what kind of power supply do you use duiring flashing?

[BL92]

I just purchased the NOCO 10

I hooked up the NOCO 10 to the battery and selected power supply, the red light illuminated

Fired up INPA, checked battery voltage was still only reading 12.3 V

So have i misunderstood NOCO's advertising claim of a 13.5V power supply ?

[sapote]

These chargers only do 6v/12v as far as I see, so I don't know where you're going to find the 13-14v. I think the person who wrote that suggested 13-14v because that's what the battery puts out when the car is running?

6v, 12v, or 14V?

It depends.
For benchtop coding with DME removed off the car, 12v @ 1A min is enough as you only need to supply the DME circuit.
For DME in car coding, you need 14v @ 8A min (10A or more is perfectly fine). With the key turned ON but not running, the car electrical system needs around 8A with headlights and accessories turned off, and so to prevent draining the battery, you should connect the a 14v @10A power supply/charger to the car to emulate an alternator running.

If you have a new battery, then it should be fine for a quick tune programming section, but if you don't know the state of charge of the battery, then connect a 14v 10A supply to it.

Btw, the chargers are 6v or 12v, but they put out 7v or 14v to charge the batteries.

[terra]

For flashing purposes, something that could maintain a constant voltage of 13.8v or so should be fine with a lifepo4 battery.

[spx.garage]

Personally speaking, I would not do that.
I would just get a new charger -- I think most new chargers can charge LiFePO4 batteries at a decent current (5 amps or more, depending).

Hmm I need to check the settings on mine, I just bought the one suggested by Antigravity for my E92 track car. I did a full 20min Bin pull with a fully charged battery on the trickle charger without the voltage dropping below 12.3v - lithium FTW.

[elbert]

Anyone using a non-lifepo4 charger for flashing with a lithium battery in their car?

Personally speaking, I would not do that.
I would just get a new charger -- I think most new chargers can charge LiFePO4 batteries at a decent current (5 amps or more, depending).

[spx.garage]

Anyone using a non-lifepo4 charger for flashing with a lithium battery in their car? The power supply is so low with those lithium trickle chargers but I don't want to risk damage with a non lithium charger for use during flashing.

[elbert]

well even absent ac and whatnot, with more stuff plugged into the dme it will use more power. And the other various odd electronics that you can’t turn off also do use some power. But in general I agree that a power supply is not needed for the typical stuff we do.

That's true. I guess my point was that flashing the DME doesn't add much load to the system.
With the recommendation of a 10 A charger, I had the impression that there was a very high risk of draining the battery.

[terra]

I used a power supply for benchtop coding, and it displays the amount of power being consumed.
At 13.5 V, the DME pulls less than 0.5 A (actual fluctuates between 0.46 to 0.48 A), or a bit over 6 W. This is while idling, reading, and writing with MSS Flasher.
For comparison, an incandescent dome light bulb is 5 W or so.

So IMO, that "general recommendation" of a 10 A charger is overkill. Granted, if you have your a/c and your amps blasting while coding, that's different. But actual DME power consumption is fairly minimal.

(If anyone is interested in a BNIB Noco Genius 10A charger, let me know )

well even absent ac and whatnot, with more stuff plugged into the dme it will use more power. And the other various odd electronics that you can’t turn off also do use some power. But in general I agree that a power supply is not needed for the typical stuff we do.

[elbert]

I used a power supply for benchtop coding, and it displays the amount of power being consumed.
At 13.5 V, the DME pulls less than 0.5 A (actual fluctuates between 0.46 to 0.48 A), or a bit over 6 W. This is while idling, reading, and writing with MSS Flasher.
For comparison, an incandescent dome light bulb is 5 W or so.

So IMO, that "general recommendation" of a 10 A charger is overkill. Granted, if you have your a/c and your amps blasting while coding, that's different. But actual DME power consumption is fairly minimal.

(If anyone is interested in a BNIB Noco Genius 10A charger, let me know )

[PSUEng]

Just had a session with Hassan, only my trickle charger, battery is like 2 yrs old, no problems.

[y2k_o__o]

I didn't use any fency trickle charger at all, just a simple battery tender (with slow charge 2A, 4A). I let the battery charged to 100% overnight before flashing, and leave the tender on during the flashing.

It was adequate enough to Read DME backup and flash.

[terra]

Realistically unless you're doing 1hour + flashing sessions, the car's battery is fine.

[uberchris]

I built one of these bad boys: https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1838716

50ish amps for about the same price as a regular charger. Certainly overkill for the e46, but useful if you flash newer stuff, too.

[Fresh1179]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089GZV2PR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use this trickle charger and have for years! It is a little bit on the expensive side but it has saved many a battery and has the option for for 2A, 8A, 15A. It's great! $100

[freezingair]

this, bought at Autozone

Thank a lot!