Voltage Light on when below 2500 RPM

[banditV11]

My voltage light is on when the bike is idle and continues to stay on until the RPM reaches 2500 or so.... Anyone know where to begin diagnosing this?

[Trevini]

I'm no expert in these things, but it has been well documented that dodgy earth connections on the reg/rec can cause issues, as can relay and fuse contacts. You'd do well to search some of the posts by Kiwi Roy. He's posted some excellent test point diagrams and knows the electrics inside out.

 

Have you used a volt meter to determine the actual charge voltage?

 

edit to add link Linky Dink to charging euphoria

[banditV11]

I'm no expert in these things, but it has been well documented that dodgy earth connections on the reg/rec can cause issues, as can relay and fuse contacts. You'd do well to search some of the posts by Kiwi Roy. He's posted some excellent test point diagrams and knows the electrics inside out.

 

Have you used a volt meter to determine the actual charge voltage?

 

edit to add link Linky Dink to charging euphoria

 

Thanks. I'll test with multi-meter and post back. By "earth connections" do you mean ground?

[Trevini]

Yup, there's a short wire that provides a ground/earth on the casing of the reg/rec unit. Common practice is to beef it up with some heavier duty wire and make sure the connections are clean. Poor connections on the relays and fuses can also cause under/overcharging. The reference voltage for the reg/rec is taken from the headlamp relay and poor connections there can also cause problems.

 

THIS THREAD should help a bit.

[banditV11]

Yup, there's a short wire that provides a ground/earth on the casing of the reg/rec unit. Common practice is to beef it up with some heavier duty wire and make sure the connections are clean. Poor connections on the relays and fuses can also cause under/overcharging. The reference voltage for the reg/rec is taken from the headlamp relay and poor connections there can also cause problems.

 

THIS THREAD should help a bit.

 

Thanks for the info - I studied these diagrams and other posts...

 

So I found the voltage regulator and according to my workshop manual there should be ground/earth wire connecting the voltage regulator to the battery (see attached pic). But, in real life, on my actual bike there is only a wire-harness plugged into the voltage reg with a bundle of wires. Is the green one running off the wire-harness plug the ground? Or should there be a separate wire somewhere else that should be grounding this thing?

[Bbennett]

I have an aftermarket charging indicator on my bike (a multi-color LED) and I get the same behavior and think that the V11 simply operates on the margin of charging at low RPM's. If true, this means one could theoretically discharge the battery from extended low speed riding, for example.

[banditV11]

I have an aftermarket charging indicator on my bike (a multi-color LED) and I get the same behavior and think that the V11 simply operates on the margin of charging at low RPM's. If true, this means one could theoretically discharge the battery from extended low speed riding, for example.

 

 

Hmmm. Interesting.... And your battery life is normal? Are you using a trickle charger?

 

Well I've confirmed that my voltage regulator is fully grounded. Not really sure where to go from here. I suppose I'll continue diagnosing the electrical system based on the various posts here...

[Bbennett]

Well, I seem to replace my battery every 2-3 years. 39K miles on the bike.

[banditV11]

Update:

 

With bike of the voltage across the two batter terminals is about 12.5 V

 

@idle voltage is 12.9 V (dash warning light on)

@3000rpm voltage is 13.4 V (dash warning light off)

[Kiwi_Roy]

The tiny wire to the battery Luigi provided is far too small to do anything, when the bike is new and there's a good connection via the frame it's ok but with time and corrosion it no longer provides a good path.

I highly recommend adding a short wire from the regulator to an engine bolt.

I think you will see your Voltage increase to around 14

See how that goes then get back to us.

 

Roy

[banditV11]

The tiny wire to the battery Luigi provided is far too small to do anything, when the bike is new and there's a good connection via the frame it's ok but with time and corrosion it no longer provides a good path.

I highly recommend adding a short wire from the regulator to an engine bolt.

I think you will see your Voltage increase to around 14

See how that goes then get back to us.

 

Roy

 

Thanks will try that. Do you mean the green wire from the regulator? Or just ground the regulator itself?

[banditV11]

Update:

 

I've added a ground wire from the voltage regulator to the engine block as shown in the picture. My addition is the brown wire - have I done this correctly? (note the wiring is temporary). I've also checked all fuses and cleaned connections as well as removed and re-inserted all relays.

Unfortunately still no change in the voltage numbers from what I posted above and the battery indicator is still glowing until about 2500 rpm.

[Kiwi_Roy]

I don't recognize that regulator, is it an after market one?

If it was the Ducati Energia one yes, that would be correct

Make sure your battery ground is good as well, I think it connects to the chassis behind the seat release key.

Not knowing anything about your particular reg i'm not sure what I can add.

 

Do you have after market headlight relay/s, that can cause low charging also.

[fotoguzzi]

what is the other wire on there with the blue loop connector? another ground? the reason for the extra wire is the mounting bolts are into captured nuts which don't make a perfect ground to frame, going to the motor gives a better ground so if the captured nuts rattle around you don't loose the ground connection.

[luhbo]

Update:

 

With bike of the voltage across the two batter terminals is about 12.5 V

 

@idle voltage is 12.9 V (dash warning light on)

@3000rpm voltage is 13.4 V (dash warning light off)

 

I wouldn't spend time nor money as long as I could read values like these. Did you have the lights on while you measured them?

The charging light on this type of regulators is not a reliable information about whether your battery get's charged or not.

Go riding, this summer's is nearly up now.

 

Nice bike, by the way. Have you posted photos of it somewhere?

 

Hubert