Wall Charger Stand alone Command [ON/OFF] and Observability [V/A/W].
[1] After the initial setup, the Wall Charger (WC) is only accessed through the Tesla car connection. Without this the WC is not controllable
[2] Why is this an issue? I found 3 needs for this independent control
[3.1] Quick and dirty.
With a home run cable [dedicated 240VAC cables between the Electrical Panel and the WC] all the power flows through 2 wires; almost no current flows at 120VAC between one of the wires and the ground. We can therefore use 240VAC 2-wires single phase devices, and I recommend using ‘off-the-shelf’ DIN breakers and meters. Standard ‘off the shelf’ DIN parts include DIN rails, DIN housing, DIN meters, DIN relays and DIN breakers. DIN is used in all the households in Europe (all wired to 220VAC) and DIN elements such as breakers and relays are very low priced. DIN components are only used in the US for industrial machines e.g. welder, mainframe computers, data centers, etc.
[3.1.1] A DIN, Wi-Fi smart switch (60A, eBay $20-25 'WiFi Control Switch with Metering') provides ON/OFF functions [including extensive scheduling] plus V/A/W monitoring through an APP independent of the Tesla APP. I use the scheduling function to turn the WC ON/OFF according to my Solar generation. As another TeslaMotorsClub member noted ‘The charger recover fine if I flip the breaker off and later flip it back on again.’.
[3.1.2] I am old school and still like to see in real time the WC energy flow without going to an APP. A DIN meter panel (eBay $18-25) shows real time A/V/W in bright red numbers. This is the same panel featured on the Briidea Automatic Switch dryer that I used in the past. The meter helps show what is really happening with the overall charging, including the handshake between the car and the WC, with its rising A current until it reaches an agreed level. More important, it also tells you when the negotiations might have stalled (no A is flowing) mostly because the Tesla car relies on Cell communications with the Tesla Cloud, and that is affected by poor cell connections.
[3.1.2.3] Old school again: I installed a 2-poles DIN breaker (2x60A $18 on eBay) to shut down the charger in an emergency. I know this is redundant with the breaker in the Electrical Panel, but I like to have local control.
[3.1.2.4] All the above Wi-Fi Switch, A/V/W panel meter and 2-poles breaker fit nicely in a DIN 6-wide box that I placed above the WC.
[3.2] Open Wall Charger
The real solution would be to control the WC from its API, assuming that Tesla discloses the communication protocol between the WC and the Car, or that the WC is Jail Broken.
It seems that there are some efforts in that direction, especially from Europe, under the banner ‘TeslaLib’ that covers ‘OpenTesla’, ‘Right to Repair’, ‘OpenSolar’, etc. No doubt that Tesla will fight these efforts as it tries to create a ‘private garden’ a-la-Apple/Facebook/Meta to take advantage of its dedicated affluent car customers base.
[1] After the initial setup, the Wall Charger (WC) is only accessed through the Tesla car connection. Without this the WC is not controllable
[2] Why is this an issue? I found 3 needs for this independent control
- Observe the WC operation e.g. is it really charging? or see the power negotiating handshake
- Control the WC ON/OFF and the energy flow e.g. synchronizing charging with Solar production
- Become independent of the Tesla cloud
[3.1] Quick and dirty.
With a home run cable [dedicated 240VAC cables between the Electrical Panel and the WC] all the power flows through 2 wires; almost no current flows at 120VAC between one of the wires and the ground. We can therefore use 240VAC 2-wires single phase devices, and I recommend using ‘off-the-shelf’ DIN breakers and meters. Standard ‘off the shelf’ DIN parts include DIN rails, DIN housing, DIN meters, DIN relays and DIN breakers. DIN is used in all the households in Europe (all wired to 220VAC) and DIN elements such as breakers and relays are very low priced. DIN components are only used in the US for industrial machines e.g. welder, mainframe computers, data centers, etc.
[3.1.1] A DIN, Wi-Fi smart switch (60A, eBay $20-25 'WiFi Control Switch with Metering') provides ON/OFF functions [including extensive scheduling] plus V/A/W monitoring through an APP independent of the Tesla APP. I use the scheduling function to turn the WC ON/OFF according to my Solar generation. As another TeslaMotorsClub member noted ‘The charger recover fine if I flip the breaker off and later flip it back on again.’.
[3.1.2] I am old school and still like to see in real time the WC energy flow without going to an APP. A DIN meter panel (eBay $18-25) shows real time A/V/W in bright red numbers. This is the same panel featured on the Briidea Automatic Switch dryer that I used in the past. The meter helps show what is really happening with the overall charging, including the handshake between the car and the WC, with its rising A current until it reaches an agreed level. More important, it also tells you when the negotiations might have stalled (no A is flowing) mostly because the Tesla car relies on Cell communications with the Tesla Cloud, and that is affected by poor cell connections.
[3.1.2.3] Old school again: I installed a 2-poles DIN breaker (2x60A $18 on eBay) to shut down the charger in an emergency. I know this is redundant with the breaker in the Electrical Panel, but I like to have local control.
[3.1.2.4] All the above Wi-Fi Switch, A/V/W panel meter and 2-poles breaker fit nicely in a DIN 6-wide box that I placed above the WC.
[3.2] Open Wall Charger
The real solution would be to control the WC from its API, assuming that Tesla discloses the communication protocol between the WC and the Car, or that the WC is Jail Broken.
It seems that there are some efforts in that direction, especially from Europe, under the banner ‘TeslaLib’ that covers ‘OpenTesla’, ‘Right to Repair’, ‘OpenSolar’, etc. No doubt that Tesla will fight these efforts as it tries to create a ‘private garden’ a-la-Apple/Facebook/Meta to take advantage of its dedicated affluent car customers base.
