Time for a Mini Volt Meter?GDMFr!!!

[Admiral Beez]

Today I wired up a socket charger to my 1982 GS650G, from handbar to auxiliary fuse box port and then inserted my recently bought plug in combo USB charger and volt meter. I bought this setup to I can monitor my volts on the move, and charge my cell phone. So far so good, 12.5 - 12.8 V in idle, peaking over 17 at 4,000 rpm and up.

17 V sounds like a lot. It's at the fuse box, not the battery.

[bwringer]

Admiral, I'm afraid you have a bad voltage regulator. 17V is far too high.

[Buffalo Bill]

Admiral, I'm afraid you have a bad voltage regulator. 17V is far too high.

That's gonna roast a battery real fast! Probably dipping acid out the drain hose when you get home, if it's a wet cell.

[Steve]

Of course, that's IF he makes it home without roasting the ignitor.

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[Admiral Beez]

That's gonna roast a battery real fast! Probably dipping acid out the drain hose when you get home, if it's a wet cell.

No problems so far. I have noticed my headlight drops a little when I apply the brake, which led me to get the volt meter. But I’ll get the multimeter out and test the volts at the battery poles. Maybe my Chinese socket charger or the accessory connection at the fuse box is off. Is it possible that the voltage to the fuse box is higher than what goes to the battery?

First things first though, working on sheered hub splines.

[LAB3]

Lotta very good ideas here. Voltage specific diodes get the minimalist award, Gorminrider.
An accurate meter will tell over and under voltage, with human monitoring it can help track slow degradation of the charging system.

Agreed on the minimal award, the simpler the better! Used to vent my battery box on my off grid place with a zener diode in the wiring up to a muffin fan mounted in the vent pipe of the battery box, it ran when the batteries where gassing.