PowerShare backup smoking

[bg002h]

Almost had a fire today at initial test of newly installed PowerShare gateway. An awful smelling smoke started coming out of the gateway upon testing the backup function…power flowing from cybertruck caused the smoke you can see in the video (very first test by electrician during install)…the smoke and smell don’t happen when power flows from grid to truck.

So that’s where I’m at with this…I have a wall connector I don’t trust and a garage I don’t want to lose…just in limbo until new gateway arrives. I’ll go back to the portable charger though…

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[AlmostHuman]

Once the magic smoke comes out of anything electrical I would never trust it again. Sucks that is happening to you. Hope you get it all resolved soon.

 

[bg002h]

Once the magic smoke comes out of anything electrical I would never trust it again. Sucks that is happening to you. Hope you get it all resolved soon.

At least it’s just free Tesla crap. I guess it’s not free, I paid for it with the CT, but the install is $875 because it’s just for my back garage (that includes a $350 permit fee and $325 for whole home surge protection which the electrician already said he will not do, so I guess it’s gonna cost me $550).

I’m glad I didn’t trust this system with my house! I’m really only having it installed for the 48A charger…not that I really need more than 32A, but it’s a nice to have.

Finding electricians who are willing to work with the peanuts treehouse and the permitting company leave after taking their bite of the fee is bottom of the barrel.

 

[rb92gt]

Almost had a fire today at initial test of newly installed PowerShare gateway. An awful smelling smoke started coming out of the gateway upon testing the backup function…power flowing from cybertruck caused the smoke you can see in the video (very first test by electrician during install)…the smoke and smell don’t happen when power flows from grid to truck.

So that’s where I’m at with this…I have a wall connector I don’t trust and a garage I don’t want to lose…just in limbo until new gateway arrives. I’ll go back to the portable charger though…

Did you ever find out the problem? Mine is doing the same thing, everything works great until cybertruck tries to charge the house when main power supply is cut off.

 

[mongo]

Did you ever find out the problem? Mine is doing the same thing, everything works great until cybertruck tries to charge the house when main power supply is cut off.

I think it's a bad neutral forming transformer.
Does the truck also fault on overcurrent?

 

[rb92gt]

I think it's a bad neutral forming transformer.
Does the truck also fault on overcurrent?

Yes in my app for the truck it said to reduce loads, but really nothing crazy in my subpanel it runs to, no Air Conditioners, just a couple fridge/freezers, lights, and other relatively low voltage/current stuff. I quickly flipped the 60AMP breaker in the Powershare panel because the truck wouldn't let me unplug it, red flashing cybertruck in charge port. Then I noticed most of the 20AMP breakers in my subpanel that it was supplying power to tripped. Once I reset them the test light was flashing 5 times on each indicating Ground Fault. Hmmm, that's all I can add, I'm no electrician. I have since turned the PowerShare feature off in my truck and put the main house supply service breaker back on and everything seems to be working fine but of course I'm worried about the PowerShare being damaged and being a risk now for the regular pass through to my home... Hard to just turn it off as it will kill all of my refrigerators/lights, etc. that I thought were most important to have power too. Ugh. Thanks for the reply and any further insight. I've contacted the Tesla QMerit Installer and QMerit.

 

[mongo]

Yes in my app for the truck it said to reduce loads, but really nothing crazy in my subpanel it runs to, no Air Conditioners, just a couple fridge/freezers, lights, and other relatively low voltage/current stuff. I quickly flipped the 60AMP breaker in the Powershare panel because the truck wouldn't let me unplug it, red flashing cybertruck in charge port. Then I noticed most of the 20AMP breakers in my subpanel that it was supplying power to tripped. Once I reset them the test light was flashing 5 times on each indicating Ground Fault. Hmmm, that's all I can add, I'm no electrician. I have since turned the PowerShare feature off in my truck and put the main house supply service breaker back on and everything seems to be working fine but of course I'm worried about the PowerShare being damaged and being a risk now for the regular pass through to my home... Hard to just turn it off as it will kill all of my refrigerators/lights, etc. that I thought were most important to have power too. Ugh. Thanks for the reply and any further insight. I've contacted the Tesla QMerit Installer and QMerit.

There have been a few cases of this reported on the site.
Since you disabled Powershare on the truck, you'll probably be OK in the meantime.

If similar, the truck will overload with all the Gateway downstream breakers off.
This one was resolved by replacing the gateway:

Well this was finally resolved last Friday with the electrician on site, a Tesla Senior Product Engineer and the Smart Charge America Project Manager on the phone.

We went through the details of the install once again. The install was correct.

The tesla engineer mentioned that the amp measurement and the amp overload error codes are created by the truck. Ha!

I had measured the amps on the house side and used an o-scope to chase transient spikes. Nothing there.

We then conducted a test where I measured the amps on the connection between the gateway and the wall charger. Viola! a 106 A spike. On the house line steady 6 A.

The Gateway was shorting out the truck when going off grid! Now it was crystal clear that the gateway had a fault which we suspected day one. It was swapped and has been working ever since. This now also explains why we had a strong humming noise during the fail-over that was mentioned to Tesla since the beginning.

The performance of Tesla support was the worst ever after purchasing 5 of their vehicles new since 2014. Deny, Deflect, Defend, Diffuse since February and me spending considerable of time to diagnose myself every step of the path. They believed that the house was overloading the gateway. They refused to listen and process my measurements that were carefully documented with pictures and videos.

Smart Charge America did their very best including pushing sending replacement hardware to the electrician. This avoided having yet another visit.

The Tesla engineer indicated they will modify their SOP. Case closed. Thank You for everyone's help, especially Jared!

 

[rb92gt]

There have been a few cases of this reported on the site.
Since you disabled Powershare on the truck, you'll probably be OK in the meantime.

If similar, the truck will overload with all the Gateway downstream breakers off.
This one was resolved by replacing the gateway:

Awesome feedback, thanks. Yes, I as well heard a very loud hum as soon as the Powershare Gateway switched over to have the truck power the house, and what sounded like gears engaging slowly for lack of better terms, followed by faint smoke.

 

[CyberGus]

I'm pretty sure I specified non-smoking.

 

[rb92gt]

Update, had Tesla Certified Electrician that installed system come out today and he inspected the entire system to make sure all wiring done correctly, and ran all sorts of tests on system. Everything checked out fine. AND THEN... cut the home service breaker to simulate power outage, heard a couple clicks and noises from the truck and the PowerShare Gateway, then immediate error message on my phone and in the truck, and system shut itself down. Power can go through system to truck fine, but not backwards to house. Interestingly no error codes thrown by the Powershare Gateway. Electrician believes Neutral Forming switch is bad (I think it was toasted yesterday and burned up as no more smoke today) or truck has a problem. He said call Tesla and QMerit, good luck. Wonderful. Unfortunately the error message was very nonspecific, no code or anything to really tell us what is wrong. "Check Power Source and Charging Equipment. Powershare stopped and will restart if no issues found. Try Turning off high power devices." There are literally NO high power devices backed up, only a bunch of single 15 and 20 amp breakers. Tried turning all off with goal of turning each on slowly to decrease demand but couldn't even get the Powershare to send any power to house today from the truck.

 

[eswimm]

I'm not sure why your certified installer isn't on the phone with you calling Tesla. When I had my issues with damaged units, my installer called in and we were both there to answer Tesla's questions and get things resolved.

 

[bg002h]

I think it's a bad neutral forming transformer.
Does the truck also fault on overcurrent?

That I do not know. But on Wednesday 2/11 the electrician is coming back, apparently they have some troubleshooting time scheduled with Tesla and they want me to be there to use my truck for testing…I don’t think completing the install is the goal…I think it’s diagnostic in nature. I sent the local electrician the video as well as the TreeHouse middleman…

I can only say that the hassle of all of this, for me as an individual isn’t worth it…I don’t need it, but trial and error is sometimes the only way society advances and I hope the equipment will outlast me

 

[mongo]

That I do not know. But on Wednesday 2/11 the electrician is coming back, apparently they have some troubleshooting time scheduled with Tesla and they want me to be there to use my truck for testing…I don’t think completing the install is the goal…I think it’s diagnostic in nature. I sent the local electrician the video as well as the TreeHouse middleman…

I can only say that the hassle of all of this, for me as an individual isn’t worth it…I don’t need it, but trial and error is sometimes the only way society advances and I hope the equipment will outlast me

When testing, turn off all downstream from the Gateway breakers. Then engage Powershare, ideally with a current clamp. If it faults on overcurrent (or really anything), it's the Gateway.

Ideally, they would bring another Gateway 3V for replacement, but yeah, likely a fact finding mission.

 

[bg002h]

When testing, turn off all downstream from the Gateway breakers. Then engage Powershare, ideally with a current clamp. If it faults on overcurrent (or really anything), it's the Gateway.

Ideally, they would bring another Gateway 3V for replacement, but yeah, likely a fact finding mission.

I screenshotted this for when they come…as I’m not familiar with all the terms. I can say that the garage uses about 300 watts of power peak with everything turned “off” (there is a refrigerator that periodically turns on and two garage door openers with lights…I have an EV charging electricity rate plan so I see peak power usage when garage is “off.” It costs me about it 20¢ a month total using power during the on-peak hours, but I make up for it saving 7¢ per kWhr off peak.

 

[mongo]

I screenshotted this for when they come…as I’m not familiar with all the terms. I can say that the garage uses about 300 watts of power peak with everything turned “off” (there is a refrigerator that periodically turns on and two garage door openers with lights…I have an EV charging electricity rate plan so I see peak power usage when garage is “off.” It costs me about it 20¢ a month total using power during the on-peak hours, but I make up for it saving 7¢ per kWhr off peak.

Basically, all breakers in the Gateway to off except the 60A one for the Wall Connector and main breaker, if it has one in the lower right. Also turn off all breakers on any subpanels fed by the Gateway (should they exist)
This means there is nothing connected other than Universal Wall Connector, truck, and Gateway. Then engage Powershare. If that fails, then it's pretty clear where the problem may be.

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