Battery Drain/Solar Charger

[Bogdan]

I have a 2004 R1150R.. I have no outlet where the bike lives. I can run a cord to hook up my trickle charger but can't leave it for more than a day. I'm down 2.2 tenths of a volt per week. I've received contrary answers when asked about this; some say it's normal - others that it's not. I'm regularly out of town. After a month not in use, the battery is down in the 11 volt range and thus will not start the bike. Has anyone installed a switch to the cable grounding the battery ? Also.....anyone have experience/thoughts as to a solar charger/tender. Battery stuff has a 3 volt unit for $27.

Bogdan, who's posting here for the first time.

[towerworker]

I have a 2004 R1150R.. I have no outlet where the bike lives. I can run a cord to hook up my trickle charger but can't leave it for more than a day. I'm down 2.2 tenths of a volt per week. I've received contrary answers when asked about this; some say it's normal - others that it's not. I'm regularly out of town. After a month not in use, the battery is down in the 11 volt range and thus will not start the bike. Has anyone installed a switch to the cable grounding the battery ? Also.....anyone have experience/thoughts as to a solar charger/tender. Battery stuff has a 3 volt unit for $27.

Bogdan, who's posting here for the first time.

Hopefully your 3v number is a mistake. A 3 volt solar panel will do nothing for you. You need 12+ volts from a panel to help maintain the battery. Your switch question while I've never heard of anyone doing this sounds very doable and a pretty good idea. But another option would be to pull the fuse to the clock and the motronic. Pretty sure that would eliminate any current draw on the battery.

[AZBMWRIDER]

How old is your battery ??

[Bogdan]

I'm not sure how old the battery is. I bought this bike last June. I seem to remember the previous owner - an independent tech in Saskatoon - telling me that it was 2 years old; it's an Odyssey which is supposed to be a good brand. Yes.... the charger that I'm considering is not 3 volt but a 12 volt 3 watt
https://www.batterystuff.com/solar-c...2.5Wframe.html Pulling the fuse to the clock and motronic would be a simple solution - thanks for the suggestion. I'll have to find out which fuse it is. I suppose I'd have to reprogram the system. BTW the ride back, from Canada to Colorado, was a good way to be introduced to the motorcycle.

[sjbmw]

Same problem here, no power in my shed.

I rigged up a solar charger for my R1150R, and my honda nighthawk.
Gets me through the winter without having to run a tender out there.

This solar panel comes with a cigarette lighter connector, and I verified it works with BMW gel batteries.

http://www.batterymart.com/p-50102-2_5- ... panel.html

Then, a cigarette lighter powerlet connector for you accessory socket.

http://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/powe ... et-adapter

put the panel in the most sunshine, and run the unit to you accessory socket. The cable is about 6 feet.

This setup will not charge a dead battery, but it will keep a fully charged battery topped up for months.

[towerworker]

Since you have an Odyssey (which I do as well) I suggest you go to their site http://www.odysseybattery.com/ and read closely their battery tender/charging recommendations. Their batteries seem to require special attention when it comes to charging. I apparently damaged a 3 yr old Odyssey in my '04 R by using a Battery Tender Jr on it. I sulfated a cell and I have a new Odyssey sitting on my bench to go into mine today. I'm now looking for an Odyssey approved tender to replace what I've been using. The Odyssey branded chargers are pretty pricey.

[Bogdan]

SJBMW verified that yes....you can maintain with a solar charger. Towerworker mentioned pulling fuses. That seems like a plan until I acquire a charger. A question for Towerworker - and anyone else. Tower...you mentioned pulling the fuse for the clock, #3 I believe - that I understand as the clock runs when the bike sits. You also advised pulling the fuse for the motronic, #5. Does that mean the motronic has an inherent parasitic drain ? BTW I couldn't find charging advice in the Odyssey site. Guess I'll look again.

[towerworker]

Bogdan--
I know that the motronic loses certain bits of information when the battery either is disconnected or in the event of a total battery failure. Information like throttle position settings, fuel map information and there may be more. There is a throttle position reset procedure you should perform each time you pull battery power. So the only way that info can be kept is to keep power to the computer and that means parasitic current draw. I don't know how much in terms of milliamps but I'm sure it's small probably akin to what the clock pulls if that much.

The following copied from the BMWMOA site.
"The Motronic MA 2.4 can be reset by removing Fuse 5 or disconnecting the battery. Resetting clears out fueling corrections know as Lambda Control Factors and Long Term Fuel trims. Resetting also clears out the TPS voltage range which has to be relearned by rotating the throttle fully from stop to stop with the key on, engine not running, immediately after reset."

From Odyssey...

®
Publication No: US-ODY-TM-002 - December 2014
http://www.odysseybattery.com
Parasitic Loads
With the proliferation of more and more electronic
equipment in cars, trucks, motorcycles and powersports
equipment, the phenomenon of parasitic loads is becoming
a serious problem.
Parasitic loads are small currents, typically of the order
of a few milliamps (mA) that the battery has to deliver
continuously. Retaining memories and operating security
systems are common examples of parasitic drains on
batteries in modern systems.
On the surface it would seem that such small loads would
not be a factor in the overall scheme of things. However,
since parasitic loads can be applied on a long-term basis
(weeks or months is not uncommon), the cumulative amp-
hours (Ah) extracted from the battery can be significant.
For example, a 10mA draw on a motorcycle battery will
discharge it by 0.24Ah per day. If left unchecked for 30
days, that small 10mA parasitic load will discharge a 20Ah
battery by 7.2Ah – a 36% depth of discharge (DOD).
Regardless of the application, it is important to make sure
your battery does not have a parasitic load; if there is a slow
drain, connect the battery to a float (trickle) charger that
puts out between 13.5V and 13.8V at the battery terminals.
Physically disconnecting one of the battery cables is an
alternate method to eliminate the drain.

For whatever reason I could not properly copy the page concerning battery charging so here is a link to that page. Page 13 of the document covers charging. http://www.odysseybattery.com/documents ... 2_1214.pdf

[Bogdan]

Much thanks, again, for the input. Since I know about how much voltage the battery loses, I think I know what I'll do initially. I'll pull just the clock fuse and see what change that will make. It decreases 2.2/10 volts per week now; if I cut that in half, it will loose around 4.5/10 volts in a month. If I start at, say, 12.8 volts, I should be at 12.35; that should start the bike. Only one way to find out: pull the fuse and apply my $10 Harbor Freight multi meter.

[CycleRob]

Bogdan,
If you are going solar, you'll need to make the money invested spent wisely . . . that is do NOT skimp on the price for small panels that have less than 10 Watts (.83 Amps) of power. Besides the low power, their mediocre quality means they become dull from sun fade, and die from broken inter cell connectors in two years or less.
I checked the net and came up with theses 2 options (totalling $64) that would work well together, behave as almost the functional equivalent of a 120V AC charger in that they would be able to make up for time lost if sunlight is not available for 5 days of rain -and- last a long time. You'll need to add the 14 AWG wiring needed, keeping the total lengths as short as possible. Mounting and aiming the panel requires some expertise, so mounting security and full power is utilized. BTW, the bad 1 star customer reviews added on the charge controller are from those mixed in from the 5, 10 and 15 Watt Tender solarpanel/controller combos on the same page that had poor ratings because of the connections and solar cell panel's quality.

Solar Panel Dimensions: 20 x 14 x 1 inch; 5.3 pounds ($46):
http://www.amazon.com/Infinium-Solar-Pa ... oduct_sims


Charge controller ($18):
http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-02 ... ref=sr_1_4

[Roger 04 rt]

If your pc680 battery is fully charged it can easily last a month. A full charge is about 12.84 volts and 50% charge is about 12.2 volts. So that's 12.8 mV per percent loss. So you're losing almost 2% per day. The pc680 is a 16 amp-hour battery so you are losing 0.32 aH per day. This means your leakage current is about 12-13 mA, which is nearly three times a stock bike (4.5 mA).

What else do you have connected to the battery: e.g. Do you have an alarm, extra lights, Kisan Signal Minder?

Whatever charger you use on the pc680 make sure the trickle voltage is in the high 13s, e.g. 13.7ish. That's what an AGM battery requires.

Once you find the source of the excess current, pulling fuses 3 and 5 will get the leakage down to about 0.5 mA. Then you can go 2-3 months without a charge.