Re: Battery Chargers
Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2015 3:56 pm
OK I emailed Tecmate who make Optimate and asked them if the lastest BMW R1200RT LC motorcycles were compatible with their charger. This is the reply I got :
Hello Peter,
We have been forwarded your email as we are TecMate’s UK main distributor.
Neither CAN or LIN have any effect on the operation of the battery charger, this is down to the programming of the motorcycle’s battery management system within the central wiring controller. CAN and LIN are both relatively old technologies as they have been in common use for over 15 years. Both are just a means of communicating data between sub-controllers. If there is an instruction within the motorcycles firmware to open the “gates” between the socket and the battery upon receipt of the wake signal at the socket then you will be able to use the charger. Unfortunately if the motorcycles firmware does not have the instruction to do this then there is no way to connect via the socket, even using BMW’s own charger! However we have not had any feedback from the community to say if the programming is there or not. That said if it does not work at the moment there is no reason why it wouldn’t at a later date, when BMW released the K1600 there were issues with the battery management software on the motorcycle. Which took BMW over a year to resolve. Worst case scenario you would have to connect your charger direct to the battery.
There is absolutely no risk using the OptiMate when connected to a motorcycle using CAN, LIN or indeed any other network technology as these systems are designed to carry considerably more power than the OptiMate is able to deliver. The socket itself is limited by the software to 120W which is about thirteen times more power than the OptiMate 4 delivers. Please also consider that the most BMW motorcycles have a 580W alternator, which is approximately sixty times more power than the OptiMate is capable of delivering.
Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require any further information.
Regards
etc .....
Subject closed by me but thought I would share their response.
Hello Peter,
We have been forwarded your email as we are TecMate’s UK main distributor.
Neither CAN or LIN have any effect on the operation of the battery charger, this is down to the programming of the motorcycle’s battery management system within the central wiring controller. CAN and LIN are both relatively old technologies as they have been in common use for over 15 years. Both are just a means of communicating data between sub-controllers. If there is an instruction within the motorcycles firmware to open the “gates” between the socket and the battery upon receipt of the wake signal at the socket then you will be able to use the charger. Unfortunately if the motorcycles firmware does not have the instruction to do this then there is no way to connect via the socket, even using BMW’s own charger! However we have not had any feedback from the community to say if the programming is there or not. That said if it does not work at the moment there is no reason why it wouldn’t at a later date, when BMW released the K1600 there were issues with the battery management software on the motorcycle. Which took BMW over a year to resolve. Worst case scenario you would have to connect your charger direct to the battery.
There is absolutely no risk using the OptiMate when connected to a motorcycle using CAN, LIN or indeed any other network technology as these systems are designed to carry considerably more power than the OptiMate is able to deliver. The socket itself is limited by the software to 120W which is about thirteen times more power than the OptiMate 4 delivers. Please also consider that the most BMW motorcycles have a 580W alternator, which is approximately sixty times more power than the OptiMate is capable of delivering.
Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require any further information.
Regards
etc .....
Subject closed by me but thought I would share their response.