best voltmeter connection point
 

Hi 2 all.
It is my first post here than I would like to introduce myself a bit. I have got my 650s about a year ago and for now I really enjoy the bike. I started to slowly rebuilding the bike after previous owners "care" and "improvements". the bike has 2007 plates but it is K6 model. the R/R exploded after the first 90 miles of my ownership and pull the stator behind. I replaced the stator, the R/R and quite a piece of loom ( whoever done it before, used wires 3/4 thinner than original). new filters, new oil, new pads.
now the question. even if charging circuit behave well since last failure (about 1500 miles) I develop lack of trust for it. I bought a SparkBright Eclipse single led voltage indicator. where will be the best point to hook it up in to the loom close to the dash? as last resort I will hook it to ignition barell loom but dash area will be preferred to avoid longer wires routing.
Thanks in advance
Best regards
Lukas

Re: best voltmeter connection point
 

Hallo Lukas and welcome to the Org. Can't help really with the electrical question but I'm sure someone with a better understanding of electrics will be along soon!

Re: best voltmeter connection point
 

Hi Lucas, I have a digital voltage meter on my curvy 'S' and it was suggested I connected it directly to the battery, reason being it will read exactly what the charging state is when engine is running and static voltage of battery. My gauge has the option of being able to be manually turned off via a touch button so as not to drain battery when the bike's not being used. The direct to battery option was chosen purely for simplicity tbh but seems to work very well.

Re: best voltmeter connection point
 

Mine is connected to the battery via a relay. The relay is activated by a feed to the rear number plate light although you can use anything that goes live when the ignition is on. My USB charger is connected to the same relay. So these items switch off when the ignition is off saving battery drain.

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Re: best voltmeter connection point
 

my take on gadgets like voltage meters is dont as there is no point. think about it.. by the time the fault occurs its too late. if your paranoid about your bikes charging system then fitting a visual meter is just going to distract you while riding.

if you have done 1500 miles since the work with no adverse effects then chances are that you have done the work properly.

Re: best voltmeter connection point
 

Not sure I entirely agree. If the charging fails on my bike it doesn't mean it'll immediately stop. I can carry on until the battery is flat, either to home or more likely a convenient place to be rescued.

Many bikes used to have a charge light including my 1974 GT185. Old Brit bikes had an ammeter.

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Re: best voltmeter connection point
 

thank you all for the answers :)
It looks like I will have to pull wires to the one of main positive wires after all. hoped to connect somewhere at the dash cluster.
I will try to spline just behind the ignition barrel. one wire is only for ecu feed ( very low load) and should be nice as voltage sensing point.

@Bibio when charging circuit is just starting to go down, the voltage is going down slowly, till your battery is flat and it is too late. is your fuel indicator distracting you?
@admin absolutely true. my 650 died in the middle of Edinburgh bypass. half way between exits and middle line. pretty traumatic for very fresh rider :) .

if you wish take a look at the spec. one small led but can show you the condition of your battery and charging system just as color change.

http://www.sparkbright.co.uk/sparkri...ge-monitor.php

Re: best voltmeter connection point
 

Fwiw, I think that fitting a voltmeter to my curvy was a real benefit especially after the reg/rec issues I had, since changing out the electrical bits the bike has performed faultlessly so no real need to keep checking the charging system every two minutes, but... it's reassuring to know at a glance what's going on as you ride, as said earlier .. my gauge has the option to manually turn it off and doesn't matter if I leave it on accidentally as the current draw is negligible.

Re: best voltmeter connection point
 

I fitted a digital voltmeter to my AL7 and I firstly connected it across front sidelight, but I noticed that it was reading anything up to 0.5 / 0.7 volts lower than my good quality multimeter that was straight onto battery terminals, due to voltage drops in bike wiring. I already had a battery charging lead on the bike, connected directly to battery with SAE plug and weather cover I tucked into frame when not being used ( similar to this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304107732...4AAOSwzxNhGWzL )


I then bought another extension lead with SAE plug on the end, soldered and shrink wrapped connections to the voltmeter and ran the cable along existing loom with cable ties to same position as battery charging lead, now when I go for a ride or just want to check battery voltage I plug the two leads together to connect voltmeter straight to battery, If I want to charge battery just plug charger into fused lead connected to battery... The voltage reading is spot on compared to my hand held multimeter now ( 14.1 to 14.3 volts ). I agree with John T about a voltmeter giving you advance warning of problems - no good waiting until the first sign of trouble with charging is when the ignition starts to cut out. If I get time I will fit a relay like John did and save me having to unplug voltmeter when I park the bike ( although to meter only draws milli-amps ).


Motorbike charging systems are very crude compared to cars and other vehicles, the 'shunt' ( parallel ) R/R just keeps maximum load on stator coils and dumps any unwanted power to the heatsink. I have fitted a Electrex world 'series' R/R to my AL7 ( a series regulator is like a lamp dimmer, it only allows the power needed by the bike to be drawn from stator ) I checked the original Suzuki R/R before I removed it - the heatsink was 75 deg C ( too hot to touch ) and the voltage from tickover to 5000 rpm was 14.5 to 14.7 IIRC, fitted the electrex world series unit ( needed 6mm longer bolts ) and heatsink now runs about 45deg C, and voltage steady 14.2 / 14.3 throughout rev range ). The stator coil will be running a lot cooler as well, I fitted LED headlight that draws 1 amp compared to 5 amps for original filament bulb so the original Suzuki shunt R/R was having to dump an extra 4 amps through heartsink. Cars etc have a wound rotor and can vary the voltage on the rotor to reduce or increase the magnetism of the rotor , this increase or decreases the voltage output of the alternator, meaning the alternator never needs to provide more power than it needs to. Bikes ( although it is slowly changing ) have permanent magnets on the rotor, which mean the only way to control the output is after the alternator, as above SHUNT regulators very crude as they just dump excess pwer as heat, and SERIES ones sort of approaching the system on cars to lighten the load on alternator when not needed, some modern bikes now getting would rotor alternators. The MOSFET ( as opposed to thyristor ) R/R just allows faster switching ( chopping ) of the waveform coming from rectifier bit of R/R and reduce power dissipated in heat by the switching device, but SHUNT R/R will always run a fair bit hotter than the newer series tech ones.



https://www.electrexworld.co.uk/cgi-...2ehtml#SID=439 This has newer 4 pin 12v DC connector (Suzuki doubled up on the + and - pins in plug from 2004 -->)


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Re: best voltmeter connection point
 

I put a volt meter on mine after a R/R destroyed my CDI, dash, battery and blew lights including the headlight.
I wired mine straight to the battery via a non-locking switch. sometimes I just check when walking by to see if I should put the charger on for an hour just to keep it toped up. Handy in these days of covid and lockdowns.