OK I've read the fm (as in rtfm). I've trawled for hours through threads relating to Lithium batteries. But can't find a simple statement that tells me, if I look up the battery voltage on the TFT of my V4, how low is too low? Currently it's saying 12.7V on the TFT with engine off. I read that Lithiums need to be kept between 12.6 and 13.6? But elsewhere on this forum somebody said theirs was fine at 12.2! Can I just hook it up to the device that came with the bike every night and forget about it? And is this thing fit for purpose or should I sling it and get something decent? Optimate? It certainly has POS written all over it but maybe that's all that's needed?
2 issues, Li batteries don’t deliver maximum cranking amps if they are cold and they do not like a constant small current drain say of something like a tracker. The cold bit can be overcome by turning your ignition on and leaving it 15 maybe 20 seconds before hitting the start button. The battery maintenance IMO is best solved by a good quality, Li maintainer. I have a NOCO genius G3500 which I plug in and leave. Andy
I run a Shorai Li battery on my 1098R The manufacturer states to keep the resting voltage above 13.1v and on a bike with no drain, to charge for a couple of hours a month. If your bike has the drain of a tracker / alarm, you'll need to do it more than this. If off the bike and 'on the shelf', it can go for a year without charges. It is important to use a dedicated LiPo charger without a 'desulphating' program. Follow the advice of @Expat Jack & @Android853sp and get a good quality LiPo charger and forget about it. For the 2 bikes I have with LiPo batteries, they are plugged into CTek Lithium chargers all the time. A few times a year I turn them off for a couple of weeks, mainly just to see of the chargers throw up any errors when going through the charging cycle from scratch (I do this with all the bikes tbh)
All 3 of mine are on one smart socket - comes on at 3am and turns off at 7am....they get the chance to discharge again for a bit...
Thanks gents I appreciate the feedback. I think the provided charger is basic although adequate for a healthy battery that has not drained below the nominal operating range. It provides the max recommended (by Ducati tech instruction) 2A constant current and I THINK it switches itself off when the battery is full. So it will do for now but I'll pick up a smart unit later. I don't know if the battery has any built-in protection in the form of a Battery Management System. The manufacturer makes no mention. It does appear to be the simplest battery in their line-up. So another reason to get a charger that has intelligence built in. I used the dicky charger today, started at 12.7V, came back 2 hrs later and the light was green. The TFT on the bike indicated 12.9V-13.0V which is lower than I expected for a full charge (expected 13.6V). Then I started the bike and the TFT rose to 14.1V, as expected, with the generator providing charge.
Doesn't exactly relate to the original post , but some interesting stuff on Lithium batteries in general , and some comparisons . Be afraid of dentrite growth in Lithium .... be very afraid .... Dendrites cause internal shorts .... which lead to fires . And there's plenty more to read at batteryuniversity
