08-24-2014, 07:00 PM
(08-24-2014, 05:48 AM)meowguy_imp Wrote: As a follow up....I was able to get a small charge into the battery using a 12v wall wart charger. I got it up to 6 Volts. When I connected the Honda Optimate Charger, it kicked into charge mode. So the battery is charging now. If it goes into "complete" mode, then I guess I must have just left the key ON, but I would be surprised if that was the cause.
Stay tuned....
Glad you were able to get some charge into the battery as one of the characteristics of the modern "smart" chargers is there needs to be sufficient voltage for the charger to detect connection and condition. There are 2 ways to go about this if your battery is that discharged, and the first one is what you've done:- initially use an old school charger that pumps out a consistent voltage / current , irrespective of battery voltage or condition to raise the voltage in the discharged battery sufficiently for the smart charger to operate (then disconnect the old charger and re-connect your smart charger), the other is to connect your smart charger and a slave battery to trick the smart charger into detecting the higher voltage (of the slave battery), and start the charging process. Then about 30 minutes later disconnect the slave battery and continue charging the discharged battery. (But make sure you turn the power off before disconnecting / re-connecting chargers / batteries). I'm not sure about the minimum voltage threshold that a smart charger needs to function but I think its around 5 Volts.