I wanted to test the new emergency reverse charging for Orion xs but had no success. The new button is grey. When I click on it, there is a message that I need to activate the charger in the settings. My charger is already activated in the settings but it is switched off by remote signal.
When I disconnect the input battery, the emergency charge button becomes active which makes no sense to me.
I had the same. Go to the Settings page. Then the 3 dots in the top right and choose Reset to Defaults.
You’ll need to setup the battery and choose the Starter battery voltage again but it should work now.
Thanks.
I tried this and it worked just once.
After stopping reverse charging after a few minutes manually, the button is greyed out again. Waiting for 5 more minutes did not help.
So I think the new feature still needs work.
Please share some screenshots of your settings.
Please enable the engine cut-off detection.
There still seems to be an issue when it’s disabled.
I already discussed it with the developer yesterday, and he’ll look into it over the next few days.
It works with the engine shut-off enabled.
Interestingly, after switching off emergency charging, the button nevertheless remains greyed out for around 5 seconds, but then becomes clickable again. With the engine shut-off disabled, it stays greyed out.
I don’t want to use the engine shut-off, so for now I’ll wait until the bug has been fixed.
When engine shut-off detection is disabled, the emergency landing will only work once the starter battery voltage is below this value (12.5 V):
This is also described in the manual, although the revised manual is not yet available in English.
So it isn’t a fault, but intentional.
Given that it is currently only intended for emergency landings, that’s perfectly fine.
However, the input-voltage lockout is disabled on mine.
Under what conditions is Orion allowed to operate then?
Only via the remote input?
Yes, exactly. The two Orion XS units are switched on via the D+ signal at the remote input. In accordance with Ford’s installation guidelines, the first Orion is connected at connection point 1 (CCP1) and is always active when the engine is running. The second Orion is connected to connection point 2 (CCP2), and therefore downstream of the load-shedding relay. In theory, the vehicle’s battery management system could therefore switch off the second Orion if the alternator were overloaded, thereby reducing the charging current from 100 A to 50 A. In practice, however, this does not happen, because the 250 A alternator can easily handle the 100 A required by the two Orions, plus approximately 50 A for other consumers, even at low engine speeds and high temperatures.
And what would be the downside of enabling the input-voltage lockout anyway?
How does the alternator voltage behave under real-world driving conditions?
You have to expect the alternator to be regulated down to 12.5 V at times while driving.
As we know, the Orions don’t have voltage-sensing wires for the input voltage, so when setting the input voltage cutoff, you’d have to account for the voltage drop in the cables as well, to avoid unwanted shutdowns under load. I wouldn’t want to set the threshold any higher than 11.5 V, then. But that means emergency charging won’t work until the starter battery is already very flat.
Under these circumstances, the new emergency charging function doesn’t make sense to me. I hope they’ll improve it.
For a 2022 Transit Custom, I had set the following on the Orion XS:
Engine shutdown detection: On
Start voltage: 14.0V
Delayed start voltage: 13.3V
Delay: 30s
Shutdown voltage: 12.7V
Input lockout disabled
Original bridge in Remote On/Off
If you’re losing 1V in the cables to the Orion, there’s something wrong with the wiring. The input lockout should be set below the engine shutdown detection threshold, so no current is flowing at that point. If you’re still losing 1V somewhere, then something is fundamentally wrong.
