Gen1 battery woes again!

[gadget]

I had to do a bit of bolt swapping too with the rr85, just a real shame mine turned out to be a lemon.

[SV650rules]

It has a big red notice on my Electrex RR851 that it should not be used with Lithium Ion batteriy..... I have read that the charging requirements of Li-ion are a lot different to lead acid AGM, Gell and flooded batteries ( and even gel although still lead acid need a higher voltage than AGM / flooded ). I have also read that many have bought a Li-ion battery for a bike and had it fail in a short period ( and they are not cheap ). Battery sellers should warn potential buyers that they probably need to change their RR to a Li-ion friendly type - and they must get plenty back under warranty, is that when they say ' did you change your RR - if not the warranty is void' ?

[gadget]

I just used a standard gel battery, the rr85 was dead on two of the tests, pretty sure I was ripped off by the seller tbh.

[embee]

I'm using 3 Shido LiFePO batteries, one has been in the NC700 for about 3 yrs now. I've had absolutely no issues with them, all on FH*** type reg/recs.
It might be more of an indictment of the Electrex r/r than of the LiFePO batteries.
Shido make no mention of checking or changing the r/r, as far as their blurb goes it's plug and play in standard production bikes. Perhaps earlier Li-ion batteries didn't have the onboard regulation that today's versions have?
They have tech stuff available online giving charging requirements. It is not strictly true that you can't use a "normal" charger with them, what they mustn't experience is de-sulphation cycles which some chargers can apply. I charged my first one with a regular charger and monitored the voltage as it reached near full charge to avoid over-voltage. Acceptable voltage/charge curves are readily found if you search. I have since invested in a Li-ion charger.

[gadget]

Ok, thought I would post findings on my Electrex rr85 just to be sure it's not operating as it should.
1/ fully charged battery ...13.10v
2/idle, no lights ...14.02v
3/ idle, lights on full beam ...12.35v and slight lumpy tickover/ misfiring slightly.
4/ 5000rpm, no lights ...13.96v.
5/ 5000rpm lights on full beam ..12.59v.
6/ reg rec temperature after 10 minutes ... 48°c.
7/ engine off, battery still connected ...13.14.
Then after 10 mins ...13.09, then 10 more mins ...13.04, then 10 mins ...13.01.
8/ stator each wire 75v@ 5000rpm, rises and falls with throttle position as expected.
I haven't put my new FH022BA rectifier in yet, just wanted to be sure it's the rr85 that's knackered.
Can I assume from the figures above that the rr85 is not in good health or are there more checks I could try/do?
Thanks peeps.

[SV650rules]

You should be getting 14.4 to 14.7 volts out of RR for a AGM or flooded battery, the 'float' voltage to keep a battery as is without really charging it is 13.6 to 13.8v, and you need more than those voltages with a gel battery. The Electrex RR851 on my SV is 14.5 at tickover and bang on 14.6 throughout rev range..

[embee]

Agree with SV650 above.

[gadget]

Thanks for the confirmation, just making 100% sure the r/r is dead before I change it.

[SV650rules]

Simply cannot believe how cool the electrex RR851 on my AL7 runs, went out today and checked heatsink temp a few times with my fingers, also let bike run stationary in garage when I got back... could not hold my fingers on the shindegen original shunt RR as it ran at over 70deg C. - could easily hold fingers on the electrex it felt no more than 40 degrees. Will try to measure stator and charging current when I get my fancy ac / dc current meter... the big benefits of a series RR are that both the heatsink and stator run a lot cooler.. dc voltage also very stable across rev range. 14.5 at tickover and 14.6 at anything above that...

[SV650rules]

Instead of present situation where I wired my digital voltmeter to front sidelight I may have to wire it back direct to battery as due to size of cables and various plugs and sockets in the wiring loom as I turn LED spotlights which are wired across sidelight via a handlebar switch ( draw less than 1 amp each ) the voltage shown on my digital meter drops bout 0.3volts, in addition to the voltage dropped by LED headlight bulb ( 1.5 amps ) of another 0.3 volts compared to battery direct at battery....

If not direct to battery ( due to battery drain when standing ) a least I will try to get a feed as near to ignition switch as possible and hope that voltage drop there is minimal.

I can see why R/R makers encourage buyers to connect it directly back to battery ( via a 30 amp fuse ) rather than through the bikes loom...