Now, the original GU11E apparently has a 20 Ah capacity, which is the peculiar way in which our industry has chosen to illustrate the energy capacity of a battery - it means it is capable of delivering a current of 20 Amps for an hour, or 40 Amps for half an hour, or 10 amps for 2 hours - you get the idea.
Now an Ampere, or Amp for short, is a unit of current, and current is the rate of flow of electrical charge - measured in coulombs. So an Amp is a way of describing coulombs per unit of time - 1 amp represents 1 coulomb per second of flowing charge. So, if you multiply Amps by time (As in Amp x hour = Ah) , you get back to charge again - and units of charge are what is stored in our batteries.
So, in order to get my bike to run for a reasonable period of time without being charged (for when I choose to ride at 10 mph in a traffic queue on the M25 (when did you last see a Square Four do that?)) I need a battery of sufficient capacity to deliver sufficient current for the time I am riding so slowly that the battery is not charging, without running flat and bring the bike to an undignified halt.
You see, according to this chart I draw from the data in the C35SD dynamo instructions combined with some details of the Square Four's performance (and assuming the C35SD runs at engine speed, which it does, more or less) the dynamo does not start charging until you are moving at about 20 mph. So, go slower than this and the battery is draining.
But how much current do I use? Let's work it out:
You see, according to this chart I draw from the data in the C35SD dynamo instructions combined with some details of the Square Four's performance (and assuming the C35SD runs at engine speed, which it does, more or less) the dynamo does not start charging until you are moving at about 20 mph. So, go slower than this and the battery is draining.
But how much current do I use? Let's work it out:
- my headlamp will use up to 55W, which at 6V needs just under 10 Amps to deliver the power (Power, W = Potential Difference V x Current A)
- my tail lamp will use 5W, which needs another Amp
- Lets assume the ignition coil will need 20 W, or about 3 Amps
Which gives us around 15 Amps, allowing for infrequent use of the stop light and horn. A 20 Ah battery will be flat in 1.334 hours, or 1 hour and 20 minutes. Reasonable? Lets hope so.
So we know what we are aiming at - a 6 Volt battery with capacity of around 20 Ah that will fit in my neat little fibre glass box. Since a year or so into having the Bantam, Beattie has been using a sealed lead-acid battery - the electrolyte is treated to form a gel, so it can't flow out, and the chemistry is altered somehow (I'm not that clever) so that when the battery is charged and would normally produce free oxygen & hydrogen, the gases recombine as water, replacing the lost liquid in the cell. This is really neat for a motorcycle, because it means you can fit them wherever you want (they are really small), they don't drop nasty acid all over your bike (how many rusty battery carriers have you seen?) and because they are made for things like burglar alarms, they are really cheap.
The downside is you cannot abuse them as you can a traditional wet battery - if you overcharge them and lose the electrolyte, you can't replace it.
The thing is, I came to use one of these things the first time because I realised the rudimentary (putting it kindly) charge control system on the Bantam was boiling the original wet battery - so I added a modern solid state regulator/rectifier (from the marvellous Rex Caunt Racing) and was able to use a gel battery. The one on the Bantam is tiny - about 3.4 Ah I think, at 12 V, and has coped perfectly for several years. It even remains charged through the winter, something the old wet battery could never do.
So we know what we are aiming at - a 6 Volt battery with capacity of around 20 Ah that will fit in my neat little fibre glass box. Since a year or so into having the Bantam, Beattie has been using a sealed lead-acid battery - the electrolyte is treated to form a gel, so it can't flow out, and the chemistry is altered somehow (I'm not that clever) so that when the battery is charged and would normally produce free oxygen & hydrogen, the gases recombine as water, replacing the lost liquid in the cell. This is really neat for a motorcycle, because it means you can fit them wherever you want (they are really small), they don't drop nasty acid all over your bike (how many rusty battery carriers have you seen?) and because they are made for things like burglar alarms, they are really cheap.
The downside is you cannot abuse them as you can a traditional wet battery - if you overcharge them and lose the electrolyte, you can't replace it.
The thing is, I came to use one of these things the first time because I realised the rudimentary (putting it kindly) charge control system on the Bantam was boiling the original wet battery - so I added a modern solid state regulator/rectifier (from the marvellous Rex Caunt Racing) and was able to use a gel battery. The one on the Bantam is tiny - about 3.4 Ah I think, at 12 V, and has coped perfectly for several years. It even remains charged through the winter, something the old wet battery could never do.
I think you are forgetting about the Dynamo, once is starts generating power it should provide enough power for your lights and horn and any excess can be used for charging the battery. One option is to also use switches for your lights or a different higher efficiency bulb. Perhaps a ESL or even a plasma bulb like what Luxim has made instead. My dad is thinking of running an LED cluster for his bulb, I have a problem with LED light in that I cannot see it clearly so I am planning on building a fitting for a plasma bulb in his 4g. Of course there are other options as well, Lithium batteries, or similar to what you described a Hydrogen Fuel cell which would only use distilled water to generate hydrogen and oxygen gas which can then be recombined to produce electricity. A fuel cell can be made on the cheap from what I understand. If you want to know how I would recommend either make or instructables. But honestly from reading your post it looks like you haven't factored in what the Dynamo produces.
ReplyDeleteI'm deliberately forgetting about the dynamo Sypoth! When the machine is moving slowly, the dynamo does not generate sufficient voltage to charge the battery - that is why we need a battery in a coil-ignition machine.
ReplyDeleteActually rereading allot of the blog, I realized you are wanting it as close to original as possible so I realize allot of my earlier posts won't cut it, I guess the only option really is in the battery. And I also didn't realize you were only talking about slow traffic, I've been trying to find other options, but so far the gel battery looks best, it operates similar to a hydrogen fuel cell, but costs much less. The Mk1 not having a magneto to run the ignition does indeed provide a whole different can of worms than what I'm dealing with on the 4G.
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