Vehicle not obeying charge times!!!

[jmsatt12]

In the last couple days, my truck will not obey charge times. We are on an off peak plan and it’s very frustrating. As soon as my wife plugs in at 5PM it begins charging regardless of the times set. I’ve even tried to block it with the charger and it persists!!! I have to manually stop it and restart it after peak. I’ve deleted and reinstalled times, no change!

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[TaxmanHog]

It's possible you got an update the screwed up the ability to create & save a charging scheme, a corrective update is expected.

Another new member pointed out that he could not set start/stop time limits !

BTW, what year and trim level is your Lightning?
What is your most recent OTA in the Software Update screen?

Update your truck details here on your profile
https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/account/account-details

 

[Phineas Magliozzi]

In the last couple days, my truck will not obey charge times. We are on an off peak plan and it’s very frustrating. As soon as my wife plugs in at 5PM it begins charging regardless of the times set. I’ve even tried to block it with the charger and it persists!!! I have to manually stop it and restart it after peak. I’ve deleted and reinstalled times, no change!

What kind of charger (not a charger, I know) do you have? I use an Emporia Level 2 unit and have set the truck up to charge "when plugged in". This puts all of the scheduling responsibility onto the Emporia unit, which by all indications offers greater flexibility and reliability than the native Ford software. Not really a dig at Ford, but others do software better. At least for now, and likely for a while longer yet.

 

[bhelms]

Do you have a "Departure Time" set? It will start charging early to ensure it is charged to target by the the departure time so the starting charge level and charging speed will affect that.

 

[hturnerfamily]

also, what I found, is that Ford designed the 'Charge Schedule' to be prioritized to the % you set, meaning that even if you have a preferred 'Time Of Use' Charge start, such as 11pm, the vehicle may STILL think it needs to start charging before then, to meet you SOC % before the end of the preferred charge window.

mine, personally, on a 11pm to 7am 'Time Of Use' rate plan, is set to 5pm - 7am Charge Schedule. As long as I don't plug in the truck prior to 5pm, it will never start before 11pm, since it 'thinks' it has enough time to meet my SOC%, even if the battery is at 0%, with a 30amp charge 'speed'.

 

[jimfigler]

also, what I found, is that Ford designed the 'Charge Schedule' to be prioritized to the % you set, meaning that even if you have a preferred 'Time Of Use' Charge start, such as 11pm, the vehicle may STILL think it needs to start charging before then, to meet you SOC % before the end of the preferred charge window.

mine, personally, on a 11pm to 7am 'Time Of Use' rate plan, is set to 5pm - 7am Charge Schedule. As long as I don't plug in the truck prior to 5pm, it will never start before 11pm, since it 'thinks' it has enough time to meet my SOC%, even if the battery is at 0%, with a 30amp charge 'speed'.

This is most likely the correct answer.

Was the SoC low or at least lower than normal the times it started outside your window?

 

[Zprime29]

Sounds like it was working just fine and suddenly stopped working a few days ago. I agree with @TaxmanHog in suspecting the recent update that bricked charge times. If that's the culprit, options are limited until a fix is pushed.

 

[EVpower]

Check your vehicle clock setting. I found mine wrong today.

Steve

 

[jmsatt12]

also, what I found, is that Ford designed the 'Charge Schedule' to be prioritized to the % you set, meaning that even if you have a preferred 'Time Of Use' Charge start, such as 11pm, the vehicle may STILL think it needs to start charging before then, to meet you SOC % before the end of the preferred charge window.

mine, personally, on a 11pm to 7am 'Time Of Use' rate plan, is set to 5pm - 7am Charge Schedule. As long as I don't plug in the truck prior to 5pm, it will never start before 11pm, since it 'thinks' it has enough time to meet my SOC%, even if the battery is at 0%, with a 30amp charge 'speed'.

SOC was 10% below target, normal daily usage, 12kW charger recovers it in about 1.5 hours. Gave up on scheduling it in the truck, rebooted my EVSE and put the times I wanted in there and the issue is resolved. No clue what the truck is doing lol!!

 

[Mike G]

Delete your charging schedules. The delete your home location in Nav. While parked at home re-save your Home location and then plug the truck in. After it charges you should be able to then establish a new schedule for that location with the time and limits you want. There have been OTAs in the past that caused this same problem.

 

[ScottC]

Having similar issue myself. I have solar at home and so my ideal charging time is 10am - 6pm (10am is when the panels typically generate around 7kW on the way up to 15kW). The F150 mobile charger is a little pokey, so on a weekend i'll charge over two day sessions. Yesterday (saturday) it charged and stopped at 6pm as desired. However it kicked on overnight around 3:30am and pulled from the grid, as opposed to waiting until 10.

Plug and play is turned off. Schedules were made in the car when charger was unplugged. App reflects the same settings. Perhaps @hturnerfamily is correct - the system will override the settings if it thinks it can't get to 100% by the end of the session. That's a little frustrating.

 

[TaxmanHog]

App reflects the same settings. Perhaps @hturnerfamily is correct - the system will override the settings if it thinks it can't get to 100% by the end of the session. That's a little frustrating.

I think the calculation assumes appx 7.6KW [240v x 32a] when predicting if the limited session can finish in the specified window, two ways to fool the process, lower the target SOC or extend the ending time. If by chance your peak productions does hit 15KW then the actual charge time will be shorter than the pessimistic projection. This should result in an on time delayed start, if by chance your starting SOC is very low, lessen the target SOC just enough to allow planned start to work as you desire.

 

[trev5150]

Often when I get an update, my charge times get ignored. All I simply do is delete the charge windows in the truck and add them again. Annoying but consistent and effective workaround.

 

[ScottC]

I think the calculation assumes appx 7.6KW [240v x 32a] when predicting if the limited session can finish in the specified window, two ways to fool the process, lower the target SOC or extend the ending time. If by chance your peak productions does hit 15KW then the actual charge time will be shorter than the pessimistic projection. This should result in an on time delayed start, if by chance your starting SOC is very low, lessen the target SOC just enough to allow planned start to work as you desire.

Follow up: So today (saturday) at 3pm i stopped the charge as we had a few errands to fun. To recap I have my time set from 10am - 6pm for charge and the limit at 100%. Last night it ignored the start time and just started rolling around 3:30am. Tonight around 7 i plugged it back in. Currently sitting at 79% and it says "will begin charging at 10am". So I'm pretty sure you're right - whatever target number you set controls the timing.

 

[hturnerfamily]

Ford's engineers designed the truck's software to calculate a 'start' time based solely on the SOC you choose, rather than the TIME you choose... meaning that no matter what 'time' you have set it to start, the truck will OVERRIDE this if it thinks it needs more time to reach your SOC

what this does is cause confusion, since we humans think that the time we set is the ONLY time the truck should charge, but Ford doesn't look at it that way - they have the built in 'safety' measure to make sure that you reach the SOC you choose REGARDLESS of what 'time' you choose... aggravating, at best...

I've found that the best way to OVERRIDE the Ford 'override' is to simply choose a 'stop' time that is WELL PAST the time you would normally wish it to stop, giving the truck's software calculation plenty of 'time' to reach your charge SOC...

for instance, while my GA POWER "Time of Use EV Charging" rate plan is for 11pm to 7am each overnight, the '7 am' stop time is the problem for the truck - so, I actually move that stop time to 5pm... seems strange to have to do that, but, now, no matter how low my truck's SOC is at the time I plug it in, it NEVER starts to charge until 11pm... well, at least as long as I plug it in AFTER 5pm each time.
If I were to accidentally plug it in before 5pm, it WILL start charging immediately, although once 5pm arrives, it WILL stop, and restart ONLY at 11pm... crazy? True.

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