NC30 Lighting issue - bad generator?

[crookzy1]

You should get much better than 5 minutes out of the battery. The OEM 12V 6AH battery can in simple terms supply 6 amps for 1 hour. The load current for the NC30 headlight high beam should be around 10 amps, thus the battery voltage should not fall below 12 volts for at least 20 minutes. This is why the headlight high beam on with engine stopped is a good load test, as suggested earlier in this thread.

5 minutes was just as long as I did the test for. It dipped as low as 12.17V but averaged about 12.23V. I stopped the test when I noticed it was just doing cycles of 12.28->12.17 and back up again. Once the new battery is connected properly maybe I'll try again for a longer period.

[Neosophist]

You should get much better than 5 minutes out of the battery. The OEM 12V 6AH battery can in simple terms supply 6 amps for 1 hour. The load current for the NC30 headlight high beam should be around 10 amps, thus the battery voltage should not fall below 12 volts for at least 20 minutes. This is why the headlight high beam on with engine stopped is a good load test, as suggested earlier in this thread.

Yes i agree its a good load test on the battery.

Even after 20 mins the battery will probably be delepled of enough power to start the bike

The 6ah rating is often given based on a much slower discharge rate, since you are zapping all the power from the battery quickly the deliverd capcitiy is less than that advertised, its called Peukert's law as he wrote the equation to calculator how much power a battery will give at certain discarge rates.

High discharge rate = less delieverd power. I was reading about people building diy electric vehicles only to find their 100ah battery doesnt deliver when being zapped at a high load as the mfg rating was for a 5ah discharge for exmaple over 20 hours..

If you put the nc30 on high beam with engine off for 20 minutes it probably wont start the bike.

besides the nc30 charging system isnt designed to charge deeply discharged batterires so charge it with a standalone system.

but back to the topic your battery seems ok, charge it up with a separate charger if your discharching it quite a bit.

[crookzy1]

In my naivety something I didn't do was check the bulbs. Which were wrong, massively wrong (130/90) and god knows why someone thought it was a good idea to put them in. So with new bulbs the problem is still there, because the old bulbs damaged something? Not quite sure how it works with fuses etc.

[magg]

So you had 2 x 90/130 watt headlam bulbs that were discharging the battery unless you ran teh engine at more than 5000 rpm and now you have fitted the correct wattage 2 x 55/60 watt bulbs. This now causes a problem?

[crookzy1]

I have fitted 60/35s as it is a Jap model and the problem is still there.

I can rule out the battery, r/r, r/r plug which was damaged, bulbs. I am taking it to a mechanic on Sunday, we'll get to the bottom of it then.

On the plus side, new tyres and sprocket set have been fitted :D

[magg]

You still have a battery discharge problem, when and by how much?

Last comments were that the battery was new and the voltage was now 12.2 volts with lights on at idle and 14 volts at 5000 rpm.

With the high wattage headlight bulbs the electrical system would be doing well to maintain 12 volts at idle with highbeam on. 230 watts load instead of 130 watts will cut the discharge time to perhaps less than 10 minutes.

[crookzy1]

You still have a battery discharge problem, when and by how much?

Last comments were that the battery was new and the voltage was now 12.2 volts with lights on at idle and 14 volts at 5000 rpm.

With the high wattage headlight bulbs the electrical system would be doing well to maintain 12 volts at idle with highbeam on. 230 watts load instead of 130 watts will cut the discharge time to perhaps less than 10 minutes.

It is now back to how it was at the very start, 5k lights on has the same effect as idle with lights on (sharp drop to mid 12s, then continues to drop). The original fix for this seemed to be replacing the R/R plug, so I am a bit confused.

[magg]

A faulty rect/reg connector had not been mentioned until your last post. I thought you had a battery voltage of 14 volts at 5000 rpm with lights and the battery voltage only drastically fell at idle?

If you can get 14 volts at 5000 rpm with headlights on highbeam with 2 x 90/130W bulbs, I doubt a dud rect/reg connector is the problem, and 2 x 35/60W bulbs would be no problem at idle.

Low volts at idle is a battery problem. You have a new battery, so that cannot be the problem.

2 x 90/130W bulbs should have stuffed the headlight low beam switch as I believe the Jap version does not have a low beam relay. Does the low/high beam lighting work corrctly?

With 2 x 35/65 bulbs the battery voltage at idle, 5000 rpm and light off/on, should be as indicated in my earlier post.

[Cru Jones]

There's a section in the service manual that explicitly mentions how to test the generator. If you're concerned it's due to that then just follow that procedure to eliminate that. Same for R/R.

[crookzy1]

Its sorted now...a combination of the earlier r/r plug replacement, correct bulbs and just cleaning the light switch unit has worked wonders.