Defective ChargePoint Home Flex - PSA

[MellowJohnny]

So after sitting at the dealership for a week the Service Advisor got back to me and said the problem stems from an OTA received in June. The infamous AC derating update I suppose.

The EV Tech ended up contacting Ford for help, and this is what they said:

P1A3C sets when there is an interruption when DC fast charging and has to do with the DC fast charge station and as per SSM 52130 it can be disregarded. Since the customer has replaced the charger, they own, and it does charge the loaner F-150 lighting the charger should be ok.

There was an OTA update installed back in June that addressed temperature concerns in the charge port when charging the vehicle. Previously temperature parameters were set to 105C, which is over 200 degrees F. The thermistors in the charge port are positioned quite far away from the actual pins for the charge port. By the time the system would de-rate due to high temperatures, the pins either melted in the charge port or become damaged.

After the OTA update, that temperature limit was decreased. Therefore, HV battery charging de-rates (lowers the power) much quicker to reduce heat, causing extended charge times (slows down the charge). Engineering is working on another OTA update that once is ready it will show up on oasis.

Sooooo....I'm not convinced this is actually the issue, for two reasons: 1) my issue manifested itself in November, five months after the OTA in question. and b) I get actual charge faults, not the derating behaviour others are seeing on AC charging.

So I've set the Home Flex back to 32A and the car is back home happily charging, pulling almost 8 kW.

But I still think this is a hardware issue....time will tell. Obviously once the official OTA "fix" is released I'll pop the Home Flex back to 40A and see what happens.

@Ford Motor Company @Ford of Canada - I still think it's broken.

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[Mach-Lee]

So after sitting at the dealership for a week the Service Advisor got back to me and said the problem stems from an OTA received in June. The infamous AC derating update I suppose.

The EV Tech ended up contacting Ford for help, and this is what they said:

P1A3C sets when there is an interruption when DC fast charging and has to do with the DC fast charge station and as per SSM 52130 it can be disregarded. Since the customer has replaced the charger, they own, and it does charge the loaner F-150 lighting the charger should be ok.

There was an OTA update installed back in June that addressed temperature concerns in the charge port when charging the vehicle. Previously temperature parameters were set to 105C, which is over 200 degrees F. The thermistors in the charge port are positioned quite far away from the actual pins for the charge port. By the time the system would de-rate due to high temperatures, the pins either melted in the charge port or become damaged.

After the OTA update, that temperature limit was decreased. Therefore, HV battery charging de-rates (lowers the power) much quicker to reduce heat, causing extended charge times (slows down the charge). Engineering is working on another OTA update that once is ready it will show up on oasis.

Sooooo....I'm not convinced this is actually the issue, for two reasons: 1) my issue manifested itself in November, five months after the OTA in question. and b) I get actual charge faults, not the derating behaviour others are seeing on AC charging.

So I've set the Home Flex back to 32A and the car is back home happily charging, pulling almost 8 kW.

But I still think this is a hardware issue....time will tell. Obviously once the official OTA "fix" is released I'll pop the Home Flex back to 40A and see what happens.

@Ford Motor Company @Ford of Canada - I still think it's broken.

Thanks for that, the lowered temp limit from 105ºC to 80ºC is what I've observed with that update. But still doesn't correct the overheating condition.

You're also correct that it would have nothing to do with a charge fault or start/stop problem. Have you tried charging at full power since you got the 6.8.0 update yesterday? Not seeing any charger fault codes currently.

 

[MellowJohnny]

Thanks for that, the lowered temp limit from 105ºC to 80ºC is what I've observed with that update. But still doesn't correct the overheating condition.

You're also correct that it would have nothing to do with a charge fault or start/stop problem. Have you tried charging at full power since you got the 6.8.0 update yesterday? Not seeing any charger fault codes currently.

Just tried at 40A - failed within a few minutes. What's strange it's this time it seemed to fall over at 7.6 kW vs. 9-ish in the past.

I ran a fairly un-scientific test before I brought it to the dealer, ramping from 32A to 36A, one session at a time, and using the kW values I saw in the ChargePoint App (I don't have an OBDII scanner):

32A -> 7.6 kW -> OK
33A -> 7.9 kW -> OK
34A -> 8.15 kW (FordPass was showing "7") -> OK
35A -> 8.42 kW (FordPass was showing "7") -> OK
36A -> 8.?? (Didn't see the final number, FP showed "5") -> Charge Fault

So I have yet to really find a correlation between amperage, kW, and when it faults. Previous to this test I had tried 33A and it failed, whereas in the test above it was happy.

Here's the graph from ChargePoint - after it failed I kept it plugged in and set the amperage back to 32A:

 

[SWO]

Just tried at 40A - failed within a few minutes. What's strange it's this time it seemed to fall over at 7.6 kW vs. 9-ish in the past.

I ran a fairly un-scientific test before I brought it to the dealer, ramping from 32A to 36A, one session at a time, and using the kW values I saw in the ChargePoint App (I don't have an OBDII scanner):

32A -> 7.6 kW -> OK
33A -> 7.9 kW -> OK
34A -> 8.15 kW (FordPass was showing "7") -> OK
35A -> 8.42 kW (FordPass was showing "7") -> OK
36A -> 8.?? (Didn't see the final number, FP showed "5") -> Charge Fault

So I have yet to really find a correlation between amperage, kW, and when it faults. Previous to this test I had tried 33A and it failed, whereas in the test above it was happy.

Here's the graph from ChargePoint - after it failed I kept it plugged in and set the amperage back to 32A:

Possibly dumb question but how are you adjusting your CP Homeflex in 1A increments?

 

[generaltso]

Possibly dumb question but how are you adjusting your CP Homeflex in 1A increments?

That was added to the app a month or two ago.

 

[MellowJohnny]

Played around a bit last night with Car Scanner to watch what happens when a charging session fails.

It seems to ramp up to a peak of 35A (ChargePoint was set to 40A) and pull around 9+ kW then abruptly drop to 0A and ramp up again. Charge Port Temp hit a max of 17 C, ambient air temp was -1 C.

It cycled like this three times before the throwing a Charging Fault - IC displayed the SVS message and I got the usual red ring at the charge port.

@Ford Motor Company has claimed this is the result of the June OTA (they didn't say which one) which derates AC charging due to overheating issues.

This does not look at all to me like the derating others have seen after the summer OTA. AFAIK the derated charge sessions don't fail?

Here's the graph showing the relationship between Amperage and kW:

 

[Mach-Lee]

Played around a bit last night with Car Scanner to watch what happens when a charging session fails.

It seems to ramp up to a peak of 35A (ChargePoint was set to 40A) and pull around 9+ kW then abruptly drop to 0A and ramp up again. Charge Port Temp hit a max of 17 C, ambient air temp was -1 C.

It cycled like this three times before the throwing a Charging Fault - IC displayed the SVS message and I got the usual red ring at the charge port.

@Ford Motor Company has claimed this is the result of the June OTA (they didn't say which one) which derates AC charging due to overheating issues.

This does not look at all to me like the derating others have seen after the summer OTA. AFAIK the derated charge sessions don't fail?

Here's the graph showing the relationship between Amperage and kW:

FYI Car Scanner does not actually show charge port temperature. It’s labeled wrong and is actually the internal charger temperature.

Try rebooting your ChargePoint by cycling the breaker or unplugging it. Verify you have the latest firmware 5.5.3.13 or later or call ChargePoint.

 

[MellowJohnny]

FYI Car Scanner does not actually show charge port temperature. It’s labeled wrong and is actually the internal charger temperature.

Try rebooting your ChargePoint by cycling the breaker or unplugging it. Verify you have the latest firmware 5.5.3.13 or later or call ChargePoint.

ChargePoint is on 5.5.3.13 and was able to charge the loaner Lightning at 40A with no issues...so to me there is something in the car malfunctioning...

 

[Mach-Lee]

ChargePoint is on 5.5.3.13 and was able to charge the loaner Lightning at 40A with no issues...so to me there is something in the car malfunctioning...

Pilot gets out of spec, Mach-E is more picky than F-150. EVSE reboot fixed this issue the one time I had it. You could try cleaning your charge port too in case it’s a bad connection issue.

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