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      06-28-2019, 05:45 PM   #1
bishbosh
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DIY car charger - Alpina flash.

Since getting the car remapped a few weeks ago to 360bhp and 700Nm I've been wanting to flash the Alpina gearbox software. I'd used esys for fdl coding but that was about it. So looking into the flashing process it became clear that I'd need a power supply of some sort - something that could maintain at least 13V. I know people don't always use a charger but i wanted to minimise the risk.

Commercial chargers were quite pricey so I ended up making my own using a server power supply i got from ebay for £15. Server PSUs output a very steady voltage and high amps - perfectly suited to the power draw of car ecus. I used a 750w one which outputs 12V @ 62.5 amps. Not enough voltage so I modified it to output 14.2V @ 53 amps (no load).

I bought a set of jump leads for £10, cut the ends off one side and soldered to the PSU terminals. Also bought a Chinese voltmeter, ammeter and shunt so I can monitor what's going on. I was unsure how accurate it might be but I was quite surprised that the voltmeter gave the same reading as my multimeter.



This is it connected to the car with the radio and ignition on, its already drawing nearly 22amps. The voltage drops a little under load but not that much. I don't know what the current draw would be during flashing though.





Total cost of the hardware was £45.
Anyway I fired up esys and successfully flashed the Alpina gearbox software
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      06-28-2019, 07:17 PM   #2
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Well done that man!
Master stroke genius.

I'm still using a PSU to power a custom made juke box in my man cave. Alpine media head unit and some speakers. Once I even had a separate one to power an amp and sub.
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      06-29-2019, 02:53 AM   #3
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Thanks, much cheaper than buying a power supply costing hundreds.

As for the Alpina flash, I'm really glad I did it. Smoother, quicker shifts in both comfort and sport. It matches nicely with the engine remap and when putting your foot down the car now rides the torque wave rather than dropping down a couple of cogs. Gear display as well. Oh, and free when compared to xhp
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      06-29-2019, 05:35 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bishbosh View Post
Thanks, much cheaper than buying a power supply costing hundreds.

As for the Alpina flash, I'm really glad I did it. Smoother, quicker shifts in both comfort and sport. It matches nicely with the engine remap and when putting your foot down the car now rides the torque wave rather than dropping down a couple of cogs. Gear display as well. Oh, and free when compared to xhp
I was thinking about doing the alpina flash as well, but never found instructions. I had it done on my e90. Do you have a guide for it?
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      06-29-2019, 10:22 AM   #5
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Yeah I've been looking into this. Spent hours researching and as a software engineer thought it'd be a walk in the park. The problem is there's about 4 different guides you need to use which aren't specific to the task. Also virtually everything is an acronym so it's incredibly hard to follow. I soon bottled it!

If there is a simple end to end guide I'd greatly appreciate it.
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      06-29-2019, 10:56 AM   #6
bishbosh
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I know what you mean about reading different guides, it's tough trying to sort the wheat from the chaff and working out what applies to just the Alpina flash for example.

I haven't made a guide but tomorrow I can describe what steps I took and hopefully include pictures.
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      06-29-2019, 03:17 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bishbosh View Post
I know what you mean about reading different guides, it's tough trying to sort the wheat from the chaff and working out what applies to just the Alpina flash for example.

I haven't made a guide but tomorrow I can describe what steps I took and hopefully include pictures.
That would be superb! And a fellow sheffielder
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      06-29-2019, 03:29 PM   #8
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On my phone so didn't see location, in that case it'd be easier to show the steps in person!
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      07-01-2019, 01:08 PM   #9
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Maybe it is worth taking a video of the process for us that are further away...
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      07-01-2019, 03:31 PM   #10
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I've taken screenshots this evening of the process - getting there with the guide!
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      07-01-2019, 04:41 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bishbosh View Post
I've taken screenshots this evening of the process - getting there with the guide!
Top man!! I am borderline ready to pull the trigger with xhp and this would save me 300 quid.

Does the alpina flash lift the torque limits and lock up the torque converter earlier like the xhp?
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      07-01-2019, 04:57 PM   #12
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Haven't a clue if it lifts the torque limits or not. However from driving it it is much better in comfort mode now. Shifts are quicker and smoother, I think the torque converter locks up sooner as I used to get a slight delay before it would pull away (only in comfort btw) but now that has all but disappeared.
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      07-01-2019, 05:48 PM   #13
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Right, here we go:

This quick guide assumes a basic familiarity with ESys and shows the steps involved to flash (program) a module. DISCLAIMER - Use this guide at your own risk.

Pre-requisites - or what I used:
1. Esys 3.27.1
2. ENET cable
3. PSDZData Full 4.17.20
4. A car charger - not a trickle charger or CTEK but something that will give around 14V (must be more than 13V) and approx 50 Amps. See earlier posts for my homemade charger.

ESys launcher is NOT required for flashing.


Fire up ESys and click on Options..Settings. Click the Options tab and uncheck the two fields in the red boxes.




Click on Connect, select Connection via VIN and select your required TargetSelector - for F3x select the F020 TargetSelector. Not the DIRECT one.
Click Connect.




1. Click Comfort Mode and TAL Calculating
2. Click Read.
3. Right-click FA and select Activate FA.
4. Click Save and call it something like FA.xml.




5. Click Edit, and you will be taken...




to this screen.
6. Expand the tree until you get to SALAPA element.




Right-click the SALAPA element folder and select New->SALAPA Element.
Type 920 and press Enter.
Do the same and type 9XA.




7. You should see 920 and 9XA in the list of VO codes.
8. Change Typeschlussel as follows to identify the car as an Alpina.
F11 LCI - 5D71
F10 - 5D51
F11, F06 - XB71 1211
F10 - XA71 1211
F31, F36 - 3E51 or 8K72 for cars from 2016
F32 - 3R51 F36 - 3E51
F25 - WY71 0316 (swfl 210C)

9. Click Save.
10. Click Back. You may be asked if you want to reload the FA.xml file. Click Yes.




11. Activate the FA again. Note, that we are not uploading the modified FA to the car at all. We are only using it to generate the required SVT and TAL files.
12. Click Read SVT(...
13. Click Save and give it a filename i.e. svt_ist.xml
14. Click on Expert Mode.




15. Click on VCM.

We want to know what the I-step level is currently on the car, the I-step level is like a firmware version.
16. Click Master.
17. Click Read. Your I-step level on the car is shown in the red box. We need this version for the next step. Go back to Comfort Mode and TAL Calculating.




18. Click on Complete Flash.
19. Select the I-Step (shipm.) version from the drop down - the same as the one we read in point 17. The I-Step(target) value depends on what version of PSDZData has been downloaded. I picked the most recent version shown.
20. Click Calculate. Make a cuppa as this step took about 5-6 minutes.
21. Click Save and give it a name. svt_soll.xml in my example.

You will have noticed in the SVT list the different coloured entries. Blue is the current version of the firmware, CAFD and hardware, bootloader, etc. Red indicates a newer version and black means there isn't an update. As I have already flashed the EGS firmware the EGS section is showing no updates. But, for example the DSC module is showing updates for the bootloader, the CAFD file and the firmware (swfl) file.




22. Click Calculation.
23. Click Save and give it a name i.e. svt_tal.xml

Go to Expert Mode and TAL-Processing.




24. Click on the ellipses and load the tal file saved in the previous step.
25. Do the same with the svt file.
26. Click Read FA.
27. Click Read VIN.
28. Click on read VIN out of FA.
29. Uncheck everything by clicking on the checkbox here.
30. Select blFlash, swDeploy and cdDeploy for the EGS module. WARNING, the screenshot shows the EPS module selected - this is only an example!
31. Click Check Software Availability and if the message 'All software units (SWE) are available.' is shown then you're good to go.
32. Click Start and the flashing will begin.

If you get a VIN error, repeat steps 27 and 28. There seems to be a minor bug in ESys reading out the VIN.




You can flash other modules (ECUs) this way, but do not flash the DME(DDE) if you've changed the Typeschlussel to the Alpina one. You'll notice that the HWEL entry for the DME is blue, indicating a different ECU. HWEL entries should be black. For flashing your other modules, revert back to your original Typschlussel.

The flash took about 2 minutes if that. You may want to fire up ISTA+ and clear any fault codes - a lot will be generated by the flashing process.
I also reset the gearbox adaption values.

HTH
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Last edited by bishbosh; 07-28-2021 at 02:15 PM..
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      07-01-2019, 06:33 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bishbosh View Post
Right, here we go:

This quick guide assumes a basic familiarity with ESys and shows the steps involved to flash (program) a module. DISCLAIMER - Use this guide at your own risk.

HTH
Amazing work!! Thank you so much.

I will try and do it over the weekend
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      07-02-2019, 03:45 AM   #15
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Now, THAT'S a guide

I won't be doing it, because I'd either have to buy a Windows PC as well as the other requirements (or run a Windows emulator on OS X), but your step-by-step screenshots will be very helpful to others.
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      07-02-2019, 12:03 PM   #16
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Anyone near Cambridge can do this? My programming skills are from the ZX Spectrum era...
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      07-02-2019, 01:36 PM   #17
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You are a god, we are not worthy
Now if only mine wasn't in warranty....

This REALLY deserves to be sticky
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      07-02-2019, 04:56 PM   #18
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Wow what a fantastic guide. Thank you so much for your efforts!
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      07-02-2019, 05:09 PM   #19
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Hope it helps someone. It's what I gleaned from reading various bits of information, some helpful, some less so.

From a software developer perspective the steps involved in coding and flashing are quite logical and do make sense. For the charger I can describe how I made that if required, although I appreciate not everyone will want to build one.
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      07-09-2019, 02:42 PM   #20
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Hi mate don’t suppose your anywhere near sheff and fancy helping me flash my 335d do ya ?
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      07-17-2019, 12:07 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bishbosh View Post
Right, here we go:

*snip*

HTH

Hey mate, just posting to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for this guide. I did it this evening and it literally took me 15 minutes. It was so straight forward and easy to follow (apart from having a mild heart attack when flashing) lol.

Even though i had the parking lights on, for some reason my ignition switched off half way through the flash . I literally had 20 errors including airbags the lot pop up on the dash and had a near heart attack.

I just turned the ignition back on and re-flashed and now all is well. I would suggest anyone doing this to cycle the ignition before they press "Start" just in case

So yeah thanks again for your effort - if i see you about Sheffield, ill buy you a beer

EDIT: I bloody love the Alpina gearbox mode in the short drive i did. It suits a remapped car well with much less dragging on the Torque Converter.
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      07-17-2019, 03:45 PM   #22
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I did the alpina flash, tbh I've gone back to normal now and prefer it..
But I am guessing it's because I'm running the stock engine map and suspect the alpina software is tuned for 350hp, which has is why it seems to suit the remapped cars better.

Brilliant for the instructions though,
Took me many hours of research too to find out..
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