Neutrino and your Battery - Heads Up

[Peteoz]

For those of you running a Neutrino, this may be of interest…..

I never use a battery maintainer as I ride at least once a week and have never found the need.
However, I was recently unable to ride for a month, hopped on the RT…..dead. I dusted off the maintainer, connected it, and all OK the next morning……….but……..

I realised that my Garmin had not auto started……bugger…….loose connection? I’ll check when I get home. Then I realised that my phone was not charging either……hmmmmm? They are both connected via the Neutrino. I then checked the Neutrino, and sure enough, all the connections were electronically switched off. Obviously the Neutrino must lose this info when the battery goes flat, meaning it must have a minute draw on the battery to maintain the settings. Whether this was the cause of the flat battery, or whether something else flattened the battery with the loss of Neutrino settings being a result, I don’t know.

Regardless, I will be putting the RT on a maintainer if it is sitting for more than a couple of weeks in future.

Please don’t turn this into a “maintainer yes or no” war……that is not the purpose of this post. It is more of interest to Neutrino users .

Pete

[Bfromla]

Interesting thanks, have had GPS & IPod get forgotten when down for whatever. Have to remove & charge each on their respective chargers separately. Thankfully batteries survived & now remove units before going to shop.

[Flamewinger]

Never had this problem. The trigger wire is connected to a wire that gets hot when the key is on so it’s not working when the key is off. I’ve not been able to ride much and in a 3-4 week of no riding and the battery is fine. Could be the battery is bad or going bad.

I mean if the Garmin was staying on when the key is off then my spot lights would also be on when the key is off. All my accessories go off and the phone won’t connect to it unless the key is on which powers the black box.

When I install a new battery, I fully slow charge it before installing.

[EdMat]

Pete, the Neutrino does have a very small draw on the battery at all times as does the Spyder itself. If it happened in only a month my bet is for some reason the battery was not fully charged to start with or you are at the point the battery has a reduced capacity.

[Peteoz]

Pete, the Neutrino does have a very small draw on the battery at all times as does the Spyder itself. If it happened in only a month my bet is for some reason the battery was not fully charged to start with or you are at the point the battery has a reduced capacity.

Thanks Ed, that is entirely possible. Over the preceding couple of months, my rides have been shorter than normal as they have dug up the only road into town, so I am restricted to the 30km or so down to the beach and back. It could well be that I have not been getting enough charge into the battery due to these shorter jaunts, thus hastening the effect of the small draw from the Neutrino etc.

The battery is now “fully” charged, so I’ll leave it off the maintainer for a few days and try the battery again to see how it sounds, in case it is going bad. Just for safety, I’ll leave the Spyder on the maintainer until the road into town reopens and I can get back to longer rides.

Pete

[Peteoz]

Never had this problem. The trigger wire is connected to a wire that gets hot when the key is on so it’s not working when the key is off. I’ve not been able to ride much and in a 3-4 week of no riding and the battery is fine. Could be the battery is bad or going bad.

I mean if the Garmin was staying on when the key is off then my spot lights would also be on when the key is off. All my accessories go off and the phone won’t connect to it unless the key is on which powers the black box.

When I install a new battery, I fully slow charge it before installing.

Thanks Flamewinger……..You are running a Neutrino? Yes, it has a trigger that only activates circuits when the Spyder is on, but it is also wired direct to the battery to allow the tender etc to work. I believe the culprit is that the Neutrino draws a minute amount of power to maintain its memory for some reason. So when the battery goes flat, that memory is wiped. It’s a case of the chicken and the egg.

I think Ed may have nailed it. My enforced shorter trips are not getting enough charge into the battery, so it was operating at a reduced capacity prior to me leaving it inactive for a month. Now it is fully charged, I’ll leave it sit for a week or so and see how the battery reacts. Many thanks.

Pete

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Even without a Neutrino the battery will run down in a few weeks due to constant draw from the Spyder electronics. I would say though going dead in 2 weeks is a sign of a battery going downhill. My Battery Bug starts beeping when the battery voltage drops below 12 volts without the maintainer connected. That's usually in about 2 weeks.

[Flamewinger]

Thanks Flamewinger……..You are running a Neutrino? Yes, it has a trigger that only activates circuits when the Spyder is on, but it is also wired direct to the battery to allow the tender etc to work. I believe the culprit is that the Neutrino draws a minute amount of power to maintain its memory for some reason. So when the battery goes flat, that memory is wiped. It’s a case of the chicken and the egg.

I think Ed may have nailed it. My enforced shorter trips are not getting enough charge into the battery, so it was operating at a reduced capacity prior to me leaving it inactive for a month. Now it is fully charged, I’ll leave it sit for a week or so and see how the battery reacts. Many thanks.

Pete

There are other electronic components on Spyders that also continually draw a tiny bit of power. So even if you removed the Neutrino, the battery would still die as it’s on its last leg anyways.

[FrogmanDave]

Thanks for the heads up Pete. I don't run a Neutrino but this is good information for those that do.

[Peteoz]

There are other electronic components on Spyders that also continually draw a tiny bit of power. So even if you removed the Neutrino, the battery would still die as it’s on its last leg anyways.

No. It is not on its last legs, Flamewinger. After fully charging and load testing it, the battery is fine. It has been sitting for three days without being on a tender and it started perfectly this morning showing a very strong 10.5 v under load. It was obviously the month’s worth of short trips, followed by the month of inactivity along with the small draw that created the issue.

Pete

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

No. It is not on its last legs, Flamewinger. After fully charging and load testing it, the battery is fine. It has been sitting for three days without being on a tender and it started perfectly this morning showing a very strong 10.5 v under load. It was obviously the month’s worth of short trips, followed by the month of inactivity along with the small draw that created the issue.

Pete

10.5 volts is not strong. It's .1 volt from letting the cluster go into a jumble when you hit the start button. The Spyder computers won't work correctly if the voltage drops below 10.5.

[Peteoz]

10.5 volts is not strong. It's .1 volt from letting the cluster go into a jumble when you hit the start button. The Spyder computers won't work correctly if the voltage drops below 10.5.

No, that’s 10.5 absolute minimum under full starter load, Idaho, which is perfectly fine. You only need to be concerned if it drops below 9.6. Above that, your battery is in good condition. I always check the battery under load when I first get them just for kicks, and they invariably show around 10.5 on the multimeter. I have never seen any issue with starting at that voltage.
Unfortunately, I didn’t check the battery when it was obviously in its weakened state.

Pete

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Your experience is different than mine, then. I've had the cluster go berserk if the voltage dropped below 10.5 when I hit the starter button. Also, the 2014 RT service manual says the parking brake will not operate if the voltage drops below 10.5. That implies the computers won't function at anything less than 10.5 volts.

[Peteoz]

Your experience is different than mine, then. I've had the cluster go berserk if the voltage dropped below 10.5 when I hit the starter button. Also, the 2014 RT service manual says the parking brake will not operate if the voltage drops below 10.5. That implies the computers won't function at anything less than 10.5 volts.

Actually, the experience may not be different, Idaho. I had one bad battery that was showing 9.5 under load and it wouldn’t start anything. The other times I have checked on “good” batteries, they have all shown above 10.5 and started perfectly. It could well be, however, that if any had read 10.3 or so, I may indeed have had starting issues on the Spyder. I just haven’t seen it

The 9.6 I am quoting is just a voltage recognised in battery circles as being the bottom end of a “good” battery.

Pete

[Steve W.]

Please pardon my ignorance, but what is this "Neutrino" of which you speak, and what does it do for you or the bike?

.

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

The 9.6 I am quoting is just a voltage recognised in battery circles as being the bottom end of a “good” battery.

The good ol' days of being able to start a vehicle if there was enough oomph in the battery to crank the engine are gone. When the battery voltage drops below the threshold the computer needs you're dead in the water!

[EdMat]

Please pardon my ignorance, but what is this "Neutrino" of which you speak, and what does it do for you or the bike?

.

https://www.neutrinoblackbox.com/