Software update

Admin Note: This thread was merged with the thread "November 2015 Software Update" because they were addressing the same topic. All posts remain, they are just all listed here now.

New software update guys.

Couple notable things, Charger unlock on 2014 model i3s and a possible power reduction to prevent engine mount breakage. Not sure how else software could prevent a mount from breaking...

The motor mount issue doesn't necessarily have to be a power reduction, or even imply one.

The issue was in cases where the tire suddenly slipped, then caught again, it could have a very large impulse on the motor mount and shear the bolt.

They just need to detect the slippage and react to it quicker (though that's probably trivializing the solution).

On Monday, I'm scheduled to take our i3 in for its KLE replacement and an update to the current software version. BMW of Honolulu has the KLE in stock but it doesn't have a loaner car available to reserve. With our i3 being our only car, I was hoping that I would have a loaner to drive while our i3 is being serviced. I'm a bit nervous about taking our trouble-free car in for service for fear that they'll screw something up, and I'm not sure that the software update will do anything that I value. It would be nice to be able to charge faster when I occasionally use a public charging station. Our 20-amp home charging circuit limits the charging speed more than the software-limited charging speed, so home charging won't be affected.

I'll report any noticeable changes.

If a dealer doesn't have a BMW loaner, they should pick up the tab for a rental when you're in for warranty/recall/TSB work.

I dropped off our 2014 i3 BEV at 11 am last Monday for the replacement of its original defective KLE and for an update of its original I001-14-07-503 software to version I001-15-11-502, the version that was recently released. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a call at 5 pm the same day informing me that our car was ready to be picked up, only 6 hours after I dropped it off! Great job, BMW of Honolulu!

I had been concerned about the amount of time required for this service because of reports I have read about many hours having been required for a software update and days waiting for a KLE to be delivered to the dealer because the dealer would not order one in advance. I verified in advance that a KLE was available here, and the software update didn't take very long, so I needn't have worried.

After the software update, I didn't notice any reduction in power, but I drive almost exclusively in Eco Pro, so I probably wouldn't notice a power reduction.

I immediately noticed that the contents of my profile had been deleted even though the name of my profile remained. I was able to restore my profile because I had saved it to a flash drive.

I noticed that the state of charge (SoC) could now be displayed as a percentage. I don't know why i3 owners wanted this so much because the SoC percentage can be estimated to within probably ±2% using the SoC bar gauge at the bottom of the dashboard display. That's sufficient accuracy for me.

I went through the iDrive menus and found a few seemingly random settings that had changed, but nothing major.

My charging circuit is only 20 amps, and the few public charging stations that I use don't display the charging rate, so I don't know whether the software update has restored the charging power to the 7.2 kW max. I have no doubt that it did, but I can't easily prove it.

I don't frequently charge to 100%, so I don't yet know whether the charge port will unlock when fully charged. I don't charge often at public charging stations because they're almost always in use (many EV's in Honolulu), so the Hospitality Charging Feature isn't important to me.

I don't precondition our battery pack in our warm climate, so I've never experienced the repeated opening and shutting of our EVSE's relay and wouldn't know whether this has been fixed.

I don't set a low-cost charging period because our electricity rate schedule does not include a low-cost charging period, so I don't know whether this has been fixed.

I have never encountered an EVSE that tried to charge below 600 watts, so I don't know whether that's fixed. The J1772 standard specifies 6 amps as the minimum charging current. 6 amps at 120 v. is 720 watts, so a J1772 EVSE that adheres to the spec wouldn't charge at 600 watts or below. I'm not sure why an i3 should charge at below 600 watts.

With no REx engine, the various fault codes that set the check engine light don't apply to our i3.

The main reasons that I wanted our software updated were to restore the charging power to full and to reduce the probability of suffering a broken motor mount. I have experienced nothing negative about this software update and would encourage everyone to get it to reduce the probability of suffering a broken motor mount, if nothing else.

I have just had the update done in the UK. There was a problem doing it as I received a call saying the dealer had to contact Tech Support and couldn't complete on the 1st day.

I do use off-peak charging, it used to fail approx. 60% of the time. It completed successfully last night, I even changed the schedule after it had started charging and it stopped and waited for the new start time then started again, so looks like it may be sorted at last.

I found my profile settings had been deleted, they were easily restored from a USB. It does not restore the maintain SOC from Rex that I put on preset 8, that needed setting again manually and the GPS tracking needed manually restoring.

BMW just began rolling out an i3 software update for the North American market. There are quite a few very important fixes, and some new features added. I posted an explanation of all the changes on my i3 blog, which can be read here:

http://bmwi3.blogspot.com/2015/11/i3-software-update-15-11-502-fixes.html

Thanks for this, Tom. This sounds like a worthily upgrade. I'm checking with my BMW i dealer if/when this is available over here.

Lincsat said:

I have just had the update done in the UK. There was a problem doing it as I received a call saying the dealer had to contact Tech Support and couldn't complete on the 1st day.

I do use off-peak charging, it used to fail approx. 60% of the time. It completed successfully last night, I even changed the schedule after it had started charging and it stopped and waited for the new start time then started again, so looks like it may be sorted at last.

I found my profile settings had been deleted, they were easily restored from a USB. It does not restore the maintain SOC from Rex that I put on preset 8, that needed setting again manually and the GPS tracking needed manually restoring.

Click to expand...

Thank you for this, very valuable info. Would be great to finally get the quirks of the Off Peak charging fixed. Having said that, I'm going to have a PV system fitted in the next 3 weeks, so my charging patterns might change again when the sun's out for longer.

"Clicking noise from Level 2 charger during charging"

This causes a technical failure which turns off my charger while preconditioning. BMW replaced the KLE for this, but that didn't solve the problem. Hopefully this will work

Lecram said:

"Clicking noise from Level 2 charger during charging"

This causes a technical failure which turns off my charger while preconditioning. BMW replaced the KLE for this, but that didn't solve the problem. Hopefully this will work

Click to expand...

So far it seems to be working fine, but I haven't tested it on all the different EVSE's yet. What home EVSE do you use?

psquare said:

Lincsat said:

I have just had the update done in the UK. There was a problem doing it as I received a call saying the dealer had to contact Tech Support and couldn't complete on the 1st day.

I do use off-peak charging, it used to fail approx. 60% of the time. It completed successfully last night, I even changed the schedule after it had started charging and it stopped and waited for the new start time then started again, so looks like it may be sorted at last.

I found my profile settings had been deleted, they were easily restored from a USB. It does not restore the maintain SOC from Rex that I put on preset 8, that needed setting again manually and the GPS tracking needed manually restoring.

Click to expand...

Thank you for this, very valuable info. Would be great to finally get the quirks of the Off Peak charging fixed. Having said that, I'm going to have a PV system fitted in the next 3 weeks, so my charging patterns might change again when the sun's out for longer.

Click to expand...

I have SolarPV but nowhere near enough to charge the car. In the Summer, I plan to start off-peak charging at around 5am to get as much solar as I can topped off with off-peak mains power

Schnort said:

The motor mount issue doesn't necessarily have to be a power reduction, or even imply one.

The issue was in cases where the tire suddenly slipped, then caught again, it could have a very large impulse on the motor mount and shear the bolt.

They just need to detect the slippage and react to it quicker (though that's probably trivializing the solution).

Click to expand...

I address this in my post about this new update:

http://bmwi3.blogspot.com/2015/11/i3-software-update-15-11-502-fixes.html

Lincsat said:

I have SolarPV but nowhere near enough to charge the car. In the Summer, I plan to start off-peak charging at around 5am to get as much solar as I can topped off with off-peak mains power

Click to expand...

Yes, I'll be in a similar situation. On an annual average, the system will probably cover the supply for our house. During the summer months there might be enough left on a good day to also use some of it to top up the car. Essentially, it will probably mean that I'll offset about 80% of the additional consumption in electricity due to the car, because since owning the i3 our consumption has about doubled to around 19 kWh per day on average.