Advantages of having a gryphon php?

[Jackpine]

Originally Posted by wood4heat

Holy cow how much power does the Gryphon require to reprogram? You guys all have F-150's? I ask because I'm planning on getting a Gryphon for a 7.3 diesel and wonder if having two batteries would alleviate some of the problems.

Any chance constant reprogramming could cause permanent harm to the ecm? I plan to change back and forth from daily driver to tow tunes quite a bit.

Tico has again given you correct advice. The EPROM in the ECM needs 18 Volts as a signal to accept a new program (in the gas engines - I suspect the diesels are the same). That voltage is produced in the programmer by converting battery voltage. If the battery voltage is low, the converted voltage will also be low and if it drops below a critical value DURING the programming, you could get a corrupted write. That can disable your truck.

This is why I ALWAYS recommend changing the program at home (where you won't be "stranded", and have access to a PC), with a nice, warm fully charged battery.

Having two batteries really doesn't help you. Yours are wired in parallel, to provide the Amperage needed to turn your starter against the compression of your big engine. If the voltage output in one drops, they both drop.

The EPROM in the ECM is good for many thousands of write cycles. It's a whole lot like a "thumb drive", or a flash card in a camera. Yes, there IS a limit, but you'll probably die of old age before reaching it.

I found that my truck has an OEM "parasitic" draw on the battery of 0.05 Amps when it's sitting. The older monochrome Gryphon has an additional 0.05 Amps draw for it's "keep-alive" memory. I don't know what the newer CS/CTS platforms pull - I actually suspect it's less.

So, a total draw of 0.1 Amps doesn't sound like much, but in 24 hours, it uses 2.4 Amps and in just under 21 days, a single battery is "dead" (over 50 Amps lost and a no-load voltage of around 11.5 Volts or less). Two batteries will last twice as long of course, but the voltage is still dropping every day that the truck sits. Cold weather exaggerates this problem.

If you use your truck most every day and are alert to the signs of a weak battery, you should not have any problems. If the truck sits, like mine does, I strongly recommend a Battery Tender. This will add to the longevity of the battery too.

- Jack