ECU module programming guide using FDRS

[Snakebitten]

4784 posts in this thread and I have read all of them.
I don't remember anyone having your experience.

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[Itsjustmd]

4784 posts in this thread and I have read all of them.
I don't remember anyone having your experience.

Same. @ZamoJoe are these thumb drives brand new?

 

[ZamoJoe]

Same. @ZamoJoe are these thumb drives brand new?

They are new. They were all read by my truck the first couple of times i inserted them but then and i kept reformatting each and installing the APIM software from FDRS they started saying "This USB not supported"

Only one drive still reads but after the it says "System Updating..." it changes to "USB Error..." after about 30-40 seconds

 

[Jesse-Infotainment]

He had his gateway replaced. I am betting the dealer did NOT plug the ethernet back in. I had been working with him but we are a couple hours apart and I am old and go to sleep early. I sent him files for a usb also and they failed the only thing that would cause this is no ethernet. It errors out since there is no response from Gateway on signature.

Dealer didnt catch it because the PMI logs show no need for USB update on the Gateway they installed.

He was able to do the APIM repair no issue but it only failed when USB drive is required. The rest of the process is canbus, they plugged that in.

 

[Snakebitten]

That would explain.
They might even think that they plugged it in but it's not seated or the ethernet connection isn't good?

How much do we know about the ethernet subnet on our truck? Is the "gateway module" the switch?

 

[Jesse-Infotainment]

That would explain.
They might even think that they plugged it in but it's not seated or the ethernet connection isn't good?

How much do we know about the ethernet subnet on our truck? Is the "gateway module" the switch?

Gateway is the Router I guess you could say. All updates run through the Gateway. OTAs download into gateway and gateway authorizes the update and sends it out to the module it is for.

When you do a USB it waits for the signature or OK from the gateway to run it.

 

[Ford4Ever]

Frustrated and confused,

I ran the software repair update on my truck through FDRS and everything went fine.

when I got to the SYNC Module (APIM) Software update, and download the software onto an eXfat formatted USB drive and plugged it into the port on the truck, it reads it and starts updating the system fine saying "updating system" but then shows a USB Error… message.

I've tried different thumb drives formatted with the computer I'm running FDRS on and some them say "this USB drive is not supported. The usb drives it does read end up in a USB Error.

Any ideas of what it could be or what I can do to make this APIM software update?

I have had this happen with other Ford vehicles at times, I got around it by using a USB extension cable. It slowed down the transfer (USB xfer went from 3.0 to 2.0) but it worked. you might want to give that a try.

 

[Snakebitten]

Gateway is the Router I guess you could say. All updates run through the Gateway. OTAs download into gateway and gateway authorizes the update and sends it out to the module it is for.

When you do a USB it waits for the signature or OK from the gateway to run it.

I went out to the truck and connected to the onboard WiFi Hotspot.
My device received 192.168.1.51 from the dhcp server

The subnet is a full class C with 254 possible ip's.
The "gateway" ip is 192.168.100.1
That IP is also the Dhcp server

I ran a subnet scan and there are no other discoverable devices on the subnet, so I assume that the physical IP network in the truck that connects all the modules that have an ethernet interface together, is not exposed or routable from the trucks WiFi network. Nor should it be. In fact, Ford even blocks icmp on the gateway itself, so pretty locked down.

I assume that the internal physical ethernet network is only reachable through ODB and/or similar to the TSB instructions, physically locating the ethernet network behind the the trim and plugging in?

Interestingly Wireless Android Auto uses a dedicated SSID on the Wi-Fi Hotspot in the truck, but it's still exactly the same subnet as the configurable WiFi Hotspot. The only difference I noticed was it presents different DNS servers for the client node to use

Client connected to configurable F150 WiFi:

Client connected to Android Auto SSID

 

[Jesse-Infotainment]

Ethernet can be used for data transfer between units. I at first thought it was update only. I discovered the TCU only transfers through the ethernet. If you unplug the ethernet on the TCU youll lose you connectivity on the APIM. That was interesting to me. I thought they had still been relying on can bus but it makes sense for the data transfer speed the ethernet is capable of over what can is. The IPMA, TCU, IPC(8" and 12" Cluster only), APIM and gateway make up the ethernet.

It has been proven the OTAs will update over can bus also, I was also not sure Ford would do OTA over can but they did for one of the Blue Cruise OTAs for the CCM and CMR.

Ford has implemented a very capable system. Its very impressive jut how fast the IPC updates over USB versus can bus. IPC USB takes about 15 mins where can bus takes 5 hours. So the possibilities are amazing. I just hope Ford gets the OTAS working better. The failures I have all seen relate to manifest failures. So it seems to always be related to signature the file needs to proceed with update.

Outside the TCU having its main comms through ethernet the other modules seem to only use it for USB updates.

 

[turbopilot]

Ethernet can be used for data transfer between units. I at first thought it was update only. I discovered the TCU only transfers through the ethernet. If you unplug the ethernet on the TCU youll lose you connectivity on the APIM. That was interesting to me. I thought they had still been relying on can bus but it makes sense for the data transfer speed the ethernet is capable of over what can is. The IPMA, TCU, IPC(8" and 12" Cluster only), APIM and gateway make up the ethernet.

It has been proven the OTAs will update over can bus also, I was also not sure Ford would do OTA over can but they did for one of the Blue Cruise OTAs for the CCM and CMR.

Ford has implemented a very capable system. Its very impressive jut how fast the IPC updates over USB versus can bus. IPC USB takes about 15 mins where can bus takes 5 hours. So the possibilities are amazing. I just hope Ford gets the OTAS working better. The failures I have all seen relate to manifest failures. So it seems to always be related to signature the file needs to proceed with update.

Outside the TCU having its main comms through ethernet the other modules seem to only use it for USB updates.

Great analysis. I sure would like to know if there is a way to keep the WiFi radio alive after the truck is shut down. Clearly the LTE radio is still powered after shut down to handle OTA's but for what ever reason the WiFi radio is shut down. Having a continuously available WiFi hotspot in the truck with the ATT LTE radio would provide a great internet back up for all sorts of contingencies. I would have guessed the LTE radio and WiFi radio is packaged in the same SOC somewhere in the Ford Sync head unit.

 

[Airborne_Ape]

Frustrated and confused,

I ran the software repair update on my truck through FDRS and everything went fine.

when I got to the SYNC Module (APIM) Software update, and download the software onto an eXfat formatted USB drive and plugged it into the port on the truck, it reads it and starts updating the system fine saying "updating system" but then shows a USB Error… message.

I've tried different thumb drives formatted with the computer I'm running FDRS on and some them say "this USB drive is not supported. The usb drives it does read end up in a USB Error.

Any ideas of what it could be or what I can do to make this APIM software update?

@ZamoJoe you may have overlooked the partition style of your USB drive(s).

I can only speak from my experience with Sync 3 where MBR formatted to exFAT will work and GPT formatted to exFAT will not work. Most new USB drives are GPT by default as a standard now.

In the Windows Disk Management Utility erase all partitions on the USB drive, create a single Master Boot Record partition, format it as exFAT and try to install the files again, it may solve your problem.

 

[Airborne_Ape]

He had his gateway replaced. I am betting the dealer did NOT plug the ethernet back in.

shouldn't there be open circuit DTC for it though if that's the case?

 

[Snakebitten]

I believe it should throw a DTC if ethernet fails.

 

[ZamoJoe]

@ZamoJoe you may have overlooked the partition style of your USB drive(s).

I can only speak from my experience with Sync 3 where MBR formatted to exFAT will work and GPT formatted to exFAT will not work. Most new USB drives are GPT by default as a standard now.

In the Windows Disk Management Utility erase all partitions on the USB drive, create a single Master Boot Record partition, format it as exFAT and try to install the files again, it may solve your problem.

I did indeed format the drives to eXfat with a GUID Partition Map instead of Master Boot record

will the corrected format only solve the “USB not supported” issue, or will that also resolve the “USB Error…” after system starts updating?

 

[Airborne_Ape]

Great analysis. I sure would like to know if there is a way to keep the WiFi radio alive after the truck is shut down. Clearly the LTE radio is still powered after shut down to handle OTA's but for what ever reason the WiFi radio is shut down. Having a continuously available WiFi hotspot in the truck with the ATT LTE radio would provide a great internet back up for all sorts of contingencies. I would have guessed the LTE radio and WiFi radio is packaged in the same SOC somewhere in the Ford Sync head unit.

The LTE / Ford Pass modem is called a TCU (Telematics Control Unit) and it's located behind the rear seat. There's an FCC ID sticker on it that can be used to get the schematics of the chipset and radio bands. I suspect it has a dedicated ad-hoc wifi radio in it which is seprate from the wifi radio in the APIM. I haven't checked though, I assume our F150's have two separate wifi radios based on other Ford vehicles.

In our PowerBoosts, having the Wifi hotspot active for extended period of time would kill the batteries fast. The TCU operates from the little primary and secondary 12V batteries; not the large propulsion system battery.

The TCU uses a minuscule amount of conserved energy to transmit and receive a few Kbs and can last about 10 days before going into deep sleep mode. Before OTA updates download, BMS determines if the 12V system can sustain the projected install time. Then the system will attempt to wake the APIM to download the files over wifi first. The thought that the TCU is downloading massive files on its own can be a bit misleading under normal circumstances.

There are multiple factors and checks in place which prevent OTA's from killing our trucks (which is likely part of the reason why so many fail).

What you're asking would drain the primary and aux batteries at a rate which would't last more than 24 hours and is not possible. In theory, you could bypass the power source for just the TCU and solve this dilemma with a little 12 VDC Lithium-iron-phosphate battery pack from somewhere, similar to dash camera backup banks, that is, unless if the APIM also needs to be active for the hotspot to switch on.

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