Is Carly Battery Registration a Scam - Does it really work?

[kimiraikkonen]

Hi. So just replaced a new OEM battery on E90 M3 this past weekend. I registered the battery using the Carly BMW app. It shows the last registration at 126KM. So after registering, if I reopen the battery registration app, it still shows the old 126KM registration timeline...

Shouldn't this show the new mileage?

Any other way I can verify within the Carly app that my battery indeed get registered??!??!

PS. Reason why I'm asking is in the Carly app, it say you can also code Brake Force Display...and we all know in reality nothing happens afterwards. So while the Carly app may be good for reading codes, not sure how much i trust it's coding abilities.

[TheeE86]

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1425235

In my limited experience, it reads properly on some models and not on others.

[kimiraikkonen]

Originally Posted by TheeE86

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1425235

In my limited experience, it reads properly on some models and not on others.

Thanks I saw that thread....but not completely buying their answer that was given below:

- Seems to me, it's very convenient that you have no way to "trust and verify" that the battery was registered.....until you have to replace your battery 2 yrs later.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please try the following for a stable connection:
- Turn on the engine
- Set communication speed to „slow“ in the settings

- With a wireless connection:
- Switch bluetooth off (iPhone/iPad)
- Switch WiFi off (Android)
If the history still can’t be read
…if the history despite all this above cannot be read, you still can be sure the registration has worked.

Due to some communication issues in your car it just does not show up. In certain cases if you try a few days later it shows – but not in all cases though

We are working on this issue. So far we have not really found a common reason why it sometimes does not show


Mit freundlichen Grüßen
// Kind regards

-
Natascha
Techn. Support

[aus]

Seemed to work for me, but yeah, no way to verify it.

[kimiraikkonen]

UPDATE, 12/12

So after getting the unsatisfactory answer from Carly, I went ahead and ordered the Schwaben scanner (Foxwell) for the BMW. When I go to the battery registration section, it shows too the OLD registration mileage still...which really confirms with me that the Carly BMW is not registering the battery at all.

What will do tomorrow morning is properly register my battery with the Schwaben tool..........then I will fire up the Carly BMW and check the registration date. I bet a hundred bucks that the Carly BMW will show the new registration date that I do with the Schwaben tool.

BTW, just did a quick look at the features on the Schwaben tool, and it's pretty cool. The ability to reset your EDC shocks mileage after changing...even allows for individual adjustment to the shock mileage (I suppose to do further tuning). Looks like you can reset individual throttle adaptations and other stuff. Even shows battery life charge % history (last 5 day readings), etc.

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by kimiraikkonen

UPDATE, 12/12

So after getting the unsatisfactory answer from Carly, I went ahead and ordered the Schwaben scanner (Foxwell) for the BMW. When I go to the battery registration section, it shows too the OLD registration mileage still...which really confirms with me that the Carly BMW is not registering the battery at all.

What will do tomorrow morning is properly register my battery with the Schwaben tool..........then I will fire up the Carly BMW and check the registration date. I bet a hundred bucks that the Carly BMW will show the new registration date that I do with the Schwaben tool.

BTW, just did a quick look at the features on the Schwaben tool, and it's pretty cool. The ability to reset your EDC shocks mileage after changing...even allows for individual adjustment to the shock mileage (I suppose to do further tuning). Looks like you can reset individual throttle adaptations and other stuff. Even shows battery life charge % history (last 5 day readings), etc.

Very interesting, this is the NT510 correct? Specifically the resetting of adaptive data such as EDC. Couldn't find any details in their manual on the net. Great if you could provide some more details here once you have played around with the device.

Thanks

[steven_s]

Hey maybe you can help me out from my other thread. Was considering the schawben tool and can you tell me if there's an option in registering the battery with different amperages (for people who want to go to either mini/csl/z4m or even higher such as litebox etc)

[jdamore]

Originally Posted by kimiraikkonen

UPDATE, 12/12

So after getting the unsatisfactory answer from Carly, I went ahead and ordered the Schwaben scanner (Foxwell) for the BMW. When I go to the battery registration section, it shows too the OLD registration mileage still...which really confirms with me that the Carly BMW is not registering the battery at all.

What will do tomorrow morning is properly register my battery with the Schwaben tool..........then I will fire up the Carly BMW and check the registration date. I bet a hundred bucks that the Carly BMW will show the new registration date that I do with the Schwaben tool.

BTW, just did a quick look at the features on the Schwaben tool, and it's pretty cool. The ability to reset your EDC shocks mileage after changing...even allows for individual adjustment to the shock mileage (I suppose to do further tuning). Looks like you can reset individual throttle adaptations and other stuff. Even shows battery life charge % history (last 5 day readings), etc.

Thank you for this info. Very much appreciated! Please send this info to carly because this is a huge issue. I wonder how many people are thinking their new battery is registered and it isn't!

I have a new battery that I was about to put in but now I can't because I dont trust carly.

[O2ShootTheJ]

so what happens if the new battery isnt registered?

[jdamore]

Originally Posted by O2ShootTheJ

so what happens if the new battery isnt registered?

Most likely will result in premature battery failure and/or annoying Discharge Battery alarms.

[kimiraikkonen]

Originally Posted by steven_s

Hey maybe you can help me out from my other thread. Was considering the schawben tool and can you tell me if there's an option in registering the battery with different amperages (for people who want to go to either mini/csl/z4m or even higher such as litebox etc)

Yes, there's an option to switch from agm to standard lead-cell and also for ah change. It's a drill down menu from the original battery registration tab.

[kimiraikkonen]

Originally Posted by jdamore

Thank you for this info. Very much appreciated! Please send this info to carly because this is a huge issue. I wonder how many people are thinking their new battery is registered and it isn't!

I have a new battery that I was about to put in but now I can't because I dont trust carly.

Ok....I'm not sure what gives....but I went through the Schwaben battery registration. It's fairly detailed and even has a section where you can enter the OEM Battery data matrix number (supposedly this is for tracking purposes)....

In any event, went through the process and it said that I had "successfully" registered the battery. however, when I go back to the menu and look at the battery history, it still shows the old mileage registration and only shows 1 battery registration in the history.....so same situation as I was getting on Carly.

This is a BMW 92AH battery that I'm trying to register...so not sure what I'm doing wrong or if this is some quirky thing with folks using Carly or even the Schwaben/Foxwell.

Can anyone else check their battery registration history to see if they are indeed getting things registered? So one of the following is happening;

1) Battery is indeed being registered using Carly or the Schwaben/Foxwell tools....but for some reason they are not able to record this in the battery history log in the ECU ??
2) Carly and Schwaben/Foxwell are crap when it comes to registering batteries and we are just getting a false flag "ok"..when in reality nothing is happening
3) Something screwy with my car specifically....but no error messages with the battery or IBS and no codes come up with the scan

[steven_s]

Originally Posted by kimiraikkonen

Yes, there's an option to switch from agm to standard lead-cell and also for ah change. It's a drill down menu from the original battery registration tab.

Cool thanks! Good info should sticky it, couldn't find this as a definitive answer until now.

But... lol sucks to hear about your situation. Hopefully it's a one off odd thing otherwise this tool is useless for battery registration.

[TheeE86]

Originally Posted by kimiraikkonen

Can anyone else check their battery registration history to see if they are indeed getting things registered?

I can tell you that I'm 1 for 2.

-2008 535xi registered first try with Carly, showed the current date and mileage immediately in the previous registrations section.

-Early build 2011 X5, Doesn't show any previous registrations. Tried twice the day I replaced the battery. And just tried again today using some different connection settings in Carly. Nothing.

[kimiraikkonen]

Originally Posted by TheeE86

I can tell you that I'm 1 for 2.

-2008 535xi registered first try with Carly, showed the current date and mileage immediately in the previous registrations section.

-Early build 2011 X5, Doesn't show any previous registrations. Tried twice the day I replaced the battery. And just tried again today using some different connection settings in Carly. Nothing.

Thanks for the feedback. Please see my latest post below for how my situation turned out.

[kimiraikkonen]

FINAL UPDATE, 12/13 (knock on wood).

Quick summary: On my vehicle (2008 E90 M3), neither the Carly BMW or Schwaben/Foxwell NT510 seem to work with registering the battery. They both give a "successful registration" complete message, but the battery history is not updated to reflect the latest registration. The new registration needs to be written to the DME and I think these low-end scanners cannot do this (even though they claim to be able to do so).

So I took my M3 to my mechanic today and begrudgingly paid them the $75 (1/2 hr labor rate) for them to register the battery. They use AutoLogic and after I received the car, I ran both Carly BMW and the NT510 scan tool....and low and behold:

- Both Schwaben and Carly now show the new battery registration mileage, which indeed confirms that the battery is truly registered in the DME now. So mission accomplished finally!

----------------------------------------------

I'll try to write up a more detailed writeup on the Schwaben scan tool, but even though it cannot do the battery registration, it is actually a pretty cool tool.

For example on the battery section, you can pull up:
- Last 5 digital voltage measurements of the battery (% of full charge). So probably something similar to the CTEK voltage measurement app, but this one can be done very easily from the OBD2 port
- Histogram of the battery history - This one is pretty cool. Especially if you have bought a used BMW and want to see if the battery has been drained extensively in the past. They provide a brief pareto table of how many hrs that batter has spent at different charge levels:

80-100%
60-80%
40-60%
etc

When you register your new battery, this histogram data gets wiped out and reset to 0. In fact, this was how I knew my battery was not getting registered with Carly and Schwaben, as my histogram was showing me that my car had spent over 15,000 hrs at 80-100% charge level --> Even though I had just changed my battery a few days ago.

You can do other adaptation resets (throttle, O2, fuel trim, etc) with the Schwaben tool. You can also reset your EDC mileage after you replace it (although I am not sure about this, given my recent experience on the battery reset). But I think on the adaptation resets, those look like they work with the Schwaben tool. I think as long as the DME doesn't have to be written to, the tool does its job. For adaptation resets, you are just clearing the DME setting and not writing new values I suppose...(or at least that is my hope).

Am too lazy to take screenshots and stuff...but will try to do that in a later post. Hope this helps.

In the meantime......re-check your battery registrations to make sure that they really went through!!!

[Solo_M_Tech]

I use the foxwell/scwaben NT510 to register batteries all the time and never have this issue. Cycle the key off and back on after completing the service, and the new mileage and reg date should be stored. If it doesn't, your IBS is malfunctioning.

[kimiraikkonen]

Originally Posted by ham_sammich

I use the foxwell/scwaben NT510 to register batteries all the time and never have this issue. Cycle the key off and back on after completing the service, and the new mileage and reg date should be stored. If it doesn't, your IBS is malfunctioning.

The car was cycled on and off before I drove it to the mechanic, so that wasn't it unfortunately for me. After registering with Autologic, it shows only 2 registration dates:

1) the one done today with Autologic
2) the previous one done a few years back
*) no logging of the "registrations" from last week with Carly or NT510

This is not a IBS issue (I had thought so too)....as the battery registration logs are done via the power mgmt module in the DME........nothing to do with the IBS.

Have you used the NT510 to successfully register on a E9x M3? I think the tool works for non-M E9x cars but not for the M3, as we use a different DME (MS660). In the past I was going to buy the Bavarian Technic scanner tool to do battery resets, but even they mention that battery reset is only for the non-M E9x cars.

http://www.bavariantechnic.com/modelfeaturematrix.aspx

I know I'm probably doing overkill on this subject, but just want to let the other M3post members who may be driving around thinking they've reset their battery settings.

[aus]

So basically, Carly is screwing us who paid for "Battery Registration" since it doesn't work as advertised.
.

[Helmsman]

Love my Carly but due to being lazy I had a shop replacing my battery, although I originally planned to do it and reg with Carly. Lucky move then!

[JsL]

Wtf, I purchased a Carly mainly because it can register batteries...

[kimiraikkonen]

Originally Posted by aus

So basically, Carly is screwing us who paid for "Battery Registration" since it doesn't work as advertised.
.

Unfortunately I think this is the case for a lot of the layman scanners, not just Carly. I think they work from some models, but definitely on my E90 M3 it did not. Looks like this affects other BMW models as well....check out the below from a non-E9X forum thread:

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...=532315&page=6

BMWhat Battery Registration didn't work.
FYI - I took my car into my local BMW dealership yesterday to have the software updated (in an attempt to get it to take the AA tune it keeps rejecting. ). While my mechanic/friend did the flash ("under cover"), I asked him to check if the BMWhat app (after buying the add-on, of course) had properly registered the battery that I put in almost two months ago. It had NOT.

I contacted iVini/BMWhat and they sounded very disappointed and wanted me to try again but...it was too late. My friend had already done it for me at the shop.

So...you might want to have your BMWhat battery registration double-checked.

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