Possible reason for Value Charge not working

[jmueller065]

I've noticed several posts on here with vehicles not properly value charging.

In my case I've seen it be very erratic (case in point: This evening: I arrived home from my commute and plugged in--it started charging immediately. Went out for dinner and returned upon plugin it says "waiting to charge" and shows the proper start time). Hmm.

Then it occurred to me: There are also people complaining that the GPS isn't very accurate--hey! If the GPS isn't that accurate then it won't notice that you are at your "Home" charge point and obviously not use the home charge profile.

To verify this I've left the MFT screen on the "green setup screen" (the new one in 3.5 where it shows the % battery state, shows how much time to charge, lets you skip the next go time, etc.). On the bottom of this screen it shows the charge profile it will use if/when plugged in--this screen is live: As we drove up our street I saw it change from my public profile ("charge now + X.X hours") to my home value charge profile as we approached our house.

For the next few days I'm going to keep that screen up as I return home to see if it detects the proper profile based on location...

 

[jeffand]

It could be possible the GPS is losing the satellite signal when you enter the garage. Signal lose depends on which satellites the GPS is locked onto. The GPS needs at least 2 satellites to determine its position. The more satellites it has the more accurate you positioning will be determined.

 

[WattsUp]

It could be possible the GPS is losing the satellite signal when you enter the garage. Signal lose depends on which satellites the GPS is locked onto. The GPS needs at least 2 satellites to determine its position. The more satellites it has the more accurate you positioning will be determined.

That's plausible, but it would be pretty silly (IMO) for Ford's software to work that way. I mean, I'd hope the software would intelligently assume that, just because the GPS signal was lost, it doesn't necessarily mean that car is no longer located where it just was. If it was me, I might have the software decide that, if no real distance has been traveled since loss of the GPS signal (e.g., as has slowly entered a garage and then stopped, as you suggest), then the last-known location can still be assumed accurate (at least for the purposes of Value Charge).

But, your idea is still plausible. Software engineers sometimes program only for "the happy path", where everything works perfectly, and forget about the things that can go wrong (e.g., GPS signal being lost at just the right/wrong moment). As we know, the software in the FFE is far from perfect.

 

[jeffand]

Does vehicle have 3.1 or 3.5 MyFord touch?

 

[jmueller065]

My original post is/was about 3.5.1 since you need a screen up available only in 3.5.1 to see what I'm describing.

 

[jeffand]

The actual location where you park, and the address you enter into GPS as your home may be two different locations. The size of the area that is considered home maybe only 100 feet. If the physical parking spot is near the edge of the GPS home location it may sometimes be considered not at home. This can be caused by GPS jitter. The more satilites the GPS is locked on to will reduce the positioning error.

 

[JTCalif]

jmueller065 wrote, "Then it occurred to me: There are also people complaining that the GPS isn't very accurate--hey! If the GPS isn't that accurate then it won't notice that you are at your "Home" charge point and obviously not use the home charge profile."

Value charge profile worked for my FFE while NOT at home.
(I plugged it into a free outlet about 10 miles from home, and was surprised that it did not begin charging. Then I looked inside, saw the "Value Charge" set, grimaced, changed that to "... Now", and received energy.)
I have the older software (from mid-2012), as what I have read so far has not made me want to bother with the upgrade.

 

[PowerstrokeNC]

My issue is related to the value charge profile .

Set mine according to the cheapest rates as I have time of use service.

Off peak for me is evenings and weekends . So now the car won't charge on Saturdays, it waits until midnight....

Any suggestions?

 

[WattsUp]

Off peak for me is evenings and weekends . So now the car won't charge on Saturdays, it waits until midnight....

Any suggestions?

Have you checked what date your car thinks it is? Some people have reported that their FFE is off by one day, for some reason.

To check the date, press the time at the top of the MFT screen. Then, select "Date" for Time Display. The month and date will be displayed. You can also adjust the date in the same screen.

 

[jmueller065]

Off peak for me is evenings and weekends . So now the car won't charge on Saturdays, it waits until midnight....

I mentioned this issue in the following thread:

http://www.myfocuselectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1277