How long does it take for app to unlock/lock/start car?

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Olagon

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 23, 2014
Messages
169
I've only got it to lock/unlock once :-( Now I wait a minute and nothing. Is the Android app really buggy? Or are we in Hawaii outside of good range? I live in Honolulu where every cell provider has coverage.

Am using this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ford.mfm&hl=en on a FFE 2014.
 
Also keep in mind that if you go straight to the "remote control" screen without doing an immediate "update" the app will first do the update before sending out the remote start command.

Since this is a 2 step process (app sends command to Ford/vendor server which then sends the command onto the car) there are two points of failure:
Your phone may not be able to talk to the Ford/Vendor server, and the Ford/Vendor server may not be able to talk to your car.

The first instance is highly dependent on your carrier and the 2nd instance will be dependent on AT&T (since Ford uses AT&T as the car to server pipe). Thus if you have good coverage with your carrier but crappy AT&T service then it may not work (and likewise for the opposite).
 
Our car often takes 60-90 seconds. Sometimes as much as two full minutes. Other times it takes 15-30 seconds. I think the time may not only depend on signal strength but also on server traffic.
 
Thanks. Maybe I don't have AT&T 2G access at my home though the coverage map shows full coverage for 2g (http://www.att.com/maps/wireless-coverage.html). I did get the unlock to work near a local mall. Must be my local area.
 
hybridbear said:
Our car often takes 60-90 seconds. Sometimes as much as two full minutes. Other times it takes 15-30 seconds. I think the time may not only depend on signal strength but also on server traffic.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but what are they running, Prodigy?

Hey Ford! 1992 called, they want their servers back.
 
I've been playing around a little reverse engineering the protocol a bit (see here:
http://jamiegeek.myevblog.com/2014/11/19/my-my-ford-mobile/ )

When you press update it appears that it goes through an extra step. Basically pressing update sends a command to the server requesting the update. The MFM app (or website) then repeats calls to check on the status every few seconds or so. The status that comes back starts out with "QUEUED" then changes to "INPROGRESS" and finally "COMPLETED".

The interesting thing is this "QUEUED" status? Perhaps the backend server has a limited number of connections to the car and/or resources and it must queue up the requests to be sent out. (This doesn't really make sense to me given the wide open nature of the the internet: the server should be able to connect to all ~2800 or so FFE's simultaneously and not even bat an eye. Even if you include all the Energi vehicles its still a drop in the bucket in terms of internet connections.)
 
jmueller065 said:
I've been playing around a little reverse engineering the protocol a bit (see here:
http://jamiegeek.myevblog.com/2014/11/19/my-my-ford-mobile/ )

When you press update it appears that it goes through an extra step. Basically pressing update sends a command to the server requesting the update. The MFM app (or website) then repeats calls to check on the status every few seconds or so. The status that comes back starts out with "QUEUED" then changes to "INPROGRESS" and finally "COMPLETED".

The interesting thing is this "QUEUED" status? Perhaps the backend server has a limited number of connections to the car and/or resources and it must queue up the requests to be sent out. (This doesn't really make sense to me given the wide open nature of the the internet: the server should be able to connect to all ~2800 or so FFE's simultaneously and not even bat an eye. Even if you include all the Energi vehicles its still a drop in the bucket in terms of internet connections.)
Click to expand...
With that are you able to get information about Wh/mi that might be more reliable than MFM currently is?
 
hybridbear said:
With that are you able to get information about Wh/mi that might be more reliable than MFM currently is?
Click to expand...
Alas no. Since this is just getting the same info that the mobile app and the website get its all the same crap (er so to speak).

My thought was to make my app very simple and only show the essentials leaving out the fat.

There are, however, some fields that come back that the app and website don't show (which doesn't make them any more reliable! LOL). Like some battery status fields.
 
Just used the web interface for the first time. Works in about a minute or less! Android app still doesn't work. Must be the Android app. Will just use the Web interface now.
 
Olagon said:
Just used the web interface for the first time. Works in about a minute or less! Android app still doesn't work. Must be the Android app. Will just use the Web interface now.
Click to expand...
Now try using the web interface from your phone (if it doesn't work then it isn't the app but some connectivity with your phone).
 
Today I've been timing it. The Focus Electric has taken 7-15 seconds today to lock/unlock/remote start. It's been quite fast. One time it took almost a minute but that's because I was on a slow wifi connection. Turning wifi off and just using LTE was much faster.

The Fusion Energi is at home parked underground and it is much slower to update and to sync Go Times, etc than the Focus which is out and about.
 
jmueller065 said:
Olagon said:
Just used the web interface for the first time. Works in about a minute or less! Android app still doesn't work. Must be the Android app. Will just use the Web interface now.
Click to expand...
Now try using the web interface from your phone (if it doesn't work then it isn't the app but some connectivity with your phone).
Click to expand...

Yes I used my phone for both. The Web app works great! The mobile app doesn't work at all. LTE is strong in my area so not a connectivity issue. The mobile app must be implemented in such a way to cause this problem. Going to try and install the app on an HTC One as well. My current phone is a OnePlus One (nice phone by the way).
 

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