Sponsored

Apple Carplay / Android Auto expand display

speedracercjr

Well-known member
First Name
Cory
Joined
May 22, 2021
Threads
9
Messages
970
Reaction score
1,250
Location
Houston
Vehicles
2021 Lariat EB
Occupation
O&G
I am very curious about this aspect of OTA.
I don't dispute that Ford equipped the trucks with the ability to leverage the bandwidth advantage of WiFi over the AT&T LTE native connection in the truck, but I have yet to see any confirmation that Ford has delivered OTA updates using Wi-Fi.

Of course I very well could have missed the posts confirming such.
You beat me to it Snake, I don't know that it was ever proved that the truck uses Wifi to download updates. @Jesse-Infotainment , @tonesto7 do you have any insight?
Sponsored

 

Big Dog Daddy

Well-known member
First Name
Mark
Joined
May 27, 2021
Threads
26
Messages
1,691
Reaction score
2,467
Location
New Jersey
Vehicles
2021 F150 Lariat 5.0 4x4 Ex Cab Antimatter Blue
You beat me to it Snake, I don't know that it was ever proved that the truck uses Wifi to download updates. @Jesse-Infotainment , @tonesto7 do you have any insight?
During the time when I was stuck on 1.7.1 I added my trucks mac address to "parental controls" on my home router, with no restrictions, but just so I could monitor what its doing.and when it connects. After getting past stuck, I still have it on. I've seen it look at the internet multiple times. But never anything that can be corollolated with updates. It has wifi access every night while parked, I have not had any alerts in the past 2 weeks regarding connection.
Today I hooped in the truck to drive home from work looked over and the truck had updated, 3 5 2, its a 21 J1. my truck is 600 feet from an ATT tower in the parking lot at work. So I have to assume it downloaded and installed while at work today.
Got home tonight parked as usual went the house and my router notified me the the truck was connected, its been connected for over 2 hours now. I have no idea why it's connected now.. is it reporting a successful update? None of this makes any sense to me. At very least I'm happy updates are working again though.
 

speedracercjr

Well-known member
First Name
Cory
Joined
May 22, 2021
Threads
9
Messages
970
Reaction score
1,250
Location
Houston
Vehicles
2021 Lariat EB
Occupation
O&G
During the time when I was stuck on 1.7.1 I added my trucks mac address to "parental controls" on my home router, with no restrictions, but just so I could monitor what its doing.and when it connects. After getting past stuck, I still have it on. I've seen it look at the internet multiple times. But never anything that can be corollolated with updates. It has wifi access every night while parked, I have not had any alerts in the past 2 weeks regarding connection.
Today I hooped in the truck to drive home from work looked over and the truck had updated, 3 5 2, its a 21 J1. my truck is 600 feet from an ATT tower in the parking lot at work. So I have to assume it downloaded and installed while at work today.
Got home tonight parked as usual went the house and my router notified me the the truck was connected, its been connected for over 2 hours now. I have no idea why it's connected now.. is it reporting a successful update? None of this makes any sense to me. At very least I'm happy updates are working again though.

There’s lots of stories on here about people getting updates while on vacation (non-Wi-Fi) myself included. I’ve done a similar setup on my router and the truck has never pulled more than a few MB’s of data. If it doesn’t use Wi-Fi for downloads that’s a huge fail on Ford, especially for folks with not so great cell connections.
 

Kanuck

Well-known member
First Name
Don
Joined
Aug 9, 2021
Threads
19
Messages
1,688
Reaction score
1,443
Location
Manitoba
Vehicles
2021 XLT Scab 3.5 EB 6.5 Carbonized Grey Metallic
Occupation
Retired Electrician
Just t add to the 3.5.2 update. I got the update while i was at work, not connected to any Wi-fi. It seems that if and when I do get a OTA update, I am always in town, with strong cell coverage.
 

jflottawa

Well-known member
First Name
J.F.
Joined
Mar 8, 2022
Threads
7
Messages
407
Reaction score
346
Location
Kemptville, ON
Vehicles
2022 F150 Lariat
Occupation
Director, Software Development
Funny how the "Configure Over-the-air updates" video from Ford says your Ford dealer can take care of them, but lots of stories here attest to the opposite :D


Ford F-150 Apple Carplay / Android Auto expand display 1664928643295
 

Sponsored

zacko11288

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 19, 2022
Threads
13
Messages
279
Reaction score
267
Location
Illinois
Vehicles
2021 F150 Lariet
Occupation
Engineering
That's a li
Funny how the "Configure Over-the-air updates" video from Ford says your Ford dealer can take care of them, but lots of stories here attest to the opposite :D


1664928643295.png
Thats a lie lol
 

Snakebitten

Well-known member
First Name
Bruce
Joined
Jun 19, 2021
Threads
4
Messages
9,041
Reaction score
16,384
Location
Coastal Texas
Vehicles
2022 F150 KingRanch Powerboost
I have a router in the RV running WRT and logs very granular for each "bonded device" on the network. The truck definitely connects to the WiFi, but I've never seen it consume much bandwidth worthy of mentioning. I believe it's usually about 225 Kilobytes upon connecting and then dormant for the most part.
 

zacko11288

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 19, 2022
Threads
13
Messages
279
Reaction score
267
Location
Illinois
Vehicles
2021 F150 Lariet
Occupation
Engineering
I have a router in the RV running WRT and logs very granular for each "bonded device" on the network. The truck definitely connects to the WiFi, but I've never seen it consume much bandwidth worthy of mentioning. I believe it's usually about 225 Kilobytes upon connecting and then dormant for the most part.
As the manager of a network team, I really like this guy 😂 👍
 
Last edited:

Snakebitten

Well-known member
First Name
Bruce
Joined
Jun 19, 2021
Threads
4
Messages
9,041
Reaction score
16,384
Location
Coastal Texas
Vehicles
2022 F150 KingRanch Powerboost
I'm just an old man who would be seated at Table 9 (Wedding Singer) with the nerds. I don't LOOK like I should be sitting there, but I belong with my peers. 🤣
 

Big Dog Daddy

Well-known member
First Name
Mark
Joined
May 27, 2021
Threads
26
Messages
1,691
Reaction score
2,467
Location
New Jersey
Vehicles
2021 F150 Lariat 5.0 4x4 Ex Cab Antimatter Blue
I have a router in the RV running WRT and logs very granular for each "bonded device" on the network. The truck definitely connects to the WiFi, but I've never seen it consume much bandwidth worthy of mentioning. I believe it's usually about 225 Kilobytes upon connecting and then dormant for the most part.
If you look in your About SYNC screen you'll see the heading.
SYNC MAC Addresses:
System Updates: xx:xx:xx:xx:fd:c4 , xx:xx:xx:xx:ae:60
So apparently there are 2 addresses somehow associated with system updates. In my case the fd:c4 address seems to be the address that connects to the WiFi and it reports itself to the router as mdm9650-tcu. Twice in the last 9 month's I've seen the ae:60 address connect, and the router granted the connection. I'm a bit confused as to why there are 2 Mac addresses associated with updates.. I had initially thought that one mac was for cellular and the other was for WiFi but having seen both mac's connect via. WiFi I really don't understand how this all works.
 

Sponsored


Cranbery

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 8, 2022
Threads
3
Messages
64
Reaction score
40
Location
Miami
Vehicles
2022 F150 Tremor
I am not sending update for anything except people that have things not working. I try to help people but it gets out of hand when it’s something we want. I know everyone wants the newest thing. We all do but I can’t support an entire forum of people. Plus the way it’s done has to be limited.
I am always willing to help. It can’t be for updates though .. I’ve got no problem with any one wanting the update I understand. But I get messages from a lot of people that have never even posted on here

there is a point that it gets to be too much. Help is one thing. When your blue cruise maps expire and the dealer won’t help and the OTA fails I don’t expect you to go buy a $500 cable for that.
I’m stating to see guys think they can update their whole truck with a usb. That’s not how it works. So I’m done . I sent a couple. That was my mistake becaus e I try to be nice. I do . It just turns into a shit show now.
If I keep sending updates then I won’t be able to help the ones that actually need it.
So take this how you want to. But these are huge updates that take a huge amount t of resources to deal with.
No worries from me, thanks for clarifying.

Definitely understand your position and statements. Appreciate you sharing your knowledge and even the fact that the update is (hopefully) coming given that it's now a working feature (unreleased).

If you'd like to PM me your PayPal I'd still be interested in a donation in good faith and for your time spent (as a long time reader of this forum and poster although infrequent).
 

jflottawa

Well-known member
First Name
J.F.
Joined
Mar 8, 2022
Threads
7
Messages
407
Reaction score
346
Location
Kemptville, ON
Vehicles
2022 F150 Lariat
Occupation
Director, Software Development

Snakebitten

Well-known member
First Name
Bruce
Joined
Jun 19, 2021
Threads
4
Messages
9,041
Reaction score
16,384
Location
Coastal Texas
Vehicles
2022 F150 KingRanch Powerboost
If you look in your About SYNC screen you'll see the heading.
SYNC MAC Addresses:
System Updates: xx:xx:xx:xx:fd:c4 , xx:xx:xx:xx:ae:60
So apparently there are 2 addresses somehow associated with system updates. In my case the fd:c4 address seems to be the address that connects to the WiFi and it reports itself to the router as mdm9650-tcu. Twice in the last 9 month's I've seen the ae:60 address connect, and the router granted the connection. I'm a bit confused as to why there are 2 Mac addresses associated with updates.. I had initially thought that one mac was for cellular and the other was for WiFi but having seen both mac's connect via. WiFi I really don't understand how this all works.
You are correct.
Both clients have logs for connecting to the SSID, although the truck owner simply configures the truck to connect using the UI in Sync.

I assumed the client named "Sync" was the truck and so I focused on it when browsing for clues regarding the subject matter.
But as you pointed out, the client that identifies itself as mdm9650-tcu also has logs. (Thanks, by the way :))

And although it's traffic isn't much either (4.17MB uploaded /755KB down), it is more than the "Sync" interface.

I'm going to go crank up the truck and see if maybe something might become clearer?
 

blackhawkrider

Well-known member
First Name
Brian
Joined
Jan 19, 2022
Threads
4
Messages
59
Reaction score
38
Location
NE
Vehicles
21' F-150 PowerBoost
You beat me to it Snake, I don't know that it was ever proved that the truck uses Wifi to download updates. @Jesse-Infotainment , @tonesto7 do you have any insight?
I don't know if the truck can tell WiFi from Hotspot WiFi (showing my tech skills) but I've hot spotted my phone and had OTA 1.7.1 download 3.58 gigs over my phone's cell network. I manually applied the update when I was in an area with strong cell service.

After a few more updates I put a second router in my shed next to the truck and noticed updates came more frequently once I was on the update train. I had 1.7.1 issues for a while but was one of the lucky ones that had it update and fix itself. It took a while to catch up to most others but it seems to favor updates with cell service and sending back data to Ford via WiFi. I never notice many updates coming from the WiFi, but noticed sequential updates coming in every 24-48 hours with the WiFi connected at night. I think I only noticed one that came in via WiFi over cell network.

It's purely a hunch, but I think there is some critical behind the scenes mothership communications between the truck and Ford. It's seems that it's quick to get on an update notification when it has lots of strong network connections 24/7 and very sparse when it only has brief strong signals, like the old Transit GPS fixes. If you missed it, you had to wait for the next one.

When I was stuck at 1.7.1 and just after I used to hot spot my phone and send "feedback" though the snyc setting at least twice a day with no noticeable improvements until I put in the second router and sometimes a battery trickle charger.

This could all be coincidental but that's my anecdotal experience. Someone must know the OTA architecture but for good reasons can't share the details.

Anyone else have similar experiences?
 

Big Dog Daddy

Well-known member
First Name
Mark
Joined
May 27, 2021
Threads
26
Messages
1,691
Reaction score
2,467
Location
New Jersey
Vehicles
2021 F150 Lariat 5.0 4x4 Ex Cab Antimatter Blue
You are correct.
Both clients have logs for connecting to the SSID, although the truck owner simply configures the truck to connect using the UI in Sync.

I assumed the client named "Sync" was the truck and so I focused on it when browsing for clues regarding the subject matter.
But as you pointed out, the client that identifies itself as mdm9650-tcu also has logs. (Thanks, by the way :))

And although it's traffic isn't much either (4.17MB uploaded /755KB down), it is more than the "Sync" interface.

I'm going to go crank up the truck and see if maybe something might become clearer?
Just another thought on this. Is it possible that one SSID is used solely by Ford for OTA's and the other is shared to a third party by Ford for map and nav updates.. just throwing it out there....
Sponsored

 
 




Top