Second regulator ????

[airnuts]

I have been reading all, well most of the posts, about the amount of power the battery and regulator can supply for accessories.  I was wondering if i were to put a second regulator in parallel with the stock one and route all the accessories through that one if it would work....  It seems like the stator supplies enough power that it would work and wouldn't affect the main power system.  I'm thinking it would work, but im just a nooby...   any feback would be great.   

[bill14224]

The regulator isn't the limiting factor concerning electrical power generation, the generator is.

Let's say you wanted to light your bike up like Elvis' Christmas tree and put in a 300-watt stereo and a microwave and coffee pot.  Adding another regulator wouldn't help.  You'd need a generator with more output, and a beefier regulator to match.  Since to my knowledge there aren't higher output generators available that will fit in the engine, you're limited to the output of the stocker, which is 190 watts if I remember correctly.

[utgunslinger13]

I wondered how long to bill chimed in!  Listen to the man, any electrical troubleshooting thats gone on lately that man has gotten it right!

[joshr08]

you could alway strap a honda generator on the back seat and run whatever you want off that....

[airnuts]

  ok thanks ,   just a thought hadn't heard of anyone trying it.  still be neat to see what would happen

[sledge]

This has always been a big question for me......... The max output of the alternator is a grey area, unlike some bikes I have owned I have never been able to find a quoted figure for it in any manual. Given its a 12v system Ohms law says that anymore than 240w drawn off it would allow more than 20A to flow which would cause the fuse the blow. The question is........does the alternator actually have the capacity to deliver 240w and the fuse is there to protect it from overloading and maybe burning out or does the alternator  run out of steam before this without damaging itself?

Anyone, anyone?

[Affschnozel]

Total wattage for E model with all the lights ,pair of blinkers and horn is greater than 250 watts

First gen SV650 is listed in one of the tests in CycleWorld mag at 300 watts at 5000rpm   

Just checked ,the main fuse on SV is 30A , but I don't think that max current ever reached under normal conditions

it's just a protection against shorts and overcharging. 

Anyway they both have similar alternator output so I guess GS is also 300W capable 

[gsJack]

May 69 Cycle magazine in the first ever GS500E road test says it's a 225 watt AC generatator.  That's the one that has more road test data than any mag since including the gearing data I use frequently for reference.  Sadly, Cycle mag was absorbed into Cycle World mag shortly after that.

On the other hand the Aug 04 Rider mag test says charging output is 200 watts max. 

[Affschnozel]

May 69 Cycle magazine in the first ever GS500E road test says it's a 225 watt AC generatator.  That's the one that has more road test data than any mag since including the gearing data I use frequently for reference.  Sadly, Cycle mag was absorbed into Cycle World mag shortly after that.

On the other hand the Aug 04 Rider mag test says charging output is 200 watts max. 

And I just calculated the wattage again for the E model and came at ~ 180W ,so I was wrong in my previous post ,

but it makes me wonder because I run dual headlamps and with them it's closer to 240W and  the battery gets a charge

of ~13V at 5000rpm with all of them on   ( I'll recheck to be sure and report back )

[sledge]

225w sounds about right Jacko, that means a max current in the system of 18.75A at 12v, just below the fuse capacity.

Head light 55/60w lets go with 60W plus pilot 1.7w, add the dial lights 3.4w each total 68.5w
Tail lights 5w each, 10w total
Indicators 21W each 42w total plus pilot 3.4w and say 1w for the relay 46.4w
Thats about 132w total so far.

Put the brakes on and it adds another 42w bringing us to about 174w

Horn? ok it will draw a lot of current but its only for a few seconds at most so its negligable.

That leaves about 50w in reserve to power the ignition system and keep the battery charged up.

[ATLRIDER]

  ok thanks ,   just a thought hadn't heard of anyone trying it.  still be neat to see what would happen

The regulator is only gonna change the AC current to DC current and regulate the amount of voltage going to the battery.  The voltage coming out of the alternator is actually higher than 15v so it any excess gets dumped to ground.  Only reason to piggy back a regulator is to have a backup in case one craps out.  Then unplug the bad one and connect it to the good one.  Honda VFR's have a big problem with overheating the regulators and this option was considered. Overall output (wattage) is only gonna be changed by upgrading the alternator itself.

[ATLRIDER]

May 69 Cycle magazine in the first ever GS500E road test says it's a 225 watt AC generatator.  That's the one that has more road test data than any mag since including the gearing data I use frequently for reference.  Sadly, Cycle mag was absorbed into Cycle World mag shortly after that.

On the other hand the Aug 04 Rider mag test says charging output is 200 watts max. 

And I just calculated the wattage again for the E model and came at ~ 180W ,so I was wrong in my previous post ,

but it makes me wonder because I run dual headlamps and with them it's closer to 240W and  the battery gets a charge

of ~13V at 5000rpm with all of them on   ( I'll recheck to be sure and report back )

Only getting 13v?  I thought this was normal too until I compared btwn 2 GS's.  A 96' put out around 13v & 93' 14.6 which leads me to believe I have a bad connection causing the voltage drop.  Need to check it out.

[werase643]

dueling regulators is a bad thing...one will win eventually

it is why you disconnect the jumper cables after you get the car running

also the reason you start a bike with a car engine off
the car reg is bigger and more powerful...and will eat the motorcycle reg

[Affschnozel]

Only getting 13v?  I thought this was normal too until I compared btwn 2 GS's.  A 96' put out around 13v & 93' 14.6 which leads me to believe I have a bad connection causing the voltage drop.  Need to check it out.

It makes sense in my case,the max is 225W but my setup requires ~240W which is borderline on 20A max current
Ohms law must apply and voltage must drop to maintain the equation though , I'll check the charging under max load and post results latter  
I would've liked to check actual current but afraid of frying the multimeter    

[ATLRIDER]

dueling regulators is a bad thing...one will win eventually

it is why you disconnect the jumper cables after you get the car running

also the reason you start a bike with a car engine off
the car reg is bigger and more powerful...and will eat the motorcycle reg

I agree connecting them together to operate at the same time is a bad idea. Not designed to work that way and don't see the benefit. 

[ATLRIDER]

Only getting 13v?  I thought this was normal too until I compared btwn 2 GS's.  A 96' put out around 13v & 93' 14.6 which leads me to believe I have a bad connection causing the voltage drop.  Need to check it out.

It makes sense in my case,the max is 225W but my setup requires ~240W which is borderline on 20A max current
Ohms law must apply and voltage must drop to maintain the equation though , I'll check the charging under max load and post results latter  
I would've liked to check actual current but afraid of frying the multimeter    

Not sure if it works that way. Regulator/rectifier is gonna put out what's it's designed to regardless of extra load.  That being said, I was also running dual headlights on the 96' (13v) and they're currently being installed on the 93'  That should provide some definitive results.  I'll post back with them.

[fred]

Only getting 13v?  I thought this was normal too until I compared btwn 2 GS's.  A 96' put out around 13v & 93' 14.6 which leads me to believe I have a bad connection causing the voltage drop.  Need to check it out.

It makes sense in my case,the max is 225W but my setup requires ~240W which is borderline on 20A max current
Ohms law must apply and voltage must drop to maintain the equation though , I'll check the charging under max load and post results latter  
I would've liked to check actual current but afraid of frying the multimeter    

Your battery is an additional source of power in the system. If you add too much load, you can start drawing power from the battery instead of sending power to it. It is likely that if you're running a load higher than what the charging system can handle on a sustained basis, your bike will eat batteries. You probably don't notice because the max condition doesn't happen often ie. you're brights aren't on that much...

[Affschnozel]

Checked charging under full load and with no load and for a long time now I suspected the R/R of not doing a good job ,
the results are :

No load  - 12.5V  and the voltage rises actually at idle to 13V at times 

Full load  ( with dual high beams,turn signals,brakes on,horn even ) - 12.7V max ,again the voltage increases at idle sometimes then drops to 12.4V

Alternator coils provide in excess of 111VAC at 5000rpm so they're OK

Just replaced friends R/R unit on his ER5 ,think I'll need to source one for me as well , and I'm ditching the fairings and duals for

SV650 single reflector as they're crap at night anyway

[sledge]

Checked charging under full load and with no load and for a long time now I suspected the R/R of not doing a good job ,
the results are :

No load  - 12.5V  and the voltage rises actually at idle to 13V at times 

Full load  ( with dual high beams,turn signals,brakes on,horn even ) - 12.7V max ,again the voltage increases at idle sometimes then drops to 12.4V

The fact the figures are low and fluctuating makes me think your battery might not be fully charged and consequently drawing power off the system...... I would take it off the bike, fully charge it then do the test again and see if the figures are closer to what the book says.

Only expensive and regularly calibrated voltmeters are accurate to arround 0.5 volt,  take a set of readings on a different one if you can and compare them. It could just be that your meter is reading low.

[Affschnozel]

Yes I'm going to take multimeter(i have two) with me on the bike and check further , the battery btw bought new ,never held 12.6V at full charge

only 12.5V after one day (off the bike) and ever since I got multimeter never seen higher than 14V on it ,friends ER5 at idle gives more than 14V

I cleaned and checked all connectors,everything is clean , next thing I'll do is get another R/R and test with it,good idea to buy hydrometer as well