Battery Question

[cbk7]

I've got a 2007 Attak GT and bought an Optimate III and hooked it up via the leads (using the supplied Weatherproof Permanent Connector ring lugs) to keep the battery charged over the summer.

One thing I've noticed is that I never see the Green "GOOD" Maintenance LED come on. The yellow "charge" LED stays on all the time. (link to the picture http://www.tecmate.com/images/products/OptiMate3.jpg).

Looking at the optimate3.com website, they said that there may be a hidden load - would that be the case since I didn't totally disconnect the battery or do I have something else going on?!?!?!

Thanks for the help....

 

[RIYAMAHA]

Try taking the lead off an putting them back on ! have done this before an all is good. Have un pluged power, then pluged back in an it worked ok.

 

[bottlerocket]

I have a 2 amp electronic battery keeper that goes into fault mode after about a half hour of charging. I'm not wanting to dismantle the sled to keep the battery up. I have tried everything. Called the company hot line and they say check for a open circuit ~ must be the standard anwser!!

 

[Blue Dave]

I have the Yamaha Star Charger which is basically identical to the Optimate III charger. I will get a yellow light for a while and then always will get the green light eventually.

The sled's computer will obviously have a very small (milli amps) drain to keep the clock going, but this small of a drain should not cause a problem.

To be sure you could remove the battery from the sled and see if you still have the same problem getting a green light on your charger with the sled completely out of the circuit.

 

[rxrider]

What Blue Dave said, remove the battery from the sled and connect the Optimate III directly to the battery. I have seen them + and - cable shoes come loose, when that happens on a sled in operation the battery slowly looses power and eventually it drains out. With a loose cable shoe the battery will not take enough charge to get fully charged.

 

[WeSled2]

I am only going by what my dealer told me. The Optimate system is to help prolong battery life. It will actually drain your battery and then slowly recharge it to help extend the life.?! True?, I am only going by what I was told. I have noticed , walking into my garage on several occations, that my light is always a different color. Sometimes red, sometimes yellow and rarely green but I have seen it. Therefore I tend to believe my dealer, for once! lol

 

[rxrider]

The Optimate III battery charger is an electronically controlled charger. It can charge all gel type batteries that a cnventional charger cannot. Yes it will charge and discharge the battery if it finds out the battery is weak, and shock charge it in cycles to try and recover the battery's capacity to hold a charge and to increase the amount of amps the battery can hold. What I have found out is that it may take a week or two before the battery is fully charged if the Optimate III is able to recover the battery.

 

[cbk7]

Update: Finally got around to taking the battery out this weekend... getting the clamps holding the air box onto the throttle bodies loosened was a huge pain. After taking the battery out and hooking up the Optimate III, it worked fine - Green "GOOD" Maintenance LED came on after about 30 min. If anyone else is scratching their heads on this by using the leads - take the battery out!

 

[apltx08]

I've been using a OPTIMATE III now for 3 years and works fine...the way I hooked it up is threw my 12 volt acc. outlet, I back feed to the battery, I HOT wired it to the battery with a in-line fuse and when I come to use the sled you just have to un-plug it and go...I'll post picks when a get a chance.

 

[Blue Dave]

Using the accessory outlet works great. You just need to re-wire the accessory outlet so that it is fed directly from the battery with an inline fuse near the positive battery terminal. By disconnecting the accessory outlet from the factory wiring and connecting it instead directly to the battery it will be "hot" all the time.

This however is electrically no different than using the supplied "pigtail" to connect the charger to the battery. The fact that CBK7 has to completely disconnect his battery from the sled's electrical system to get a good charge still has me puzzled.

CBK7, I can think of a a couple of possibilities: perhaps there is something wrong with your charger "pigtail" (high resistance connection). When you removed the battery and connected "directly" did you use the pigtail? If not, try connecting directly to the battery (out of the sled) using the the pigtail it to see if it is the cause of the problem.

The other possibility is that you may have some sort of a drain in the sled's system with the key off. A small (milliamp) drain is normal for the computer (clock), but this should not matter.

Have you made any electrical modifications to the sled?

 

[cbk7]

Hey Blue Dave - I've made no modifications to the sled at all - stock all the way. When I was using the leads on the sled I tried the supplied weatherproof permanent lead and then the battery clips - both had the same result. At first I thought perhaps the charger was bad, but tried it on some other batteries and it worked fine.

Good point though on trying the different connector now that the battery is out.

Still has me scratching my head...

Thanks

 

[yamadoo]

I had the Optimate harness attachted to the battery and it is yellow charge at first then after the charge it goes green. Usually in less than and hour, never really timed it.

I switch the optimate from sled to sled through out the summer. No batteries lost since I started using the optimate

Yamadoo

 

[apex yooper]

Just curious. Why would you use the accessary plug instead of the great, convenient plug that Yamy installed?

 

[Blue Dave]

If you are talking about the two large gauge cables that Yamaha installed for jump starting, they are not as convenient for routine battery charging as the "pigtail" connector that comes with the Optimate charger.

The Optimate "pigtail" connects directly to the charger using a male / female quick connector. However on my Yamaha Star charger (which looks like the Optimate), the "pigtail" is just short enough to require the removal of the side panel to access the connector.

By re-wiring the factory accessory socket directly to the battery you can use a charger cord with the male accessory plug end and simply plug it into the outlet for charging.

 

[apltx08]

I had the Optimate harness attachted to the battery and it is yellow charge at first then after the charge it goes green. Usually in less than and hour, never really timed it.

Same here...when you first plug it in the YELLOW will remain on for a undetermined period of time and eventually go to GREEN once it has reached its optimum voltage and if your battery is in GOOD condition and hasn't been negleted in the past...

I've read a article talking about our type of battery "MF" shouldn't drain bellow 12.75 volts during storage or it will affect its PERFORMANCE and should ONLY be charged or maintained by APPROVED chargers ex:OPTIMATE III, trickle type chargers are its worst enemy!!!

If you see with a OPTIMATE charger that it won't charge or go to GREEN you might have to pull your battery out and hook up to it directly to it to DESULFY it...if you read the instructions that come with the charger it explains or check out this video link... http://www.optimate-sp.com/om_eng.wmv