Charging, or not charging, outside of Preferred Times

[Pioneer74]

@Ford Motor Company, I really have a love-hate relationship with my Lightning. And it's your software I hate.

Of course the truck itself is going to be solid. Ford has been building F150's for decades, and you know what they are doing. By using a tried and true platform, you have a solid platform to build upon.

Then you loaded it with buggy software that you refuse to update to make better. Or even add simple options to give us users a choice.

About a month ago I had to drive, for a second time this winter, to work with no heat because the truck didn't wake up overnight to charge. It really upsets me that happened not only once, but twice. And I'm not the only one it happened to.

Then it seems that any minor OTA causes the truck to blow through our set limits and go to 100%. I guess I should be thankful that I am receiving updates at all and that it's actually charging. But why does a DTE update, that actually causes our DTE to be worse by the way, cause our vehicle to ignore our settings? It sure is a head scratcher on how they could be related.

But today brings about another issue. After coming home from the Dentist at 3pm, I plug in. I have around 70% charge. My charge window is weekdays from 11pm to 6am. Color me surprised when I go out into my garage and the truck is charging. What is even more shocking is it acted like my kids when they were younger and I caught them getting into the cookie jar. As soon as I hit the start button, to find out if maybe the truck doesn't recognize it's in a saved location, the truck immediately stops charging. It knew it was wrong and played innocent. Just like my kids.

Your poor attempt at software is beginning to be laughably insane. It doesn't charge, it charges when it want's to. No rhyme or reason.

This never happened before I started using my FCSP instead of my Emporia. Never once in over a month, using it exclusively, did I ever have a charging problem. Why can't we have time control over when our FCSP will charge? Why do I have to have a saved location to have a limit? Why can't I just set a time window, charge level be dammed?

My recommendation is there are fine, smart people being laid off from many software companies. Maybe you should be interviewing them and hiring them to fix the charging issues, and all the other software problems the Lightning and Mach-E community have been dealing with since they have launched. You have a whole campus in Dearborn that was just revamped, and a money-pit train station to bring these people to. No excuses.

So now, until somebody in the Glass House wakes up and realizes these problems are really turning your customers off, I have to babysit my $80,000 child. I have to make sure it charges starting at 11pm, and now I have to sit in the garage and make sure it doesn't charge early. Maybe I should just go out at 11pm and plug it in because the charge settings can't be trusted.

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[ytwytw]

Try enable pre conditioning regardless plugged in or not should solve the first problem

For the second one, replace FCSP with charge point flex if you don't need 80amp or home backup

Ford software isn't too bad, looking at Nissan or Toyota, Ford is doing pretty well

 

[Pioneer74]

Try enable pre conditioning regardless plugged in or not should solve the first problem

For the second one, replace FCSP with charge point flex if you don't need 80amp or home backup

Ford software isn't too bad, looking at Nissan or Toyota, Ford is doing pretty well

Preconditioning has a worse track record for working correctly than regular charging.

I want the ability to charge at 80 amps if needed. I already have 1 Emporia for the Mach-E. I did buy a spare to take advantage of the tax credit, but the charger isn't the problem. It's the software that controls it.

I shouldn't have to go to a competitor to expect Ford to fix their problems.

 

[ytwytw]

Preconditioning has a worse track record for working correctly than regular charging.

I want the ability to charge at 80 amps if needed. I already have 1 Emporia for the Mach-E. I did buy a spare to take advantage of the tax credit, but the charger isn't the problem. It's the software that controls it.

I shouldn't have to go to a competitor to expect Ford to fix their problems.

Maybe try disconnect 12v and connect it again. Sometimes hard reboot fix all issues.

Charge point isn't Ford competitor, more likely a partner and their 48amp charger is feature rich for all different situations

 

[Pioneer74]

Charge point isn't Ford competitor, more likely a partner and their 48amp charger is feature rich for all different situations

Why would I buy a Chargepoint? I already said I have an Emporia.

And I was referring to Nissan and Toyota as competitors.

 

[4Reeley]

@Pioneer74 I have experienced everything you list... but I will say I'm seeing improvement, in general. 3 times my truck didn't charge at all at night during the preferred times, once it was in a deep sleep. The last time was probably in October/November. Haven't had either issue since and I refused to mess with the LVB on a new truck.

The truck warns me when I shut off if it needs to charge outside of the preferred times, I get that. Although at 70% you would think it wouldn't have to charge to meet your limit. Are you sure it was drawing current? I know the truck checks in with the FCSP periodically because I get the random clicking from the unit, but it doesn't look like it drawing much current beyond what it needs to run its charging time estimates.

And finally - I got the latest update last night while plugged in and my truck stopped at my limit!! This was the first time I received an update, while plugged in, and the truck stopped at my set limit.

Bottom line: I'll say things seem to be improving, which is the expectation with a new vehicle as user feedback and data comes in. I hope you find the same!

 

[Pioneer74]

The truck warns me when I shut off if it needs to charge outside of the preferred times, I get that. Although at 70% you would think it wouldn't have to charge to meet your limit. Are you sure it was drawing current?

It never stated it needed to charge outside of my window and, IIRC, it had charged for over an hour before I had discovered it.

 

[ktom]

@Ford Motor Company, I really have a love-hate relationship with my Lightning. And it's your software I hate.

Of course the truck itself is going to be solid. Ford has been building F150's for decades, and you know what they are doing. By using a tried and true platform, you have a solid platform to build upon.

Then you loaded it with buggy software that you refuse to update to make better. Or even add simple options to give us users a choice.

About a month ago I had to drive, for a second time this winter, to work with no heat because the truck didn't wake up overnight to charge. It really upsets me that happened not only once, but twice. And I'm not the only one it happened to.

Then it seems that any minor OTA causes the truck to blow through our set limits and go to 100%. I guess I should be thankful that I am receiving updates at all and that it's actually charging. But why does a DTE update, that actually causes our DTE to be worse by the way, cause our vehicle to ignore our settings? It sure is a head scratcher on how they could be related.

But today brings about another issue. After coming home from the Dentist at 3pm, I plug in. I have around 70% charge. My charge window is weekdays from 11pm to 6am. Color me surprised when I go out into my garage and the truck is charging. What is even more shocking is it acted like my kids when they were younger and I caught them getting into the cookie jar. As soon as I hit the start button, to find out if maybe the truck doesn't recognize it's in a saved location, the truck immediately stops charging. It knew it was wrong and played innocent. Just like my kids.

Your poor attempt at software is beginning to be laughably insane. It doesn't charge, it charges when it want's to. No rhyme or reason.

This never happened before I started using my FCSP instead of my Emporia. Never once in over a month, using it exclusively, did I ever have a charging problem. Why can't we have time control over when our FCSP will charge? Why do I have to have a saved location to have a limit? Why can't I just set a time window, charge level be dammed?

My recommendation is there are fine, smart people being laid off from many software companies. Maybe you should be interviewing them and hiring them to fix the charging issues, and all the other software problems the Lightning and Mach-E community have been dealing with since they have launched. You have a whole campus in Dearborn that was just revamped, and a money-pit train station to bring these people to. No excuses.

So now, until somebody in the Glass House wakes up and realizes these problems are really turning your customers off, I have to babysit my $80,000 child. I have to make sure it charges starting at 11pm, and now I have to sit in the garage and make sure it doesn't charge early. Maybe I should just go out at 11pm and plug it in because the charge settings can't be trusted.

I 100% agree. The truck as a vehicle has been awesome. Software is not up to par.

I hate dragging our tesla into this discussion, but we have had none of these basic issues with the tesla.

The charging aspect REALLY needs work. It doesn't reliably follow schedule. If you 'start' from the app, it always charges to 100% regardless of the value you have chosen.

There are numerous other 'features' in the software, but none of them effect the daily use like charging.

Why is it a company the size of ford can't find the software people to do the job is beyond me.

 

[hturnerfamily]

I have found that the 'immediate charging' phenomenon, for me, is due to how the truck calculates the amount of time to reach the set Charge SOC.

Now, what this means is that once you plug your J1772 into the truck's port, it looks for the 'limit' of amperage that the EVSE will provide, calculates the time that amperage output will need to charge the truck to the set SOC, and MAY start charging, immediately, if it assumes that it will need to start charging immediately to reach the SOC.

For instance, I have my preferred time set to 11pm to 5pm daily.
That may seem weird, but what I've found is that this lets the truck assume that I will have a LOT of hours once 11pm start time happens, enough for almost ANY level of SOC I need to reach, and at almost ANY current SOC that the truck happens to be at, such as even 5-10%.
I am using the Ford EVSE 30amp charger.
What I am really striving for is for the truck to ONLY charge during my Utility Company's 11pm to 7am EV rate plan. Yes, while I don't set the truck to stop at 7am, for the above reasons, I manually unplug it, or use my FordPassApp to STOP the charge around 7am, if I wish.

The truck, in this scenario, almost ALWAYS waits to charge at 11pm, BUT, I will admit that even then, if the truck is REALLY LOW on battery power, even that 11pm to 5pm setting will stop not be enough time to meet my SOC, and therefore, the truck WILL start to charge immediately.
No, It's not an exact science, and there are reasons that Ford has 'built' their charging profile the way they have, and yes, even then, I DO wish they had a ABSOLUTE charging timeframe WINDOW, that you can set, where no matter the battery's SOC when plugged in, it would ONLY charge during that window. But, alas, that is yet to come.

 

[Zprime29]

The charging aspect REALLY needs work. It doesn't reliably follow schedule. If you 'start' from the app, it always charges to 100% regardless of the value you have chosen.

I noticed this over the weekend. I wanted to top back up to 70% after a bunch of errands in the morning, before we headed out again in the evening. It was not in the normal window for charging at home so I set the charge now limit to 70% and hit start. Every time, it would jump to 100%. Super annoying. I eventually caved and just tried to remember to hit stop after an hour.

 

[BSull]

I went on a short run yesterday, started with 82% charge, drove exclusively freeway / interstate for 116 miles ending with 37% charge at home. Plugged in truck and FCSP did their usual talk, FCSP went to stby mode, FordPass said waiting for scheduled charge time. I have my FCSP set to 48Amps through FordPass (80 in the FCSP). Scheduled charge time is 11PM to 5AM.

This morning when I got in the truck to leave, the charge level was showing 81%. The charge history in FordPass shows Charge of 44%, Time charging 5 hours 59 minutes, energy added 62kWh, start @ 11PM 37%, end 5AM 81%. In the past, if the FCSP and truck didn't think they could reach target charge during scheduled times, charge would start immediately. It seems a time based decision has been implemented.

 

[hturnerfamily]

let's hope...

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