Battery Level Alert hasn't worked for months...anyone else??

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michael

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 22, 2013
Messages
1,113
Location
Los Angeles, CA
Ever since they merged the two web sites (about six months ago) my battery level alert function hasn't worked, either on a PC or on the iphone app.

I've been in contact with Ford, after months of diagnosis, pulling fuses, etc., they had me go to the dealer and have the "telematics control unit" replaced. They did so and, surprise, the problem hasn't been fixed.

Here's the symptom:

On the web site my account > notification settings > battery level alert (at the top, the thing that's supposed to send a text message when the battery reaches some desired level) is stuck with a red "sync pending". Can't change anything.

The things toward the bottom (Notification Preferences with 12 items listed below) all work fine. It's just the battery level alert at the top.

Same problem using the iphone app.

Anyone else see this? Anyone able to get the battery level text messages to work?

I'm confident the problem is at Ford, in their servers. But I don't know if it's something particular about my setup or if everyone else has the same issue. Please let me know so I can inform them
 
Thanks for response. Anyone else? I just talked to Ford again and they asked me to check with other people, see how common or uncommon this problem may be. Thanks again
 
Okay, I tried setting battery level alert, by selecting a percentage and pressing the "Set" button via the MFM web site.

While I did notice the red "sync pending" never went away (on the original MFM web page), I did receive a "Matt's EV: A Battery Level Alert has been synced" notification and, when closed the browser and I re-logged into the MFM website, the red "sync pending" was no longer there, and the button said "Unset".

So, apart from the red text getting stuck, it seems like I have indeed successfully set a battery level alert. I will update this post when I do (or don't) receive a notification when my battery reaches the specified percentage.

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Update #1: On my drive home, my battery level dipped below the selected percentage and I didn't receive a notification. However, the alert still seems to be set (as the button at the MFM website still says "Unset"). I will now try charging to see if I get a notification when the battery rises above the selected percentage.

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Update #2: Okay, the car charged to the selected percentage, but I did not receive the expected notification (I had set it for a text notification). But, interestingly, the moment I logged into the MFM website and my latest battery status was reported, my phone received a text notification. (I had not used the website or the iPhone app in the meantime.) Unfortunately, the notification was very late. I had set the alert percentage to 85% but, by the time I logged into the MFM website, the battery had already charged to 97%. Still, the text notification read "Matt's EV has charged to 85%".

I think this is buggy server software. The server is probably supposed to be periodically running some code that checks things (such as the battery level alerts) at regular intervals, but the code only runs when you log in. So, as a side-effect, you will only receive battery level alerts when you log in. That's my theory.
 
-I never noticed that setting!... but mine seems to work.
I set it to a level below my current charge; it sync'd in about 20 seconds and then I immediately received an email.

WattsUp: notice that it's a "one-time" alert -it doesn't reset itself. I'm guessing that it only applies to charging; ie it notifies you (one time) when your charge is above the setting. (and personally, I can't find much use for it)
 
GladeStorm said:
WattsUp: notice that it's a "one-time" alert -it doesn't reset itself. I'm guessing that it only applies to charging; ie it notifies you (one time) when your charge is above the setting. (and personally, I can't find much use for it)
Yes, it only seems to trigger when the level rises above the alert level.

This alert is useful if, for example, you know from previous experience that you need, say, a 60% charge to get home from somewhere. Set an alert for 60% and you'll know the moment you can leave (and make it home) without having to continuously check the SOC yourself, or end up waiting longer than necessary.

Another usage is people who want to avoid charging past a particular level (in the interest of maintaining battery health). I'm not advocating that usage one way or another, but it is another reason why someone might find the alert useful -- because they want to know when their battery has reached a certain SOC, and they can go disconnect the EVSE to prevent further charging.

My main point of my report was that, although I did eventually receive a notification, I didn't receive it in a timely manner. Seemingly, my logging into MFM is what triggered the notification to be sent. And, I am completely unsurprised if this might be due to buggy MFM server software. (The alert should have triggered by itself, very close in time to when the battery actually reached the selected SOC, and without me logging into MFM.)

GladeStorm said:
-I never noticed that setting!... but mine seems to work.
I set it to a level below my current charge; it sync'd in about 20 seconds and then I immediately received an email.
Unfortunately, your test was a little unfair in that you set the level to something you knew would trigger immediately. You could try setting it to a level above your current battery SOC, start charging, and see if/when you get the notification at the correct time or, like me, if you only get it later (when you finally log back into MFM).
 
I just tried this:
  • Pulled into garage and turned off the car, battery at 65%
    From the mobile app set the alert to text me at 75%
    Plugged into Juicebox (charge now set)
    About 30-40 minutes later I got a text saying the car was at 75%--never logged in or ran the app after setting the alert
Kind of cool..never used that one before.
 
jmueller065 said:
About 30-40 minutes later I got a text saying the car was at 75%--never logged in or ran the app after setting the alert
Cool... and neither the phone app or website was "running" anywhere? (i.e., you didn't inadvertently leave the app running, even in the background, on the your phone -- it was definitely "quit" and unloaded?) I ask because, if you it was left running, there is a chance that the app was periodically polling the MFM servers and potentially "driving" the notification.

In my case, I was definitely running neither the MFM app nor the website, and the notification was not sent (until I ran the website).
 
WattsUp said:
Cool... and neither the phone app or website was "running" anywhere? (i.e., you didn't inadvertently leave the app running, even in the background, on the your phone -- it was definitely "quit" and unloaded?) I ask because, if you it was left running, there is a chance that the app was periodically polling the MFM servers and potentially "driving" the notification.
Nope: Recently switched to an Android phone, they have a slick two button press feature to kill all running apps that I'm quite used to doing now just prior to "sleeping" the phone. Thus: the MFM app was not running.
 
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