Shorai lithium battery discharged to no volts

[CrackerRican]

Went to start her up this past weekend to take advantage of the nice weather we been having here in Florida & nothing, no voltage on the lith. battery. So I put it on the charger that's for this type of battery for 24 hrs. & still no voltage. I read somewhere that if the voltage drops to low that it damages this type of battery. I just started have voltage problems recently & I'm getting ready to install R1 r/r. & check my stator. I'm gonna let the batt. stay on the charger for a few more days on the store charge, but I think this batt. is toast. Im not sure if I'm going back to the shorai lith batt. The damn thing is expensive to be this finicky.

 

[one2dmax]

I know the Earth X batteries we sell have a low voltage protection feature. They disconnect when the battery gets low. It has to be "jump started" with another battery to get the voltage to spike and turn back on then charge as normal.

Sean

 

[CrackerRican]

I know the Earth X batteries we sell have a low voltage protection feature. They disconnect when the battery gets low. It has to be "jump started" with another battery to get the voltage to spike and turn back on then charge as normal.

Sean

I'm doing some research on the shorai now, might give it a try, thanks Sean

 

[D-Max2012]

With Lithium Iron, or polymer, if you have a parasitic drain, Clocks, Alarms, etc, it can destroy the battery if it drops too low, but that normally takes some time to occur.
Flying RC Heli's taught me that one..

Shorai recommends that If the bike is going to sit for a long time, disconnect the battery from the system and use their balance charger.. The charging system must be within specs also. Shorai does offer some replacement protection, but they might not replace 100% of the cost, depending on time and situation.

 

[CrackerRican]

With Lithium Iron, or polymer, if you have a parasitic drain, Clocks, Alarms, etc, it can destroy the battery if it drops too low, but that normally takes some time to occur.
Flying RC Heli's taught me that one..

Shorai recommends that If the bike is going to sit for a long time, disconnect the battery from the system and use their balance charger.. The charging system must be within specs also. Shorai does offer some replacement protection, but they might not replace 100% of the cost, depending on time and situation.

I don't think I have a small voltage drain on the bike, the shorai has been in for 2 1/2 yrs now & no problem. I think my r/r might be the problem & the batt. hasn't been charging while I was riding & I let it sit for 2 weeks because of hectic schedule lately. I have the batt out & on the shorai charger now. I'm gonna try to install the R1 r/r today, if not this week. Hopefully the batt will charge back up, if not I'll have to get another one soon

 

[D-Max2012]

Once you get the bike started, are you getting the recommended volts at idle and when revved up?

 

[CrackerRican]

Once you get the bike started, are you getting the recommended volts at idle and when revved up?

When I notice the voltage problem It was down in 12 Vdc range, & I forgot to put batt on charge

 

[D-Max2012]

Reason why I asked.. Last week I put the Shorai Battery in my 91.
I was at 12.6 before start. After cranking her up, the voltage went to 13.8 in less than 2 minutes at idle. It calmed down to around 14.2 after letting her idle for about 10 minutes. i noticed that the voltage actually drops as you rev-up. I'm sure that's the RR doing its job. Over compensating a bit, but doing its job non the less. :biglaugh:

 

[D-Max2012]

The reason for asking about the parasitic drain. It sound like too many things would have to fall in place for it to be a R/R issue. You would have had to drain the battery completely while riding, not noticing any problem, then park the bike, THEN, after 2 weeks, turn on the key and not see ANYTHING on the dash or fuel pump prime. The bike is completely quite. OR, your bike was running normally and something was draining when the key was off for two weeks...

Maybe I'm being too analytic about it :ummm:

 

[CrackerRican]

Reason why I asked.. Last week I put the Shorai Battery in my 91.
I was at 12.6 before start. After cranking her up, the voltage went to 13.8 in less than 2 minutes at idle. It calmed down to around 14.2 after letting her idle for about 10 minutes. i noticed that the voltage actually drops as you rev-up. I'm sure that's the RR doing its job. Over compensating a bit, but doing its job non the less. :biglaugh:

Mine was doing the same thing, as I rev up volts would drop, idle volts would come up.


I may have a small voltage drain while the bike sits, but won't know until I get another batt.

 

[D-Max2012]

If you have an Alarm or VRS like Lojack, or a running clock..
Maybe a GPS USB connector, that has a voltage converter wired directly to the battery, if so, it could be wired to a connection that is hot (without the key on).
Keep all of these in mind when your trying to diagnose this.

 

[CrackerRican]

If you have an Alarm or VRS like Lojack, or a running clock..
Maybe a GPS USB connector, that has a voltage converter wired directly to the battery, if so, it could be wired to a connection that is hot (without the key on).
Keep all of these in mind when your trying to diagnose this.

I do have a usb port, so I'll check that as well

 

[dannymax]

Reason why I asked.. Last week I put the Shorai Battery in my 91.
I was at 12.6 before start. After cranking her up, the voltage went to 13.8 in less than 2 minutes at idle. It calmed down to around 14.2 after letting her idle for about 10 minutes. i noticed that the voltage actually drops as you rev-up. I'm sure that's the RR doing its job. Over compensating a bit, but doing its job non the less. :biglaugh:

Same thing with my '86.....Odyssey PC680 tho, not Shorai....14.4 at idle, 14.1 while cruising.

I was having all sorts of odd issues, then a PC680, late model R/R, crimp by-pass & di-grease in all the connectors (including all fuses) and nary a problem since.

 

[Redbone]

If you have an Alarm or VRS like Lojack, or a running clock..
Maybe a GPS USB connector, that has a voltage converter wired directly to the battery, if so, it could be wired to a connection that is hot (without the key on).
Keep all of these in mind when your trying to diagnose this.

I do have a usb port, so I'll check that as well

The USB is most likely your culprit as I had the same issue with my PC680 which was drawn down to flat. With the PC680 I was able to recover most of the capability of the battery by charging it on a 10 amp charger for 8 hours (per Odyssey instructions) The USB needs to be on a switched connection to prevent the discharge.

 

[dannymax]

An empty usb port can draw power? Damn, I never would have guessed that.

 

[CrackerRican]

An empty usb port can draw power? Damn, I never would have guessed that.

Me either. I will put a switch on the the usb port, & I'm still swapping out older style r/r for R1 style. The the shorai battery will only charge to 6.8 volts, & as soon I take off the charger it discharges to 0.

You guys using the pc680 battery, whats the spec on it, cca

 

[D-Max2012]

An empty USB port can draw power? Damn, I never would have guessed that.

Yes it can, because your USB device works off of 5 volts. Your bike runs on 12 volts, so you need a voltage converter to bring it down, (that little black box connected in line with the MiniUSB connector). If that's connected to a non-switched connection to the battery, it will slowly drain it without the engine / alternator running.

 

[D-Max2012]

The the Shorai battery will only charge to 6.8 volts, & as soon I take off the charger it discharges to 0.

That battery is toast.. If you planned to go back with Shorai, they do offer some limited warranty.. You might be able to get a replacement for 1/2 the cost or more. Check with their warranty options. http://shoraipower.com/customer-service

 

[Redbone]

Me either. I will put a switch on the the usb port, & I'm still swapping out older style r/r for R1 style. The the shorai battery will only charge to 6.8 volts, & as soon I take off the charger it discharges to 0.

You guys using the pc680 battery, whats the spec on it, cca

I didn't either until my battery went flat from it in winter storage, luckily I was able to recover it. I had another pc680 that was going on 6 years old that I left the ignition on with the high beam running for about two weeks. I bought a new PC680 and the following winter I left the USB plugged in...it wasn't until March that I discovered that my battery was dead. But I have used the battery all summer long with out issues, I did upgrade my R/R and all the associated connections just to be sure the charging system was optimal.
Here is the info from Odyssey's website: http://www.odysseybattery.com/extreme_battery_specs.aspx

Info on charging a "dead" battery:
http://www.odysseybattery.com/documents/ProceduretorecoverdeeplydischargedODYSSEY.pdf
Larry, you may try the process of using a good battery to raise up the voltage to near 12.8v then try charging it following the Odyssey procedure. I'm not sure it will work on the lithium batteries but it's worth a shot.

 

[D-Max2012]

Strange, Odyssey does not seem to list a compatible battery for my 91 (Which is the same for many years of Vmax's).