[SmartSaves]

Originally Posted by ChiefOne

SmartSaves absolutely amazing illustration. You broke the process down extremely well. What apparatus do you use? How can I charge and monitor the voltage at the same time? Would appreciate your help!

ChiefOne I used the Motomaster Eliminator model 011-1519-6, bought it from Canadian Tire. This model is now discontinued, but they carry updated (similar) version.

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/m...-0111519p.html

Toggle button allows me to check current, voltage, and charge status (LO, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, FUL). Second toggle button allows me to choose between three different amp choices - always defaults to lowest 4 amp and automatically scales up and down. Charging status light blinks during charge operation, and becomes solid light when fully charged. Lot bigger in dimension than usual battery tenders and has an automatic fan to cool it down.

[ChiefOne]

Originally Posted by SmartSaves

ChiefOne I used the Motomaster Eliminator model 011-1519-6, bought it from Canadian Tire. This model is now discontinued, but they carry updated (similar) version.

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/m...-0111519p.html

Toggle button allows me to check current, voltage, and charge status (LO, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, FUL). Second toggle button allows me to choose between three different amp choices - always defaults to lowest 4 amp and automatically scales up and down. Charging status light blinks during charge operation, and becomes solid light when fully charged. Lot bigger in dimension than usual battery tenders and has an automatic fan to cool it down.

thanks, man!!!
This or any similar ones seems to be not available on Amazon. I am in Texas. Curiosity question - I have read at different places that charging the battery at a higher amp can damage the battery. With your system, it seems it started charging at a higher amp, and then it stabilized at the trickle charge rate once it was topped off. Is it not going to damage the battery in the long run? Forgive my lack of knowledge or relevant experience in this area.

[jad03060]

Look at it this way...the on-board alternator on my last BMW was a 200A device. I'm not positive how big the one in the X5 is, but they both have the same type and approximately same-sized AGM battery.

What you DON'T want, is to be trying to push high current into a fully charged battery, so one with some smarts to drop the level when that is approached should be fine.

[SmartSaves]

ChiefOne, rule of thumb: up to 10% of the battery capacity is safe, for the X5 battery that will be ~10 amp (10% of 105 Ah). My charger did push around 7 amp at the beginning during bulk charging, but quickly tapered down. I can force it to stay at or below 4 amp if I want to, I just let the automatic setting decided what amp is appropriate and it did a good job. It has a microprocessor that finds the optimal settings itself. All modern chargers should have the same.

By the way, don't let those two hood latches go into the sockets, make sure there is gap. I am pretty sure this is how iDrive knows if the hood is open or closed (and when open it turns off the 48V system).

[ChiefOne]

Originally Posted by SmartSaves

ChiefOne, rule of thumb: up to 10% of the battery capacity is safe, for the X5 battery that will be ~10 amp (10% of 105 Ah). My charger did push around 7 amp at the beginning during bulk charging, but quickly tapered down. I can force it to stay at or below 4 amp if I want to, I just let the automatic setting decided what amp is appropriate and it did a good job. It has a microprocessor that finds the optimal settings itself. All modern chargers should have the same.

By the way, don't let those two hood latches go into the sockets, make sure there is gap. I am pretty sure this is how iDrive knows if the hood is open or closed (and when open it turns off the 48V system).

Definitely, makes sense. I am going to look for a similar product in the US market and will try. Your suggestion on not letting the hood latches go into the socket seems an interesting but key factor. So far I have been gently lowering the hood, but was not preventing it from going into the sockets. Wow, a lot to watch for. Thanks for the pointers, truly appreciated. I hope I am able to charge the battery as well.

[ChiefOne]

Originally Posted by jad03060

Look at it this way...the on-board alternator on my last BMW was a 200A device. I'm not positive how big the one in the X5 is, but they both have the same type and approximately same-sized AGM battery.

What you DON'T want, is to be trying to push high current into a fully charged battery, so one with some smarts to drop the level when that is approached should be fine.

Yup, seems reasonable. I am gonna order some products and will try again soon. Hope it/something works. Thanks for the insight!

[tcbmhell]

I have a camera in my garage. I checked the footage and noticed it was about every 410 seconds that the car restarted some units when charging with Noco, the parking light and gear shifter light etc. lit on as well. It's so frustrating, I don't know if it's the car's issue or the charger is not compatible.

The charger you SmartSaves have was disc, the only similar one I can find is https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/m...w.ds#store=235

[tcbmhell]

Originally Posted by ChiefOne

Definitely, makes sense. I am going to look for a similar product in the US market and will try. Your suggestion on not letting the hood latches go into the socket seems an interesting but key factor. So far I have been gently lowering the hood, but was not preventing it from going into the sockets. Wow, a lot to watch for. Thanks for the pointers, truly appreciated. I hope I am able to charge the battery as well.

I kept the hood fully opened, it didn't work.

[SmartSaves]

tcbmhell the newer model you found is even better than the one I have, I would get it. By the way, I drove the X5 this morning and didn't see any errors.

[SmartSaves]

Originally Posted by ChiefOne

Your suggestion on not letting the hood latches go into the socket seems an interesting but key factor. So far I have been gently lowering the hood, but was not preventing it from going into the sockets.

It makes sense because there must be some sort of switch inside those two sockets (hood latch goes into) that informs the iDrive the hood is open/close. When it is open then it turns off 48V lithium battery system and let the 12V system to receive charge. It appears there needs to be a clear separation when we want to charge the 12V battery from external chargers.

[SmartSaves]

Originally Posted by tcbmhell

I have a camera in my garage. I checked the footage and noticed it was about every 410 seconds that the car restarted some units when charging with Noco, the parking light and gear shifter light etc. lit on as well.

Good intel, follow my steps that I documented on my earlier posts. Get the new charger and ensure you do the same that I did differently.

Idea is simple, don't do anything that might wake up the car's electrical system while it is being charged. Don't check the app, bring the keys near, etc.

All proximity sensors are off including tailgate.
Parking brake is on.
Turn off the iDrive manually.
Hood stays open.
Charger engaged.
Lock the doors.
Keep the charger somewhere where you can monitor it (mine was on a stepladder in front of the car).

[tcbmhell]

ChiefOne Do you remember whether you drove the car out before the last time it was successfully charged, or whether you connected the charger once the car was turned off?

Every time I tried to charge it was after the car was locked and parked there for a while. I don’t know if it was because after parking for a while, the car would go to a certain state to prevent charging.

[ChiefOne]

Originally Posted by tcbmhell

ChiefOne Do you remember whether you drove the car out before the last time it was successfully charged, or whether you connected the charger once the car was turned off?

Every time I tried to charge it was after the car was locked and parked there for a while. I don’t know if it was because after parking for a while, the car would go to a certain state to prevent charging.

The last time, and the only time I was able to charge the battery completely is documented -
https://g05.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...1&postcount=63
https://g05.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...7&postcount=64

To answer your question, once CTEK showed that the battery is completely charged, I unplugged the CTEK, did not drive the vehicle, had no need to, and after about 10 hours or so plugged the BMW charger. The status was stuck at 3 for a bit, but then it charged completely.

After that I have tried a few times, all unsuccessfully.

[ChiefOne]

I am logging something else that I am trying:

10 Jan 2020, 07:30 PM CST, I plugged in the BMW charger in the following conditions -
- Vehicle is in a closed garage
- Hood is gently down, the hood latch is not in the socket
- Car is locked using the key fob
- Have been in the garage few times to take a look, but have not carried the key with me. No attempt to wake the car.
- When I peek in from time to time, the Hazard symbol, the Electronic Park red light, the headlight AUTO switch (Green) are lit. Everything else is shut.
- Sometimes I do hear some clunks in the vehicle, but not sure what system is making that sound.
- It switched to stage three within minutes.

Little over eighteen hours now, the charge status is at stage 3.

[ChiefOne]

Originally Posted by tcbmhell

I have a camera in my garage. I checked the footage and noticed it was about every 410 seconds that the car restarted some units when charging with Noco, the parking light and gear shifter light etc. lit on as well. It's so frustrating, I don't know if it's the car's issue or the charger is not compatible.

The charger you SmartSaves have was disc, the only similar one I can find is https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/m...w.ds#store=235

I placed a camera as well and monitored it for 10 minutes or so, did not observe any such behavior that you have brought up.

[tcbmhell]

Originally Posted by ChiefOne

- When I peek in from time to time, the Hazard symbol, the Electronic Park red light, the headlight AUTO switch (Green) are lit. Everything else is shut.
- Sometimes I do hear some clunks in the vehicle, but not sure what system is making that sound.

This's the same as what I observed. The footage I checked was recorded in night, so I could clearly see the lights on and off periodically through the infrared camera.

From the footage I could see that a loop of lights on and off is about 410s

[Renzm]

Originally Posted by tcbmhell

This's the same as what I observed. The footage I checked was recorded in night, so I could clearly see the lights on and off periodically through the infrared camera.

From the footage I could see that a loop of lights on and off is about 410s

Exactly the same here.

[biterror]

Originally Posted by ChiefOne

I am logging something else that I am trying:

10 Jan 2020, 07:30 PM CST, I plugged in the BMW charger in the following conditions -
- Vehicle is in a closed garage
- Hood is gently down, the hood latch is not in the socket
- Car is locked using the key fob
- Have been in the garage few times to take a look, but have not carried the key with me. No attempt to wake the car.
- When I peek in from time to time, the Hazard symbol, the Electronic Park red light, the headlight AUTO switch (Green) are lit. Everything else is shut.
- Sometimes I do hear some clunks in the vehicle, but not sure what system is making that sound.
- It switched to stage three within minutes.

Little over eighteen hours now, the charge status is at stage 3.

It sounds like some modules in the car are not sleeping, so the power consumption is high enough to drain the battery at roughly the same speed as the charger puts new energy into it. Why this is, I have no idea. As far as I know, the car should go to sleep in less than 30 minutes after being turned off.

When my 45e is charging, I have noticed the same lights are lit, at least in the beginning of a charging cycle.

[Renzm]

Originally Posted by biterror

It sounds like some modules in the car are not sleeping, so the power consumption is high enough to drain the battery at roughly the same speed as the charger puts new energy into it. Why this is, I have no idea. As far as I know, the car should go to sleep in less than 30 minutes after being turned off.

When my 45e is charging, I have noticed the same lights are lit, at least in the beginning of a charging cycle.

This is the main reason I think it's causing an issue for everybody, for some reason the 48v models just don't currently go into a proper sleep state when trying to charge and this trips up many of the chargers which should be usable such as the NOCO and even the CTEK charger recommended by BMW. The first time I tried to trickle charge the G20 I noticed even my dashcam parking mode battery was still receiving power after several hours with the trickle charger connected whereas normally after about 10-15 minutes it would stop receiving power from the vehicle. I even managed to verify this through the dashcam battery app which shows incoming and outgoing voltage.

[ChiefOne]

This all sounds absurdly crazy, and to be honest borderline pathetic. It's beyond me to comprehend why BMW would introduce such a behavior. This could have been an easy thing but has been a solid headbreaker for the past few weeks.

Nonetheless, I will keep trying.

[TurtleBoy]

What would be interesting to see is if the wake up/light pattern occurs when you are not charging the battery, hood closed and doors locked. If it doesn't, then try the test again with the same as if you are charging (hood open, doors unlocked, etc.) but no charger connected.

[smomin23]

Originally Posted by ChiefOne

This all sounds absurdly crazy, and to be honest borderline pathetic. It's beyond me to comprehend why BMW would introduce such a behavior. This could have been an easy thing but has been a solid headbreaker for the past few weeks.

Nonetheless, I will keep trying.

Just a suggestion, not sure if you tried this but SmartSaves mentioned that he turns off the office manually. Maybe that's the secret step to ensuring modules stay off