Idiot of the Week award...

[Brendan W]

Have awarded it to myself. PO told me to get a trickle charger which I did after a few weeks of occasional slow starting/cranking. As I hardwired it I cleaned up the fusebox, a few plugs and topped up the half empty battery. I thought sure the charging system was toast and the battery shot when I saw it half empty but decided what the hell, top it up charge it up and see. All through winter she never failed to start first time and was mostly on trickle always or so I thought.
Revisiting the earths I find I had hardwired the charger with the wrong polarity.
All this time it has been doing precisely nothing ( polarity protected ) . In fairness to the idiot the charger instructions are in a form of English unrecognisable to man and the manufacturers use of red, orange and green LEDs would cause carnage at an intersection.
Moral of the story. Healthy bikes ridden regularly don't need trickle charging or the bike has been running on Placebo effect for six months.

[Griffin]

Have awarded it to myself. PO told me to get a trickle charger which I did after a few weeks of occasional slow starting/cranking. As I hardwired it I cleaned up the fusebox, a few plugs and topped up the half empty battery. I thought sure the charging system was toast and the battery shot when I saw it half empty but decided what the hell, top it up charge it up and see. All through winter she never failed to start first time and was mostly on trickle always or so I thought.
Revisiting the earths I find I had hardwired the charger with the wrong polarity.
All this time it has been doing precisely nothing ( polarity protected ) . In fairness to the idiot the charger instructions are in a form of English unrecognisable to man and the manufacturers use of red, orange and green LEDs would cause carnage at an intersection.
Moral of the story. Healthy bikes ridden regularly don't need trickle charging or the bike has been running on Placebo effect for six months.

True, very true.

My batteries only get put on chargers during the winter when I stop riding for about four months. Since I use AGM batteries, they really don't even need it then, but it doesn't hurt naything.

[blualano]

Unless you do electrical for a living there's nothing to be ashamed of there. I have drops in my garage for my bikes some of which are ridden quite irregularly and somewhat erratically.

[Brendan W]

Unless you do electrical for a living there's nothing to be ashamed of there.

Guess who used to install 100MW gas turbine gensets for a living?

[chris032188]

Guess who used to install 100MW gas turbine gensets for a living?

Hey listen man.. I may have to nominate myself also.. After I retorqued my headbolts due to a vacuum leak around the head I put the bike back together I took it for a ride. It was running good, but was running super slow.. I road it for a few miles and I'm like damn maybe it just seems this slow because I just got off my sv1000.. Well needless to say I get home and I'm like let me lean out carb a tiny bit.. Well when I go to turn the screw I noticed I didn't put the one spark plug cap back on -_-

After connecting that the bike pulled like normal haha.

[blualano]

Guess who used to install 100MW gas turbine gensets for a living?

Depending on your actual role during installation you may want to consider yourself the "lucky idiot of the week".

We've all done it but that's what wringing and hi-pot tests are for .

[Steve]

All through winter she never failed to start first time ...

Were you starting it up to go for a ride or just to hear it run?

Healthy bikes ridden regularly don't need trickle charging ...

And starting it occasionally without riding it to warm it up FULLY is a quick way to make it UNhealthy.

.

[Vmass]

I read the title and came in thinking I might have finally won something........ oh, well, I won't give up!

[Brendan W]

Were you starting it up to go for a ride or just to hear it run?
.

Always riding. No snow here and we get 100 miles a week in even in the depths of Winter.

[Grimly]

Unless you do electrical for a living there's nothing to be ashamed of there. I have drops in my garage for my bikes some of which are ridden quite irregularly and somewhat erratically.

Guess who used to install 100MW gas turbine gensets for a living?

Max of 1MW here. Guess who had a brainfart when he wired up a charging hardpoint too? Luckily the charger was polarity-sensed and protected.
It's a bloody useful thing though, and I'll be doing it with all of them.

[posplayr]

Have awarded it to myself. PO told me to get a trickle charger which I did after a few weeks of occasional slow starting/cranking. As I hardwired it I cleaned up the fusebox, a few plugs and topped up the half empty battery. I thought sure the charging system was toast and the battery shot when I saw it half empty but decided what the hell, top it up charge it up and see. All through winter she never failed to start first time and was mostly on trickle always or so I thought.
Revisiting the earths I find I had hardwired the charger with the wrong polarity.
All this time it has been doing precisely nothing ( polarity protected ) . In fairness to the idiot the charger instructions are in a form of English unrecognisable to man and the manufacturers use of red, orange and green LEDs would cause carnage at an intersection.
Moral of the story. Healthy bikes ridden regularly don't need trickle charging or the bike has been running on Placebo effect for six months.

I'm not sure that is the only issue here

[Brendan W]

I'm not sure that is the only issue here

Am I missing something maybe ?
For the moment the batt -ve is the spg with two small harness earths and the big frame earth and the R/R -ve. The R/R +ve is direct wired inline fused to the batt +ve. QT on the charging checks out and the battery is 12.6V at rest. I've cleaned so many connections , plugs and grounds I can't say what has done what but everything is brighter, louder and the motor runs smoother.
If I understand the basic direction of your approach it is to make the R/R the primary supplier and receiver of all currents when running and the battery off to the side as a receiver of charge as required.
I've had a look at moving the R/R to the side of the battery box as I don't want to add connections and length to the two small harness earths. Space is tight in there.

[Missile99]

Nice work Brendan. I'd say student of the week instead. You took Posplayr's short statement and researched your charging system thoroughly it seems.

The charger installation caused no problems. I'd be upset but only for a moment. When something goes wrong because of my error (or not the best judgement) it bothers me for quite a while or until I can put it back to normal. (Fried the battery? Hurry, get new battery...... All in the past now.....)

[posplayr]

Am I missing something maybe ?
For the moment the batt -ve is the spg with two small harness earths and the big frame earth and the R/R -ve. The R/R +ve is direct wired inline fused to the batt +ve. QT on the charging checks out and the battery is 12.6V at rest. I've cleaned so many connections , plugs and grounds I can't say what has done what but everything is brighter, louder and the motor runs smoother.
If I understand the basic direction of your approach it is to make the R/R the primary supplier and receiver of all currents when running and the battery off to the side as a receiver of charge as required.
I've had a look at moving the R/R to the side of the battery box as I don't want to add connections and length to the two small harness earths. Space is tight in there.

Sounds like you have been reading and doing a good job. Redo the quick test to confirm you are getting to 14.5 ish at 5000 rpm. Then proceed to revised phase A tests to check the actual voltage drops.
I don't like doing R/r ve(+) to battery ve(+) but you have it that way now.

[Brendan W]

To close this off for the moment. The stator resistances are all 1.2 Ohm , infinite to gnd. I suspect it's newish as the colour is very good. Can't identify the new looking R/R. Three yellow five wire. SCR?
Charging voltage tops out at 14.4V. Checked it out hot and cold ( sneaky things diodes). Looking good for one orbit at least.
Thanks to all for contributing especially Posplayer for all the hard work in sharing insights.