are monitor anything like this remotely or in real time.

 

[jjrandorin]

That doesn't seem to be their track record. So many people have inverters that shutdown due to fans or coolant leaks, and gateways with misconfigured CTs that only we can figure out when they say everything is okay. I doubt they are monitor anything like this remotely or in real time.

I have no idea whatsoever, but my "totally unscientific no data to back it up" guess would be that there is a lot of automated data gathering going on, with some triggers that trigger an automated "help desk ticket".... but there are not enough humans to review those tickets or reach out to people, so the number of tickets likely grows faster than the number they can close / escalate daily.

In general, it always feel like there are way (way way) too few actual humans for the amount of customer service work, so unless its urgent, or you convince someone to escalate on your behalf for some reason, things take a long time (and that doesnt count parts availability etc).

Like I said, just a guess, based on nothing but a hunch (and my interactions with tesla, and knowledge of how service tends to work).

 

[jgleigh]

In general, it always feel like there are way (way way) too few actual humans for the amount of customer service work, so unless its urgent, or you convince someone to escalate on your behalf for some reason, things take a long time (and that doesnt count parts availability etc).

Sounds about right. It took three months for them to actually show up to install a missing CT and 'fix' my second inverter. Pretty sure they just pushed a firmware update and restarted it. I kept getting automated messages "we have detected an issue with your system" and then they'd schedule a service visit and then no-show or cancel. Once they actually got a tech out here it was solved quickly.

 

[swedge]

Anyone aware of a means to upgrade the Tesla Gateway V1 cellular 3G modem?

Tesla installed Q.cell panels, SolarEdge invertors, Tesla Powerwalls, and Tesla Gateway (v1) at the end of May 2020.
AT&T announced the end-of-life of their 3G cellular support in July 2020 with an expected end date in February 2022.

Gateway had previously been connected via Ethernet over house electrical wiring and had the 3G cellular option as a backup.

Last night during a grid outage was the first time I had noticed that this function was gone and that it had some sort of effect on how I use, reach, and monitor the system.

The outage last night also impacted the Internet service provider beyond the house too.

Without the cellular connectivity even with having paired the phone to the Gateway/Powerwalls I was unable to do anything with the system.

The app while connected to the Internet via my phone was able to get the last known state of the system and continued to report that for about 15 minutes of the outage.

The app eventually reflected the outage with a message about not having current information.

We had power through the duration of the grid outage, but no way through the app to monitor remaining charge levels in the batteries.

I could of course, buy a cellular modem for the house or one that uses the Ethernet port of the gateway. But, that is less desirable to me than seeing if Tesla might have an upgrade program for the cellular model and continue to have them pay for the cellular connection fee with the carrier.

Edit: I could have web browsed to the gateway to see the status, but I would prefer to use the app only. As well as that requires being physically present by the gateway too.

During an outage where your internet connection is also down, you can access the PW via your in-house network to get the state of charge and solar production and house draw. With these you can estimate your time till exhaustion of the PW.

This access is via a web browser. You may need to figure out the local IP address assigned to the PW. It has been a while since I set it up, and I had to make an entry in my laptop's hosts file, but now I just have a bookmark to take me to https://powerwall , where it needs my password to show the status. No connection vie cellular or internet is needed.

I am not certain and have not researched this, but perhaps the PW mode and backup limits can be adjusted through the local web interface as well.

 

[jgleigh]

I am not certain and have not researched this, but perhaps the PW mode and backup limits can be adjusted through the local web interface as well.

You can adjust backup limit through the Installer Login, but not sure about mode. And you have to shut the system down to get into the Installer Mode Wizard anyway which isn't usually a good idea when off-grid.

 

[jjrandorin]

You can adjust backup limit through the Installer Login, but not sure about mode. And you have to shut the system down to get into the Installer Mode Wizard anyway which isn't usually a good idea when off-grid.

Backup limits are not respected when in off grid mode. If (for example) you are in self powered mode with a 50% backup reserve, if you then are off grid for some reason (either self induced or unexpected) that 50% backup reserve is not honored. The powerwall will continue to provide power down to its internal reserve (zero shown in the app, about 4-5% actual capacity, but thats from memory so may not be accurate).

To me, its pretty clear why this would be setup this way, because if your power is out, you likely want to provide power to the home, and not lose a bunch of food in a fridge or something because your powerwall was in backup only mode and set at 100%, so wouldnt provide power at all if this wasnt the case).

With that being said, I can also see where someone might want to micromanage / override this, if they were in a long outage and trying to stretch things out with only providing power for a set period every hour or something. Shrug... can always find a case for more features / flexibility, for any system that anyone has ever designed.