My random thoughts/comments/questions/concerns as I go

[Snowman]

How can I adjust the text to speech volume? Just up and stopped reading at radio level. Very low voice now.

Another way to change this volume is to turn it up or down while it is speaking. This will set the volume level as well.

 

[WattsUp]

How can I adjust the text to speech volume? Just up and stopped reading at radio level. Very low voice now.

Another way to change this volume is to turn it up or down while it is speaking. This will set the volume level as well.

Ah, maybe that's what happened... Showman happened to "turn it down" while it was speaking and so the volume got set very low.

 

[blackbeasst]

ok so lemme ask this, is a go time any different than me going out 7-10 minutes before i leave and turn the heat on whilst still plugged in?

 

[michael]

I don't do this, but from what I've read, a bigger purpose of Go times is to make sure that your car is charged up when it's time-to-go. If you have value charges programmed, Go times will override them and make sure the car charged up when needed.

Do I have this right??

 

[hybridbear]

ok so lemme ask this, is a go time any different than me going out 7-10 minutes before i leave and turn the heat on whilst still plugged in?

Yes, starting it will use power from wall & HVB if needed. Go Times will only use wall power. Go Times may start more than 7-10 minutes before. Up to 1 hour before for the Energi models in extreme cold. My parents' C-Max Energi would start heating up 60 minutes before the Go Time when the outside temp was -15 to -10 last winter. Even running for an hour the cabin wouldn't get very warm.

The real benefit is that you don't have to worry about going out to start it. Also, I don't know why you would ever go out to start it when you can start the car from your cell phone.

I don't do this, but from what I've read, a bigger purpose of Go times is to make sure that your car is charged up when it's time-to-go. If you have value charges programmed, Go times will override them and make sure the car charged up when needed.

Do I have this right??

This is another function of Go Times. We use them primarily for preconditioning the cabin though.

 

[NightHawk]

I was going to use a Go Time I setup for last Monday, so I left the car plugged in to the L2 charger the night before.
Unfortunately since the HV battery was already charged up to near 100%, that resulted in a drain on the 12v battery all night I guess because Monday morning it was very discharged <11volts. I had to charge the 12v battery with my external Sears 12v battery charger for a couple hours to get it back to 100%

I just can't trust leaving the car plugged in to the EVSE for 12+ hours with a full HV battery charge, so I don't think I will use Go times in the future. My 12V battery is fine if I leave the car unplugged for several days straight in contrast or if the HV battery is low it seems to be OK after the EVSE does a several hour charge cycle to leave it plugged in to my FFE for hours after that since it appears to shut down the EVSE in that case.

 

[hybridbear]

I was going to use a Go Time I setup for last Monday, so I left the car plugged in to the L2 charger the night before.
Unfortunately since the HV battery was already charged up to near 100%, that resulted in a drain on the 12v battery all night I guess because Monday morning it was very discharged <11volts. I had to charge the 12v battery with my external Sears 12v battery charger for a couple hours to get it back to 100%

I just can't trust leaving the car plugged in to the EVSE for 12+ hours with a full HV battery charge, so I don't think I will use Go times in the future. My 12V battery is fine if I leave the car unplugged for several days straight in contrast or if the HV battery is low it seems to be OK after the EVSE does a several hour charge cycle to leave it plugged in to my FFE for hours after that since it appears to shut down the EVSE in that case.

That's not normal behavior. We leave the car plugged in and charged all the time without any 12V drain. In fact, a Go Time without a temp set can cause the car to kick in and charge the 12V if needed before the Go Time. That's how the Energi vehicles behave and I believe that someone had confirmed that on the FFE too.

 

[jmueller065]

That's not normal behavior. We leave the car plugged in and charged all the time without any 12V drain. In fact, a Go Time without a temp set can cause the car to kick in and charge the 12V if needed before the Go Time. That's how the Energi vehicles behave and I believe that someone had confirmed that on the FFE too.

Yes this is how the FFE operates as well.

I also leave the FFE plugged into my Level 2 all the time, charged or not. Its 2nd nature now: Pull into the garage and plug in (even if I know the car won't be charging). I've left it in this state for up to 10 days without any issues (in some cases I had a go time set, in other cases I just left it).

For the FFE when I had it parked outside last winter, on those really cold mornings (like mentioned above -10F or so) with the go time set to 85F the car was 85F when I got in it to go to work. The go times are very effective at heating the car.

 

[NightHawk]

I note both of you have 2013 FFEs, whereas I have a 2014.
Did you both have the TSB-13-9-19 done on your FFEs?
That might resolve the issue I have that some others also reported last year on this forum.

 

[jmueller065]

I've never had that TSB specifically applied to my car. I'm sure the software in that TSB was included as part of the SSN recall last fall which I did get done on my car.

Even before that, however, my 12V battery never had any issues.

 

[hybridbear]

I note both of you have 2013 FFEs, whereas I have a 2014.
Did you both have the TSB-13-9-19 done on your FFEs?
That might resolve the issue I have that some others also reported last year on this forum.

We got our car used but the SSN recall was performed before we got it which would have brought the calibration up to the latest release which would have covered the TSB as well.

 

[blackbeasst]

so i tried the go time this morning and it worked as planned. however, about 5 minutes down the road in my toasty warm 85 degree cabin the windows were foggin up big time. so i had no other choice but to roll the windows down to unfog them which meant all my nice cozy warm air went buh-bye. again, not complaining, just trying to figure out a method for those low teen days that we randomly get here in the dirty south

 

[jmueller065]

You can either roll the window down (only about 1" or so will do it) or you can run the defroster on LO and a low fan speed (as that doesn't seem to use up much juice).

 

[hybridbear]

so i tried the go time this morning and it worked as planned. however, about 5 minutes down the road in my toasty warm 85 degree cabin the windows were foggin up big time. so i had no other choice but to roll the windows down to unfog them which meant all my nice cozy warm air went buh-bye. again, not complaining, just trying to figure out a method for those low teen days that we randomly get here in the dirty south

I'll usually open one front window about 1/2 inch when the windows begin to fog. The fog quickly clears and I then close the window. After a few minutes when fog forms again I open the window again. This results in minimal heat loss, minimal energy consumption and minimal visibility issues due to foggy windows.

 

[TrojanEV]

Hi,

New focus electric owner here, so please excuse what I think is probably a silly question. It's OK to use the GO times to start the car up in a closed garage, yes? It's all electric so there's no carbon dioxide or other fumes that can accumulate are there?

I'm pretty sure it's safe, but then again the penalty for being wrong would be very high.

 

[dmen]

Yes it is safe. You are essentially running an electric space heater or an air conditioner (depending on what Go-Time is doing) in the garage.

 

[WattsUp]

It's all electric so there's no carbon dioxide or other fumes that can accumulate are there?

Your FFE is just as safe as any other electric appliance inside your house.

Kinda makes you wonder what's so great about gasoline-powered cars, eh, considering that they belch fumes that can kill you.

 

[TrojanEV]

Thank you both! From what I've read so far, this looks like a great community of FFE owners and I look forward to being a part of it.

 

[TrojanEV]

So when I got in my fully charged Focus this morning, the Guess O' Meter said I had 63 miles to empty. Is this normal, considering the advertised range is 76 miles? Is it making some adjustment for how I have driven it so far? After driving a couple miles to work, it now says 59 miles (98%).

Thanks! (I figured this thread seemed as good as any to post questions, rather than start up an entirely new one)

 

[WattsUp]

So when I got in my fully charged Focus this morning, the Guess O' Meter said I had 63 miles to empty. Is this normal, considering the advertised range is 76 miles?

Maybe. It depends on what your recent driving patterns and climate control usage were and what your (resulting) average Wh/mi is.

At 63 miles on a full charge, I would say that your current average Wh/mi must be somewhere around 300.

19 kWh / 63 miles = 301 Wh/mi