DCFC preconditioning is it coming????

[Maquis]

It’s gotta be through the chargers menu, I don’t see any other way they would identify it was DCFC

That would have been my guess, thanks.

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[ckt]

I re-ran this morning, car sat outside overnight, off plug, 31F outside temp.

1. Did a remote start and waited 10min, car was warm inside, all glass clear.
HVB temp 35.6-39.2F, charge pwr limit 86.1kW, coolant heater ~2.6kW, HVB coolant inlet temp 37.4F

2. Started car, 70F Auto-1, set NAV to DCFC location, car parked but running for 10min (no motor power/regen).
HVB temp 37.4-44.6F, charge pwr limit 90.7kW, coolant heater 4-5kW, HVB coolant inlet 44.6-73.6F (cycling)

3. Drove car with DCFC as NAV destination ~10miles/13minutes (mostly 70mph).
HVB temp 44.6-53.6F, charge pwr limit 99.5kW, coolant heater ~5kW, HVB coolant inlet 68F

4. Drove back same way (flat) - no change in HVB temps, charge power limit reduced 1kW.

Conclussions:
1. There is battery warming when NAV is going to a DCFC, but no obvious indicators
2. battery warming from hwy driving alone was negliglible under these conditions
3. battery warming was 9-15F, charge powr limit increased ~15%/13kW over the 23min
4. battery warmed faster the 2nd half of the test, could be a number of factors: battery thermal mass, cabin heater load. I suspect battery heating would be more effective in a fully warm car (like on a longer drive).

PS: I didn't actually do a DCFC, as battery was ~75% SOC. Would be interesting to run in colder conditions with a lower SOC, as my charge pwr limit started at 86kW (not terrible).

Excellent! I just got 3.6.2 the other day, hoping to try nav preconditioning soon!

 

[dbsb3233]

I re-ran this morning, car sat outside overnight, off plug, 31F outside temp.

1. Did a remote start and waited 10min, car was warm inside, all glass clear.
HVB temp 35.6-39.2F, charge pwr limit 86.1kW, coolant heater ~2.6kW, HVB coolant inlet temp 37.4F

2. Started car, 70F Auto-1, set NAV to DCFC location, car parked but running for 10min (no motor power/regen).
HVB temp 37.4-44.6F, charge pwr limit 90.7kW, coolant heater 4-5kW, HVB coolant inlet 44.6-73.6F (cycling)

3. Drove car with DCFC as NAV destination ~10miles/13minutes (mostly 70mph).
HVB temp 44.6-53.6F, charge pwr limit 99.5kW, coolant heater ~5kW, HVB coolant inlet 68F

4. Drove back same way (flat) - no change in HVB temps, charge power limit reduced 1kW.

Conclussions:
1. There is battery warming when NAV is going to a DCFC, but no obvious indicators
2. battery warming from hwy driving alone was negliglible under these conditions
3. battery warming was 9-15F, charge powr limit increased ~15%/13kW over the 23min
4. battery warmed faster the 2nd half of the test, could be a number of factors: battery thermal mass, cabin heater load. I suspect battery heating would be more effective in a fully warm car (like on a longer drive).

PS: I didn't actually do a DCFC, as battery was ~75% SOC. Would be interesting to run in colder conditions with a lower SOC, as my charge pwr limit started at 86kW (not terrible).

Did you do the same test without setting the nav for comparison? This may simply be what the car does normally, with no new nav-triggered preconditioning feature. A feature that reportedly hasn't been implemented yet (the initial post that said it was part of 3.6.2 was later corrected).

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/dcfc-preconditioning-is-it-coming.25304/page-4#post-586093

 

[RedRocker]

Did you do the same test without setting the nav for comparison? This may simply be what the car does normally, with no new nav-triggered preconditioning feature. A feature that reportedly hasn't been implemented yet (the initial post that said it was part of 3.6.2 was later corrected).

Yes, I tested with/without DCFC as a destination yesterday and today... The vehicle does not normally warm the battery when you are off-plug, only when you have selected a DCFC as a destination. I'm sure there are mutliple entry criteria (distance/time to DCFC, interior/exterior temperature, etc). Maybe its a beta in 3.6.2, but its there and working for me

 

[DustyShades]

This potential DCFC preconditioning that you guys have discovered - would it work with apple maps CarPlay as well since there is some integration with the car directly or is the integration only one way? Has anyone tested this to see if behavior is similar for Apple Maps CarPlay?

 

[generaltso]

would it work with apple maps CarPlay as well since there is some integration with the car directly

According to the insider, no.

 

[DustyShades]

According to the insider, no.

Sad.
But the built-in nav is still exciting

 

[ckt]

I'm able to confirm nav preconditioning works for me too. Even currently at 83% SoC, battery temp 44F, naving to DCFC 30 min away. The heater is taking 6kw w/ cabin heat set to off. Woohoo.

 

[benk016]

I'm able to confirm nav preconditioning works for me too. Even currently at 83% SoC, battery temp 44F, naving to DCFC 30 min away. The heater is taking 6kw w/ cabin heat set to off. Woohoo.

Yeah I saw that same behavior in my testing. But the battery just wasn't warming up much at all. I left my house with the battery at 37f, and got to the charger 30 minutes away at 43f. Once at the DCFC, and charging started, the heater continued to run and 13 minutes in to the charge the battery was up to 81f. This made me think the car was just doing normal operation keeping the battery above freezing, and not actually preconditioning for charging. It also didn't kick in just from putting the DCFC as a nav destination and just started sometime along my drive because the external temps dropped from low 40's to low 30's.

 

[dbsb3233]

Yeah I saw that same behavior in my testing. But the battery just wasn't warming up much at all. I left my house with the battery at 37f, and got to the charger 30 minutes away at 43f. Once at the DCFC, and charging started, the heater continued to run and 13 minutes in to the charge the battery was up to 81f. This made me think the car was just doing normal operation keeping the battery above freezing, and not actually preconditioning for charging. It also didn't kick in just from putting the DCFC as a nav destination and just started sometime along my drive because the external temps dropped from low 40's to low 30's.

There are times in the middle of a drive that my cabin heat will suddenly just start blowing cool air for no apparent reason. It's often like an hour into a road trip where the outside temp isn't changing and everything had been going along fine and consistent. It's been doing that on road trips for 2 years. It's not very frequent (maybe once or twice a day on a day's drive). Really annoying.

Now I wonder if that's what's happening -- the BMS diverting heat away from the cabin heat to shift it to the battery instead because it's gotten too cold along the drive? I have to kick the cabin heat up to 78 or something to get it to put out warm air again.

 

[Hammered]

Ford Connected Built-In Navigation is a 3 year trial (Ford's words) of navigation services. After completion of trial, if not renewed it will revert to the embedded offline navigation. Features include "accurate maps, thoughtful points of interest, charge locations, real-time traffic and road condition updates, almost instant rerouting options". Note that the connected navigation updates full map yearly and "home zone" quarterly. It also provides navigation in "cellular dead zones".

My guess is that the reason the 3 year is included is that ford has a contract w/ ATT for taking your telemetry. Even though your 'hotspot' ceases post trial, it's fully on, just not giving you access to the data. Ford is still using it however. At the end of 3 years, the modem may revert to an offline mode, just like if you install a non-activated sim in a phone. It's on, it's talking to the towers looking for auth, but from a data standpoint it's dead.

Sync 4 is still not yet 3 years old so we're not sure what exactly its offline reversion ends up being. I know for $15/mo negotiated w/ ATT you can get fully unlimited data from the vehicle's modem. I see about 40Mbs down and 30 up with mine. I use it as my phone reverts to VOIP when on a good data connection and the car's antennas are not only better located, but ~10x as powerful as a phones. Some of the hills around here create phone dead zones, but the car still connects.

Curious about updates to the car post 3yr mark? Do sync4 cars just turn into 3yr old phones where the MFG just tells you to piss off?

 

[ckt]

Just did another nav preconditioning, ambient was 42f, battery was 38%, 50f, and it got to 72f when I arrived at DCFC 15 mins away. I turned off cabin heat for most of this test in attempt to get the battery as warm as it can. Not bad.

Charging session was great, same as summer session speeds.

 

[Matstar]

I did some tests today. And there is indeed a preconditioning that is done.

The distances and temperatures indicated below are in KM and C since I am in Canada.

The maximum distance for the car to start warming up the battery is 30km (19 miles). As soon as I choose a DCFC within 30km, the coolant heater starts and the temperature of the coolant inlet rises.

If the DCFC is more than 30km away, nothing happens. Until on the route the DCFC is less than 30km away and at this moment the coolant heater starts.

However the battery temperature rises by only 5C (9 F). I did two tests and had the same result of a maximum increase of 5C.

But it seems to be cumulative.

First test the temperature rose from 3C (37 F) to 8C (46 F). Second test a little later, the temperature went from 6C (43 F) to 11C (52 F)....

The small rise in temperature helps the recharging speed a little, but to be really useful the temperature would really have to increase more.

Maybe that's one of the reasons why Ford hasn't published on the subject? Maybe a future update will adjust the parameters to be really efficient?

 

[dbsb3233]

I did some tests today. And there is indeed a preconditioning that is done.

The distances and temperatures indicated below are in KM and C since I am in Canada.

The maximum distance for the car to start warming up the battery is 30km (19 miles). As soon as I choose a DCFC within 30km, the coolant heater starts and the temperature of the coolant inlet rises.

If the DCFC is more than 30km away, nothing happens. Until on the route the DCFC is less than 30km away and at this moment the coolant heater starts.

However the battery temperature rises by only 5C (9 F). I did two tests and had the same result of a maximum increase of 5C.

But it seems to be cumulative.

First test the temperature rose from 3C (37 F) to 8C (46 F). Second test a little later, the temperature went from 6C (43 F) to 11C (52 F)....

The small rise in temperature helps the recharging speed a little, but to be really useful the temperature would really have to increase more.

Maybe that's one of the reasons why Ford hasn't published on the subject? Maybe a future update will adjust the parameters to be really efficient?

Did you notice if it hurt your cabin heating? If one comes at the expense of the other, I'd generally prefer to keep good cabin heating. Depending how much of a degradation we're talking about, of course.

 

[Matstar]

Did you notice if it hurt your cabin heating? If one comes at the expense of the other, I'd generally prefer to keep good cabin heating. Depending how much of a degradation we're talking about, of course.

Yes it seems to favor the heat in the cabin especially if the cabin is very cold. Once the cabin is at a comfortable temperature, the system seems to be able to handle both without issue.

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