Deconstructing the Lightning: Using AI to Map PIDs for Torque

[mr.Magoo]

but I want to just be able to hit a button and have it warm the battery up on the way to work where I can then charge it with an AC EVSE without having to wait for almost 2 hours for the EVSE to warm the battery up.

I don't want this to turn into a "to precondition or not to precondition, that is the question" thread (we have a LOT of them already), but preconditioning for shorter trips is kind of a waste of energy and it'll only take 30min (not 2hrs) for it to warm up the battery enough to begin charging (unless you're in the 0F part of the world).

The one thing I wish they had is a departure time that didn't pre-condition, but managed the charging window to match your departure. The truck knows the capability of your charger/evse, so let's say you need to charge 80kWh and your EVSE is capable of 9kW, then just start the charge 9-10 hours prior to departure, no energy wasted heating things up and letting it cool, only to heat it back up again.

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[Firn]

Has anyone used a mechanism like this to find out how to turn on battery preconditioning manually?
There are some janky workarounds that involve tricking the truck into thinking it is going to a DC fast charger, but I want to just be able to hit a button and have it warm the battery up on the way to work where I can then charge it with an AC EVSE without having to wait for almost 2 hours for the EVSE to warm the battery up.

If Ford won't give us this very basic and useful option, perhaps we can feed the CAN bus instructions manually like the way a Comma self driving device activates steering and braking with it's CAN bus commands.


Does anyone know how the battery conditioning is implemented in the truck? A single CAN bus command? An on off switch?
Seems like something a lot of us would like especially during this cold snap!

Could try running a CAN sniffer on the APIM as you repeatedly engage and cancel a Ford Nav trip to a charger.

 

[chriserx]

I don't want this to turn into a "to precondition or not to precondition, that is the question" thread (we have a LOT of them already), but preconditioning for shorter trips is kind of a waste of energy and it'll only take 30min (not 2hrs) for it to warm up the battery enough to begin charging (unless you're in the 0F part of the world).

The one thing I wish they had is a departure time that didn't pre-condition, but managed the charging window to match your departure. The truck knows the capability of your charger/evse, so let's say you need to charge 80kWh and your EVSE is capable of 9kW, then just start the charge 9-10 hours prior to departure, no energy wasted heating things up and letting it cool, only to heat it back up again.

This, but additionally I'd like to see more intelligent charging like on modern phones. Study usage patterns and have optimal juice for the drive, instead of plugging in and immediately charging, delay it so A) no wasted battery heating and B) the battery doesn't sit at a high SOC longer than necessary.

 

[Firn]

I don't want this to turn into a "to precondition or not to precondition, that is the question" thread (we have a LOT of them already), but preconditioning for shorter trips is kind of a waste of energy and it'll only take 30min (not 2hrs) for it to warm up the battery enough to begin charging (unless you're in the 0F part of the world).

The one thing I wish they had is a departure time that didn't pre-condition, but managed the charging window to match your departure. The truck knows the capability of your charger/evse, so let's say you need to charge 80kWh and your EVSE is capable of 9kW, then just start the charge 9-10 hours prior to departure, no energy wasted heating things up and letting it cool, only to heat it back up again.

It may be a battery protection (warranty) effort. Lithium plating happens when charging with the battery cold and the heating may be an effort to limit that.

As is the truck does change the heating depending on the power of the evse.

Or charge on L1...

 

[TaxmanHog]

The truck knows the capability of your charger/evse, so let's say you need to charge 80 kWh and your EVSE is capable of 9kW, then just start the charge 9-10 hours prior to departure, no energy wasted heating things up and letting it cool, only to heat it back up again.

I charged everyday last week, timed to be within an hour of leave times, the trucks thermal management system still decided it needed to spend energy on warming the battery every charging session, my net efficiency plummeted, normally it's around 92% energy consumed goes into the HVB, while this very cold week had the value drop to 50-60%, and this was not using any departure times.

So intentionally eliminating the warming phase might lower battery health & longevity over the long term.

This week I'm not charging daily, and expect to use ~40% SOC for my week day trips, I will recharge Saturday the 7th to 100% and include intentional departure warming on the HVB for another NH trip.

I expect the savings of lost energy to be worth the change especially at my high utility rates.

 

[mr.Magoo]

So intentionally eliminating the warming phase might lower battery health & longevity over the long term.

Perhaps you misunderstood my sentiment ?
I'm not saying it should eliminate warming up the battery to "safe" temperatures before charging.


What I am saying is that typically what happens is that you come home, plug in, battery is warmed up, it charges to 3-4am or maybe even earlier if you have a 100A charger or is an ABC kind of guy.

When it's finished, the battery is in the mid 40s, but is now left to cool down. How much is obviously down to a lot of factors, but it cools down.

Then 1hr (or so) before your set departure time, it fires things back up to heat your battery to 65F.


IF the charge cycle was delayed so that it hit's your desired SoC 30min before your set departure time:
A) preconditioning would be kind of pointless since the additional range gained from 45F to 65F is small

B) if you for some reason want your battery to be really warm and fuzzy, warming it from 45 to 65 takes less energy (and time) than going from 25F to 65F

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