Optimate Charging

Silly question but not obvious from the manual, I have an Optimate charger which usually acts as life support for my Harley, it has the normal Tamiya type white connector.

Am I able to plug a TM95 adapter lead into the 12v Din socket at the seat or fairing and charge/condition the battery?

Thanks in advance for any advice

You need an Optimate that is can bus compatible. My Optiamte 4 is Canbus compatible and I charge through the aux socket. But my other Optimate 4 isn't. If using the aux socket, your Optimate will not do a turbo charge whilst in can bus mode, but you can't use turbo charge on a battery that is still connected to the vehicle anyway, so not a big issue. Nippy Normans sell an Optimate 4 that comes with the din socket.

Thanks for the answer Casbar, mines an old (2010) Optimate 4, Just checked the instructions and video on youtube, apparently they are capable of both types of charge, you change by connecting the crocodile clips together and plug into mains, it then changes charge mode. Well, I never knew that!
TIA
Neale

I'm surprised I just checked both of them to see if there any differences, but it looks like both mine are can bus compatible. Only one of them doesn't have the din socket with it. Anyway, both my older one and newer one has a sticker on the rear showing how to change modes from normal to can bus, failing that you will have to do the old google search.

casbar said:

I'm surprised I just checked both of them to see if there any differences, but it looks like both mine are can bus compatible. Only one of them doesn't have the din socket with it. Anyway, both my older one and newer one has a sticker on the rear showing how to change modes from normal to can bus, failing that you will have to do the old google search.

Click to expand...

The BMW charge through the AUX socket seems lika a nice and convenient way of charging the battery.

However, allowing the ZFE in the bike to control the port and allow for charging is hampered with many if's.
Personally I prefer to use a cable connected directly to the battery.

My reason for doing so is as follows:
- Never any issues with an open port.
- Charging through the ZFE will cause a minor voltage drop. As the charger analyze the battery by reading voltage, a direct connection will improve the charging.
- Any equipment drawing more than 5A may be used by connecting it via the extra charge cable, such as an air compressor.

I am not the only one with this preference. My dealer actually always hook up an Optimate connector to the battery on every bike they sell.

knutk said:

The BMW charge through the AUX socket seems lika a nice and convenient way of charging the battery.

However, allowing the ZFE in the bike to control the port and allow for charging is hampered with many if's.
Personally I prefer to use a cable connected directly to the battery.

My reason for doing so is as follows:
- Never any issues with an open port.
- Charging through the ZFE will cause a minor voltage drop. As the charger analyze the battery by reading voltage, a direct connection will improve the charging.
- Any equipment drawing more than 5A may be used by connecting it via the extra charge cable, such as an air compressor.

I am not the only one with this preference. My dealer actually always hook up an Optimate connector to the battery on every bike they sell.

Click to expand...

Odd then that BMW’s own charger connects via that same DIN (but also has clips for direct battery terminal charging). FWIW I had an Optimate 4 with DIN socket in Canbus mode for a few years and never had any issue with battery charging. However if you have Canbus and non-Canbus bikes it makes more sense to tether everything to the battery directly so you don’t have to keep switching between modes on the charger.

As I have only two BMWs I find the BMW charger better as there is more feedback on status and battery health and I know it's been tested to work over Canbus.

Hard wire a connector to the battery. They're cheap enough from ebay. Dead easy to swap between bikes then.

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Matty589 said:

Odd then that BMW’s own charger connects via that same DIN (but also has clips for direct battery terminal charging). FWIW I had an Optimate 4 with DIN socket in Canbus mode for a few years and never had any issue with battery charging. However if you have Canbus and non-Canbus bikes it makes more sense to tether everything to the battery directly so you don’t have to keep switching between modes on the charger.

As I have only two BMWs I find the BMW charger better as there is more feedback on status and battery health and I know it's been tested to work over Canbus.

Click to expand...

The problem that I have experienced by charging through the DIN outlet is caused by ZFE controlling the DIN port rather than the charger, so being an Optimate or a BMW charger, it makes no difference.

If nothing extra electrical equipment is added to your bike, the DIN port works well enough.

However, if anything is connected to the extra plug (popular name is GPS plug) we find hidden up front, this plug share the same port into ZFE as the DIN socket. (BMW may have changed it, so this information may not be relevant to the very newest bikes). This means that anytime the DIN port is open, so is the GPS plug. Thus, when the charger is connected, the ZFE opens up the AUX port. Then, ZFE detects unauthorized current draw from the GPS plug, and shuts the port down again, and no charge will be allowed.
This was the cause of the charging through the DIN plug, and if BMW have changed it, there should be no further issues, so Optimate will work as well as any other charger.

The 'Mystery' about the CAN-bus compatible charger is quite simple.
In normal mode, the smart charger will always test for voltage and polarity, and then perform some type of analyzes before starting to charge.
The DIN port is initially closed. In order for the DIN port to open it needs some external voltage applied to the port, and then it opens up. So the CAN-bus mode is simply that the charger does not check for polarity and voltage before it puts voltage to the connector. Of course, some chargers may do checks after being connected, but if you have an plain old unregulated charger it will open up the DIN port and start charging (and if it is a powerfull one, it will charge with such a high voltage that it may damage the bikes electronics for free )