Battery SOC

[Brian_B]

So today, my power points decided to just shut off with the engine. I have them set to a 30 minute timer.

I thought - I wonder what my battery SOC is? I had just done a very long road trip, and all of my trips are at least 40 miles round trip, so not a lot of short trips.. but with a power point setting of 30 minutes with Starlink pulling a pretty steady 20W, maybe it was getting low... I haven't got any deep sleep notifications though, and didn't know it would shut off power points without going into deep sleep (maybe it doesn't and I'm just seeing something weird)

I plugged in my ProCal unit, but couldn't find a guage reading for SOC. I could find voltage (which reads about 0.3V lower than what it reads on the dashboard, interestingly - maybe it's reading from the OBD2 adapter and not the BMS).

I haven't plugged in Forscan or anything else to check, but figured I would ask - anyone know a way to see the actual BMS Battery SOC?

I've got my battery on a charger now boosting it up, but usually it sits for about 20 minutes at "High charge" then goes right into "Maintain" so not sure if it's really low, or it's just getting to be that time - it was a Dec 2022 build and about to hit 50k miles.

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[B22-2023]

I know you can see the SOC setting in Forscan and change it, if that is what you mean. I just did it recently and raised the threshold -or do you mean see what the battery is actually charged to as a percentage of 100%? I’ve seen that someplace in Forscan, maybe when reading codes or just connecting, but can’t remember where.

 

[Brian_B]

I know you can see the SOC setting in Forscan and change it, if that is what you mean. I just did it recently and raised the threshold -or do you mean see what the battery is actually charged to as a percentage of 100%? I’ve seen that someplace in Forscan, maybe when reading codes or just connecting, but can’t remember where.

I know there is the target setting in Forscan, but does it show the real-time value of what the current SOC is?

 

[gbub]

I am not sure what you are trying to find out. From what I have been working with tells me SOC is not what tells you what the charge is in your battery. It is what BMS uses to define what to charge you battery to. The factory setting of the SOC for the Bronco is 80%. You should be able to see the battery voltage on your instrument cluster. If the engine is running it will read what the alternator charging voltage is. If the engine is not running and you push the start button without stepping on the brake, it will read the current battery voltage if you push on 'OK' a couple times.

Your power port should shut off when the battery voltage reaches 12.2. I know mine does. Mine used to shut of when shutting down the engine but I changed that to "always on". It now stays on until the battery drops to 12.2V and it does not go into deep sleep. I can start the engine and the power port comes on again and everything works fine.

It may be that you battery is going bad and is not holding a good charge. Three years seems to be about the life expectancy of the original Bronco batteries. I understand sometimes you can reactivate the battery by doing a desulfate charge. I have never tried it though so I can't verify.

 

[Brian_B]

I am not sure what you are trying to find out. From what I have been working with tells me SOC is not what tells you what the charge is in your battery. It is what BMS uses to define what to charge you battery to. The factory setting of the SOC for the Bronco is 80%.

Ok, so the factory setting for State of Charge (SOC) is 80%. I get that. That's what the BMS tries to charge the battery to. Under normal conditions, State of Charge can be determined as a function of current amp load, temperature and cell voltage.

I want to know what SOC my battery is sitting at right now. If that value is available. It is obviously in the computer somewhere, since the Bronco has this 80% target, so it knows when to charge and when to stop. I just don't know if that value is exposed on the CAN bus as a parameter we can read anywhere.

I do agree that it's very possible my battery is on the fritz - I never seem to see the trickle charger put many amps back into the battery before it says it's at full charge. My Bronco seems to spend an awful lot of time lately at 14.6-15.2V, so I ~think~ the BMS sees a low state of charge and is trying to recharge. For instance, I just did a 500 mile trip, and it wasn't until about halfway on the leg back that I finally saw the voltage drop to the "normal" 13V range. And here I am, just a week later, and now I'm seeing the Power Point drop out and back at 15.2V pretty much non-stop.

But besides my probably dying battery, I still would like to know what SOC my Bronco thinks my battery is at, since my tender thinks it's getting to 100% and my Bronco seems to disagree. I'm more inclined to believe the Bronco BMS (believe it or not), since the tender is pretty much just looking at voltage.. but would be good to see what it's thinking.

 

[Brian_B]

https://www.ford.com/support/how-to...y-does-my-ford-vehicle-enter-deep-sleep-mode/

This shows "Deep Sleep" being 9.5V. The 12.2V power point cutoff is something I hadn't heard before (or if I had, I had forgotten). So that's good to know.

 

[B22-2023]

I know there is the target setting in Forscan, but does it show the real-time value of what the current SOC is?

I just connected and see but could not see “% charged” in Forscan on my 23 WT. Getting a direct reading on V in the log or elsewhere, or via my JB4, is the only actual reading.

 

[Ducati1098]

I want to know what SOC my battery is sitting at right now. If that value is available. It is obviously in the computer somewhere, since the Bronco has this 80% target, so it knows when to charge and when to stop. I just don't know if that value is exposed on the CAN bus as a parameter we can read anywhere.

Probably doesn’t help, but you can monitor it with FDRS.
I’ve never looked for it using anything else, but I would assume forscan can probably do it also. Pull up the live data in the body control module, there should be a PID in there.

 

[Rydfree]

When I connect my multi-meter directly to the battery terminals and also check the dash display when the engine is not running, it is within 1/10 v.

 

[Brian_B]

I just connected and could not see it in Forscan on my 23 WT.

Thanks for looking. I may try my son's MX ODB scanner app and see if it pops up there.

This was mostly just for curiosity's sake, I know I do a lot of talking about SOC and battery stuff around here, but it didn't occur to me until today that I had no idea how to check what the actual state of charge is. At least, short of just looking at resting voltage - which is a pretty unreliable indicator of battery health.

I may try a BMS reset before I buy a new battery. Figure the worst that can happen is my battery dies, and by all signs it's already well down that path anyway.

It's just starting to rain for a major storm blowing through here, otherwise I'd be out with my laptop poking around in Forscan myself right now. But my garage is too full of takeoff parts to fit my Bronco inside ><

 

[B22-2023]

Thanks for looking. I may try my son's MX ODB scanner app and see if it pops up there.

I may try a BMS reset before I buy a new battery. Figure the worst that can happen is my battery dies, and by all signs it's already well down that path anyway.

FWIW earlier today when your question came up I was looking on a Forscan forum (here)- it was in search results of “Forscan state of current charge”. They did a good run through of SOC, direct readings, deep sleep, thresholds and battery replacement. The BMS reset - in Forscan or just long term disconnect - as a solution was discussed. Interesting reading. Good luck.

 

[rugedraw]

@Brian_B Battery SoC is reported to the cloud and can be checked in PTS. For someone without PTS access, the easiest way to monitor this would be with a bluetooth 12v battery monitor that you can buy on Amazon for $20-$50. You get an app on your phone and you can monitor it in real time whenever you want.

https://www.amazon.com/Automotive-B...tooth+12v+battery+soc+monitor,aps,119&sr=8-30

 

[B22-2023]

@Brian_B Battery SoC is reported to the cloud and can be checked in PTS. For someone without PTS access, the easiest way to monitor this would be with a bluetooth 12v battery monitor that you can buy on Amazon for $20-$50. You get an app on your phone and you can monitor it in real time whenever you want.

I forgot about those battery monitors, I have had this one for about 5 years. Very handy little device.

 

[Brian_B]

I don't have PTS access, but was able to find it in OBDLink app that came with the MXlink

It was in the BCM, like Ducati mentioned. There is a metric crapload of data on the battery stored in there - top 5 charge/discharge events for all sorts of various conditions (engine running, engine off but computer on, engine off and computer asleep, engine off and external charger detected, etc).

But Estimated State of Charge was exactly what I was looking for. After coming right off my Noco10 maintainer telling me the battery is fully charged, the BMS system thinks I'm only at 62%.

 

[rugedraw]

I don't have PTS access, but was able to find it in OBDLink app that came with the MXlink

It was in the BCM, like Ducati mentioned. There is a metric crapload of data on the battery stored in there - top 5 charge/discharge events for all sorts of various conditions (engine running, engine off but computer on, engine off and computer asleep, engine off and external charger detected, etc).

But Estimated State of Charge was exactly what I was looking for. After coming right off my Noco10 maintainer telling me the battery is fully charged, the BMS system thinks I'm only at 62%.

Try a BMS reset. The data in the BMS gets corrupted after some time. I see it all the time when I check VINs for OTA failures.

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