Vampire Drain Relating to Frunk Trim -- my solution to reduce drain %

[racekarl]

My Mach-e only drained < 1% per week. However, there are downsides to Ford's implementation such as the fact that it relies on text messages (yes, actually SMS) to wake up the vehicle once asleep. In practice this adds up to 30 seconds or so sometimes to responses to commands (remote start etc.) vs. much faster response from our R1T. All in I'd rather the lower drain though so appreciate this tip @jpa5635!

THat's not as crazy as it sounds. SMS messages travel on the cellular control channel instead of the data channel, so they use a lot less power to receive.

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[PappaBolt]

What software are you using to measure where and when the vehicle is sending data?

 

[jpa5635]

What software are you using to measure where and when the vehicle is sending data?

I've used various tools, primarily I was monitoring the mac address table in my switch to see if it was active on the network and if so I would check an ntopng instance I have installed on my router to see what hosts it was sending data to and how much data it was sending.

 

[SDH]

Forgive me for being dumb here.... but how/why does removing this piece of plastic trim in the frunk stop vampire drain??? (and I should say, I haven't really notice any drain from my R1T since I got it in December).

 

[shrink]

Forgive me for being dumb here.... but how/why does removing this piece of plastic trim in the frunk stop vampire drain??? (and I should say, I haven't really notice any drain from my R1T since I got it in December).

 

[PappaBolt]

I've used various tools, primarily I was monitoring the mac address table in my switch to see if it was active on the network and if so I would check an ntopng instance I have installed on my router to see what hosts it was sending data to and how much data it was sending.

Interesting. On my router the Rivian TCM shows up as “u-block AG” manufactured by the same. Clearly not private labeled. Time to do some activity snooping.

 

[jpa5635]

Interesting. On my router the Rivian TCM shows up as “u-block AG” manufactured by the same. Clearly not private labeled. Time to do some activity snooping.

Yes, that's the vendor OUI for the manufacturer of the wifi adapter being used by Rivian. Coincidentally, my EA home charger uses the same vendor. The traffic from the truck isn't really interesting as it's all TLS encrypted https. Most of the data is sent to a host named something like tsync.rivianservices.com. It also reaches out to a host named ota and will periodically reach out to spotify even if you aren't logged in to spotify. There are a couple others I can't recall off the top of my head.

 

[GreenOptimist]

THat's not as crazy as it sounds. SMS messages travel on the cellular control channel instead of the data channel, so they use a lot less power to receive.

Fascinating! Thanks for that detail - I had no idea. Guess as long as you're comfortable with the delay it's a smart call.

 

[krockett]

This was from the past hour with everything off, paak, gear guard, app exited from phone, not charging.

 

[jpa5635]

This was from the past hour with everything off, paak, gear guard, app exited from phone, not c

This was from the past hour with everything off, paak, gear guard, app exited from phone, not charging.

Those hosts look familiar. Here's a screenshot I took a few weeks ago of the applications in use:

 

[Zoidz]

This was from the past hour with everything off, paak, gear guard, app exited from phone, not charging.

THe truck is "turned off" and spent 22 minutes communicating to Spotify? That's ridiculous.

 

[krockett]

I just exited Spotify on my phone. Will see if that changes things.

I’ve heard Spotify play through the Rivian when I’m already in the house with doors locked.

 

[atebit]

So @jpa5635 , should we call you “Blade”, “Daywalker”, or would you prefer “Whistler”?

 

[DTown3011]

I had some very impressive results with removing this trim piece and will post more details in a separate post after work today.

The TLDR version is:

With trim piece installed overnight from 1/29 to 1/30/2023:
- lost 3% SOC overnight and 7 miles of rated range

With trim piece removed from 1/30 to 1/31/2023
- no overnight loss in SOC or rated range

More details and more testing to come.

All hail @jpa5635!

 

[Aag12]

Man... Really want to tear off the trim piece on mine, but I know the day after I do (and break something) the Ota will come out that fixes this!

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