Will 12V battery charge with remote start?

[plannersteve]

I'm going skiing next week and my 2023 Platinum Powerboost will be sitting in a cold parking lot for a week. Given that I've gotten the low battery voltage warning just from letting my truck sit in the garage for a few days, I'm concerned about having adequate battery to go home.

I should be able to remote start the truck from our condo, so I'm wondering if I can just start it every couple days to keep battery charged to 80%. So tonight I tried remote starting my truck (which had a 12V battery state of charge of 74%) to see what happened. I had set the fan to speed 6 and the truck is programmed to use last setting for heat. After starting I checked the 12V system voltage (with OBDLink app) to see if it would be 14.7 or so with the fan running. Nope, 13.1 V. Tried putting a key fob in the truck to see if that worked. Nope. Only when I got in the truck and pushed the start button did the voltage jump to 14.7.

Is there some trick I can use to get my battery to charge on a remote start without going to the truck?

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[fordtruckman2003]

Can't speak to PB charging but if battery voltage gets too low it won't allow remote start.

 

[Mszczewski]

I haven't tested this, but I wonder if you could run an extension cord out the back of the pro-power in the bed to an under-the-hood battery tender, and then when the truck remote starts, see if the pro-power turns on and then charges the truck...

I might have to experiment to see if that works when I get home.

However:
I know I only get two remote start events on my truck (totaling 30 minutes, 15 each) before I have to use the key to start my truck(and reset the counter).

I don't know if 30 minutes of charging would offset the power drawn to do the remote start...

 

[plannersteve]

I haven't tested this, but I wonder if you could run an extension cord out the back of the pro-power in the bed to an under-the-hood battery tender, and then when the truck remote starts, see if the pro-power turns on and then charges the truck...

I might have to experiment to see if that works when I get home.

Interesting idea. There used to be a battery tender device that one plugged into their cigarette lighter. Of course your cigarette lighter had to be powered even when the truck was shut off for it to work. But back in the day some trucks/cars were. I checked my truck and alas the 12V power plug in the back seat is not live when the truck is off.

Now if one could figure out how to program the 110V AC and 12V plug in the back seat to be live all the time????? Then plug your tender into an AC outlet.

 

[Shane150]

I was trying to figure out the same thing and today these are the reading I was getting from my BT battery monitor.
Before remote start: 12.53V
After remote start: 12.88V
After actual start: 14.90V
There was definitely a spike after remote start but app is considering it to be charging and unfortunately soon after remote start I had to jump in and drive away. I will test the same thing tomorrow morning and allow the remote start to span for 10-15 minutes before starting the truck.

 

[Shane150]

Here is the graph.

 

[Eskram]

I haven't tested this, but I wonder if you could run an extension cord out the back of the pro-power in the bed to an under-the-hood battery tender, and then when the truck remote starts, see if the pro-power turns on and then charges the

Heh. I asked this question under the influence.

https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/charge-12v-battery-using-propower.20559/

All the answers there. ?

Edit: tl:dr - https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/charge-12v-battery-using-propower.20559/post-396921

 

[Snakebitten]

Way to go Shane!

The only thing that we don't know is how much charging current is in play with the remote start?

You clearly show that with the remote start the DC/DC converter is active.
The voltage increased from the static voltage of 12.53 to 12.88

I know folks wish it would increase further, but in my opinion it's more important to see if the DC/DC converter is actually providing enough amps to provide some charge to the battery.

Or put another way, I will take 12.88V with 10amps of charging current over 14V with no spare current (amps) for the battery to consume.

I think we need to remote start and then launch OBDlink to see what the 12V Battery Current reading is.

Is it a trickle?

Or is it 10 amps or more?

 

[Shane150]

I owe most of my recent learnings around F150s to you @Snakebitten. You should be proud of yourself sir! I will try to get the dashboard loaded up tomorrow and run another test first thing Saturday morning to see if its a trickle or serious current.

 

[Snakebitten]

You made my day.

Thanks

 

[Gros Ventre]

Be careful. Current draw thru a battery alone changes voltage. So if there was a load when you read that 12.53V and it went away the voltage would rise. What strikes me as odd is that with the engine running the battery isn't automatically recharged. Apparently the programming in the truck doesn't do that... Doesn't make sense. However, having installed a voltmeter in my truck, the voltages I see, including on long trips, seem to be really odd programming. I've seen the system voltage at 15.2VDC after 5-6 hours of continuous interstate running... Go figure...

 

[Shane150]

Be careful. Current draw thru a battery alone changes voltage. So if there was a load when you read that 12.53V and it went away the voltage would rise. What strikes me as odd is that with the engine running the battery isn't automatically recharged. Apparently the programming in the truck doesn't do that... Doesn't make sense. However, having installed a voltmeter in my truck, the voltages I see, including on long trips, seem to be really odd programming. I've seen the system voltage at 15.2VDC after 5-6 hours of continuous interstate running... Go figure...

Only thing that was connected before remote start and during remote start was the block heater as it is getting cold here and I like to pamper my cars as much as possible. Heater fan also came on after remote start so during remote start, block heater and heater were the only known loads. But I don't think the block heater is a load, is it?

 

[Big Dog Daddy]

With my ICE truck you can clearly hear the alternator working during remote start in cold weather due to the heated seats, rear defrost and heat running. It also seems to run at an elavated idle to generate additional power, during the warmup. The only flaw I see here is that remote start only allows you to start the truck twice for max of 15 minutes, before you have to go and physically enter the truck and start it. At least that's the way it work on ICE trucks. It may be different on a Powerboost? @Snakebitten ?

 

[Samson16]

Or put another way, I will take 12.88V with 10amps of charging current over 14V with no spare current (amps) for the battery to consume.

How exactly is the current being limited? Battery positive post measures 12.53V. DC/DC converter output is over 14V. Is there a variable resistor in series?

 

[Snakebitten]

Truck was just outside the RV, instead of the barn. So I checked for AMPs

I've driven the truck a bit lately so my battery is in better health than normal. (600 days old today)

The ICE started immediately since the HV SOC wasn't very high. But the amps available for the AGM were trickle at best.
(you can see the traction motor is in full on charge mode though at 61 AMP @ 300V)

Once the HV battery was full and ICE turned off, I was watching to see if the AGM charging current would increase.

Nope

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