hello,

i just got a wpa8635p-kit and ran into some hickups during the installation. it's the (be) v.4 version, it says so on the sku sticker, but that's one of the very few references you will find to the (be) v4 version. th e product was bought & will be used in belgium.

pla support asks to use the local site instead of global, so switch to belgium/dutch - belgië/nederlands.

then noticed that for tl-wpa8635p & tl-wpa8635p-kit there is no mention of a v4 firmware, it stops at v3
https://www.tp-link.com/nl-be/support/download/tl-wpa8635p-kit/
https://www.tp-link.com/nl-be/support/download/tl-wpa8635p/

in the package a tl-8015p v4 was also included, here the site only had v1 & v2 versions:
https://www.tp-link.com/nl-be/support/download/tl-pa8015p-kit/#Firmware

after having a closer look at the adapters, while the are from the (be) v4 kit, the adapters themselves are (fr) v4.

so, switched to belgium/french - belgique/français, where the v4 firmwares are all listed
https://www.tp-link.com/fr-be/support/download/tl-wpa8635p-kit/
https://www.tp-link.com/fr-be/support/download/tl-wpa8635p/
https://www.tp-link.com/fr-be/support/download/tl-pa8015p-kit/#Firmware

(you can just change /nl-be/ to /fr-be/ in the url to compare). while not optimal i then used the french documentation to continue.

i prefer not to install software, so i first plugged in the wpa8635p, connected it the the wired network & started to configure. turned out it already had the latest firmware loaded.
the goal was to extend a bit over powerline to my tv, so i did not need any of the features. shut off the wireless, disabled dhcp & left all the other features off. i would have liked to have ntp active but it says it needs to be an ip address instead of a dns name, so you can't use use europe.pool.ntp.org.

there are 2 other powerline devices (they're g.hn based) active on a seperate power grid, but they are connected to the same ethernet segment.
during the installation of the wpa8635p there also was a single g.hn device on the same power grid, but no longer network connected, this has been removed now.
i'm mentioning this since ieee 1901 allows limited interop to negotiate frequencies, which i don't want or need because of the seperate power grids.

i manually changed the powerline network name, gave the pla8635p a fixed ip & rebooted.

then got the pa8015p, plugged it in, pressed the sync button, then pressed sync on 8635. nothing really happened, turns out they sometimes had an 11mbps link but mostly no link. after the failed pairing logged in on the wpa8635p and noticed that under the powerline settings the network had changed to "Default Network Name". rebooted it & it was set to default again, perhaps since i started pairing on the 8015. (which still was 100%% default settings).

failed several more pairings due to bad powerline connection, finally just manually enterted the key in the 8635, but nada. in the end moved to another circuit where they instantly paired and my custom network name was once again overwritten.

the documentation also left me with more questions sometimes. the most puzzling one is why can't the adapter be plugged in upside down? i'm guessing that way it traps more heat, but did so a few times during install since i didn't have enough clearance from the networkport to the floor.
in the faq there is an article "why does my device get hot". will disabling wifi help? i don't need wifi & the adapter has little ventilation.
2x2 mimo isn't mentioned anywhere. i'm guessing that like g.hn it also needs a ground wire, or does only need live&neutral wires?
i also had a hard time figuring out why certain settings can only be done via the web interface & other via tpplc, even more so since there is a little to configure.

all that being said, i'm stil happy with the product. it negotiates around 400mbps on 2wire power that 50 years old, latency is as stable it can get in these settings & eol policy is pretty good for home use.

now, tpplc, that's worth a new thread....