Use Black Zigbee Gateway or not?

[Southpasfan]

Now that PTO was granted on my 16.32/3 PW system I was wondering the point of formally connecting the little black Zigbee gateway.

Because I already had a Tesla Model 3 the app was live showing all my testing of the system from day one.

 

[h2ofun]

Now that PTO was granted on my 16.32/3 PW system I was wondering the point of formally connecting the little black Zigbee gateway.

Because I already had a Tesla Model 3 the app was live showing all my testing of the system from day one.

so your stuff can get fw updates, reporting, etc.

 

[jjrandorin]

Now that PTO was granted on my 16.32/3 PW system I was wondering the point of formally connecting the little black Zigbee gateway.

Because I already had a Tesla Model 3 the app was live showing all my testing of the system from day one.

if you have powerwalls (which you mention you do), the little black zigbee box is not necessary for production data as you likely know. I have been told by tesla that it also allows connection to the inverters for firmware updates.


If you dont connect it, tesla will eventually nag you about it.

 

[sorka]

so your stuff can get fw updates, reporting, etc.

You only need it if you want SE portal access and aren't wiring up the inverter with ethernet directly.

Firmware updates and all the tesla app data all come from the TEG which is connected via wifi, not the zigbee.

 

[sorka]

if you have powerwalls (which you mention you do), the little black zigbee box is not necessary for production data as you likely know. I have been told by tesla that it also allows connection to the inverters for firmware updates.


If you dont connect it, tesla will eventually nag you about it.

I got one automated email nag about a month after PTO.

 

[Kevrick]

I haven't ran the cable yet, but you can connect directly to the gateway using cat5e/6 and remove the need for the zigbee portion. Sorry for the necro-reply.

 

[miimura]

IIRC, the black Zigee Gateway is only used in Tesla installations with Delta and SolarEdge inverters. Now that Tesla is mostly installing their own inverters, the black Gateway is rarely provided with new installs.

 

[tomuo]

I haven't ran the cable yet, but you can connect directly to the gateway using cat5e/6 and remove the need for the zigbee portion. Sorry for the necro-reply.

For certain (olde?r) SolarEdge inverters, no.

The Zigbee connection is the only way that the inverter can get firmware updates (rare, but possible)
The hard wire ethernet is OK for Tesla monitoring, but it does not provide monitoring data to SolarEdge/Envoy servers, so they will nag Tesla and and Tesla will nag you to connect the Zigbee.
You can't do both at the same time, so it has to be Zigbee.

If the nag/warning comes up in the Tesla app you can ignore it, but at some point that will hide a real issue that you won't be alerted to.

I had this situation, but since I have hard wired monitoring via the Gateway and correctly configured CTs, the data from the SolarEdge isn't important and I just let it do its Zigbee thing.

 

[cnwinger]

For certain (olde?r) SolarEdge inverters, no.

The Zigbee connection is the only way that the inverter can get firmware updates (rare, but possible)
The hard wire ethernet is OK for Tesla monitoring, but it does not provide monitoring data to SolarEdge/Envoy servers, so they will nag Tesla and and Tesla will nag you to connect the Zigbee.
You can't do both at the same time, so it has to be Zigbee.

If the nag/warning comes up in the Tesla app you can ignore it, but at some point that will hide a real issue that you won't be alerted to.

I had this situation, but since I have hard wired monitoring via the Gateway and correctly configured CTs, the data from the SolarEdge isn't important and I just let it do its Zigbee thing.

Wait...I thought with solar+powerwalls, if I connected the SolarEdge via Ethernet, I could ditch the zigbee? If I can't why bother connecting via Ethernet at all?

 

[tomuo]

Wait...I thought with solar+powerwalls, if I connected the SolarEdge via Ethernet, I could ditch the zigbee? If I can't why bother connecting via Ethernet at all?

Basically you can't ditch the zigbee or connect via Ethernet. I connected Ethernet to everything else though.

 

[cnwinger]

Basically you can't ditch the zigbee or connect via Ethernet. I connected Ethernet to everything else though.

So the Ethernet port on the SolarEdge really is unusable for a Tesla customer? I thought they just needed someone to switch it over in SetApp?

 

[h2ofun]

So the Ethernet port on the SolarEdge really is unusable for a Tesla customer? I thought they just needed someone to switch it over in SetApp?

yep, easy to do

 

[cnwinger]

yep, easy to do

Thanks, that is what I thought. Although I have been waiting for 30+ days to get the installer login from Tesla. What a pain.

 

[tomuo]

Has anyone has done this successfully?
I'm concerned It may appear to work, but if the inverter breaks (which is quite high probability), Tesla comes to check it, has to ask SolarEdge to diagnose it remotely, and they find there's been no telemetry for months, so the will-I-wont-I-get-a-RMA dance starts.