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Slow Starting R1150RT


roger 04 rt

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Ran a 5th discharge cycle today. Believe that I have maxed-out the recovery at 90% of total amp-hours. Odyssey says that if you don't get 80%, replace the battery!

 

It looks like due to under-charging my 16 aH PC680 is now a 14.4 aH battery. At least that's up from about 11 aH when I began reconditioning it. Charging overnight I'll try a cold start in the morning.

 

RB

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After cycling the battery the 5th time and leaving it in the Odyssey charger's pulsed-float mode for a couple days, which injects 750 mA for about 5 seconds and then let's the battery relax, I went out this morning and cold started. Finally, it turned over for about a second, started and ran smoothly.

 

I'm planning to run some additional voltage sensitivity tests and need a programmable power supply which can double as a charger (at about twice the price) so I need to sell the Odyssey and have put it in the Classifieds for a good price.

 

I'm hoping that by modifying the alternator with a diode that I can bring the battery above 90%. It's a shame I partly spoiled the battery with the wrong charger and low alternator voltage. Live and learn.

 

RB

Edited by roger 04 rt
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Just finished a 6th discharge cycle. The PC680 delivered a full 16 amp-hours.

 

It looks like with enough charge/discharge, and with the correct charger, the pc680 can be brought back to full performance. It seems like 2 days on the odyssey charger did the trick. It now has 50% more capacity than when I began charge/discharge a couple weeks ago.

 

Will run another cold start cycle tomorrow. Things are looking good.

RB

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Well as far as the starting issue goes, it seems to be wrapped up. I took a full set of 40F cold-start data: GS-911 and LC-1. A strong, properly charged PC680 what what it needed.

 

The battery voltage when I pressed the Start Button dropped to 10.4V, compared to 7-8V when I started the project.

 

From the time the starter button was pressed until the time the motor reached 1150 RPM was somewhere between 0.75 and 0.95 seconds.

 

All the sensors are well-behaved, particularly Spark Advance, Dwell and Injection time.

 

The AFR chart moves smoothly to its various after-start and warm-up enrichments and is well behaved. A second battery would probably make it a little stronger but that would be a project for another time.

 

So when I get some time I'll add the diode to the alternator so that I don't have to use the charger so often to finish charging the battery after short rides.

 

You gotta love the PC680, I undercharged it for a year and it's come back 100%.

 

RB

 

Edited by roger 04 rt
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A friend with a 1996 R1100RT saw this thread and decided to run an amp-hr test on his 6 month-old PC680 battery. It came up just short of 10 aH. At the 2 amp rate of discharge this means the battery was just below 2/3 charged even though the OCV (open circuit voltage) was 12.9V which would indicate fully charged.

 

It will be interesting to see how much capacity he can recover using the Odyssey recharge procedure.

RB

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Just before opening my bike up so that I can add a diode to the regulator (a nasty job, with lots of stuff to remove), on a hunch, I tried starting after a cold-soak with the BoosterPlug disconnected. I only tried it once but it seemed to start quicker, a bit.

 

With the BoosterPlug attached, the Motronic sees air temperature 36 degrees colder than oil temperature. In my case it was 40F at the oil, and 4F at the air temp with the BP. It seems possible to me that it sees those unequal temps as a sign that the bike has not cold-soaked. In other words that the bike's oil isn't fully cooled off--a sheer speculative comment in my part.

 

What I can say with certainty is that the injection pulse at start was a little longer without the BP.

 

Curious.

 

RB

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Getting the ABS out isn't really a bad job but to get to the voltage regulator you've got to:

--remove left and right fairings and fuel tank

--remove Motronic

--remove ABS

--I chose to pull the battery

 

Still not sure I can get to the vreg without

--remove alt belt cover

--remove belt

--remove alternator

 

Then add a diode, a couple bucks. This is a lot of work for the PC680 battery ...

 

If I pull the alternator, I have a spare HES so I'll replace it. I'm this far maybe I just will.

 

The other thing I could do is pull the throttle cable and Bowden box to get the battery/ABS box out. That would let me swap the 3 bar regulator. Maybe that's over my time limit.

RB

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I got to the "diode" project over the weekend. The alternator is now charging at 14.75 volts. Many thanks to GSAddict for his valuable help, often on a moment's notice at the crack of dawn.

 

While the project seems a success, it is a bear of a job. At this point I can't say for certain that it won't be bad for the bulbs, or other electronics. Nor do I know for sure that the higher voltage won't be bad for the ABS or Motronic. I don't know that I've selected the best diode, and I don't know how long the diode will last. If the diode fails, the alternator will stop charging. (But often overloaded diodes short out in which case the alternator will operate but at its original voltage.)

 

The first time I reassembled, the diode interfered with the alternator body causing two internal pins on the voltage regulator to touch. This happened because I attempted to do the work without pulling the alternator. You really have to remove the alternator to do a good job, which I did the second time. (It would be better to find a voltage regulator that was adjustable or a higher voltage, then swap regulators. I haven't found one yet.) Removal of the ABS system takes a great deal of care.

 

RB

 

If I haven't scared you off from trying, and you're willing to take all the risk yourself, and you want to install a diode, here is a brief outline of what I did:

 

Step 1

Remove the alternator by removing:

-Seats, left and right fairing and fuel tank

-Alternator Belt Cover

-Battery

-ABS (requires bleeding all circuits afterward)

-Motronic

 

vreg%201.jpg

 

Step 2

Remove the Voltage Regulator from the Alternator by:

-Removing the black cover on the alternator

 

And then:

-Drill out the spot weld on the ground lug

-CAREFULLY remove Ground Lug. (Note in the photo below that I have started removing the ground and it is bent upward.)

-Save ground lug to shim the underside of the regulator when you reinstall it.

 

vreg2.jpg

 

Step 3

Boost the Voltage by Adding:

-One NTE 5812 Diode in series with the internal ground

-Reinstall Vreg

-Reinstall Alternator

-Reinstall fuel tank and battery

-Test alternator output

 

vreg3.jpg

 

Step 4

-Pull fuel tank and battery again

-Reinstall and Bleed ABS system

-Reinstall everything else

 

There are a lot of steps and skills needed for this project. It would be easy to do it wrong and cause serious damage. This outline and the photos should be sufficient if you have the right skill set to take this on. Otherwise, if you have an Odyssey PC680 battery and want to keep it 100% charged, consider charging your battery with an approved Odyssey charger every few weeks. Or at your next battery change consider a regular lead acid or Gel battery, both of which are fully charged with the standard alternator.

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Hi Roger,

This has all been very interesting. Now you're in the same situation as me in that you will be buried with that motorcycle. :dopeslap:

 

Ahhhh, but it was fun. :)

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Hi Roger,

This has all been very interesting. Now you're in the same situation as me in that you will be buried with that motorcycle. :dopeslap:

 

Ahhhh, but it was fun. :)

 

I could probably "remove" the diode by shorting D+ to 12V for an instant. ;)

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Hi Roger,

This has all been very interesting. Now you're in the same situation as me in that you will be buried with that motorcycle. :dopeslap:

 

Ahhhh, but it was fun. :)

 

I could probably "remove" the diode by shorting D+ to 12V for an instant. ;)

 

I'm not serious, that would not cause the diode to blow.

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I think I'll quit with the LC-1 although it's probably too late anyway because I removed the ABS. I really would like to thin the herd by selling the '04RT but forget that and no way am I ever going to part with the others ('81R100RT 8.9K miles, '94 R1100RSL 3.8K miles). Too many mods, just way too many. :cry: Unless one of the guys here take pity and make me an offer :rofl:

 

But seriously, my '04 is one primo bike that runs as it should with only 43K miles, hint..hint.

Edited by JamesW
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The alternator is installed and the belt tensioned, the ABS reinstalled and all the brake circuits bled (side benefit, my front and rear brakes are firmer). I've reinstalled the add-on pressure regulator but removed the BoosterPlug. The fuel tank and all the plastic parts went back on too. The battery had been disconnected during surgery so it was charged to 100%. As a result of the disconnect the Motronic was reset, so I did the twist-the-throttle thing.

 

With everything back on and the bike cold-soaked in my garage, I ran a cold-start test. Fast idle lever to mid-dent, press the button, Er, er, vroom--1.5 seconds to start and the idle jumped immediately to 1400 RPM with a stable spark advance and dwell. Just what I was hoping for when I started the thread.

 

The bottom line to this whole exercise: a bad lower plug, weak stick coils and a 67% charged, sulfated Odyssey PC680. The battery was restored with 6 Odyssey specified discharge cycles and the alternator output boosted by about 0.7 volts with the addition of a diode in the alternator's voltage regulator. I will charge it as needed with an odyssey approved charger.

RB

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While contributing to an ABS thread (here) I noticed that the GS-911 reports battery voltage and the voltage at the top of the coils VIGN.

 

VBAT is 14.56 volts and VIGN is reported as 13.8 volts. That's a pretty big drop across the key. I think I'm beginning to see why they added the second Load relay to later R1150RTs.

Edited by roger 04 rt
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Here is what Odyssey says for maintaining a PC680 or other Odyssey AGM battery if your alternator voltage is below 14.5 volts, for example an R1150 which has a 14V regulator that outputs about 13.7 volts much of the time.

 

The recommendation would be proper consistent charge maintenance when the motorcycle is not in use with an ODYSSEY program approved 12V charger/maintainer from the list of approved chargers linked on the ODYSSEY website Product Support page. Any of the listed maintainer chargers can be used to maintain the battery indefinitely without harming the battery.

 

We would also recommend turning the headlamp on for 1-2 minutes after parking the motorcycle but before initiating charge to ensure that the voltage reading is fairly accurate and the charger will "see" the true resting voltage of the battery and charge accordingly. If the battery appears to be discharged according to the chargers initial startup testing, it should go through the entire charging profile with maximum constant current initially which the battery will love especially if it is at least 40% of the 10 hour amp hour rating of the battery. The OMAX-6A-1B is a 6A ODYSSEY Ultimizer charger that is manufactured specifically for the powersports industry for up to the PC680 series sized batteries. It is a high enough amperage charger to perform deep discharge recovery (full amp output good for a discharged powersports sized battery) and maintain the battery at a full state of charge at the optimum recommended 13.6V [trickle] charging voltage.

 

If the battery is not fully charged when any charger goes into float, float voltage charging has to make up the difference to complete the charging process. The required float voltage range is 13.5-13.8V. We would highly recommend leaving any approved charger on the battery from use to use to ensure full charge especially for a motorcycle with an inadequate charging system. CTEK chargers with the snowflake setting (required for ODYSSEY) also work very well for seasonal powersports applications. They are plug and play as well.

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FWIW, I've had excellent results using my CTEK on "snowflake" and doing just what Odyssey says, turning on my headlight to drop the voltage enough to initiate the "big charge" (higher voltage, higher amperage). I do this about once per week just for shits and giggles.

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Here is some further clarification from Odyssey.

 

Roger -

 

A few additional thoughts.

 

1. Most PowerSport vehicles have charging systems with relative low operating (charging) voltages because of the fear of boiling out a wet flooded battery and dealing with the acid corrosion issues. Their philosophy is better to under charge the battery and minimize the gassing than charge correctly and out gas the battery. In going to ODYSSEY and not having the corrosion issues, correct charging - operating voltage is critical to getting the long life ODYSSEY has to offer.

 

2. We don't expect PowerSport vehicle owners to do what you did in correcting the charging system voltage, so a solid alternative is to use a 6+ amp charger - maintainer on a continuous basis when the bike or vehicle is the garage. Continuous float charge will correct under charge from the bikes system.

 

3. The ODYSSEY Ultimizer OMAX-6A-1B is a great little charger - maintainer if you can live with the continuous cooling fan noise. If not, use the CTEK US Multi-7002 and use the Snowflake battery selection algorithm.

 

Bruce R. Essig

National Sales Manager

Program Distribution Groups

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My RT came with a one year old PC680 that had been on an undersized trickle charger. I was less than impressed with the cold starting and after this thread first appeared decided to find a better charger.

 

I ended up buying a NOCO Genius G7200 charger that has a 7.2 amp output as well as a 16 volt anti sulfation setting.

 

Seat of the pants tells me that the battery is now being charged properly and a few more cycles should make even more of a difference. Going to try the 16 volt setting next, it is a 4 hour cycle after a full charge.

 

I don't believe this charger is on the approved list yet but is distributed by the Canadian distributor of Odeysey batteries.

 

Thanks again to Roger for this information.... even if he has cost me a lot of money on new parts and pieces....VBG

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After getting Odyssey's advice on how to best maintain their batteries when installed in a bike whose charging voltage is in the 13.6-14.0 volt range, like the R1100s and R1150s, this morning I discharged my battery by about 1 aH, roughly a 5% discharge.

 

Next, the battery was recharged at 13.6 volts, simulating an Oilhead alternator. The initial current was 3.6 amps and after an hour it was drawing 1/10 amp and it appeared to be recharged.

 

At that point the recharger was adjusted to the recommended 14.5 volts and the battery drew about 1 amp, indicating that it was not fully charged. It took another half hour to finish charging the battery at 14.5 volts, I don't know how long it might have taken had I left the charger voltage at 13.6V since the charging current was under a hundred milliamps at that point.

 

Then to finish this process up, I discharded the battery by 5% a second time and recharged it at 14.5V. Initial current was 4.6 amps and it took 40 minutes to reach 100% State of Charge (SOC).

 

In order to reach a 100% SOC after a 5% discharge it looks like Odyssey is giving good advice: either charge at 14.5 volts or charge the battery at 13.6-13.8 volts for an extended period of time (several hours).

RB

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This has been a very interesting thread so far.

Now I know exactly why I got by with my old car charger meant for maintenance free batts of the 70s for charging the Odysseys in my track cars- it put out 14.5-15.

Also explains why I could always recover deeply discharged Odysseys and could never manage to kill one no matter how much it appeared to be abused- which is what has lead me to believe they are by far the best choice out there as long as you charge within the recommendations.

Also explains why the SOs R1100S sometimes needs help and why the 680 in hers does best when kept on a proper maintainer.

 

Also provides clear data why some folks end up thinking the

Odyssey is a bad battery. Its not a perfect choice for old machines and needs to be properly maintained if you use it in one. Fail to do that and disappointment is certainly possible in ways Roger has clearly documented.

 

Also explains why jump0 starts can work so well on older bikes and as reminder to carry jumper cables no matter what battery you have.

 

Roger, thanks again for another great thread. Appreciate the work and the data.

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For the past three weeks I've been monitoring my starts now that the battery stays at a 100% SOC (state of charge). It takes about 1 second, a little more or less. A couple days ago I cold-soaked the bike to 25F. The battery voltage dropped with temperature to 12.7 volts (from 12.9V).

 

With the fast idle lever in mid position, transmission in neutral so that the starter was also turning the transmission input shaft in the very cold transmission oil, the engine was up and running in 1.4 seconds. Not bad.

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+1 on the interest in this great thread.

 

I've nothing but good success with Odyssey batt's, except for in obvious cases where salty sea air or other issues led to early failures on jet skis and such. 5+ yrs has been the minimum life on any of my Odysseys in various bikes, including the 1150RT.

I use a mish-mash of BT brand tenders, but perhaps I've lucked out and typically been using my higher amperage unit on the RT. I'll pay more attention now.

That said, my machine has always cranked slow (for years), which I thought was the nature of the beast. Sounds like a solution of sorts has been discovered here.

 

But I don't see on this thread any talk of the battery/starter wiring (its probably addressed elsewhere in this forum). On my italian machines with stock, poor quality cables it made an obvious difference to upgrade to the Hi-cap cables. Is that not helpful on the boxers? curious.

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Afternoon GMC

 

The BMW boxers have pretty robust battery cables with relatively short run lengths so voltage drop in the cables is pretty miniscule.

 

Even hot-soak they don't have much voltage drop.

 

That is so unlike many Ducati's that have significant voltage drop in their thin small gauge battery cables (especially when hot).

 

I either replace the Ducati cables or double them (some Ducati's are a pain to access the ground cable block connection so I usually just double those to a different easier access location).

 

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...

That said, my machine has always cranked slow (for years), which I thought was the nature of the beast. Sounds like a solution of sorts has been discovered here.

...

 

What surprised me the most, when I got to the point where I could see that it was either a problem with the battery or starter load, was that the headlights were bright at key on, the starter turned the engine quickly and the OCV was 12.9 volts. Battery seemed good it just turned over longer than it should before starting. No one was more surprised than me that it was "merely" a chronically undercharged battery.

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Afternoon GMC

 

The BMW boxers have pretty robust battery cables with relatively short run lengths so voltage drop in the cables is pretty miniscule.

 

Even hot-soak they don't have much voltage drop.

 

That is so unlike many Ducati's that have significant voltage drop in their thin small gauge battery cables (especially when hot).

 

I either replace the Ducati cables or double them (some Ducati's are a pain to access the ground cable block connection so I usually just double those to a different easier access location).

 

Makes good sense. Glad I needn't fret over buying another set of expensive cables... (this years bike mx budget has been hit hard)

But that doesn't mean we all shouldn't be looking at upgrading our tenders. What weighs against that in my case is that I have had good success with the units that I have (battery tender brand, .9 and 1.2A units) for the last many years (I consider 5yrs to be good success/longevity, but maybe I have the bar set too low).

cheers

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Here's some further information on charging AGM batteries.

 

Although BMW has shipped GEL batteries on its motorcycles, for many years, they have shipped AGM batteries on the R1200GSA from 2006 to present, and on the new R1200GSW too.

 

That being the case I asked Terry who runs a 2010 R1200GSA (and incidentally has dual LC-1s installed) to collect some more data on his bike's charging system. He obliged and took battery voltage data with his GS-911 and also measured the voltage with his Fluke DVM. The GS-911 and Fluke seem to be within 50-100mV of each other so I believe the results are a good representation of what's going on.

 

Here are the results of Terry's measurements from the GS-911:

Ambient Temperature: 55-60F

Charging voltage cold, right after starting: 14.85V

Charging voltage warm: 14.7V

Charging voltage hot: 14.6V

 

At higher ambient temperatures the voltage will come down a bit further but the bottom line is that, like Odysset for its AGM batteries, BMW charges AGM batteries at a higher voltage than GEL or conventional.

Edited by roger 04 rt
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  • 3 weeks later...

With back to back snowstorms here, my bike will be sitting for a while. I've been keeping an eye on state of charge. It is slowly discharging so today I measured the key-off drain on the battery which turns out to be about 7.5 mA. I don't know if that's high or low or normal.

 

When I ran the math, 7.5 mA times 24 hours per day time 7 days per week equals 1.25 amp-hours per week plus a small amount of self discharge. The PC680 is a 16 aH battery so that works out to be a discharge, using rough numbers, of about 10% per week.

 

I plan to recharge the battery weekly for an hour or two.

 

 

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Good evening Roger,

I measured a current drain with key off on my 1150 of 2.7ma and of course that is without an ABS system. Drain on my 1100RSL was 2.5ma with earlier version ABS.

 

Have decided to buy an Optima 400 charger especially after reading the reviews on Amazon. One guy wishes he could give it more than the 5 star maximum. I like the way the Optima automatically performs a battery rejuvenation every 30 days if left connected continuously.

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I pulled the left side plastic again and measure the various key-off currents:

 

Motronic/Fuse 5: 0.8 mA

RID/Fuse 3: 1.5 mA

ABS: 0.3 mA

Kisan SignalMinder: 4.7 mA !!

 

Total: 7.3 mA

Total w/o Kisan: 2.6 mA

 

I'm going to check with Kisan and as if that's the correct stand-by current.

RB

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Afternoon Roger

 

My BMW service data shows (BMW specs)--1150RT, key-off, parasitic draw (no alarm system) at 2.6 mA. So you are right on track.

 

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Afternoon Roger

 

My BMW service data shows (BMW specs)--1150RT, key-off, parasitic draw (no alarm system) at 2.6 mA. So you are right on track.

 

Evening DR,

Thanks for the data point. The BMW standby current is quite good. My plan for multi week storage is to pull the Kisan, fuse 3 and fuse 5.

 

Hi Roger,

Why not connect Signal Minder to energize after ignition switch on? Or maybe just go back to stock turn signals.

 

I was thinking of that but then the hazard lights won't flash with the key off.

 

Kisan's a hog for standby current.

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A quick update: Heard back from Kisan about the SignalMinder SM-5 flasher. The key off standby current is just a little under 5 mA, which effectively triples the standby current drawn by the motorcycle. They have to keep it powered so that the Hazard flashers work with the key off.

 

Since pulling the Kisan and fuses 3 & 5, six days ago and thereby dropping the standby current to 0.8 mA for the ABS input, my PC680 battery voltage has remained constant at 12.84V. This means no need to keep it on a tender or trickle charger.

 

Edited by roger 04 rt
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Hi Roger,

If you remove F5 every time you park the mc for a week or two wouldn't it be kind of counter productive in that the Motronic would have to "learn" your riding parameters all over again each time you decide to go for a ride?

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Hi Roger,

If you remove F5 every time you park the mc for a week or two wouldn't it be kind of counter productive in that the Motronic would have to "learn" your riding parameters all over again each time you decide to go for a ride?

 

You're right, it is counter productive to remove F5. A good compromise is Fuse 3 but then you have to reset the clock.

 

We get a lot of snow. If I won't be riding for several weeks I'll pull them all. Because I boost the fuel pressure by 10%, which matches the 4% more fuel I need for ethanol and the 6% more for 13.8:1, my adaptations are fairly small. I recently reset the Motronic, unplugged the O2 sensor and logged the ride. It averaged just a bit richer than 13.8 which tells me limited adapting.

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  • 2 months later...
roger 04 rt

I thought I'd take a moment for a long term follow up report. Since my 6 full discharge, 6 proper recharge cycles, I had a couple months of riding before we got shutdown by real winter--ice, snow temperatures between -10F and 30F for the most part.

 

As a result, I "winterized" my battery by giving it a full charge (per Odyssey procedure) and then pulling Fuses 3 & 5 and the Kisan signal minder. That drops my parasitic current with the key off to 0.3 mA. The result is that my battery voltage has dropped about 40-50 mV per week. At that rate it would be able to sit for a couple months and still start the bike. However, I have topped it up once a month when the voltage gets to about 12.65V.

 

Charging to 100% not only made starting better, it also has made it easier to store.

RB

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Roger, thanks for sharing all of this! Both my 02RT and 01 1100S had slow starting, rough running issues. After buying the proper charger and some 50W resistors and doing several discharge/charge cycles everything is better in that regard. The Odyssey batteries are much happier now.

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skinny_tom (aka boney)

Okay then, my clock resets when I start my bike on the cold mornings and the PC680 is at least 7 years old. I mostly understand the discussion. I suppose I can find a charger and some resistors but it would be nice for a little walk-through.

 

Like, I dunno, where to put the resistors? I'm thinking that I'd short the terminals, but it's not something I'd do without asking first.

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roger 04 rt
Okay then, my clock resets when I start my bike on the cold mornings and the PC680 is at least 7 years old. I mostly understand the discussion. I suppose I can find a charger and some resistors but it would be nice for a little walk-through.

 

Like, I dunno, where to put the resistors? I'm thinking that I'd short the terminals, but it's not something I'd do without asking first.

 

Tom,

What voltage does your battery measure now?

 

The procedure is a little involved. Basically you discharge the battery at the 5hr rate or slower. Since the pc680 is 19 aH, 4 ohms 50 watts is about right. Diaconnect and remove the battery.

 

Note: During discharge the resistor gets hot enough to badly burn you.

 

Attach the 4 ohm resistor to plus and minus and measure the time it takes to get to 10 v which should be about 6 hours 30 minutes. Measure the discharge time carefully and remove the load then recharge the battery fully. If the discharge time was 5 hours (about 80% of 6:30) then your battery was only holding an 80 percent charge.

 

Next let the battery rest and measure the voltage. It should be over 12.8 volts.

 

Next repeat the timed discharge cycle and see if the second cycle takes longer than the first. If so, recharge. If not your battery is shot. They say you can discharge up to five times if your battery is improving each time. Improving means takes longer to discharge.

 

It is important that you see exactly when the battery reaches 10 volts and the last drop from 11v to 10v happens quickly.

 

There is more detail on how to do this on the odyssey site here: http://www.odysseybattery.com/literature.aspx

 

Let us know how it goes.

RB

 

Edited by roger 04 rt
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skinny_tom (aka boney)
There is also the possibility that given your battery's age that it's not recoverable.

RB

 

That possibility has occurred to me.

 

I'm in the process of digging up the information on a power supply I have for another hobby. It's not programmable, but if I keep on top of the situation, I may be able to use it as a charger instead of spending up to a hundred dollars on one only to find out my battery is no good.

Edited by Tom F. (formerly boney)
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roger 04 rt

After you've discharged to 10 V, you can get the strong recharge they recommend with a hybrid approach if you don't have a 10 amp supply.

 

1/2 hour jumpered to a car battery, not running

1 hour jumpered to car running

 

And if the car vreg is below 14.5 V then a 14.5-15V power supply until the current drawn is zero. They have some instructions about how long to stay at the final voltage.

RB

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skinny_tom (aka boney)

Okay then, I still haven't checked the resting voltage of the battery. It's connected to the bike and had been sitting.

 

My power supply will do 30A continuous, up to 15 volts, so I'm good to go there... Now I have to source a resistor. Radio Crap doesn't have anything near that. Maybe I'll take a ride tomorrow to find one.

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roger 04 rt
I thought I'd take a moment for a long term follow up report. Since my 6 full discharge, 6 proper recharge cycles, I had a couple months of riding before we got shutdown by real winter--ice, snow temperatures between -10F and 30F for the most part.

 

As a result, I "winterized" my battery by giving it a full charge (per Odyssey procedure) and then pulling Fuses 3 & 5 and the Kisan signal minder. That drops my parasitic current with the key off to 0.3 mA. The result is that my battery voltage has dropped about 40-50 mV per week. At that rate it would be able to sit for a couple months and still start the bike. However, I have topped it up once a month when the voltage gets to about 12.65V.

 

Charging to 100% not only made starting better, it also has made it easier to store.

RB

 

Since then, I reinstalled the fuses and Kisan after about 2 months of sitting. Voltage at 12.72. (There was a top up charge 3 weeks ago.) Relearned the throttle. Pulled up the fast idle lever. Hit the starter, 1 second later it was running and idling at 1400 RPM.

 

The new charging protocol per Odyssey (including boosted alternator voltage) worked well, as expected.

RB

 

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skinny_tom (aka boney)

So I've done 5 full discharge/charge cycles. Those who know me of FB know what I've been up to.

 

The voltage of my battery when I pulled it from my bike was 12.5. I went through 5 cycles following the above recommendations, other than the fact that I used a power supply instead of a charger. Following the specs in the Odyssey literature (mostly) I charged the battery at 14.8 volts until it stopped drawing any energy, then put it on a "maintenance" charge of 13.8 for another 8 hours.

 

The most dramatic change was between discharge cycles 1 and 2, with slight but gradual increases for the remaining. The data collection wasn't as good as it could have been but I captured what I was after, and that was to see a change, if any.

 

I'll install the battery next week and see how much better it is in the bike.

VOT-M.png

Edited by Tom F. (formerly boney)
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roger 04 rt

Nice work, good to see the chart. Out of curiosity what did you use as a load? It is somewhat surprising that the rate if discharge got slower at 10.25 V.

 

At the 150 minute mark the 5th discharge extended nicely with the result that you added that 10.25 V was reached at 160 minutes on the 1st run, 180 on the second and nearly 210 minutes on the 5th cycle. Those numbers suggest an initial state of 75% charged, which is consistent with the 12.5V start on discharge 1.

 

It seems like you've recovered your battery.

RB

Edited by roger 04 rt
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