using a voltmeter or multimeter?

[Iahawk]

didn't want to hijack a thread in Xciting 500 on 'battery or stator'...but many times the answer is to first check your battery with a voltmeter.

How exactly do you do this? I've owned a voltmeter for years and have never used it because I never know what in the **** to turn the knob to!

what do you set it on to check your scoot battery?  12:00 is OFF...to the right (Volts side) you have options of 600, 200, 200, 20 and 2. To the left (Ohms side) you have 2M, 200K, 20K, 2K, and 200...

Love to have a clear answer to this....thanks!

[Iahawk]

OK, I may have an answer to my own question...it looks like the black V with a straight line above it means DC volts....and my options here are for 200, 20 or 2. So to check a scoot battery I'd set it to 20? ...and make sure the red probe is plugged into the V plug (not the ohm).

Then start the scoot (have to wait for spring for this) and touch the red probe to positive ad black to negative and look for 14 volts?..not sure the exact volts we looks for to determine a good scoot battery?

[xsel777]

Spot on lahawk.  self-learning, great.... :-)

Sent from my MI MAX using Tapatalk

[CROSSBOLT]

Don't have to wait for spring to see what battery volts are, just red to pos, black to neg, scale like you said Vdc 20 and read the window. You are right to check while engine running to see if stator, regulator/rectifier are putting energy back into the battery. Not running, no less than 12.5 v, running, should show 13.6-14.5 v.

Karl

[Iahawk]

Karl, excellent! thank you! I'm going to save this info...now I can play with my 10 year old but never used multimeter!

Hope this info can help others, too.

[Iahawk]

Hmmmm...just checked and it showed 12.09...should be pretty charged up...hooked it back up to battery tender...but this may confirm the battery is the reason for my recent starting issues..

I've bookmarked the replacement Yuasa battery on Amazon for purchase this spring.

[CROSSBOLT]

12.09 is just about as dead as you can get! Each cell should produce 2.2 v which equals 13.2 volts. Now fully, freshly charged should be at LEAST 13.5 v or so. Check the internet for what is considered dead, charged and normal operating volts for 12 v systems. That will supercede my faulty memory!

Karl

[Iahawk]

Guys, thought I'd do a little homework on battery voltage, charging, etc. Most of the info online seems to be the same regarding the voltage of a battery and its % of charge. This does seem to differ a little based on the type of battery.

I also attached a chart showing the volts and state of charge (gel and AGM batteries are listed down below). Hope you find this helpful.

Minimum voltage
Anything above 2.15 volts per cell will charge a lead acid battery, this is the voltage of the basic chemistry. This also means than nothing below 2.15 volts per cell will do any charging (12.9V for a 12V battery) However, most of the time a higher voltage is used because it forces the charging reaction at a higher rate. Charging at the miminum voltage will take a long long time. As you increase the voltage to get faster charging, the voltage to avoid is the gassing voltage, which limits how high the voltage can go before undesirable chemical reactions take place. The typical charging voltage is between 2.15 volts per cell (12.9 volts for a 6 cell battery) and 2.35 volts per cell (14.1 volts for a 6 cell battery). These voltages are appropriate to apply to a fully charged battery without overcharging or damage. If the battery is not fully charged you can use much higher voltages without damage because the charging reaction takes precedence over any over-charge chemical reactions until the battery is fully charged. This is why a battery charger can operate at 14.4 to 15 volts during the bulk-charge phase of the charge cycle.

[tortoise]

check your battery with a voltmeter . . . How exactly do you do this?

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[CROSSBOLT]

There! LAhawk put the correct info up for all to read! That's the straight skinny! By the way, anyone have the same problem with Tortise' posts that say image no longer available?

Karl

[Iahawk]

By the way, anyone have the same problem with Tortise' posts that say image no longer available?

I see the youtube vids and can click on them to view..but it does say No Longer Available underneath each one..?

[TLRam1]

Here you go

[tortoise]

Testing YouTube URL's . . .





! No longer available



Removing the "s" from the "https" embeds the YouTube video in the post, and using the shorter URL appears to delete the "No longer available" bottom text.

[CROSSBOLT]

Good videos!

Karl

[GLV55]

Or you could test that battery the old fashioned way - with your tongue!