Reg rec voltage question.

I fitted a voltage indicator light when I did my wiring upgrades and today it started alternating red/green at me while riding on the A1 in the rain.
According to the instructions that means it is getting over 15.2 volts

But when I pulled onto smaller roads with lower speeds, looking for a dry place to pull over, it returned to normal.

After I got home and washed the bike I started it up to put it in the garage and it indicated red/green again for a few seconds.
Is it time for a new one?

[yorkie_chris]

It is time to get a multimeter on it

Oki doki, resurected my dead multi meter and have some results... All taken at the battery

All off = 12.8v
Ignition on, dip on 12.1v, high beam 12.1v

Idle when settled, dip 13.6v, high 13.5v
5K rpm, dip 14.4v, high 14.3v

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by Stonesie

Oki doki, resurected my dead multi meter and have some results... All taken at the battery

All off = 12.8v
Ignition on, dip on 12.1v, high beam 12.1v

Idle when settled, dip 13.6v, high 13.5v
5K rpm, dip 14.4v, high 14.3v

Same as mine, (not necesarilly good) you could put the multimeter on the reg/rec to double check I guess. They're a bit of a tw4t to get to on the pointys though.

[yorkie_chris]

Looks healthy to me. You could try it with some more revs up to see if it does anything mental above 5k but it's doubtful.

Also no need to take readings dip/main, only 5W of difference between the 2 so the reg rec won't really notice.

Thanks, water must have got in somewhere so that looks like my next job on the bike, find out where and get it sealed.

At least it's nothing to worry about.

[yorkie_chris]

Or your indicator light is faulty. Get a meter with croc clips and tape it to the dash for a ride, see if you can get it to fault. If it is flashing red at 14.5V then it is dodgy indicator light.

Its times like this I wish I was in my old lab job, I could test it exactly using the machine we calibrated multimeters on...

I will create something and carry the multimeter, it will probably not happen again untill the day I stop carrying the meter, sods law and all that

Update.

Got the bugger, water was getting into the generator connector for the reg rec so the connectors were dosed with ACF 50 and well wrapped in self amalgamating tape.

In the workshop manual it says a poor connection in this joint will cause overcharging.

See how long that holds.

FINAL UPDATE!!

The rain on sunday made the light tell me it was undercharging.... The multimeter disagreed with the same readings as before so the light was packed with dielectric grease and subjected to fake rain (washed the bike) and then it really 'spazzed out' under charge, over charge and ok in some random pattern, multi meter said the same as always, 13.5 at idle, 14.3 at anything above 1500rpm (measured at the headlight bulb) so the light is in the bin, the hole in the 'dash' now sports a switch for the dip beams.