New reg/rec - Odd voltage

[doug m]

An 11 year old battery??  never had one last close to that.

[Kiwi_Roy]

 

 

It might be worthwhile to check the coil connection to the yellow wires, I found one of mine just hanging by a strand.

 

Roy, by this you mean the yellow wires coming from the stator underneath the alternator cover at the bottom of the stator coils?

 

 

 

Yes, they get brittle with age and vibration and snap off, an easy job to replace with a soldering gun.

Check every 5 years or so.

[docc]

I soldered mine back on and voltage went from -0- to maybe 4. Had to replace the stator (if that's the correct term).

 

As you say, this is a common failure point and hard to see without close inspection.

[Welshguzzi]

An 11 year old battery??  never had one last close to that.

I'd be amazed if it was the original, and I think it's a bit unusual to replace this kind of kit with an OEM unit - generally they're upgraded with a better model.

 

I suspect that the Electrex may be leaking charge slightly as the voltage across the terminals has dropped to 12.5 volts overnight from 12.7. I'll put an in-line 30A fuse as suggested by Andy H

[docc]

Is it a "Spark" brand? Seems like the originals were Spark 500?

 

You might unhook the battery and see if it continues to drop; then the battery would be suspect.

 

FWIW, my PC545 is holding 12.9 after 48hrs and the charge procedure above. How the AGM are charged, apparently, can make a great deal of difference.

[Welshguzzi]

Yes, it is a Spark. I'll now re-fuel the'battery brand debate'......

What's it to be, ladies and gentlemen?? ;-)

[docc]

So, that is likely the original battery. Sure, some previous owner might have bought the factory replacement, but not likely.

 

In that case, your charging and wiring systems have a good reputation!

 

Word has been that the "Spark" was made by Hawker. The Hawker Odyssey PC545 is a likely candidate for a replacement.

 

Some say you should also get their dedicated charger. Otherwise, definitely be aware that the charging parameters are unique to the AGM.

[Kiwi_Roy]

Careful with these Electrex reg/recs: we've identified a tendency to leak a trickle and flatten the battery if the bike is not run for a couple of weeks. Just had that problem yesterday when I tried to start the bike and forgot to keep on trickle charge.

 

If you follow their recommendations and run a fat red wire straight back to the battery, rather than using the standard V11 loom red wire, add a large 30 amp blade fuse holder into the line (as you should anyway) and pull the fuse when you leave the bike standing.

The regulator probably uses a small current to sense the Voltage, The Electrosport ones do as well.

The original Ducati Energia regulators didn't have any parasitic drain current because they connected downstream of the headlight relay however this caused other problems.

The ECU also has power on when the bikes shut off.

 

What happens if you forget to put the fuse back, the charge light doesn't indicate does it?

 

Before you decide to pull the power you could measure the leakage current, I doubt it's very high, once you know that then calculate how long it will take. Just measure between battery + and the regulator on a milliamp range.

 

Suppose for argument sake it's 10 mA and you have a 13 Amp hour battery it's 13 / 0.01 = 1,300 hours

To be conservative assume you only have a half charged battery 7 / 0.01 = 700 hours

 

Can someone with an Electrex measure it for us, I will measure an electrosport.

 

A word of caution, you might find your multimeter shows 0 milliamps, it's very easy to blow the fuse in series with this range without noticing, you can check it in series with a 12V LED or other tiny lamp.

[Welshguzzi]

Just a quick update - the weather's been atrocious for the last couple of weeks, plus family/ Christmas commitments to be fulfilled, so the bike's been sitting in the garage, sulking. Voltage has dropped to 12.3V so will recharge with my optimate when it arrives and hopefully get out there.........

[Trevini]

 

 

 

 

 

Can someone with an Electrex measure it for us, I will measure an electrosport.

 

 

 

 

 

If you remember, a while back I measured the current drain on mine.  Can't remember the exact figures now, but 40mA springs to mind, which dropped to about 4mA after fitting a relay to disconnect it when the ign is switched off.  It's on a thread here somewhere.

 

In practical terms, it meant the bike would just about turn over and start after about two weeks and when plugged into an optimate, would take a couple of hours to get back to full charge.  Since the relay fitment, I can leave the bike 6 weeks plus, starts instantly with no sluggish turn over and if plugged into the optimate, only takes a few minutes to show fully charged.

[Kiwi_Roy]

 

 

Can someone with an Electrex measure it for us, I will measure an electrosport.

 

If you remember, a while back I measured the current drain on mine.  Can't remember the exact figures now, but 40mA springs to mind, which dropped to about 4mA after fitting a relay to disconnect it when the ign is switched off.  It's on a thread here somewhere.

 

In practical terms, it meant the bike would just about turn over and start after about two weeks and when plugged into an optimate, would take a couple of hours to get back to full charge.  Since the relay fitment, I can leave the bike 6 weeks plus, starts instantly with no sluggish turn over and if plugged into the optimate, only takes a few minutes to show fully charged.

 

Adding a relay or some other means of disconnection for long term parking makes sense to me.

I did remember to measure the Electrosport, it was just 3 milliamps, enough to discharge a battery over the winter so I disconnected the wire for the next 3 months.

The Voltage sensing Black wire of a Ducati Energia draws about 15 milliamps, I'm sure that's why they wired it through the headlight relay.

[stefano]

An 11 year old battery??  never had one last close to that.

  i replaced the spark 500 (also says moto guzzi on it) battery last year on my '02, i'm pretty sure it was the original. and it was still working fine.

  i think others have had the spark 500 last this long, not sure why? replaced with a PC545

  and i also have never had on last close to that long before. usually get about 4 yrs.

[mznyc]

Im STILL running an original Spark 500 in mine.It won't die!

[helicopterjim R.I.P.]

Im STILL running an original Spark 500 in mine.It won't die!

 

I still have my original orange battery in my Rosso Mandello .... coming up on 13 years.

[AndyH]

There is evidently some magic care formula that determines the durability of these batteries but darned if I know what it is. I've been told they don't like being kept on full charge all the time but on the other hand have a limited number of charge/discharge cycles.

Battery Immortality must lie somewhere in between, I guess