PAAK Software Update for Phone-As-Key Bluetooth Connectivity Issue (CSP 21B36)

[Chuck]

How do I determine the build date?

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[methorian]

Ford dealership I purchased from is booked out till July and the one near my workplace is too - weird...

Glad I'm not having that many issues with PaaK!

 

[jlauro]

What about flashing modules while plugged into a L1/L2 EVSE? The car can condition the 12V battery during a charge session. And this is a more typical scenario for eventual OTA updates.

Maybe that's an unsafe approach for dealer service techs since they may be doing other work on the vehicle and needing to disconnect the HV battery? But most of the time they're doing one thing at a time (or at least, they are billing customers or Ford as though they only do one thing at a time).

Don't know if it's a physical limitation of the design (ie: for safety reasons), or only a limitation of how the software is currently setup and might change in the future, but... we know that when charging it doesn't charge the 12V battery. If you leave your car plugged in but never start it, your 12V battery will eventually drain.

 

[benk016]

What about flashing modules while plugged into a L1/L2 EVSE? The car can condition the 12V battery during a charge session. And this is a more typical scenario for eventual OTA updates.

Maybe that's an unsafe approach for dealer service techs since they may be doing other work on the vehicle and needing to disconnect the HV battery? But most of the time they're doing one thing at a time (or at least, they are billing customers or Ford as though they only do one thing at a time).

That doesn't work because the car has to engage that charging on the 12v battery. It can't do that while flashing some modules. So they have the dealer plug into a battery charger while running the long updates.

 

[ERIC8585]

Ugh, do they have to take off the panels under the hood to charge the battery?

 

[macchiaz-o]

Don't know if it's a physical limitation of the design (ie: for safety reasons), or only a limitation of how the software is currently setup and might change in the future, but... we know that when charging it doesn't charge the 12V battery. If you leave your car plugged in but never start it, your 12V battery will eventually drain.

Sometimes FordPass lets me know that the 12V battery is being charged. When I notice this, it's usually this is in the first few minutes of an overnight charge session. So, maybe it can't charge the HV and LV batteries at the same time, but it can condition the 12V during a J1772 connection. (Or FordPass is displaying incorrect information, which also happens.)

That doesn't work because the car has to engage that charging on the 12v battery. It can't do that while flashing some modules. So they have the dealer plug into a battery charger while running the long updates.

Wouldn't that suggest that OTA updates of large content that ultimately deliver to a module over a slower CAN type network can't work, either? This doesn't check out for me.

Or maybe updates through the diagnostics port aren't able to be routed through the GWM? Seems like a bad limitation to me, but maybe it's just how it is for now.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Ugh, do they have to take off the panels under the hood to charge the battery?

They do, you won't. They'll also be able to easily replace any misplaced clips.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Wouldn't that suggest that OTA updates of large content that ultimately deliver to a module over a slower CAN type network can't work, either? This doesn't check out for me.

Or maybe updates through the diagnostics port aren't able to be routed through the GWM? Seems like a bad limitation to me, but maybe it's just how it is for now.

Cold be something much more basic: a large download coupled with the desire to get the problem resolved sooner than a mass OTA rollout.

I suspect we'll never know.

 

[ToddH]

I can think of another reason to do this at the dealer and not as an OTA. Dealers have put a lot of money into the transition to electric vehicles. Electric vehicles are not expected to be as profitable on the service side. This may be a way for Ford to pay back the dealers that have invested in the transition to EVs by looking for ways to avoid an OTA now and let the dealers make a bit of money on warranty work. Even if it's not the primary or even a secondary reason, it certainly helps the dealers. The inconvenience for customers is actually in the PAAK not working.

I can usually get mine to work but can waste a bunch of time waking the car up and opening the app then waiting a bit for it to make a connection. Even after all of that, it occasionally doesn't work. I would say that more than half the time, even when I have no problem with PAAK getting into the car and starting it, I'll get a notice on the driver's display that there's no key. If I pick up my phone and hold it for a few seconds, it reconnects and does not appear again. About 5% of the time, I not only have to use my code to open the car but my password to start the car.

One last comment. I never carry the key fob unless I'm taking it to the dealer. My dealer told me they need the key fob to work on the car.

 

[ERIC8585]

Maybe I'll wait a while and hope there's an OTA update or see if there's additional software recalls.

 

[breeves002]

What about flashing modules while plugged into a L1/L2 EVSE? The car can condition the 12V battery during a charge session. And this is a more typical scenario for eventual OTA updates.

Maybe that's an unsafe approach for dealer service techs since they may be doing other work on the vehicle and needing to disconnect the HV battery? But most of the time they're doing one thing at a time (or at least, they are billing customers or Ford as though they only do one thing at a time).

You’re not supposed to update modules while the HVB is being charged. FDRS instructions says this sometimes. Sometimes modules that need to be updated are controlling the HVB charging process and it can’t be updated during charging. In the case of an OTA update they are able to test beforehand the exact length of time and how the update works as well as failure modes. This way with OTAs they know how much 12v battery power they need and how to tell if the battery is weak.

 

[Metal_Horses]

I'm taking mine in on 6/23. They said it's a 45 minute job but to give them twice that because they haven't done this update yet.

 

[fallguy]

The description doesn't sound like it will fix my problem. Which is, that PaaK has NEVER worked. Not after hours on the phone support. Hours on chat support. Several times of going to the dealership. Nothing but broken promises of calling me back, and not ONCE have they. They have made zero effort to fix something, that was promised. Been over 4 months.

Yeah I'll take it down there again, it won't work, again. And again they'll give me some hollow promise of calling me back with a solution. I'm starting to get bitter about this.

 

[benk016]

Wouldn't that suggest that OTA updates of large content that ultimately deliver to a module over a slower CAN type network can't work, either? This doesn't check out for me.

Or maybe updates through the diagnostics port aren't able to be routed through the GWM? Seems like a bad limitation to me, but maybe it's just how it is for now.

From what others have posted about how the OTA's work, a lot of the modules have two memory banks in them. So an OTA will update to the backup memory bank, and then the next time it reboots, it will switch over to the newer programming.

 

[ManInBlack]

Has anyone else had the issue where PAAK was working reasonably well, then got the update and now doesn’t work at all?

cause that happened to me today. Working pretty good then said it updates and today boom, key not detected. Taking mine in Monday.

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