Optimate

Message

mrapriliafalco · #1 Post by **mrapriliafalco** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 8:12 pm

Bought one of these off ebay with no instructions,I plugged it in and got a yellow charge light then it flicked over to a unhappy face

.
Does this mean the battery is shagged???? or could it be the alarm making it think it is discharging ?????? or any thing else ???
Cheers last thing I wanna do is shell out for a new battery

blenks · #2 Post by **blenks** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 8:25 pm

Hi, It it normal for lights and indicators to first show that the battery is low on charge. If left for a while, over night you will find that the indicators are all good. If this isn't the case then it is likely your battery is knackered. Mine is on an optimate all the time when not in use and whenever it is initially connected it shows low charge.

mrapriliafalco · #3 Post by **mrapriliafalco** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 8:30 pm

thanks for the advice i will check again tomorrow,thing is i think it was only showing charge for around 20 mins then went to the unhappy face ,looks like its trying to say its not retaining the charge

Falcopops · #4 Post by **Falcopops** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 9:19 pm

I've got an optimate, had it for years, so not sure about the unhappy face thing. Mine would often flip from orange (charging) to red(shagged battery). I knew the battery was OK so I'd just switch off at the plug for 10secs (lets any capacitors discharge) then turn on again and alls's well.

I found that this is normally down to the crappy o/e connector not getting agreat connection.

I resolved this by popping the female connectors out, you'll need one of those thin jewelers screwdrivers to press in the little barbs before pulling it out the back of the plastic block. Squeeze them with pliers to make them a tighter fit on the male connector, splay out the barbs againand push fit into the plastic block. You might hear the barbs click (faintly) into place, butif you pull a little on the wire and it doesn't come out you're good to go.

I did this ages back and never had a problem since.

HTH

paganman · #5 Post by **paganman** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 9:22 pm

Hi, I've got an Optimate III and a datatool alarm. When I plug the optimate in it sometimes shows the battery's shagged, but it's only 5 months old and I've tested it and it is fine. It's the bloody alarm playing silly buggers! So I whack the alarm into service mode and pull the alarm's in line fuse out and it charges fine.
Hope this helps

Falcopops · #6 Post by **Falcopops** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 9:25 pm

I've got a Datatool III too, but never had to resort to such extreme measures, even before the connector mod and certainly never since.

Firestarter · #7 Post by **Firestarter** » Fri Oct 16, 2009 7:23 am

I've seen mine go to red on occasion, but it's never stayed that way, got a Datatool III on it and that's never seemed to have caused a problem for the Optimate.

IIRC, "Red" means a weak battery, which the Optimate will try and regenerate by doing some fancy charge cycle. Or it could be the connections, mine has gone red when I've knocked the connection between charger & bike

mrapriliafalco · #8 Post by **mrapriliafalco** » Fri Oct 16, 2009 8:25 pm

I got a happy face

LOL no one else got these icons on their optimate saves reading instructions.

mrapriliafalco · #9 Post by **mrapriliafalco** » Fri Oct 16, 2009 10:42 pm

mrapriliafalco wrote:I got a happy face
LOL no one else got these icons on their optimate saves reading instructions.

Im so proud of my baby