Preferred charging times ignored

[Charge_Rob]

From what I've gathered over time on this forum, I believe i have seen mention that if the truck determines it can't reach the target SOC within the scheduled charge window, it will override the schedule and continue charging outside that window to get to what it deems necessary.

Not sure which i prefer. I recognize charging outside the window is frustrating, but it would probably be more frustrating to not have a properly charged truck.

This is exactly correct. That's why they are Preferred Charge Times, not Absolute Charge Times.

You can give the truck up to 3 competing priorities.

• Departure Times (which tell the truck what time it needs to be ready and done charging by)
• Target Charge (which tells the truck how charged it needs to be)
• Charge Times (which tells the truck when to charge)

It is not always going to be possible to do all of those things, especially with slower charge stations. In that case, something has to give, and the way it is programmed it will be the charge times.

The truck will do its best to meet all 3, but it will prioritize them in that order - ready at Departure Time, charged to Target Charge, and charged within Preferred Charge Times.

To give it a better chance of meeting your goals, the constraints placed on it need to be adjusted - disabling any Departure Times and then lowering the Target Charge down to 50% may in this instance lessened or eliminated the violation of the Preferred Charge Time window because the truck may have been able to plan ahead and schedule a 13% to 50% charge in the upcoming windows using the power available.

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[chl]

I'm curious if this is an issue with the truck or is it an issue with the Charge Station Pro? Would like to know if anyone else has seen that if your below 40% does it ignore your schedule?

I never go below 40% but the only time my FCSP failed to charge as set was when an OTA update occurred at the same time and overrode it - canceled the charging. Like trev5159 noted, updates will screw up the schedule.

I changed my time to do updates so it would not overlap with my preferred charge times when the utility cost is lowest.

If the weather warrants it, the battery will get preconditioned initially which means the time to get to the set charge level would take longer if not plugged in ahead of the start time.

I find truck settings mysteriously change sometimes even when there was no update.
The FordPass software (or the Ford servers or the truck software) has some bugs no doubt, so I babysit the truck until the charging starts and make sure it is at the set 48A or thereabouts - oddly it sometimes defaults to something like 16A sometimes - go figure!

This morning my calm screen dash setting had changed but no update was indicated, just a random ghost in the machine.

 

[Truaz]

This is by design. The truck (and MME) will both start charging immediately if it determines it cannot hit the target SOC in the next charge window. It will stop charging as soon as it has enough SOC to hit the target SOC in the next window. (ie. if it needs 9 hours to get to SOC and you have an 8-hour charge window and plug in 4 hours before your window, it will charge for about an hour, then stop for 3 hours and start up again at your charge window start time.)

I expect this is what happened with @Truaz. The truck determined it needed to get to 40% to get to target SOC in the next charge window, hence it ignored the 2pm stop window until it got to 40%.

The only way to stop this is to use the charge times in the EVSE to force a stop, instead of the truck charge times.

This is where the charge station pro sucks. There is no options to only allow charging between times, or restrict vehicles or even change charge rate from the app.
It’s only “great” feature is VtoH. And that is another $10K option.

 

[Maquis]

This is where the charge station pro sucks. There is no options to only allow charging between times, or restrict vehicles or even change charge rate from the app.
It’s only “great” feature is VtoH. And that is another $10K option.

You can change the charge rate form the app. When it works!

 

[chl]

You can change the charge rate form the app. When it works!

yes, and sometimes it changes to a low default rate I noticed, after an update of the software maybe, or some other cause I don't know, I just noticed an amber and blue light indicating a reduced charge rate, checked the FCSP setting through FordPass, and saw the max current was lowered so I raised it back to 48A and then all blue light on the front of the FCSP.

Not sure why that happened but I check the charge session rate now through FordPass to be sure it didn't reset again.

With the FCSP you can see how much energy was used by day, week or month which is nice.

While I am not using the full 80A capability on my SR Lightning, I have it there for any future EV need.
I paid $600 with shipping for it, new in the box, on eBay and transferred the warranty - hard to find an 80A capable EVSE new for $600 retail.

Of course the prices may eventually come down, I paid $1000 in 2011 for a 30A GE WattStation for my 2012 Nissan Leaf, OMG!

 

[TaxmanHog]

It’s only “great” feature is VtoH. And that is another $10K option.

That has a 98.8 % failure rate, no thanks..........

 

[Truaz]

You can change the charge rate form the app. When it works!

I’ve never been able to change the charge rate. It’s been a while so ill try it again.

 

[Maquis]

I’ve never been able to change the charge rate. It’s been a while so ill try it again.

OK. I thought you meant that the feature wasn’t even there.

When I first installed mine, I changed it once just because. I changed it back to 80 the next day and haven’t touched it since due to reading about folks on here having issues.

 

[strmwzrd]

You can change the charge rate form the app. When it works!

"When it works" is the magical theme. I finally gave up trying to use app connected to the FCSP.

 

[strmwzrd]

That has a 98.8 % failure rate, no thanks..........

I'll take the 220V outlet and a generator switch all day long over $10K and unreliability to boot.

 

[strmwzrd]

OK. I thought you meant that the feature wasn’t even there.

When I first installed mine, I changed it once just because. I changed it back to 80 the next day and haven’t touched it since due to reading about folks on here having issues.

I internally set mine to 48A and haven't touched it since. Good thing since I gave up on the App talking to the FCSP...

 

[strmwzrd]

This is exactly correct. That's why they are Preferred Charge Times, not Absolute Charge Times.

You can give the truck up to 3 competing priorities.

• Departure Times (which tell the truck what time it needs to be ready and done charging by)
• Target Charge (which tells the truck how charged it needs to be)
• Charge Times (which tells the truck when to charge)

It is not always going to be possible to do all of those things, especially with slower charge stations. In that case, something has to give, and the way it is programmed it will be the charge times.

The truck will do its best to meet all 3, but it will prioritize them in that order - ready at Departure Time, charged to Target Charge, and charged within Preferred Charge Times.

To give it a better chance of meeting your goals, the constraints placed on it need to be adjusted - disabling any Departure Times and then lowering the Target Charge down to 50% may in this instance lessened or eliminated the violation of the Preferred Charge Time window because the truck may have been able to plan ahead and schedule a 13% to 50% charge in the upcoming windows using the power available.

Absolutely right (don't know about previously). Today I experienced the same issue for the first time. I was set to charge tonight but it started charging upon plug in. I tried all the tricks mentioned previously to no avail until I changed my max charge target, then all was good...
I don't like it, I'd prefer a "charge only during these hours regardless" feature myself and let me override that as needed. My evening rate is 3 times higher than night rates so...

 

[strmwzrd]

Absolutely right (don't know about previously). Today I experienced the same issue for the first time. I was set to charge tonight but it started charging upon plug in. I tried all the tricks mentioned previously to no avail until I changed my max charge target, then all was good...
I don't like it, I'd prefer a "charge only during these hours regardless" feature myself and let me override that as needed. My evening rate is 3 times higher than night rates so...

I just realized another reason to have a "charge only during these hours regardless" feature is my super low flex rates this winter are in two 3 hour segments spaced 5 hours apart. Generally, I'll never get recharged in 3 hours and one of those time slots flows into a triple price increase.

 

[jeep2liberty]

This was today and It automatically stopped at 40%.

This routine isn’t normal for me. The truck is normally charged once it get around 45-50%. I have solar on my house and to try and use the maximum amount of sun shine so I use as little from the grid is possible.
I set the weekend charge to run from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. I plugged the truck in at 1:00 and expected to restart the charging after 2:00 but noticed it continued to charge. Wasn’t really worried since I was going to do this anyway. But found it strange that it didn’t stop charging until it got to 40%.

What in more concerned about is if the truck is below 40% and it continues to charge during peak times this can cost a lot more than I would expect

Brand new to the forum.
I too charge from solar and wish I could set the max SOC to lower than 50%.

I typically will set it 5-10% above whatever the vehicle is at. Whatever I think I can achieve with the solar day ahead of me.
Kind of a very manual process, but can't beat the energy costs overall.

I have a 4kw off grid system, how about you?

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