The Complete DIY Guide to Updating Your Mach-E with FDRS (Alternative to Forscan)

[OSLOTT]

Hi guys

A question regarding the power supply connected to the LVB during the various updates. I don't own a power supply but I have a car battery 12V 100A. Should there be any problems using this instead if fully charged?

This is the battery I have
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/EA1000-L...99&sprefix=car+battery+10,aps,382&sr=8-3&th=1

Best regards
Ole

Sponsored

 

[lukew]

I've seen someone write on here that they got away with using an RV battery, but it's really not worth the risk IMO. Potentially, if one felt so inclined, not that I would know, one could order a power supply from Amazon, take very good care of it during a limited window of operation, then return it for a full refund.

 

[bshaw]

Hi guys

A question regarding the power supply connected to the LVB during the various updates. I don't own a power supply but I have a car battery 12V 100A. Should there be any problems using this instead if fully charged?

I don't think anyone can give you a general OK because its going to depend on which modules you run updates on, and whether those specific updates will activate the battery conditioning pump (which draws a lot of power).
The updates sometimes have dependencies and will load in the required sequence, so you can't necessarily choose to do one module at a time to conserve power.

 

[Mike G]

Hi guys

A question regarding the power supply connected to the LVB during the various updates. I don't own a power supply but I have a car battery 12V 100A. Should there be any problems using this instead if fully charged?

This is the battery I have
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/EA1000-L5-Exide-Starter-Battery-EA1000/dp/B004JVUP5Q/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=autobatterie+100ah&qid=1655309599&sprefix=car+battery+10,aps,382&sr=8-3&th=1

Best regards
Ole

Some of these updates can take a couple of hours or longer.

I have a 'Job 1' MME and I did have a '21 F-150 Powerboost hybrid as well until I traded it.

Both were BlueCruise hardware capable but needed the modules updated to make it work and the service techs were clueless. So I bought the license the cable and a 20A battery charger/powersupply. I did the truck first and had no problems with voltage drops in a large part due to the size of the trucks battery. But the battery on the MME does not have that kind of capacity. The day after my successful update to my truck for BlueCruise I started on the MME. I had everything connected up the same way as the truck had been and the MME battery was at 100% and the powersupply was on. After a few updates I noticed the voltage started to drop down to 12.5 and then it got lower and lower like down to 11.5. I very quickly parked my F-150 next to the MME, and left it running and connected a set of jumper cables to the same connections the powersupply was on so I could get through the updates. It all worked and I successfully got my MME to BlueCruise and all updates done.

It was later that I found out on this forum that there are times during some of the module programming that amperage draw can get as high as 39A when programming. That's why my 20A powersupply wasn't enough. I now have a far better charger/powersupply so that I never have to go through that again. It's this one: Solar Pro-Logix PL6100

Mike

 

[OSLOTT]

I don't think anyone can give you a general OK because its going to depend on which modules you run updates on, and whether those specific updates will activate the battery conditioning pump (which draws a lot of power).
The updates sometimes have dependencies and will load in the required sequence, so you can't necessarily choose to do one module at a time to conserve power.

I do see the problem if an update takes like 3 hours and drawing 30A... But does anyone know how many Amps the various updates have used during the update and how long they took? If a power supply with 30A is enough, then no reason to go higher when ordering it.

 

[Mike G]

I do see the problem if an update takes like 3 hours and drawing 30A... But does anyone know how many Amps the various updates have used during the update and how long they took? If a power supply with 30A is enough, then no reason to go higher when ordering it.

Honestly, I wasn't paying that kind of attention to it while it was going on. I was focussed on the voltage indication on FDRS. I have no idea what the amperage was for different modules, but some of the longer ones really dragged the voltage down, like the IPMA, IPC, etc. Most of the ones that are done over CAN and not with a USB stick.

Mike

 

[bshaw]

Honestly, I wasn't paying that kind of attention to it while it ws going on. I was focussed on the voltage indication on FDRS. I have no idea what the amperage was for different modules, but some of the longer ones really dragged the voltage down, like the IPMA, IPC, etc. Most of the ones that are done over CAN and not with a USB stick.

Mike

I experienced the same -- the updates done over CAN seemed to drag the voltage down more than USB stick updates. But, I did not collect any specific data on current draw for modules.

IPMA in particular was just a very large amount of data to be transferred to the car, and it did take 3-hours over CAN. I think maybe they've got later IPMA updates running via USB stick now (?) and that can transfer the data much faster.

You can tell early in the install process if its going to ask for a USB. But, if you do a CAN update, there is no good way for FDRS to estimate the total time required. There is a progress bar, but it rolls over so many times, it's really just an indicator that something is happening and FDRS is not stuck.

 

[noway]

There is no need for power supply for the USB updates at all, except for the IPC update which does both. They run with all systems on and DCDC fully on.

I have run some of the updates withou4 powersupply, but really should not as a minor fault with the 12V battery could fail it all. The OTA updates actually do this, but is limited to 45 mins run time each update.

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

Does anyone doing their own updates know if the CMR and IPMA are not clearing off the list of available updates???

FDRS activity log of my car shows these updates being done twice in the last week but still showing on the list of available updates. I don’t know if that means the dealer failed at the updates or if these are bugged.

 

[Neil4Real]

Does anyone doing their own updates know if the CMR and IPMA are not clearing off the list of available updates???

FDRS activity log of my car shows these updates being done twice in the last week but still showing on the list of available updates. I don’t know if that means the dealer failed at the updates or if these are bugged.

Those should be clearing, I don't believe there are any updates out currently that get "stuck." I recall having to run one of the recent updates twice to get it to clear, it may have been one or both of those. But they did run it twice, which is weird.

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

Those should be clearing, I don't believe there are any updates out currently that get "stuck." I recall having to run one of the recent updates twice to get it to clear, it may have been one or both of those. But they did run it twice, which is weird.

Thank You I’ll be going back next week for another try and a new 12v battery.

 

[Mike G]

Thank You I’ll be going back next week for another try and a new 12v battery.

What's the VIN?

Mike

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

What's the VIN?

Mike

Someone over on the FDRS volunteer thread already ran the VIN for me. So I have the reports showing activity and available updates. I was just trying to reconcile why the IPMA and CMR updates showed being done, but were still available.

 

[Mike G]

Someone over on the FDRS volunteer thread already ran the VIN for me. So I have the reports showing activity and available updates. I was just trying to reconcile why the IPMA and CMR updates showed being done, but were still available.

Well they can expand the module update event itself and follow along with the steps to see if everything went as planned and the outcome was "Ok". If you don't expand the detail of the event you won't know that the programming attempt may actually have failed.

Like this case here:

Just a list of the programming events right? So lets take a look at event on line 9:
If I click the hyperlink to expand it out....

So we're updating a CMR...so far so good....but then scrolling down a bit further...

"Procedure Unsuccessful..."

Mike

 

[MustThee?]

Well they can expand the module update event itself and follow along with the steps to see if everything went as planned and the outcome was "Ok". If you don't expand the detail of the event you won't know that the programming attempt may actually have failed.

Like this case here:

Just a list of the programming events right? So lets take a look at event on line 9:
If I click the hyperlink to expand it out....

So we're updating a CMR...so far so good....but then scrolling down a bit further...

"Procedure Unsuccessful..."

Mike

Oh very cool. I had the license for only 2 days so didn’t get to play much. But good to know for the next time that there is an event log. So in this case when the procedure was unsuccessful, would you have gotten an error message because the next event makes it look like it just finished the procedure.