Car Charger - can it be used

[Shaheed]

Hi All

Don't know much bout electricity, but know that my bike (NC30)wont start and the battery (which is 2.5 weeks old (?new)), is sounding like its dying a slow death.

I own a car charger, but it kicks out 4.5Amps per hour, and the references on the net say to trickle charge at less than 1 amp per hour (0.7 in fact).

One site reckoned that if you fit a 20-25W light bulb in serial to one of the terminals of the charger, it would lower the Amp rating going to the battery.

Does anyone know if this is true!??! Would the Amps drop if a lightbulb is connected in series? I dont want to blow/damage my new battery, but I wanna get to testing a fully charged battery with a multimeter!
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Why wont this $*&%$# VFR start?!?

[baldy]

I use my car charger to charge my battery no problem. Just take the filler caps out (if it has any).
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One day i will rule the world, just not today.

[tatters]

its ok to charge a bike battery with a car charger, all that is bollocks and does,nt really matter l,m a electrical engineer and should know better but l,ve always used a car charger on bike batterys, just don,t leave it charging for too long, just till the charger dial drops to were battrey is taking little/no more charge
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[tatters]

[Shaheed]

Thanks for all the info!

If I do the calcs, then a fast charge should be for about 40mins!?
and a full charge should be about 2 hours.

What is the time that it should generally be left on for, given that the battery aH=8 and the charger is proving 4.5 amps? Can it be left on for longer than the 2 hours, without it damaging the battery?
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Why wont this $*&%$# VFR start?!?

[Frost]

just listen to the battery. fizzing = good, bubbling = bad

[mchaggis]

If you're wanting to lower the current flowing to the battery, you want to connect a bulb or something in parallel. I used a car trickle charger on mine without any trouble.

[Kickstart]

Hi

I would say you can use a car charger, but possibly not on some newer style sealed batteries (not sure what battery your bike uses).

A car charger finished off the sealed battery for my 1200 Bandit.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Shaheed]

[Frost]

[Zx6man]

you can go get a small bike batt charger for less than a tenner, why risk damaging a battery??

[mr jamez]

[Kickstart]

Hi

People fit larger capacity bulbs so that they can see more at night.

The NC30 charging system is quite marginal. The manual lists it as up to 6 amps at 5000rpm, which at 15.5v is only 93 watts. With 2 60/55 watt headlight bulbs (UK spec version) at 5000rpm you are draining the battery and putting the regulator / rectifier under maximun stress.

For comparison an early CBR600 is listed as 315w output at 5000rpm.

UK spec battery was a YTX7A-BS.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Zx6man]

Mand P do one for 15 quid, still better than taking the risk. You do really need an optimate, I have one for each bike and are very good, although about 35 notes each.

[Shaheed]