Parasite draw

[Jakub B.]

LCD screen not turning fully off and battery going flat fairly quickly has been mentioned here or there. Happened to me as well. Engineering mind likes to quantify everything so I did little research.
In Guzzi parasite draw is 14 mA, going to 20 mA with anti-theft on. In one of my cars it is also 20mA albeit with much bigger battery, BMW R1200R from 2010 has parasite draw of 2,2 mA and with new Benelli 400 it’s only 1mA. For obvious reasons I did check that on classic bikes.

With standard motorcycle battery and such parasite draw within two weeks half of the capacity is gone.

Would anyone be willing to check parasite draw on his/hers bike?

 

[scottmastrocinque]

Sure.

Although if you want to compare apples to apples, you need to lay out how you went about doing your test.

Did you do the very old school method of connecting a multimeter, set to measure amps, in a series between the negative battery terminal and the disconnected negative battery cable?

Or did you use a modern method of placing the leads of a voltmeter across the terminals of a fuse, to look for a millivolt reading?

Also, there are circuits that remain energized until they go to sleep. Some circuits will stay live for a while until the modules that supply power to them go into "sleep" mode. This time varies depending on the manufacturer and the module, but it can be anywhere from 30 to 120 minutes.

Did you wait for a minimum (2 hour) wait time post turn-off, to allow any module to return to sleep mode?

 

[Jakub B.]

I am old so the old fashioned way is the only way.
Ammeter between ground terminal and the ground lead with one important addition, since the ammeter has only 250 mA fuse and whenever battery is connected there is energise draw I have:

1. Disconnected the battery;

2. Connected negative terminal with the main lead with single wire with clamps;

3. Connected meter in parallel;

4. Disconnect the single wire leaving only meter in series;


I have left meter on for about three hours. No change in reading observed.
The current was 14 mA with periodical peak at 20 mA when red LCD lights up. With anti-theft device on the reading was 20 with peaks at 25 mA.