[tcbmhell]

Originally Posted by 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.

Nothing will happen if not charging the battery, all the lights would off after minutes and won't lit.

[tcbmhell]

Originally Posted by smomin23

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

I've tried to turn off idrive manually, switch the headlight from auto to off, log out App, turn off phone bluetooth, turn off comfort access etc. even wrap the key with aluminum foil, lock or unlock the car, hood fully opened. All didn't work.

[tcbmhell]

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.

I think they changed the logic of power management, this's their first year to apply the 48-volt system.

[smomin23]

Originally Posted by tcbmhell

I've tried to turn off idrive manually, switch the headlight from auto to off, log out App, turn off phone bluetooth, turn off comfort access etc. even wrap the key with aluminum foil, lock or unlock the car, hood fully opened. All didn't work.

Well damn.

[ChiefOne]

Alright, folks, something interesting to report -

The charging attempt using the BMW charger worked end-to-end.
But then this does not guarantee that the steps will work the next time, will try again in a few weeks.

All the below-listed steps summarize what I did. The first half of the list, I am reposting just to keep it in one place.

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 a 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.
At the twenty-four hours mark, the charge status is at stage 3.
At the twenty-six hours mark, the charge status is at stage 3.

I left it as-is for the night.

At around 36-hours mark, on 12 Jan 2020, around 8 AM CST, I went to check, and voila, the 7th stage Green Light straight from heaven was shining on the BMW charger.

The charger touch temp is still extremely mild. The charger temp never seemed out of bounds. I have been checking the temp intermittently.

It seems somewhere within the last 8 to 10 hours the charge status moved to completion.

I think more or less the same steps that SmartSaves had listed, except for the following -
- I did not use the digital key, I used the key fob
- I did not turn off the iDrive/Console
- I did not turn off the proximity sensors

My sticking point with the dealer's service department is - when they sent me home saying that they have charged the battery to 85%, then why it took 36 additional hours for the charger to get it up to full.

Nonetheless, how often do you guys think I should repeat this process if home charging/trickle? I drive this vehicle at about 50 - 100 miles a week.

Few additional observations -
- After the charge state is showing FULL, all of the interior lights that were ON so far, are off by themselves (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter). The vehicle turned off everything except the reb blinking light under the rearview mirror.

[tcbmhell]

Originally Posted by ChiefOne

Alright, folks, something interesting to report -

The charging attempt using the BMW charger worked end-to-end.
But then this does not guarantee that the steps will work the next time, will try again in a few weeks.

Few additional observations -
- After the charge state is showing FULL, all of the interior lights that were ON so far, are off by themselves (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter). The vehicle turned off everything except the reb blinking light under the rearview mirror.

Did you observe the behavior this time that the lights (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter) on and off periodically during the charging?

Did the battery management message pop up?

Originally Posted by ChiefOne

Few additional observations -
- After the charge state is showing FULL, all of the interior lights that were ON so far, are off by themselves (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter). The vehicle turned off everything except the reb blinking light under the rearview mirror.

Do you mean the lights (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter) were always on after the charge state is showing FULL, then off after you unplug the charger?

[ChiefOne]

Originally Posted by tcbmhell

Did you observe the behavior this time that the lights (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter) on and off periodically during the charging?

Did the battery management message pop up?

Do you mean the lights (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter) were always on after the charge state is showing FULL, then off after you unplug the charger?

tcbmhell

- During the charge cycle, the lights may have been turning on/off intermittently. The reason I am saying this is that sometimes when I would peek inside during the charging process, I would see the Electronic Parking light off, other lights may be going on/off at different intervals.


- I have not unlocked the car yet, have not woken up the system to see the console. I am almost certain though that the battery management message would be up when the system comes up.


- The charger is still connected, the vehicle doors and hood are still in the same status as they were before. This morning when I saw that the charger is showing Stage 7, I peeked inside the vehicle and saw all of those lights off. I had not seen all of those lights off at the same time during the charge stage, at least not when I was peeking inside.

[tcbmhell]

SmartSaves I suddenly noticed one thing, it took just one hour that your battery was charged from lower than 50% to 80%. It means your battery was charged at least 30%=31.5Ah.

The question is even the current of the charger stayed on 7amps, it couldn't charger the battery so much in one hour.

It took about 5 hours your battery from lower than 50% to full, but it would be just 35Ah charged even the charge current stayed on 7amps.

I am completely confused now. ChiefOne 's BMW charger took 36hours to fully charged at 5A current.

[ChiefOne]

BMW charger, if I am not mistaken is rated at 4.3 amps. Also, I noticed it fully charged at the 36th hour, but it may have been charged anywhere between the 30 to 36th hour. Still, quite a long time, considering I was told by BMW service that they have charged the battery up to 85%, which I don't believe they did. I was just sitting on their head, and they had to take the vehicle and bring it back in a couple of hours and give me a narrative.

[SmartSaves]

Originally Posted by tcbmhell

SmartSaves I suddenly noticed one thing, it took just one hour that your battery was charged from lower than 50% to 80%. It means your battery was charged at least 30%=31.5Ah.

The question is even the current of the charger stayed on 7amps, it couldn't charger the battery so much in one hour.

It took about 5 hours your battery from lower than 50% to full, but it would be just 35Ah charged even the charge current stayed on 7amps.

I am completely confused now. ChiefOne 's BMW charger took 36hours to fully charged at 5A current.

It indicated 'LO' which I believe is an estimated percentage at the beginning. I wouldn't get so hung up with that number because it takes little bit of time for the battery to warm up. Get the charger we talked about, it should not auto shut off after X number of hours (many do). The model I use goes into maintenance mode once the capacity is full. Try that charger and let us know, if it doesn't work then return it.

[biterror]

Originally Posted by tcbmhell

It took about 5 hours your battery from lower than 50% to full, but it would be just 35Ah charged even the charge current stayed on 7amps.

I am completely confused now. ChiefOne 's BMW charger took 36hours to fully charged at 5A current.

The current remains constant until the battery voltage reaches a certain value (14.3 V or something, depending on the charger and the mode used (and the ambient temperature if the charger has temperature compensation). When this voltage is reached, the current starts dropping, so you can't simply divide the battery capacity by charger current to get the total charging time. (Also, there are losses in the battery and you have to put more energy into it than you can get out.)

[tcbmhell]

Originally Posted by SmartSaves

It indicated 'LO' which I believe is an estimated percentage at the beginning. I wouldn't get so hung up with that number because it takes little bit of time for the battery to warm up. Get the charger we talked about, it should not auto shut off after X number of hours (many do). The model I use goes into maintenance mode once the capacity is full. Try that charger and let us know, if it doesn't work then return it.

The charger we talked about doesn't have maintenance mode, and isn't able to show charge current.

[SmartSaves]

Originally Posted by tcbmhell

The charger we talked about doesn't have maintenance mode, and isn't able to show charge current.

It has maintenance mode. Once the battery is fully charged it goes into maintenance mode automatically. Also, you don't need to know about current/amp, voltage number is all you need. See the screenshots of the manual below (the charger we discussed):

[ChiefOne]

Another twist, folks!

So, as I informed you earlier, in the morning of 12th Jan, when I went into the garage, I saw that the BMW charger was indicating stage 7, solid green light. I left all of the charging setups as is throughout the day. Went into the garage a few times during the day, just to take a look at the status and it would show green. Never took the key fob near the car or tried anything else to wake the vehicle.

At about 5 PM, I went into the garage because I wanted to take the vehicle out for a quick drive around, I noticed that the charging indicator was back again at stage 3. I had not opened the door or done anything at all with the vehicle, like waking up or anything, still, it slid to stage 3.

I unhooked the charger, took the car for a quick spin for an hour. Left it in the garage for about three hours or so. I have now hooked my CTEK MXS charger the same way I hooked the BMW charger earlier.

My suspicion is, the vehicle after reaching full charge state, was still depleting battery (the parasitic charge as they say), and that depletion was more than what BMW was pumping in as trickle. Just an assumption, but it happening while the vehicle was in static mode for almost 46 hours, is kinda surprising to me.

[SmartSaves]

The CTEK and BMW variant charger/maintainer were designed many years ago when BMW didn't have two different dual voltage battery system. In addition, the current computing equipments are power hungry, therefore it should not be a surprise these tiny charger with small transformers and thin cables cannot keep up with battery drainage. I would invest in a heavy duty charger and don't even bother with these anymore. I am not ruling out a software/hardware issue, but these light-duty charger doesn't make sense to me. My two cents of course.

[biterror]

Originally Posted by SmartSaves

The CTEK and BMW variant charger/maintainer were designed many years ago when BMW didn't have two different dual voltage battery system. In addition, the current computing equipments are power hungry, therefore it should not be a surprise these tiny charger with small transformers and thin cables cannot keep up with battery drainage. I would invest in a heavy duty charger and don't even bother with these anymore. I am not ruling out a software/hardware issue, but these light-duty charger doesn't make sense to me. My two cents of course.

There's no reason to keep any "power hungry" systems running when the car is sleeping. Think about a cell phone - it has lots of processing power, a 4G/5G modem etc. and it can still run for days on a small battery with a fraction of watt consumed. A 12 V 4 A charger and feed the car 48 watts or more - enough for dozens of cell phones.

[tcbmhell]

I tested it again with Noco last night, stood by the car and observed for an hour.

-unlock the door, open the hood

-lock the car, wait until all the lights off (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter)

-hook the charger, plug to wall outlet, hood opened

- after a while, all the lights on (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter), X on the Shifter is white when it‘s on, and it turns orange after a second. At the same time, sound of motors comes from the engine compartment

-I press the stopwatch at the same time

--0:00 all the lights on (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter)
--about 4mins later, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO off
--6:15 Hazard Triangle off, X on the Shifter on
--6:35 all the lights on (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter)，sound of motors from engine compartment

press the stopwatch again,
--about 4mins later, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO off
--6:15 Hazard Triangle off, X on the Shifter on
--6:35 all the lights on (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter), sound of motors from engine compartment

This cycle is regular and ongoing. cycle time is about 6mins 35s. After about 3hours, I tested the cycle time, it became 6mins 40s.

I changed a charger from Deltran, the cycle time is about 7mins and 30s.

The difference is

--0:00 all the lights on (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter)
--about 4mins later, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO off
--6:15 Hazard Triangle off, X on the Shifter on
--7:15 X on the Shifter off
--7:30 all the lights on (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter)，sound of motors from engine compartment

I've returned the CTEK, so don't have a chance to test it.

By any chance, SmartSaves ChiefOne could you please observe if you have the behavior.

[ChiefOne]

Originally Posted by tcbmhell

I tested it again with Noco last night, stood by the car and observed for an hour.

-unlock the door, open the hood

-lock the car, wait until all the lights off (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter)

-hook the charger, plug to wall outlet, hood opened

- after a while, all the lights on (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter), X on the Shifter is white when it‘s on, and it turns orange after a second. At the same time, sound of motors comes from the engine compartment

-I press the stopwatch at the same time

--0:00 all the lights on (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter)
--about 4mins later, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO off
--6:15 Hazard Triangle off, X on the Shifter on
--6:35 all the lights on (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter)，sound of motors from engine compartment

press the stopwatch again,
--about 4mins later, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO off
--6:15 Hazard Triangle off, X on the Shifter on
--6:35 all the lights on (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter), sound of motors from engine compartment

This cycle is regular and ongoing. cycle time is about 6mins 35s. After about 3hours, I tested the cycle time, it became 6mins 40s.

I changed a charger from Deltran, the cycle time is about 7mins and 30s.

The difference is

--0:00 all the lights on (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter)
--about 4mins later, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO off
--6:15 Hazard Triangle off, X on the Shifter on
--7:15 X on the Shifter off
--7:30 all the lights on (Hazard Triangle, Electronic Park Button, Headlight AUTO, X on the Shifter)，sound of motors from engine compartment

I've returned the CTEK, so don't have a chance to test it.

By any chance, SmartSaves ChiefOne could you please observe if you have the behavior.

tcbmhell do you recall how many amps your charger was pumping?

I think I have noticed similar behavior during the charge cycle. I stood in the dark garage for about 10 minutes and noticed that every 5 minutes or so a streak of light inside the vehicle, was not standing too close to the window to accurately see what was turning on or off. I would also hear intermittently some sound from the vehicle, like a pump kinda thing (don't know how to describe that) for a couple of seconds each time.

[ChiefOne]

Originally Posted by SmartSaves

The CTEK and BMW variant charger/maintainer were designed many years ago when BMW didn't have two different dual voltage battery system. In addition, the current computing equipments are power hungry, therefore it should not be a surprise these tiny charger with small transformers and thin cables cannot keep up with battery drainage. I would invest in a heavy duty charger and don't even bother with these anymore. I am not ruling out a software/hardware issue, but these light-duty charger doesn't make sense to me. My two cents of course.

I agree with your thoughts SmartSaves. I think the chargers are outdated and are not equipped anymore to support the battery in newer vehicles. I will for sure return the BMW charger, it is expensive and utterly useless.

I was looking at some of the smart charger options on Amazon here in the US and found some good ones. But some of the reviews in those indicate that it heats up and can cause damage. I am not very well versed in these and I am hesitant in causing more problems than there is. I will however invest in one, once I gain a little confidence.

Something similar to these -
https://www.amazon.com/Ampeak-Batter...0557962&sr=8-4

Ampeak 2/10/25A Smart Battery Charger/Maintainer 12V Fully Automatic with Engine Start


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q3VF9DC...NsaWNrPXRydWU=

2/8/15A 12V Smart Battery Charger/Maintainer Fully Automatic with Winter Mode

[TurtleBoy]

I have had good luck with Schumacher products and am leaning towards getting this one when I get my G20. Would appreciate any feedback.

https://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-SC...R/?tag=19gh-20

[ChiefOne]

Originally Posted by TurtleBoy

I have had good luck with Schumacher products and am leaning towards getting this one when I get my G20. Would appreciate any feedback.

https://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-SC...R/?tag=19gh-20

TurtleBoy I saw this one too, but maybe my lack of knowledge in this area of science makes me more skeptical than usual. I couldn't figure out how much amp it is going to push while charging, and how low it will maintain while trickling.

Also, I recall one of the reviewers talked about the near battery frying experience, and that kept me a little concerned too.

I am looking for something that I do not need to monitor temperature, voltage or otherwise once plugged in. I sure will try and give it a shot.

[tcbmhell]

Originally Posted by ChiefOne

tcbmhell do you recall how many amps your charger was pumping?

I think I have noticed similar behavior during the charge cycle. I stood in the dark garage for about 10 minutes and noticed that every 5 minutes or so a streak of light inside the vehicle, was not standing too close to the window to accurately see what was turning on or off. I would also hear intermittently some sound from the vehicle, like a pump kinda thing (don't know how to describe that) for a couple of seconds each time.

Noco is similar as CTEK, so I believe it's 4.3A, the charger from Deltran as well.