ECU module programming guide using FDRS

[abd79]

I wonder in there is some setting on the home router that has to be changed. Like opening certain ports to allow data transfer or your provider has some software running that screws up the transfer. I know at work, when we connected to the internet with some of the equipment so the OEM could trouble shoot it, we had to get into the router and open ports to allow them to connect.

That would make sense if the Ford servers were establishing the initial communication to the truck but I think the truck actually reaches out and establishes the communication to the Ford servers. In that case the network port is then already open for the Ford servers to respond. Best way to explain it is like when you cell phone checks for updates. It reaches out to apple or google and says “Hey do any of these apps have updates” apple or google will respond and say yes then allow you to update them. You don’t have to open any ports in your home router to allow this to work because your phone has established the link and thus the same port is used to get the updates. The only difference is that your phone can get these updates over wifi or cell where as it seems that Ford is only doing them over cell.

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[Kanuck]

That would make sense if the Ford servers were establishing the initial communication to the truck but I think the truck actually reaches out and establishes the communication to the Ford servers. In that case the network port is then already open for the Ford servers to respond. Best way to explain it is like when you cell phone checks for updates. It reaches out to apple or google and says “Hey do any of these apps have updates” apple or google will respond and say yes then allow you to update them. You don’t have to open any ports in your home router to allow this to work because your phone has established the link and thus the same port is used to get the updates. The only difference is that your phone can get these updates over wifi or cell where as it seems that Ford is only doing them over cell.

I wonder if it is signal strength be a requirement like battery voltage.

 

[abd79]

I wonder if it is signal strength be a requirement like battery voltage.

Single strength = bandwidth so the more signal you have on a 4G or 5G network the faster you can download. So I don’t think it’s a matter of just signal strength but rather a download in a low service area just would never complete. Considering some of these updates are 400MB to over 1GB it would take forever. Think of trying to download 1GB on a 56k modem…. See ya next year before it would complete and if something interrupts it and has to start over…. Well here we go again, another year of waiting.

 

[DeltaDeuce]

Mike

Thanks again Mike. I got all of them knocked out and went from 22034 Rev 364 to 22095 rev 421

 

[Kanuck]

Single strength = bandwidth so the more signal you have on a 4G or 5G network the faster you can download. So I don’t think it’s a matter of just signal strength but rather a download in a low service area just would never complete. Considering some of these updates are 400MB to over 1GB it would take forever. Think of trying to download 1GB on a 56k modem…. See ya next year before it would complete and if something interrupts it and has to start over…. Well here we go again, another year of waiting.

I live outside of town...weaker signal...to slow of a download. Will see if we get another update in the near future when in town.

 

[Shoebox72069]

Single strength = bandwidth so the more signal you have on a 4G or 5G network the faster you can download. So I don’t think it’s a matter of just signal strength but rather a download in a low service area just would never complete. Considering some of these updates are 400MB to over 1GB it would take forever. Think of trying to download 1GB on a 56k modem…. See ya next year before it would complete and if something interrupts it and has to start over…. Well here we go again, another year of waiting.

Wait... they dont use Wifi for updates? I'm in an ATT black hole but I did get one OTA prior to the 1.7.1 snafu

 

[abd79]

Wait... they dont use Wifi for updates? I'm in an ATT black hole but I did get one OTA prior to the 1.7.1 snafu

Some people are saying that the download of the OTA updates seem to coincide with being in places with strong cell signal and having their auto updates set during that time. Note, it could be a coincidence that you received an update after it downloaded while you were out or it could be a coincidence that those others got updates while out and not at home too this is all just speculation at this time. I monitor my wifi religiously and haven’t sent my truck pull anything of significance through it. Even FordPass updates at home seem to be limited to cell as with 1 bar cell service it takes some time to return anything. Truck has full bars on wifi with 1GB/s available so one would think if it was using wifi these updates should be quick.

 

[Shoebox72069]

Some people are saying that the download of the OTA updates seem to coincide with being in places with strong cell signal and having their auto updates set during that time. Note, it could be a coincidence that you received an update after it downloaded while you were out or it could be a coincidence that those others got updates while out and not at home too this is all just speculation at this time. I monitor my wifi religiously and haven’t sent my truck pull anything of significance through it. Even FordPass updates at home seem to be limited to cell as with 1 bar cell service it takes some time to return anything. Truck has full bars on wifi with 1GB/s available so one would think if it was using wifi these updates should be quick.

This makes sense. Truck doesn't seen a ton of action at the moment and is generally parked. At the rate these trucks are going, nothing really surprises me. When I DID get the OTA, I was driving around a bit more.

This also might by why my damn as built data never updates as that likely goes over TCU

 

[abd79]

This makes sense. Truck doesn't seen a ton of action at the moment and is generally parked. At the rate these trucks are going, nothing really surprises me. When I DID get the OTA, I was driving around a bit more.

This also might by why my damn as built data never updates as that likely goes over TCU

You could be correct. I manage large cloud platform integrations so I was going to sleuth the connectivity when the truck is on wifi. Got some tools at my discretion to actively monitor and log traffic and data packets over time. Hoping to catch anything that may be hindering the truck when on wifi or at a minimum confirm that wifi is not currently being used for certain things.

 

[Mike G]

I wonder if it is signal strength be a requirement like battery voltage.

I think the biggest culprit may actually be SOC of the 12v battery.

I think @Ford Motor Company should have some engineers do testing on actual vehicles in the field to determine what is happening specifically when vehicles are parked at the owner's residence, and on the owner's WiFi, and either plugged in to the charger or not, to drill down on why OTAs never seem to get pushed that way. But instead, seem to always get pushed while the vehicles are driving in an urban environment in the middle of the day.

And then tell us what they find out, and what we, as owners, should do to ensure OTA success. Cause what's happening now is mysterious, haphazard, and frustrating to say the least.

Mike

 

[Kanuck]

I am wondering why Ford designed modules with such tight voltage requirements. 12 volts +1v/-0v. Should we be connecting in a power supply to the truck when parked at home so the voltage is over 12 on a 12 volt battery? What will this do to the life on the battery? Tell you what Ford.... I will have a 128 gb stick in the USB port, down load the files to it, and update when the truck is running..... How about that? Just let me known when this will happen or what night and I will have the ps connected.

 

[BHunted1]

I think the biggest culprit may actually be SOC of the 12v battery.

I think @Ford Motor Company should have some engineers do testing on actual vehicles in the field to determine what is happening specifically when vehicles are parked at the owner's residence, and on the owner's WiFi, and either plugged in to the charger or not, to drill down on why OTAs never seem to get pushed that way. But instead, seem to always get pushed while the vehicles are driving in an urban environment in the middle of the day.

And then tell us what they find out, and what we, as owners, should do to ensure OTA success. Cause what's happening now is mysterious, haphazard, and frustrating to say the least.

Mike

Some of this battery confusion sits with what they (the Ford Overlords), tell us. Battery must be at min 12.5vdc to receive an update. Then read here that it must be no lower than 80% of the battery's voltage which is a lot lower.

Several months ago, I did an experiment. Night time temps were cold but not freezing quite yet.
I ran the truck running around all day. Reading averaged anywhere from 13 to 14.2 vdc. Took reading when parked for the day in the driveway. The next day, the voltage went down to 12.5vdc then later, 11.8vdc. I said to myself, "Ahaaaa, maybe that's why I'm not getting OTAs since the mass suicide of 1.7.1..." Not even a one after getting a new API module.
Had dealer do a stress test and they said battery was fine. Told them my findings, and they said they will not replace the battery.
That's a $250 buck experiment if I want to get it changed out.

So the confusion still exists as to what is correct. I've been doing the updates manually at my expense. On a short note, it must be getting some small incremental updates here and there. All version numbers, for maps, sync, etc. have not changed. But seen some minor changes in the truck.

Maybe I'm just seeing things. Not like I compare them every day. Who knows....

 

[Shoebox72069]

You could be correct. I manage large cloud platform integrations so I was going to sleuth the connectivity when the truck is on wifi. Got some tools at my discretion to actively monitor and log traffic and data packets over time. Hoping to catch anything that may be hindering the truck when on wifi or at a minimum confirm that wifi is not currently being used for certain things.

I run BIND/ISC-DHCP and I can tell you that the TCU bounces like a mofo on my wifi network. I just noticed that somewhat recently. It's the only device that does that. Whatever they use for a WiFi chip seems to be hot garbage as none of my other devices have that sort of issue. Which reminds me I need to look at it again.

Outside of running something like a pcap, whats your plan of attack to view the traffic?

 

[imnuts]

I am wondering why Ford designed modules with such tight voltage requirements. 12 volts +1v/-0v.

Probably because standard 12V batteries are approaching "discharged" when they fall below 12.0VDC. They are considered "fully charged" closer to 13VDC. Given the length of time some updates take, if a battery is nearing a state of charge where is considered "dead", probably don't want to kick off a set of module updates and run the risk of failure or issues if the battery can no longer supply stable voltage.

Outside of updates, there's no real reason to maintain the battery unless you're going to have the truck parked for weeks/months without driving it. Driving it around will maintain the battery charge and system health.

 

[abd79]

I run BIND/ISC-DHCP and I can tell you that the TCU bounces like a mofo on my wifi network. I just noticed that somewhat recently. It's the only device that does that. Whatever they use for a WiFi chip seems to be hot garbage as none of my other devices have that sort of issue. Which reminds me I need to look at it again.

Outside of running something like a pcap, whats your plan of attack to view the traffic?

Starting simple first and just monitoring the connection to wifi and packets it’s throwing around. Looking for DHCP request, ARP and outgoing data flows. So far all I have seen over the past few hours is the TCU will wake up connect to the wifi, ask for and IP address and who has the IP address of my homes router or “Gateway”. Absolutely zero traffic is coming from the truck other than that. I have started the truck and clicked on update details to make it look if there are any updates from the Ford servers but zero traffic goes out over wifi. FordPass app demand updates or commands like lock/unlock do not seem to go through wifi or feed back through wifi. Automatic schedule update settings in the truck do not update Ford through wifi when being changed. Submitting feedback through the sync system does not seem to update Ford through wifi at the time the feedback is sent in the truck. I will keep an eye out if anything seems to be scheduled but at this time I don’t see being connected to wifi doing anything at least for my truck. @Ford Motor Company either doesn’t use wifi for anything other than marketing or has had problems with it and thus abandoned using it for now. Of course this is all speculation but I will be monitoring the activity for the next few days to try and prove myself wrong.

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