Embarrassment at the EA charger

timbop

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All it takes to get the update is have the issue happen one time. They just won't do the update because you want it done. But if your car actually has the issue, then they can do it.
And THAT is the fundamentally ludicrous part. It's a software bug, so if my car has the buggy firmware it WILL eventually happen - I've been in the software business for a long time and I know given enough chances a "rare" set of circumstances will happen to expose a bug. So to get it to happen I have to be doing a lot of DCFC, which I am only going to do on a long trip - so @Ford Motor Company is compelling me to wait until the WORST possible time for the problem to happen: far from home when getting it fixed and getting my car back requires blown vacation plans, last minute airline travel, scrambling for ground transportation, and begging some dealer who knows they'll never see me again to "do me a favor" and fix it within a less than glacial timeframe.

That's absolutely insane. The alternative is to let the dealer spend half an hour confirming what versions of the firmware is on all the modules to determine if I need the updates, and then performing those that are necessary to keep me from being stranded on the road where getting my wife, me, and my car back home again will cost me thousands of dollars and a staggering amount of aggravation.

I love my Mach E and really was looking forward to driving it from NJ to FL instead of my wife's crappy Durango but I am getting paranoid that it's going to die on me in the middle of nowhere and completely screw me.
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TRP

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And THAT is the fundamentally ludicrous part. It's a software bug, so if my car has the buggy firmware it WILL eventually happen - I've been in the software business for a long time and I know given enough chances a "rare" set of circumstances will happen to expose a bug. So to get it to happen I have to be doing a lot of DCFC, which I am only going to do on a long trip - so @Ford Motor Company is compelling me to wait until the WORST possible time for the problem to happen: far from home when getting it fixed and getting my car back requires blown vacation plans, last minute airline travel, scrambling for ground transportation, and begging some dealer who knows they'll never see me again to "do me a favor" and fix it within a less than glacial timeframe.

That's absolutely insane. The alternative is to let the dealer spend half an hour confirming what versions of the firmware is on all the modules to determine if I need the updates, and then performing those that are necessary to keep me from being stranded on the road where getting my wife, me, and my car back home again will cost me thousands of dollars and a staggering amount of aggravation.

I love my Mach E and really was looking forward to driving it from NJ to FL instead of my wife's crappy Durango but I am getting paranoid that it's going to die on me in the middle of nowhere and completely screw me.

See, now you're asking for a corporation to be proactive ;)
 
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OP

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Interesting that you immediately assume the car is to blame. Did you call EA and have them reset the charger? That should be your next step when it fails twice. Did you try charging at another charger?
Not on the recent occasion, but on a previous one I did. There wasn't really anything they could do. They said the car possibly has some issues as the communications link to the car appears to have dropped.
 

theo1000

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And THAT is the fundamentally ludicrous part. It's a software bug, so if my car has the buggy firmware it WILL eventually happen - I've been in the software business for a long time and I know given enough chances a "rare" set of circumstances will happen to expose a bug.
Mine does not have the DCFC update and charges just fine. About 30 DCFC sessions, mostly EA and few Chargepoint so far.

For your counterpoint, my PaaK was largely working until Ford forced me to go in for an update that killed my PaaK. I now have a second key FOB. I wish to this day Ford had not called me in for the update.

So you can be sure I will not update my charger software unless I have an issue.

Also did you folks check Plugshare and leave notes for the next user. If not please do so as it makes things go so much better.

I'm taking another long 1200 mile trip tomorrow and I have already flagged a couple of suspect charge stations, EA & others. As the EA stations get busier the notes come in daily on issues.
 

timbop

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Mine does not have the DCFC update and charges just fine. About 30 DCFC sessions, mostly EA and few Chargepoint so far.
Right, but the "wrench"/power fail issue is far too rare for 30 samples to be significant enough to trigger the problem - which is more on the order of once in 10000. If you have the old firmware then the problem will eventually hit you - it could happen on your 31st charge or your 3001st.

I've had ridiculously hard to reproduce problems that take weeks of 10,000 iterations per second to reproduce.
 


theo1000

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Right, but the "wrench"/power fail issue is far too rare for 30 samples to be significant enough to trigger the problem - which is more on the order of once in 10000. If you have the old firmware then the problem will eventually hit you - it could happen on your 31st charge or your 3001st.

I've had ridiculously hard to reproduce problems that take weeks of 10,000 iterations per second to reproduce.
So does it do it one time or is it broken after that. I'm very unfamiliar with this failure mode.

On my Etron there is an odd timeout clock that occasionally catches me off guard. I then have to disconnect, shut down wait 5 minutes and then beat the clock the second time and all is good. Is it like that or is it permanent once it happens.
 

timbop

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So does it do it one time or is it broken after that. I'm very unfamiliar with this failure mode.

On my Etron there is an odd timeout clock that occasionally catches me off guard. I then have to disconnect, shut down wait 5 minutes and then beat the clock the second time and all is good. Is it like that or is it permanent once it happens.
There are actually a couple of bulletins, but the one that concerns me causes it to brick.
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