Heated Gear: Be careful with battery charge!

[Cinco]

To bring some closure - I replaced the stator & regulator-rectifier & added the LED voltage indicator for future insurance.

My new readings are:

Ignition off: 12.8V

Ignition at Acc: 12.4V

Idle: 14.7V

Idle, high beams, heated vest on High: 14.0V

4000rpm, high beams, heated vest on High: 14.7V

So - it looks like this bike's charging system can easily handle the heated vest. :cool

SO hold on. Did you end up buying an aftermarket stator/generator, OEM, or rewiring the old one?

Do you have accessories connected through your battery, or do you have a distribution block?

How about the LED indicator, is it connected to the battery or block? Where did you find your indicator?

And last but not least, did you do it all yourself, or pay someone to do it.

Oh yea, any pics?

 

[torrey.smith]

Argh.

I received the new OEM Reg/Rect and swapped it.

The voltage readings looked great, except with the high beams on or the rear running lights plugged in (tail section removed to get to Reg/Rect).

When those components were activated/plugged in, the voltage dropped into the low 12's.

I wonder if there could be some kind of short that is present.

Leakage current from neg battery terminal to frame with bike off was zero.

I also noticed that the Reg/Rect got pretty hot even at idle. Not sure if that's related. It does have some pretty serious cooling fins too.

I guess I have to RTFM and start checking for shorts... not what I wanted to be doing, mainly because I don't know my way around the entire bike and it's usually dark and F'n cold when I have time to work on the thing.

Anyone recommend a shop that solves problems like this efficiently?

 

[RichK]

SO hold on. Did you end up buying an aftermarket stator/generator, OEM, or rewiring the old one?

Do you have accessories connected through your battery, or do you have a distribution block?

How about the LED indicator, is it connected to the battery or block? Where did you find your indicator?

And last but not least, did you do it all yourself, or pay someone to do it.

Oh yea, any pics?

Yep - I bought a stator and reg/rec from regulatorrectifier.com. When I received them, they both came in boxes marked "Rick's Motorsport Electrics" - so I could've bought straight from Rick's: LINK. Both the stator & Reg/Rec combined were about $300 for the ZX-10R, unfortunately.

The voltage indicator is from CustomDynamics.com. It's $24.95. It is very cool - the single LED lights up for these conditions:

Flashing Green - Voltage Above 15.25 VDC

Steady Green - Above 12.9

Steady Amber - Above 12.6

Steady Red - Above 12.1

Flashing Red - Below 12 VDC

What is great is that the steady green color dims after about 10 seconds, so that it's not super bright at night. For reference, it's dimmer than a normal "neutral" light on your dash.

(Thanks to "Ready To Ride" here on BARF for pointing me to this indicator - it's awesome and inexpensive).

I installed the LED indicator on my dash - it's very discreet and looks like it belongs there. I'll post a picture later (I took a few, but they are at home on my camera).

For your other questions:

- I only have one accessory (heated vest), and it's connected directly to the battery.

- The LED indicator is wired to the ignition switch and grounded to the frame. I used an ignition switch wire that is only energized when the key is turned ON (otherwise, with an ignition switch wire that was always "hot", the LED unit would always be on and draw down the battery).

- I did this myself, and everything was super easy. The stator is just a "bolt-on" job, so is the Regulator-Rectifier. The LED indicator installation requires that you know which ignition switch wire is energized with the key on, but a service manual will tell you that.

 

[ST Guy]

Yep - I bought a stator and reg/rec from regulatorrectifier.com. When I received them, they both came in boxes marked "Rick's Motorsport Electrics" - so I could've bought straight from Rick's: LINK. Both the stator & Reg/Rec combined were about $300 for the ZX-10R, unfortunately.

The voltage indicator is from CustomDynamics.com. It's $24.95. It is very cool - the single LED lights up for these conditions:

Flashing Green - Voltage Above 15.25 VDC

Steady Green - Above 12.9

Steady Amber - Above 12.6

Steady Red - Above 12.1

Flashing Red - Below 12 VDC

What is great is that the steady green color dims after about 10 seconds, so that it's not super bright at night. For reference, it's dimmer than a normal "neutral" light on your dash.

(Thanks to "Ready To Ride" here on BARF for pointing me to this indicator - it's awesome and inexpensive).

I installed the LED indicator on my dash - it's very discreet and looks like it belongs there. I'll post a picture later (I took a few, but they are at home on my camera).

For your other questions:

- I only have one accessory (heated vest), and it's connected directly to the battery.

- The LED indicator is wired to the ignition switch and grounded to the frame. I used an ignition switch wire that is only energized when the key is turned ON (otherwise, with an ignition switch wire that was always "hot", the LED unit would always be on and draw down the battery).

- I did this myself, and everything was super easy. The stator is just a "bolt-on" job, so is the Regulator-Rectifier. The LED indicator installation requires that you know which ignition switch wire is energized with the key on, but a service manual will tell you that.

That LED indicator is halfway useless. It will tell you if you're drawing too much current and drop system voltage below fully charged battery voltage, but it can't tell you if you're putting out enough to actually charge the battery. This minimum threshold is about 13.6 volts. So, it's possible that if you're system isn't putting out enough juice to recharge the battery from it's work of starting the motor, you'll never know until it's too late. It's far, far better to install an actual volt meter that reads in 10th's of a volt. Then you can really know what your system is doing. Datel sells a great on that many guys have installed on their bikes. 40 bucks, simple, reliable.

Also, to get accurate voltage readings, you need to connect directly to the battery. Of course, you don't want to leave the meter on all the time, nor do you want to hassle with switching it on and off (and forgetting), so you use a relay that's switched by the ignition switch. That will automatically turn the meter on and off with the ignition, but the meter will be taking readings as directly from the battery as possible.

 

[ST Guy]

The voltage readings looked great, except with the high beams on or the rear running lights plugged in (tail section removed to get to Reg/Rect).

When those components were activated/plugged in, the voltage dropped into the low 12's.

I also noticed that the Reg/Rect got pretty hot even at idle. Not sure if that's related. It does have some pretty serious cooling fins too.

When the voltage dropped into the low 12's, was the bike running? At what RPM?

The VRR dissapates extra "juice" in the form of heat. The stator is always putting out a all it can (given RPM) and any excess current that is not actually being used by the bike is disappated as heat. Normal. (As long as it doesn't get so hot that the VRR frys.)

 

[torrey.smith]

When the voltage dropped into the low 12's, was the bike running? At what RPM?

The VRR dissapates extra "juice" in the form of heat. The stator is always putting out a all it can (given RPM) and any excess current that is not actually being used by the bike is disappated as heat. Normal. (As long as it doesn't get so hot that the VRR frys.)

Yes. The bike was running, giving voltages in the mid 12's between idle and 5K.