Installing a Home Integration System for Intelligent Backup Power (without SunRun)

[Jim Lewis]

Further update on the reliability and trustworthiness of Ford's backup system.

On further thought, I think I understand the Power Transfer notice appearing on swiping to update FordPass status information on my truck. It's not a Power Transfer issue but rather an issue in the way that FordPass delivers notifications. Ford Motor Company (@Ford Motor Company ) should look into addressing the following conundrum.

What I think happened was caused by me always having my iPhone in airplane mode when I'm home connected to the Internet only via Wi-Fi and to cellular only via Wi-Fi calling. (Don't need to age my cell phone battery with a weak cellular data connection I'm not using).

So, somewhere around 10 hours before the inappropriate Power Transfer notice, I did test power transfer by killing grid power. That immediately knocked my iPhone off the Internet. When my truck did start Power Transfer automatically, it probably alerted Ford servers, and since I could be anywhere in the world, not at my house, Ford helpfully tried to send me an alert that a Power Transfer had been started, allowing me to monitor and adjust if from anywhere in the world that I have a suitable and allowed Internet connection with my truck. However, since I had just knocked my phone in Airplane Mode off the Internet by killing power to my house, I never got the notification at the time I was meant to receive it.

So, many hours go by, and as often happens, FordPass did not update the status of my truck. I went for an evening neighborhood walk with my wife and turned on my cellular data. Probably got back to the house without turning cellular data off, noticed my truck status had not updated in hours, swiped to refresh, and BINGO!, I finally got the Power Transfer notice that I should have gotten much earlier in the afternoon.

So first, FordPass and Ford servers should be smart enough to age notifications and realize from further truck data received that a particular notification is ancient history and no longer relevant. If the notice still has to be delivered as a fixed state to one's FordPass Home screen, there ought to be an easier away to dismiss FordPass announcement states that are no longer relevant rather than lock the user into a nonsensical announcement that's hard to dismiss. As I pointed out before, FordPass uses the space on the Home screen tab that's typically where Charging Status is displayed to also display other notices, a number of which are not easily dismissed. This blocks the FordPass user from easily seeing charging status until one can figure out a way of getting rid of the bothersome notice. This fiasco used to occur for me with a BACKUP POWER UNAVAILABLE notice. When I already knew for weeks that my HIS unit wasn't working, I didn't need to have such a notice constantly obliterating the Charging Status area. Now, the same obnoxious interference was caused by an out-of-date, late-delivered Power Transfer notification that I had to jump through hoops to get rid of.

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[Jim Lewis]

The saga on my HIS unit continues. Today (12/18) was the day for the city public utility to see the unit in action and officially sanction its connection to the power grid. I'm describing the gory details of the failed inspection in hopes that it can help someone else out down the line.

I hadn't received any truck updates since I lasted tested power transfer on 12/14, but just like 12/4 and 12/14 tests, power transfer wasn't initiated by just killing grid power. I did a cold reboot, waiting 10 min with all power to the FCSP/HIS unit off, including the Dark Start battery. Since I expected the utility inspector any minute, I didn't bother reconnecting the FCSP to Wi-Fi. After the cold reboot, power transfer worked fine.

The CPS inspector shows up with the ETW Energy installer. Power transfer doesn't work in multiple tries, even after a cold reboot, reconnecting the FCSP to Wi-Fi, and deleting and repairing the truck's BT connection to the FCSP/HIS unit. Inspector leaves. Then, the installer tries reinstalling the BDI 1.1.21 inverter firmware. BINGO! After that, power transfer works 4x in a row within ~1'20" each time.

The installer said, yeah, it's a good idea to check power transfer a day before the next city utility appointment but asked me just to let him know the results and forego any cold reboots, etc.

The installer couldn't get the truck BT to pair again with the FCSP/HIS unit until he backed my truck into the garage, so the right rear passenger seat was within a few feet of the FCSP/HIS unit on the wall. As he predicted, the truck is shorter from the rear seat to the tailgate than from the rear seat to the front bumper so that he could back the truck into that position with the truck's back end still many feet from the garage rear wall. He had the back seat folded down and the rear passenger door wide open to facilitate BT communication. Even so, he couldn't get the BT pairing to go until he pulled the negative terminal off my LVB for five minutes.

Maybe someone here can throw some light on the reinstallation of BDI firmware 1.1.21. That firmware update had appeared as pending in my iPhone copy of M Professional before 10/5/23, but refused to install through my iPhone app. By 10/13, it seemed to have self-installed. The installer today used his Android phone. Would he have reinstalled a new copy of that firmware from his phone, or does his phone just trigger the reinstall of the firmware from a copy of the .BIN file saved in the BDI electronics? I'm curious to know if reinstalling the original copy might have fixed my power transfer problem or whether a totally new copy was applied.

Edit_Update: To answer my question just above, page 14 of the Delta BDI converter commissioning instructions on the Sunrun Field Website shows firmware being downloaded from the cloud after the inverter is connected to the home Wi-Fi network. So, presumably, today, the ETW tech overwrote the old firmware with a fresh copy from the Delta cloud. (Ford) Delta BDI Commissioning SOP - INS-SOP-0170 - Google Slides

 

[Jim Lewis]

TLDR: FCSP charging rate locked-in replaces Home Integration System Not Working as my current Lightning vexation... A Ford Charge Station Pro is NOT REPLACEABLE under warranty unless it's showing a fault error by telemetry at Ford.com, according to a Ford rep I spoke to on 1/11/24.

I've had many further adventures with my Home Integration System since my 12/18/23 "success story." Starting 12/19.

On 12/19, I thought, "Oh, Boy! The city utility inspector was here 3 or 4 hours the previous day, and the system wouldn't work. Then we got it to work 4x in a row after the inspector left, and I'm stupidly giddy with success. But what if it goes out before the next inspection? I'd better retest it just beforehand. Why not test it even today to see if it's working the next day?

So, on 12/19, backup power transfer fails 2x in a row. That was it. I called Sunrun and said I wanted the highest level of tech support. They respected that request, but things happened slowly - it was heading into the Christmas holidays.

12/23, I'm headed off on a holiday trip and find in charging up to 80%, my FCSP will only deliver 14.5 A when it's set in FordPass to deliver 48 A and did the last time I checked in early November. I tried a cold reboot of the FCSP/HIS system. No luck. But now the Internet connection of the FCSP is very stable whereas before it was always "Connection Lost" in FordPass. A week or so later, another cold reboot to fix another now rare Connection Lost occurrence. But am still charging at only 14.5 A (~5.2 kW) and cannot save a new setting in FordPass.

Around 1/9/24, when it looked like I was about to get some high-level action from Sunrun/Ford, I decided it would be embarrassing if some folks showed up to give my system TLC, and the darn thing somehow decided to start working again since the 12/19 failures. I tested power transfer 3x in a row, going back on grid power >10' between tests. Worked beautifully every time. My charging rate was still stuck at 5 kW, though.

Then, later in the day, someone who said he was high-up in Sunrun troubleshooting called and said he'd be in Houston on 1/10 and wanted to swing by San Antonio to inspect my system on 1/11. I demurred as I was already scheduled all day with my dealer on 1/11 for the Sync recall and the BECM and BSM CSP fixes. The guy agreed and said I should request a warranty replacement of the FCSP if, after all the updates and checking of my truck, I still had charging rate issues when I got home.

Then, still on 1/9, I read Biggie's post that he fixed a locked-in lower FCSP charging rate by factory-resetting his FCSP. https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/threads/pro-station-issues.17940/post-361022. So, I plunged right in and did that via FordPass.

I realized that would wipe out my FCSP Wi-Fi connection and also the BT pairing with my truck. But I thought, let's test the charging rate after setting up FCSP Wi-Fi, before BT pairing or any backup power transfer test. Amazing!!! Before BT pairing, I could set the charging rate to 80 A or 48 A in FordPass, and now the FCSP delivered that, verified by CarScanner.

After the FCSP was BT-paired with my truck, backup power transfer worked great (4th time since 1/9). But now, instead of being stuck at 14.5 A, I was stuck at a 30 A charging rate even when FordPass was set to deliver 80 A on my FCSP hard-wired for 80 A.

Took the truck to my dealer on 1/11. Dealer claims all previous OTA updates installed correctly, have the latest Sync module software, BECM CSP update shows no battery flaws, a new BSM is on order.

Come home. Power transfer is still locked at 30 A before and after a cold reboot of my FCSP/HIS unit and a power transfer test. But for the fifth time since 1/9, the power transfer works flawlessly!!! (It took me a while to figure out whatever they did at the dealer, it wiped out the BT pairing of the truck to the FCSP. When I finally called up "Intelligent" Backup on the Sync screen, the only thing there was "Add Station." No previous Ford 3000 pairing.).

So, following the high-level Sunrun call on 1/9, I called Ford on 1/11/24 to request a warranty replacement of my FCSP. I latched onto a pretty knowledgeable Ford rep. "No can do," he said. On his end, the only error reported for my FCSP was in May 2023. He said that an FCSP cannot be replaced under warranty if it's not showing a fault by telemetry. After the call, I wondered how he could be so sure of no fault when my FCSP was showing Connection Lost in FordPass pretty much continually from August/September through early December! The Ford rep said someone should come to my house and inspect the DIP switch settings.

I reported Ford's reply to my 1/9 contact. So, we'll see...

 

[TaxmanHog]

Even with Fordpass v4.32.0, the adjustability of the charging rate is STILL hit or miss, I made a couple attempts at lowering / raising it and the was no effective changes, even after powering off the FCSP, clearing the cache in Fordpass, etc.

Then a day or two ago, it finally showed full maximum charging rate and the amber indicator shut off.

I don't know what the root cause is but I'm narrowing it down to a still deficient FP and or hit or miss data transfers between the app and the truck to command the revised charging rates.

 

[BF150A]

I’d like to get a head count.

Let me start by saying I have been a long time, loyal customer of Ford products since the mid 1970’s. As of October 2022, my latest Ford purchased is a 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Extended Range Lariat 4X4 that I bought in combination with the Ford Charge Station Pro and the Ford / Sunrun Home Integration System (HIS), all of which are inseparable parts to a fully functional emergency backup “Home Integration System”.

On this forum, I’ve followed this thread since its inception, and can honestly say I’ve encountered most, if not all of the same problems most of you have suffered through. However, I’ve been quietly trying to work through all of the issues discussed in this and various other threads with reps from Ford, Sunrun, Delta and Siemens. Unfortunately, I have to report that not for the lack of trying, after 15 months of ownership and attempting to acquire a fully functional and reliable truck & home backup system as advertised by Ford and Sunrun, none of the above parties have been able to bring the HIS into a reliable working condition.

Look, you don’t need me to rehash all the failures surrounding this issue. I could post a rant that would accomplish nothing other than partially relieving my frustration. More importantly, I am now at the point of realizing just how badly I, as well as many of you, may have been defrauded by Ford and its partners.

After untold hours of working with Ford Electric Vehicle team both on the phone and through written communication, as well as the hours into days lost by trips to the dealership along with electrical technicians at my home for several days, I formally requested Ford buy back the defective truck and associated home integration equipment. After ten additional days of waiting for Ford to make a decision, the reply from Ford was “no”. Along with words to the effect of we are so very sorry, is there anything else we can do for you?

Again I could go on and on, but most of you are already well informed of what I’m saying here. So before I go any further and start legal action, let me make this perfectly clear. I am NOT an attorney, and I am NOT dispensing any legal advice. I’d just like to get a general headcount of how many victims of what I consider to be a consumer fraud, are out there. At some point it may come to a class action suit. It is my best understanding that no one other than myself needs to be named as a plaintiff, but many of the victims may eventually benefit from it in the long term.

Yes, there is no denying my self interest here. And yes we are all aware Ford and possibly their associates are monitoring this and other related forums, and I want to bring this to their attention. But, after repeated unsuccessful attempts to rectify the obvious manufacturers’ defects over such an unreasonable amount of time, it has brought me and possibly you to the same conclusion. Ford needs to act in good faith and either fix all of the problems with the HIS (to which the Lightning is an integral part) at their expense, or buy back all of the defective trucks and HIS equipment in a timely manner.

I understand If you don’t want to draw attention to yourself, and preserve any chance for a personal side deal with Ford. But I’m not too sure any of that will be in any future offerings. Up to this point, the only thing that’s been offered to me is hand holding and empty apologies.

So, if you’re interested in being an anonymous but important part of simple head count, drop me a line. I’ll be sure to pass along the tally to Ford & Friends.

 

[Jim Lewis]

A final chapter in my Ford FCSP/HIS unit installation saga? Today, our public utility inspected my FCSP/HIS unit, and backup power transfer actually worked on the 1st try. So, the unit is officially "commissioned" to be connected to the Texas electric grid. Unlike yesterday, when a warm-up test power transfer failed initially and only worked after a system reboot.

In chitchatting with the installer tech required to be present during utility commissioning, the tech remarked it wasn't uncommon for Ford Home Integration System units that sat around for a while to fail to activate backup power transfer. I suggested that I would test and cold reboot my system once a month, if necessary, to ensure it would respond when needed. He replied, "Why not once a week? That's the standard for mission-critical backup gas generators." I told him I thought that might cause too much wear and tear on electronic equipment inside my house. On a 2/1 power outage test, I managed to wipe out my router settings and had to set the router up again from scratch.

Ford needs to make a more dependable home backup system if it's going to continue offering that truck option. There ought to be better diagnostic software to detect the state of system readiness without having to constantly throw breakers to see if the system has decided to show up for work on any given week.

 

[BF150A]

As of March 1st I will still be without a working (yet alone reliable)Home Integration System for one full year. I can honestly say that at least on my part, it certainly has not been for the lack of trying to get the system up and running.
So I’m very happy for any of you that have had any degree of success in just getting the Lightning, Charge Station Pro, and the Bi-directional Inverter to communicate with the Ford Pass application in any form of a coherent fashion. Mr. Lewis, I am hoping for you and others like you, nothing but the best of luck, and continued success. However should at any point in the near future you discover that what now appears to be a fully functioning and reliable HIS turns out to be a nothing more than mirage feel free to drop me a line.
As of for now I’m still working with Ford, Sunrun and their (for lack of a better term) co-conspirators in trying to resolve all of the nonfunctional issues surrounding my HIS. However come February 29th should all efforts fail to resolve ALL of the outstanding nonfunctioning issues I will pursue Court action. If the Court recognizes the validity of my complaint and determines a Class Action is appropriate you fellow sufferers may be hearing more in the not too distant future. Let’s hope none of that comes to pass and Ford et al can ditch their current bad actor status and provide their customers with the HIS as advertised.

I hope this “LOCKHORNS” cartoon has no merit here. We’ll see?

 

[Runaway Tractor]

I suggested that I would test and cold reboot my system once a month, if necessary, to ensure it would respond when needed. He replied, "Why not once a week? That's the standard for mission-critical backup gas generators." I told him I thought that might cause too much wear and tear on electronic equipment inside my house. On a 2/1 power outage test, I managed to wipe out my router settings and had to set the router up again from scratch.

Few things on this:

1. He's confused. Mission critical backup generator systems DO NOT reboot once a week. In fact, they do not reboot ever. The generators start and run once a week for testing. And full load transfer test at whatever interval the customer wants. Load bank test at least annually. Rebooting to keep it form dying? Absolutely not. Source: I manage one of those facilities.
   
   
2. All that H.I.S. equipment should not need to be rebooted or have the load transferred at some interval to keep it from going into a coma. There are lots of similar grid tie solar/battery inverter systems out there. Most cost way less and operate in a much simpler manner with 100% uptime and reliability. They don't have an EV integration, but that's not some mythical thing to integrate. It's just another high voltage source. In other words, there is no valid excuse for the poor performance of this system. They aren't reinventing the wheel here, everyone else has it figured out. DO NOT let them get away with it. If it is not working right, do not let them off the hook!
   
   
3. Your critical electronics for the home, like your router, switches, etc. should be on a small UPS device to locally protect it. This will protect it from power cycling and electrical transients. And it will keep it running during the brief downtime during the ATS operating back and forth.

 

[Jim Lewis]

DO NOT reboot once a week. In fact, they do not reboot ever. The generators start and run once a week for testing.

Thanks for all the helpful advice. My computer is on a UPS, but there's lots of stuff elsewhere on many circuits throughout the house. Perhaps I should put the router and the cellular modem on a UPS, though.

I didn't interpret the installer's tech advice on gas generators as anything other than reliability is tested once a week. And that would be the same for my HIS system. I'd test it once a week and only reboot it if it failed to transfer power successfully. But until I better protect my home as you suggest, I'll stick to once-a-month tests and tests run before severe storms or predicted brownouts. The San Antonio utility is pretty good about predicting times to look out for electrical outages, and they send e-mail or text warnings as a customer prefers.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

I didn't interpret the installer's tech advice on gas generators as anything other than reliability is tested once a week. And that would be the same for my HIS system. I'd test it once a week and only reboot it if it failed to transfer power successfully

To be clear, not the same thing as the guy was suggesting. You're talking about testing including load transfer. Mission critical generator systems do not load-transfer weekly for testing. They just start and run the generators, not on the load.

Testing that load transfer weekly would be a very unreasonable expectation in normal operation. The only reason to do that is if you don't trust it and are trying to prove it works or has a problem. That would indeed be hard on your electronics. Move as much as you can to small UPS units if you feel you need to do this.

The fact that the HIS is so unreliable is of course awful. But I don't have a better suggestion to prove it works or not either.

 

[Jim Lewis]

There ought to be better diagnostic software to detect the state of system readiness without having to constantly throw breakers to see if the system has decided to show up for work on any given week.

Testing that load transfer weekly would be a very unreasonable expectation in normal operation.

I agree. That's why in my original post to which you were kind enough to offer helpful suggestions, I wished Ford had diagnostic software that could evaluate the readiness of the FCSP/HIS/truck states to perform a power transfer without having to do one. The FordPass app purports to tell you whether backup is enabled or not, but like so many other aspects of that app, it doesn't do a good, reliable job of reporting.

 

[Jim Lewis]

This AM, I received a phone call from a Ford rep who said I was on his list of problematic Home Integration Systems. He wanted to let me know that a major update is coming for the Home Integration System to patch up its issues (he didn't say when). And he seemed to want to know in black-and-white terms whether my system was working. I told him it usually works, but if it sits around for a while, it often won't work until I've put it through a cold reboot (including turning off the Dark Start battery via M Professional). At some point in the conversation, he mentioned, "So, then it's working..." and I had to reemphasize the "most of the time if I'm lucky" aspect of my system.

I told him that I didn't like the need to frequently test the system's readiness by cutting grid power, wanted a system closer to 100% reliability, and wished there was diagnostic software to report system readiness. He replied that unfortunately such system diagnosis is not on the horizon but wished Ford had that, too.

So, it was encouraging to get that feedback from Ford. Until the HIS update happens, it's just a hearsay conversation to me. We shall see...

 

[Runaway Tractor]

Nobody in the actual development world would consider "sometimes if you're lucky" to be working. Only salesmen trying to make numbers on paper look less terrible think that way.

 

[Jeffgtx]

Joining the fray. I am planning on setting u the HIS. I have CSP on the way and have to enable bidirectional on my standard range. My next step is to buy the system from AEEsolar. is there anything else i am missing from the equipment standpoint? Thanks.

 

[Aminorjourney]

This AM, I received a phone call from a Ford rep who said I was on his list of problematic Home Integration Systems. He wanted to let me know that a major update is coming for the Home Integration System to patch up its issues (he didn't say when). And he seemed to want to know in black-and-white terms whether my system was working. I told him it usually works, but if it sits around for a while, it often won't work until I've put it through a cold reboot (including turning off the Dark Start battery via M Professional). At some point in the conversation, he mentioned, "So, then it's working..." and I had to reemphasize the "most of the time if I'm lucky" aspect of my system.

I told him that I didn't like the need to frequently test the system's readiness by cutting grid power, wanted a system closer to 100% reliability, and wished there was diagnostic software to report system readiness. He replied that unfortunately such system diagnosis is not on the horizon but wished Ford had that, too.

So, it was encouraging to get that feedback from Ford. Until the HIS update happens, it's just a hearsay conversation to me. We shall see...

This is interesting. My theory is that the CSP is not applying OTAs properly without a forced reboot

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