On Aug 27, 2010, at 10:56 PM, Nick Woods wrote:
>
> Looks to be very nice quality! I'd be tempted, but with my own cheap
> upgrades to the main power links and an Odyssey battery, my ST4
> already starts in one second.
>
Hi Nick,
Just going to address some of your questions since you brought up some
important points. Doing this helps me develop the FAQ area for my
site. So I appreciate your taking the time to comment.
> It strikes me that allowing the starter to receive more current and
> spin faster does not, per se, make more voltage available to the ECU
> and injection gear.
>
Well the problem is that the electricity is not sitting there in the
battery all stored up and ready to go like most of us think it is.
It's actually stored more as a potential that is released during the
lead and sulphuric acid chemical reaction. So when the bikes
electrical system needs more current than is on the surface of the
plates the chemical reaction pulls ions out of the lead plates,
creating the current and it flows out of the battery. Some bikes will
only start after you hit the button for 3-7+ seconds and sometimes it
takes 2 or 3 of those "hit the button" events for the chemical
reaction to generate enough electricity to overcome the resistance in
the starter circuit. Once the resistance in the circuit has been fed
the battery still needs to get enough current to the starter and the
ignition system. Big BMWs often start this way (many of the BMW
starter and electrical systems are less reliable/capable than those on
our Ducatis).
On my Youtube before and after videos you can clearly see the battery
voltage dropping into the 8-9 volt range on the problematic bikes (and
as I show you earlier in the video, these batteries were fully charged
before we stressed them). Once the HICAP is on the bike they start
without dropping much below about 11 volts. As you can imagine the
ignition coils will be creating bigger sparks with 11-12 volts vs. if
they only receive 8-9 volts. And some ECUs do expect 12 volts or more
since the standing voltage on most batteries is 12.2 or so (which you
can see the voltage drop to once the ignition is turned on but before
the starter button is pushed). Many ECU designers assume the bike will
have 12 volts available and they design the circuit to work with that.
So all of the above issues tend to add up to create the wide range of
starting problems. Different bikes have different amounts of each
problem and we get the wide variance in starting efficiency, your bike
starts fine while another bike might be almost impossible to start etc.
But if the resistance in the starting circuit is brought down to the
absolute minimum - all the bikes start in about 1 second.
So that's the basis for the HICAP, unless the starter is damaged or
the battery is on its last legs then installing the HICAP gets
virtually any bike to start right up. A 30-90 minute install and the
rider is done with his starting problems. And the HICAP is purposely
over-engineered so that it can have the reduction in efficiency that
any copper based circuit will experience (over the years) and still be
able to start the bike in the shortest time possible. Kits are still
starting bikes in 1 second after 6+ years out in the field and those
bikes do not necessarily have an Odyssey battery.
I never claim that the HICAP with it's high purity copper construction
will not lose some efficiency, but I do claim that due to it starting
out with so much greater capability that it will start your bike
quickly for a longer period of time than any other method or system.
Thanks,
M./
Michael Heth
mheth@motolectric.com
Monday, August 30, 2010
Re: [DucatiST] Motolectric HICAP more info
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