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Electrical system weirdness

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Roy

Roy

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Roy
So it is now cold/cool enough to plug in my electrical heated gear for the morning cummute. I head out in the dark every morning at 6 AM CST. It is still dark then. With my Gerbing heated jacket and Gerbing heated gloves on I notice my headlight on low beam modulating ever so slightly at steady crusie any rpm range. Can't notice it at idle. Never noticed this last year but I will admit to not much night time riding so it could have been doing it all along. So is the 1250 electrical system just plain weak or do I have a problem arising. Battery stays charged fine and I only notice it with the low beam on & gear on, high beam on gear on no modulating of the light that I can tell. Cut the electrics off no modulating so the electrical draw from the gear is causing it. I notice it modulates exactly with the flashing red light on the Gerbing heat troller. I have not hooked up a volt meter to see what is happening.
 
you won't know if the altenator is heavy duty enough until you monitor the voltage output. Seems like your at break even. Neither charging nor discharging. Run the vest or the gloves, one with out the other and see if it changes. If you have a volt meter hook it up and the gear and see what is happening at the battery. This is on the center stand, in the driveway. Ofcourse duck taping the meter to the gas tank and riding is a possiblity:lol2:
 
I assumed all along it could carry the load. All total gloves and jacket are about 100 watts on full high which I am not on high, yet. I had no issues last year with using it that I recall. I do ride with the high beam on 24/7 even at night since its so lame. No one ever bright lights me even with the headlight adjusted up. I just started using the low beam since I knew I was using more power for my electrics. Funny I do not see it modulating when the high beam is on with electrics on. Only notice it on low beam. Bike has almost 20k miles on it not one electrical issue to report other than this.
 
Anyone know what wattage it takes to run the 1250S? 400 watts is total output at 5k rpm's. My gear on high is 104 watts. I came up with 153 watts worth of lighting not counting the 8 LEDs on the dash not sure what they pull. I could not find what the fuel pump or ECM/coils pull either. Running at 5k rpm's would have me speeding everywhere:eek2:
 
First, check the bulb. Could that be the cause of the problem.

If the bulb checks out, does the light modulation stop when you turn your heated gear to low or off?

If it does then I think you have your answer. You could consider converting to HID headlights to save a few watts, they run at 35 vs the halogen 50.

I've installed heated grips (~36 watts on high) and a seat heater (~39 watts on high) Satelite radio (~5 watts) GPS (~7 watts) and a chatterbox (unknown power consumption) along with HID lights for High and Low beam, all on relays, and haven't noticed any modulation. This may be due to the differences in design of the light bulbs though.

Just a thought, keep us posted
 
Where are you tapping power from for your accessories? If not directly off the battery, you could be confusing the regulator depending on the wire gauges (to batt, to accessories) and load involved.
 
Gadget said:
Where are you tapping power from for your accessories? If not directly off the battery, you could be confusing the regulator depending on the wire gauges (to batt, to accessories) and load involved.
Click to expand...


Tapping power from a standard Gerbing connector which connects directly to the battery and is a fused link. My gloves plug into the Gerbing Jacket on each arm.
 
Brass said:
First, check the bulb. Could that be the cause of the problem.

If the bulb checks out, does the light modulation stop when you turn your heated gear to low or off?

If it does then I think you have your answer. You could consider converting to HID headlights to save a few watts, they run at 35 vs the halogen 50.

I've installed heated grips (~36 watts on high) and a seat heater (~39 watts on high) Satelite radio (~5 watts) GPS (~7 watts) and a chatterbox (unknown power consumption) along with HID lights for High and Low beam, all on relays, and haven't noticed any modulation. This may be due to the differences in design of the light bulbs though.

Just a thought, keep us posted
Click to expand...

Headlight modulation stops with gear OFF. Jacket pulls 77 watts and the gloves are 27 watts and that would be on high I assume. Weird thing is I can't detect modulation with the headlight on high beam all the gear on. Only happens on the low beam with gear on.
 
Could it be that the combined light output is washing out the effect of the modulation?

I'm just tossing out thoughts and fishing for an answer here.
 
Brass said:
Could it be that the combined light output is washing out the effect of the modulation?

I'm just tossing out thoughts and fishing for an answer here.
Click to expand...

Could be right. I do not know what to think, do I have a problem, or is it simply normal. Guess I won't know for sure until I put a volt meter on the battery. Bike cranks and runs fine. Battery health appears to be good no corrosion. I did notice some green corrosion on my gerbing plug where water had gotten in there from bike washing/riding in the summer rains. I cleaned that up real good yesterday afternoon with some electrical spray cleaner, still modulates after cleaning.
 
I don't really have any suggestions, but I'm interested in the outcome.

I ran my Gerbing jacket liner (77w) and heated grips (35w) all last winter commuting and never noticed the pulsating. Like you though, I didn't do many night miles though. I do have an HID headlight setup (35w), so that saves me about 20w vs the stock bulb...

I do have a voltage meter on my dash, and with everything going full-tilt, including a GPS (~5w), even on multiple day trips, it never read below 13.5V at idle. I think it was more like 13.8-14V at speed (5k RPM).

Once it cools down here, I'll try to keep an eye out for the pulsating. I've been wondering if my OEM battery will make it through the season... I have no reason to think otherwise at this point.

trey
 
Where can I buy the HID bulbs from? Do I swap both high and low beam bulbs? The stock bulbs are 55w each so I read.
 
Roy said:
Where can I buy the HID bulbs from? Do I swap both high and low beam bulbs? The stock bulbs are 55w each so I read.
Click to expand...

There's a couple of threads about the HID conversion swimming around TWT.

I had a kit from a car I sold sitting in my garage, so that's what I used. You can buy moto-specific kits with smaller ballasts, but there's plenty of room to hide it under the fairing on the 1250. They're usually way more expensive too.

My kit is basically just like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HID-...003QQitemZ130262438452QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

Just a cheap Chinese kit... I bought it on a car forum group buy a couple (3?) years ago for cheap. It's never given me any problems at all, even on the bike in pouring rain.

I only swapped out my low-beam, but if I did lots of night riding I might swap out the high too. Just be aware the the "flash to pass" button becomes less effective if you replace the high-beam since the HIDs need to warm up a bit before they're at full intensity.

trey
 
I also have a pulsating headlight... when the brake modulator does it's thing. I can slightly dim the headlight by hitting the Stebel horn too. I run Gerbings liners (jacket & pants) plus a radar detector with high beam on all the time - most of this for the last 50,000 miles and it still keeps going.

I say forget about it and just ride.... :rider:
 
treybrad said:
I don't really have any suggestions, but I'm interested in the outcome.

I ran my Gerbing jacket liner (77w) and heated grips (35w) all last winter commuting and never noticed the pulsating. Like you though, I didn't do many night miles though. I do have an HID headlight setup (35w), so that saves me about 20w vs the stock bulb...

I do have a voltage meter on my dash, and with everything going full-tilt, including a GPS (~5w), even on multiple day trips, it never read below 13.5V at idle. I think it was more like 13.8-14V at speed (5k RPM).

Once it cools down here, I'll try to keep an eye out for the pulsating. I've been wondering if my OEM battery will make it through the season... I have no reason to think otherwise at this point.

trey
Click to expand...

Well, it turns out I'm a liar. I rode to/from DFW this weekend, most of the time with my heated toys on and was able to pay attention to my voltage.

According to the digital meter I have directly connected to the battery the voltage stays right at 13.0-13.1V with everything going max. 12.9V with my high-beam on as well. What's strange is, it stays right ~13.0V at idle, or at 4,000RPM going 80mph. I don't get any dimming or pulsating that I could notice, but I thought it strange that it didn't drop a little at idle.

I don't usually have everything going full-blast, no matter how cold it is, so it's usually higher than that with the cycling off/on of the Gerbing liner...

Hopefully that's helpful to someone...

trey
 
I did check mine with a high dollar digital volt meter and it was 13.1 at idle with jacket and gloves on high. Without any electrical load it was 14.1 at idle which is within spec. At 5k rpm's it was 13.5 with jacket and gloves on and high beam on, still pulsating at the head light. As soon as the cooling fan came on it bottomed out at 12.6:eek2: with headlight on high, jacket and gloves on. I killed the load and it went back to 13.8. I am not going to worry about it anymore just let the headlight modulate and I keep on riding. Battery is not getting low at all no matter what I do. IMO its a border line charging system just good enough to keep the thing running and any load only makes it struggle that much more. Suzuki must have copied a old english made bikes charging system for the Bandit 1250's.:lol2:
 
I wouldn't consider a 400 Watt charging system borderline. You may want to look for corrosion on the low beam wiring, though. IMHO
 
I would suggest running a larger gauge wire to your headlights with a relay triggered by the stock supply wire . The stockers are marginal on almost all vehicles ; i do this even on my autos . You may even notice increased light output.
 
If the modulation is not an indication of a problem but does continue to bother you. I suggest making the switch to HID lights. You'll free up some wattage, gain some light output and make you more visible to cagers.

My suggestion is that if you do get them, pick up a set that has a light output of 4300K and not 6000K. The 6000K is a bit blushish looking, which personally I don't like and they have a slightly lower lumen output, ~2900 vs. the 3200 lumen of the 4300K lights.

They are installed on both high and low beam on my bike with relays controlling both. No problems or complaints with them and most important to this discussion, no modulation.
 
I don't suppose you could post a diagram for the wiring impaired???:ponder:


Lee

gunzip said:
I would suggest running a larger gauge wire to your headlights with a relay triggered by the stock supply wire . The stockers are marginal on almost all vehicles ; i do this even on my autos . You may even notice increased light output.
Click to expand...
 
Roy said:
but it takes 70% of that to power the bike, just saying.;-)
Click to expand...

then there should be 120 Watts of power available to do with as you please. Do you have actual numbers to prove your 70% statement? I think it is closer to 50%, however, there is still lots of power leftover and the lights should remain steady ASSUMING no OSCILLATING loads on the system.[like a corroded ground??] Just my .02
 
leekellerking said:
I don't suppose you could post a diagram for the wiring impaired???:ponder:


Lee
Click to expand...

LEE: if you can, cut a short piece out of the suspect harness, take it to an electrical supply place for AWG size measurement and get a long enough piece of the next larger guage size[ perhaps going from 18ga to 16ga or even 14ga]. Guage size gets LARGER as number gets smaller. Hope this helps
 
wanabeguru said:
then there should be 120 Watts of power available to do with as you please. Do you have actual numbers to prove your 70% statement? I think it is closer to 50%, however, there is still lots of power leftover and the lights should remain steady ASSUMING no OSCILLATING loads on the system.[like a corroded ground??] Just my .02
Click to expand...

No corroded ground just a pulsating electrical system that puts out what its suppose to but pulsates with the heater controller. That extra wattage is rated at 5k rpms steady, how many folks are going to be at 5k rpms in 6th and still be out of jail? Or you could ride on the highway in 4th at 5k rpms, I do that all the time. Battery appears to be in good health and when not in use (which is rarely) it is on a battery tender. This ain't a BMW charging system never will be. I still call it minimal for the intended use of this bike as was the V-Stroms systems.
 
Actually, I was responding the idea of running a larger gauge (smaller number) wire with a relay to run the lights. I don't have any lighting problems (that I know of) on my bike.


Lee

wanabeguru said:
LEE: if you can, cut a short piece out of the suspect harness, take it to an electrical supply place for AWG size measurement and get a long enough piece of the next larger guage size[ perhaps going from 18ga to 16ga or even 14ga]. Guage size gets LARGER as number gets smaller. Hope this helps
Click to expand...
 
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