Lightning Software Updates using FDRS

[Mike G]

14 Sep.

While checking VINs for some folks last night I ran my Lightning's VIN and was surprised to find updates for the GWM and RFA. If I had to guess, and as yet it is still just a guess, I would think these two would enable me to setup PAAK (if I were so inclined).

So I got up early and put the charger/powersupply on to put a charge on the 12V before starting (it was at 50% having not been connected to the EVSE for a couple of days), and went to make coffee.

Got the laptop, Mongoose, and thumb drive out and first did the RFA cause it's CAN bus programmed, and then ended with the GWM cause it's USB and you have to shutdown and wait 5 minutes before starting the truck back up to confirm success.

Started at 0603 and finished at 0629.

GWM was at ML3T-14H021-HMB and now is -HMC
RFA was at NU5T-14G623-CJ and now is at -DC

Haven't seen anything in FP yet to indicate whether or not I can setup PAAK, but I only just got finished and it may take a while for that to show up if that's what was enabled.

If you routinely find yourself removing and reinstalling the jump point cover to the right of the frunk tub you may find that the plastic turnlock fasteners tend to separate into their upper and lower halves after a while. To keep from losing any of them I put a small dab of superglue in the notch where the little plastic tab is that's designed to keep the thing together. Just so I don't have to worry about them getting lost under the frunk space somewhere. You can see where I put the glue (shiny bit).

Oh, and make sure you let the glue dry thoroughly before reinstalling otherwise it may bond to the surround trim and be very hard to get off next time.

Mike

 

[SmokingtheMeats]

14 Sep.

While checking VINs for some folks last night I ran my Lightning's VIN and was surprised to find updates for the GWM and RFA. If I had to guess, and as yet it is still just a guess, I would think these two would enable me to setup PAAK (if I were so inclined).

So I got up early and put the charger/powersupply on to put a charge on the 12V before starting (it was at 50% having not been connected to the EVSE for a couple of days), and went to make coffee.

Got the laptop, Mongoose, and thumb drive out and first did the RFA cause it's CAN bus programmed, and then ended with the GWM cause it's USB and you have to shutdown and wait 5 minutes before starting the truck back up to confirm success.

Started at 0603 and finished at 0629.

GWM was at ML3T-14H021-HMB and now is -HMC
RFA was at NU5T-14G623-CJ and now is at -DC

Haven't seen anything in FP yet to indicate whether or not I can setup PAAK, but I only just got finished and it may take a while for that to show up if that's what was enabled.

If you routinely find yourself removing and reinstalling the jump point cover to the right of the frunk tub you may find that the plastic turnlock fasteners tend to separate into their upper and lower halves after a while. To keep from losing any of them I put a small dab of superglue in the notch where the little plastic tab is that's designed to keep the thing together. Just so I don't have to worry about them getting lost under the frunk space somewhere. You can see where I put the glue (shiny bit).

Oh, and make sure you let the glue dry thoroughly before reinstalling otherwise it may bond to the surround trim and be very hard to get off next time.

Mike

To be completely honest, I have no idea what you said above especially with the acronyms. My only questions is why is your 12v at 50%? That seems very low.

 

[Mike G]

To be completely honest, I have no idea what you said above especially with the acronyms. My only questions is why is your 12v at 50%? That seems very low.

Well if you don't drive your truck for a couple of days and you don't have it plugged in to the EVSE either then you'll find that your 12V (LVB) state of charge can get kinda low. Leave it long enough and it can get low enough that the next time you go somewhere that you find that your Sync screen is completely black and has to be rebooted after you drive for a couple of minutes to get the 12V battery charged back up by the HVB (due to load shedding). If it gets really, really low you may get messages about other things being "unavailable" for the same reason. But after a short drive and maybe turning off and back on the truck things come back online.

The 12V battery is the same dinky one used in the Mach-E. The truck still uses some current even when it looks like it's sleeping. So a few days of that and you find it's a bit low when you check it. I'm used to it on both the truck and my Mach-E.

 

[SmokingtheMeats]

Well if you don't drive your truck for a couple of days and you don't have it plugged in to the EVSE either then you'll find that your 12V (LVB) state of charge can get kinda low. Leave it long enough and it can get low enough that the next time you go somewhere that you find that your Sync screen is completely black and has to be rebooted after you drive for a couple of minutes to get the 12V battery charged back up by the HVB (due to load shedding). If it gets really, really low you may get messages about other things being "unavailable" for the same reason. But after a short drive and maybe turning off and back on the truck things come back online.

The 12V battery is the same dinky one used in the Mach-E. The truck still uses some current even when it looks like it's sleeping. So a few days of that and you find it's a bit low when you check it. I'm used to it on both the truck and my Mach-E.

Thank you for that explanation. I wasn’t aware of that. I live on a city street and there are times where I won’t drive the truck for a few days or have the ability to plug it in. Need to figure something out.

 

[GDN]

14 Sep.

While checking VINs for some folks last night I ran my Lightning's VIN and was surprised to find updates for the GWM and RFA. If I had to guess, and as yet it is still just a guess, I would think these two would enable me to setup PAAK (if I were so inclined).

So I got up early and put the charger/powersupply on to put a charge on the 12V before starting (it was at 50% having not been connected to the EVSE for a couple of days), and went to make coffee.

Got the laptop, Mongoose, and thumb drive out and first did the RFA cause it's CAN bus programmed, and then ended with the GWM cause it's USB and you have to shutdown and wait 5 minutes before starting the truck back up to confirm success.

Started at 0603 and finished at 0629.

GWM was at ML3T-14H021-HMB and now is -HMC
RFA was at NU5T-14G623-CJ and now is at -DC

Haven't seen anything in FP yet to indicate whether or not I can setup PAAK, but I only just got finished and it may take a while for that to show up if that's what was enabled.

If you routinely find yourself removing and reinstalling the jump point cover to the right of the frunk tub you may find that the plastic turnlock fasteners tend to separate into their upper and lower halves after a while. To keep from losing any of them I put a small dab of superglue in the notch where the little plastic tab is that's designed to keep the thing together. Just so I don't have to worry about them getting lost under the frunk space somewhere. You can see where I put the glue (shiny bit).

Oh, and make sure you let the glue dry thoroughly before reinstalling otherwise it may bond to the surround trim and be very hard to get off next time.

Mike

It would be nice if they've staged these and ready to make an update. It was reported a couple of weeks back that the RFA updated added PAAK, but that was also about the time 3.5.2 dropped. I and I think others believed they were related. Turns out 3.5.2 did not add PAAK for those of us after July 25 builds and it came to be known that maybe there was some issue on Ford's side that was corrected that just let some builds after July 25 activate PAAK that had previously not activated.

So hoping that maybe they'll trigger these updates as part of another build coming soon. Another PU was just reported in the 3.5.2 thread, but it didn't have a version. Was almost hoping it was a newer version that might be applying these two updates. Time will tell.

 

[Mike G]

It would be nice if they've staged these and ready to make an update. It was reported a couple of weeks back that the RFA updated added PAAK, but that was also about the time 3.5.2 dropped. I and I think others believed they were related. Turns out 3.5.2 did not add PAAK for those of us after July 25 builds and it came to be known that maybe there was some issue on Ford's side that was corrected that just let some builds after July 25 activate PAAK that had previously not activated.

So hoping that maybe they'll trigger these updates as part of another build coming soon. Another PU was just reported in the 3.5.2 thread, but it didn't have a version. Was almost hoping it was a newer version that might be applying these two updates. Time will tell.

Well I was reading with interest some of the posts about the OTAs showing up and I'd then go for a drive and check for updates and...nada..

So doing your own updates with FDRS can muddy the waters a bit cause you don't have that correlation with a PU notification and the notes (if they actually say something useful).

So it can take a bit more sleuthing to figure out what got changed or (hopefully) improved when you do updates with FDRS. But it's all good.

Edit: I rechecked and now know the last OTA I got was the 3.3.1 FWIW.

But I'm completely up to date in FDRS so I don't really know at this point where I am on the OTA equivalency comparison.

 

[Mike G]

I wanted to post an update to let folks know that the GWM (gateway) and RFA (Bluetooth) module updates did indeed enable Phone As A Key (PAAK) on my 9 May build truck.

I had to shutdown and restart FP for the option to show up this morning.

So for those wondering...the software has been released for FDRS updating should you choose to do that...and I can only assume the OTA will be coming soon? I haven't received any info on that.

 

[Mike G]

21 Sep and another update...this time it's the APIM.

Normally the F188 DID entry is used to denote a software revision in the update package, which will usually consist of at least one sub-package update, but could be more..or even all of them.

Interestingly today's APIM update had the same F188 revision as the previous version (ending in -DT) but by the look of it, and the size of the package download(s) nearly everything else got changed.

The download itself took quite a long time and came out to 3GB. Previously I've seen APIM updates that were 'only' 892MB big, so this was huge by comparison.

So finally after loading all the files onto the USB drive and inserting into the console USB port....and with the "Engine On"....after a minute...

After the download completes....

Tick..tock..tick..tock...

Turn the truck back on....and the message says we can remove the USB drive and confirm the update in FDRS...

As you can see the list of updated packages scrolled off the screen faster than I could scroll down to capture all of them. I have no idea at this point what got updated.

But I'm now at Sync 539.

I think I've seen discussion about others getting this update via OTA, but again, I have no idea right now as to what was updated.

Mike

 

[GDN]

I don't know why they aren't getting these sent, triggered and installed to the rest of us. Still missing 3.2, 3.3. and 3.4. Never had the change in regen. Got 3.5.2 however.

 

[Mike G]

I don't know why they aren't getting these sent, triggered and installed to the rest of us. Still missing 3.2, 3.3. and 3.4. Never had the change in regen. Got 3.5.2 however.

There's a member on the Mach-E forum who apparently works for Ford who made a generalized comment the other day that OTA updates usually are released as OTAs about 2-3 weeks following availability in FDRS.

While that may be true...I've actually gotten some OTAs for updates that I was never offered in FDRS at all. So it's a bit of a mixed bag.

Mike

 

[Mike G]

Thought I'd make a note on another observation from today. After updating the APIM today and while checking FordPass (looking for things that might have changed), I saw that the recall notice for the TPMS BCM config update has now disappeared as of today (little gray triangle alert thing in the top left corner). I don't think today's APIM update had anything to do with that but I'm glad I won't have to go to the dealer to get that cleared now.

 

[Mike G]

24 Sep and another available update this morning...this time it's the Wireless Accessory Charging Module (WACM) that charges your phone. This one can only be done using FDRS and will not get updated with an OTA.

I won't get into the details on this one cause it's a pretty simple CAN bus routine and takes maybe 5 minutes. Just want to post to let folks know there's an update available for those having issues with their iPhone not charging properly or getting too warm on the charge pad.

Edit: From the time I connected the Mongoose to disconnect, job complete, was 4 minutes. Revision was originally "-BA" version and is now "-BB".

 

[GDN]

24 Sep and another available update this morning...this time it's the Wireless Accessory Charging Module (WACM) that charges your phone. This one can only be done using FDRS and will not get updated with an OTA.

I won't get into the details on this one cause it's a pretty simple CAN bus routine and takes maybe 5 minutes. Just want to post to let folks know there's an update available for those having issues with their iPhone not charging properly or getting too warm on the charge pad.

Edit: From the time I connected the Mongoose to disconnect, job complete, was 4 minutes. Revision was originally "-BA" version and is now "-BB".

Sad how we have modules like this for a charging pad that is worthless, but 99.99% of the trucks will never get them because so few have FDRS and you know the dealers won't likely do it even if asked because Ford won't pay them to do so.

I'm just hoping Ford can finally find a way to break the back log of OTA updates of the 3.X series which seems to already have gone off the beaten patch and just sitting now for almost 2 months.

 

[Maquis]

Sad how we have modules like this for a charging pad that is worthless, but 99.99% of the trucks will never get them because so few have FDRS and you know the dealers won't likely do it even if asked because Ford won't pay them to do so.

I'm just hoping Ford can finally find a way to break the back log of OTA updates of the 3.X series which seems to already have gone off the beaten patch and just sitting now for almost 2 months.

When the WACM needed updated in the Mach-E, there was a TSB instructing dealers to do the update under warranty for customers having phone charging issues. It’s likely to happen this way for the Lightning IMO.

 

[Firestop]

24 Sep and another available update this morning...this time it's the Wireless Accessory Charging Module (WACM) that charges your phone. This one can only be done using FDRS and will not get updated with an OTA.

I won't get into the details on this one cause it's a pretty simple CAN bus routine and takes maybe 5 minutes. Just want to post to let folks know there's an update available for those having issues with their iPhone not charging properly or getting too warm on the charge pad.

Edit: From the time I connected the Mongoose to disconnect, job complete, was 4 minutes. Revision was originally "-BA" version and is now "-BB".

So, I’m scheduled for some warranty items fixed in mid-October. What should I ask of my dealer to describe to them that I want this FDRS update performed so they know which update to look for and install?