"Reconfiguration Required" then "An unknown error occurred: 'timezone'" about core

[home-assistant]

Hey there @bdraco, @jrester, @daniel-simpson, mind taking a look at this issue as it has been labeled with an integration (powerwall) you are listed as a code owner for? Thanks!

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[pillarama]

I have this issue too - last week I noticed HASS saying I had 1 repair require and the Devices and Integrations page sows "Authentication Expired for Home Energy Gateway" and a red Integration entry box with a "Reconfigure" button.

When I press that button and enter the IP and password it says: An unknown error occurred: 'timezone'

Password appears to be correct since any other password gives a different message "bad credentials: Login Error"

The Integration object box now also says "Translation Error: The intl string context variable "ip_address" was not provided to the string "{name} ({ip_address})"

The IP of my Gateway hasn't changed.

I get the same error trying to set up the integration from scratch actually... Perhaps Tesla have been meddling again in a recent firmware update? I'd love to tell you "what's new" in the current firmware version but frustratingly information about firmware newer than v23.4 (Mar 2023) is notably absent from my Tesla App's Release Notes page.

Gateway Firmware: v24.12.3 1feaff3a
HASS v2024.6.4

Thanks

[rossc719g]

@pillarama (And for anyone else looking into this issue): I hope your issue is not the same as mine, but just in case it is helpful, here is the rest of my story:

The day after I filed this issue (May 13), I checked the status of my powerwall/solar in the Tesla app. It showed no data. I believe there was an error message saying "no recent data" or something similar. I looked in the history, and saw that the data in the app abruptly stopped at 10pm on thew 12th, which is exactly when this error message showed up in HA.

I believe that May 12 at 10pm was when I got a new firmware in my solar gateway (or powerwall?). This is one of the many excuses Tesla gave me. I cannot confirm it, but this bad firmware update seems like the root cause of the issue. When the new firmware went in, everything in my system got reset, and my solar stopped working, and my powerwalls stopped working. I was just running 100% from grid power.

I called Tesla relentlessly over the period of about 2-3 weeks. Each call, I would talk to someone who would say "Oh, I see what happened here... we're getting a lot of calls like this" Then they would do something on their end, and then tell me it should be back to normal in a few hours. A few hours later, it would be /better/, but not fixed. At one point they scheduled me for an onsite visit which only actually happened earlier this week.

After my first call, the powerwalls showed back up, but no solar, and I could not control the powerwalls at all. They neither charged nor discharged, and I couldn't control the system mode. At this point, the error message in HA went away.

Then after one call the powerwalls started charging (from grid) but I could not control them, and they did not discharge. Still no solar.

Then, I called and they did something that made my solar show up again, but backwards (The app showed (e.g.) "-10KW") but this just a visual error, as the house was running and the grid was not providing power during the day). At night I was on the grid, and the powerwalls still did not discharge.

Another call, and the solar was no longer negative.

Then after another call I could (partially) control the powerwalls, and they started discharging at night, and charging during the day.

At this point it was working "enough" that I was not wasting a ton of power, and was not in danger of getting a huge PG&E bill, so I stopped calling and waited for the onsite appt. There were still a few strange glitches in the app, like like when my AC ran, it showed negative numbers of house power, and some of the settings in the app did not work/could not be changed.. but again.. working well enough for the short term.

At the appt they did a bunch of stuff that involved rebooting things and reconfiguring things (they did not cut power to the house, but I was back on grid power for a few minutes), and afterwards the guy told me that "wow your config was really screwed up... nothing looked right.. but it is all fixed now!". And it has been good ever since.

I am fairly certain that the error in HA was because the gateway had completely lost its config, and was not able to communicate with anything (including HA). The "timezone" error is not a reasonable error message, but it seems to be the thing that happens when HA is trying to talk to a gateway that has had its memory erased/scrambled.

I hope your situation is not like mine, because Tesla customer service is abysmal. Good luck!