Charging Light

[Lucky Phil]

18 hours ago, guzziart said:

Yeah, I reached out to Electrosport for clarification on the electrical connection compatibility.  I'm looking at their ESG814 Stator & ESR515 Regulator/rectifier....the stator has a sqare plug with spade connectors & their reg/rect has an SAE connector &  3 male pin connectors so, how does one plug into the other??.  I really don't want to be splicing/cobbling stuff together, would prefer a "plug & play" set-up.  Hopefully I'll hear back from them today or tomorrow...even though I'm not in a big hurry to spend money.  On the plus side, Electrosport offers a one year warranty with no Odyssey battery disclaimer.

It looks like I could have some of the same connector issues with Euro Motoelectric stuff too.

It's not called "cobbling stuff together" when you're improving the OEM by 200%, it's called "enhancing". Why would you want plug and play garbage?

Ciao

[Pressureangle]

I have the EME upgrade on the '85 LM1000 with big Odyssey battery. a few thousand miles later it's still in heaven. 
If I had your connector issue, I'd eliminate the connector altogether and properly splice the wires together. It's wiser to plan for the ride than plan for maintenance. Cutting and resplicing shouldn't be frightening. 

So I'll toss this in the ring, my '97 Sport charges 12.8 at idle and 13.8 max. Always been this way, doesn't have battery issues...regulator has been reinforced with grounds and hots. I shouldn't care after all this time, but is this the norm?

[guzziart]

 

...Not afraid of splicing anything. The insulation had melted into the wire strands where the burned  pin connectors were originally.  I had to remove a lot of the stator wiring then to salvage the stator.  This time it was the plug & wiring at the voltage regultor to stator connection.  Why MG had  pin connectors plus spade connectors in the stator wiring to the voltage regulator is anyone's guess but with the new replacement stator & reg. there will be one connection versus two or more in the stator circuit..  And I will be able to continue using the OE spade connector from the reg. to the batt. which has nothing wrong with it.

Yeah, I could have saved myself $300 by seeing how much more I could trim out, hardwire & replace this area but then it would be an issue in the future for me or the next caretaker to check stator voltage, etc. 

I guess in this circumstance I didn't feel trying to salvage these 20 year old items would be an improvement.

Art

[Kiwi_Roy]

A couple of points.

Yes there is normally a Voltage drop between the battery terminal and the Voltage reference of about 0.5 Volts due to the Voltage drop in the relay and socket etc. The OEM regulator is set low to allow for this, I think 13.8 from memory so when you add the 0.5 Volt it regulates at 14.3 (14.3 at the battery to get 13.8 at the reference point) The problem with this is as the relay socket resistance builds up I have seen over 1 Volt drop this can result in the regulator being overloaded as now the battery needs to reach 14.8 Volts

Yes, adding headlight relays powered direct from the battery upsets the Voltage reference because you lose the Voltage drop.

Yes, the Ducati Energia is a series regulator. it goes Open as the Voltage goes above set point whereas a shunt regulator shorts out the alternator when the battery is over set point.

I don't know anything about the Oddessey battery, I thought it was just an AGM type.

[guzziart]

Hi,

I just installed a new reg & stator, have the headlight on a relay, a 2 year old Odyssey PC545 battery and I'm getting 12.9-13vdc at the battery @ 1100rpm, 13.6vdc max at higher rpms.  So, I am now off to the garage to attempt to find a problem.  I expected to see around 14vdc...  However, the last time I saw 14.1 vdc on this bike was with guzzidiag reporting the system voltage, no aux headlight relay installed yet whereas now I've got the hdl on a relay circuit and I'm checking system voltage with a digital multimeter at the battery.  

[Kiwi_Roy]

Do yourself a huge favour and invest in a battery Voltmeter, these are a simple meter powered by the Voltage its measuring (don't start reading until about 6 Volts). They may not be as accurate as your $400 Fluke but will be within a decimal place and its all relative.

https://www.amazon.ca/Digital-Display-Voltmeter-Waterproof-Motorcycle/dp/B09RHC8F1R/ref=sr_1_10?adgrpid=1354598749278790&hvadid=84662606610933&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=5064&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-84662659551773%3Aloc-32&hydadcr=15054_10414350&keywords=battery%2Bvoltmeter%2Bgauge&qid=1652968443&sr=8-10&th=1

Get the waterproof one with the convex surface, I have seen them for as little as $3, buy one of every colour and save on shipping cost, give them away to your buddies.

IMHO the best place to wire a Voltmeter is across the park light, that only comes on when the ignition is on and the circuit is lightly loaded, don't chop into the main loom, just wire it across the bulb in the bucket using a pair of small wires chopped off an old phone charger, it will take all the guesswork out of your charging system.

On my non VII bikes I just pinch an 18 gauge sheetmetal bracket between the handlebar clamps, drill the large hole with a step drill and polish with a buff. You won't be able to read the display in bright sunlight but just shield it from the sun with your glove or read it passing through a shady spot.

[guzziart]

On 5/19/2022 at 10:02 AM, Kiwi_Roy said:

Do yourself a huge favour and invest in a battery Voltmeter, these are a simple meter powered by the Voltage its measuring (don't start reading until about 6 Volts). They may not be as accurate as your $400 Fluke but will be within a decimal place and its all relative.

https://www.amazon.ca/Digital-Display-Voltmeter-Waterproof-Motorcycle/dp/B09RHC8F1R/ref=sr_1_10?adgrpid=1354598749278790&hvadid=84662606610933&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=5064&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-84662659551773%3Aloc-32&hydadcr=15054_10414350&keywords=battery%2Bvoltmeter%2Bgauge&qid=1652968443&sr=8-10&th=1

Get the waterproof one with the convex surface, I have seen them for as little as $3, buy one of every colour and save on shipping cost, give them away to your buddies.

IMHO the best place to wire a Voltmeter is across the park light, that only comes on when the ignition is on and the circuit is lightly loaded, don't chop into the main loom, just wire it across the bulb in the bucket using a pair of small wires chopped off an old phone charger, it will take all the guesswork out of your charging system.

On my non VII bikes I just pinch an 18 gauge sheetmetal bracket between the handlebar clamps, drill the large hole with a step drill and polish with a buff. You won't be able to read the display in bright sunlight but just shield it from the sun with your glove or read it passing through a shady spot.

I've got a Kuryakyn LED thing that the previous owner installed, it did a good job alerting me to my charging system failure so for the time being I'll stick with it.  Those digital voltmeters are nice though and inexpensive, for about $8 or less on ebay you can't go wrong.  If I could only get motivated to put them on all my other junk.

I was disappointed with the idle output of the new stator & reg/rec asm. but cranked the idle up another 75rpm (to slightly under 1200 rpm) so I'm not dropping down to battery voltage at idle now and the K-LED is "green".  I don't know...does it really matter bumping up the idle to lessen battery drain?  I don't idle that much now that I think about it, coulda probably left the idle where it was.

[Kiwi_Roy]

Guzziart, Please post the make and model of your new regulator along with any changes you might have made to the wiring.

Have you made any changes to the headlight wiring e.g. a pair of relays fed directly from the battery.

The original Voltage reference downstream of the headlight relay is flaky 

[guzziart]

14 hours ago, Kiwi_Roy said:

Guzziart, Please post the make and model of your new regulator along with any changes you might have made to the wiring.

Have you made any changes to the headlight wiring e.g. a pair of relays fed directly from the battery.

The original Voltage reference downstream of the headlight relay is flaky 

...here is some of it..

I installed the Electrosport ESR531 Reg/Rect and ESG814 Stator, it was plug & play, no wiring mods were required but I still made sure the ESR531 case was grounded, I had already had a ground tap on the old reg/rect.  However, Electroport stated it was not needed and claimed nothing grounds through ESR531 housing.  The V11's main harness connector was in excellent condition which I was happy to see.

I added headlight (2) relay harness but right now I can't recall if it was Greg Bender's or Eastern Beaver.  And, yes headlight gets feed from the battery, relay coils are triggered by oe headlight wiring.

I'm really kinda sketchy on the reference voltage thing....I think the last time i looked at the schematic nothing rang a bell in my mind.  So, am I right to think the voltage drop in the headlight circuit no longer exists and therefore the reg/rect maintains a lower system voltage???!!!   I seem to recall you or others talking about the reference voltage issue.  Thoughts/advice?  My V11 Lemans is an '03 if that matters.  My max system voltage at the battery is 13.98vdc now at 3k-4krpm.  Three years ago I had guzzidiag hooked up and had 14.13vdc at 1100 rpm, now it is 12.8-12.9 at 1200 rpm.  Did I goof with the headlight relays?

I suppose I could pull the fairing, disable the headlight relay circuit and revert to oem to see if it makes a difference.  The headlight relay set-up was all plug & play too as I recall.

I added a 6th relay to handle starter HC.  I got the relay & harness from greg bender.  And I just replaced the other 5 relays with CIT #A11CSQ12VDC1.5R relays.

I added a redundant ground from batt Neg to the frame.

I gotta go, my head is about to blow up....

 

[Kiwi_Roy]

  Hi Guzziart,

                        I wasn't able to find the wiring diagram on the Electrosport website but I see the ESR531 is a 3 wire regulator whereas the ESG814 is a single phase (2 wire) Stator, If it's working ok, don't worry about it.

Your headlight relays are an improvement over the old system, don't change back not only does it eliminate the flakey Voltage reference, i'm sure you notice the headlight is brighter.

I don't believe the Electrosport regulator needs grounding, the old Ducati Energia did because there was no wire connecting to battery Negative.

The regulator is now sensing the Voltage directly from the battery Technical Article Figure 1 OR from the ignition switch Technical Article Figure 2

I would be more than happy with the battery Voltage you are seeing.