F800GT battery dead again !!! Help

[Baza]

Hi everyone. My F800GT lives in a rented garage with no power to it so I took the battery out last year when i parked the bike up for the winter & put it on charge with my oximiser till spring. All went well, battery back in bike, first ride of 2022 done, happy Baza. Due to work commitments didn't get out for nearly 4 weeks by when the battery was completely dead. Nothing lit up on the display. Bought a new battery thinking the old one was dead, fitted it & away I go, great. 1 1/2 weeks later the new battery is dead !!!!! The only thing that has changed on the bike is that I fitted a USB port to the bars for sat nav/phone charging which is plugged into the DIN socket within the body work. So can anyone tell me if this DIN socket is permanently connected to the battery regardless of ignition switch position ? If it is then that is where the drain of power is occuring, if not I'm a bit stumped.

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

9 hours ago, Baza said:

Hi everyone. My F800GT lives in a rented garage with no power to it so I took the battery out last year when i parked the bike up for the winter & put it on charge with my oximiser till spring. All went well, battery back in bike, first ride of 2022 done, happy Baza. Due to work commitments didn't get out for nearly 4 weeks by when the battery was completely dead. Nothing lit up on the display. Bought a new battery thinking the old one was dead, fitted it & away I go, great. 1 1/2 weeks later the new battery is dead !!!!! The only thing that has changed on the bike is that I fitted a USB port to the bars for sat nav/phone charging which is plugged into the DIN socket within the body work. So can anyone tell me if this DIN socket is permanently connected to the battery regardless of ignition switch position ? If it is then that is where the drain of power is occuring, if not I'm a bit stumped.

Why not try connecting a device to the socket with the ignition off? You will know for sure then if it has power all the time.

 

If it's not the cause of the drain disconnect the earth lead between the battery negative terminal and the frame then put a multimeter between the negative terminal and the frame set to read current flow. If there's current flowing pull the fuses one at a time until you identify the circuit that is leaking.

 

It's often easier to undo the earth lead at the frame bolt and bridge the lead to the frame, depends how accessible the battery is and how many accessories are connected to it 

[Fozzie]

The USB chargers have a small voltage regulator inside them to knock the voltage down from 12v so it doesn't fry your phone. These can often stay live and essentially draw a small amount of power, which isn't a big deal day to day, but 4 weeks might be enough to stop it starting. 

 

Check to see if that is staying live when the bike is off, and go from there. Something is draining the battery, does the bike have an alarm? The internal battery on those can go bad and sap the main battery. 

[Bender]

I fitted an Oxford USB socket, it was drawing constant power so I ran it through a relay switched from the permanently on running light 

[jedibiker]

surprised if usb doing it but I hear hit and miss with it. will depend on make etc. as above a relay is best option and not hard to do

[JRH]

USB’s will draw approx 5 to 6mA even when not charging. So that adds up when left for 4 weeks, then add on any parasitic draw, can be enough to pull the battery down.

[John Metcalfe]

I've got a DIN plug on my 1994 K1100LT which is permanently live. Mine is located down on the left handside mounted into the coil mounting. I've used this to connect my charger when bike off road for any length of time. 

I've wired extra usb and other accessory connections for phones and sat nav  plus one into the topcase so "she who shall be obeyed" can have her kindle on when on long boring motorway trips, anything for peace and quiet, into mine but they are only live when the ignition is on, also they are all connected via individual relays so as to reduce power drain etc.