Charging a Li battery

MexicoMike said:

Why? I often start my Norton (Alton E-start) with the batt (Shorai) showing down in the high 12's. Never been a problem starting or subsequent charging.

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The couple times I've done that the voltage dropped to 6 volts when I pushed the button, from high internal resistance. The Shorai charger blinked "severe discharge" mode when I plugged it in. Admittedly, I had started the engine a few times without a working charging system so it's not the battery's fault. I thought it odd though that when I let go of the start button it came back to 13.1.

13.1 indicates a partially discharged Shorai battery. Fully charged is 13.2 to 13.4. Discard all concepts of charged/discharged values
learned from lead acid batteries. Keep this battery fully charged or risk premature failure.

lazyeye6 said:

13.1 indicates a partially discharged Shorai battery. Fully charged is 13.2 to 13.4. Discard all concepts of charged/discharged values
learned from lead acid batteries. Keep this battery fully charged or risk premature failure.

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Roger that. I emailed the SparkBright folks and asked if they had an Eclipse monitor LED that worked with Lithium Iron batteries. They said yes, and proposed these thresholds:



Look reasonable?

maylar said:

Roger that. I emailed the SparkBright folks and asked if they had an Eclipse monitor LED that worked with Lithium Iron batteries. They said yes, and proposed these thresholds:

View attachment 12741

Look reasonable?

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That is different from the standard eclipse I have. :

6. 12V ECLIPSE – STANDARD VOLTAGE THRESHOLDS, OUTPUTS & INTERPRETATION
Voltage Output Engine running Engine stopped (electrics off)
>15.20v  green/red alternating over-charging – regulator problem not applicable
>13.20v  green steady normal charging exceptional battery charge (uncommon)
>12.45v  amber steady under-charging – alternator problem normal battery, charged and in good health
>12.25v   red slow flashing not charging – battery low fair battery charge
>12.05v ●● red 2 flashes, repeating not charging – battery low low battery charge
>11.80v ●●● red 3 flashes, repeating not charging – battery very low very low battery charge
<11.80v ●●●● red 4 flashes, repeating not charging – battery very low consider renewing battery

Tornado said:

That is different from the standard eclipse I have. :

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Yes... that's the point. Li batteries have different voltage characteristics than lead acid.

maylar said:

Yes... that's the point. Li batteries have different voltage characteristics than lead acid.

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I got that...but wanted to check if there truly was a different Eclipse range and not just the same device being stated as Li compatible...

It's a different range, and they said they can set the thresholds differently if I want. I think I'll just order that one.

Anyone else using these EarthX batteries, the onboard protection looks good. I have noticed that many modern bike owners have them fitted with good results, some swapping out the Shorai's. Does anyone know where they can be had in Europe, the US manufacturer gave me the details of a aero parts stockists in the UK. Now I have the Tri Spark rectifier with 14.4V at tickover using just the single phase RM23 it could be a good time to upgrade and have something not so tight in the battery tray.

@Madnorton LAS in Devon - I have bought from them, and they are superb!

Happy with Shorai at the moment paired with the Shindengen series-type rectifier.


EarthX look good - I find it interesting that they are listed at 13.2 volts.

Lithium based (including lithium-ion, lithium polymer, LiCoO2, lithium cobalt oxide and LiFePO4) are 3.6 volts per cell, so normally we would see 14.4 volts on the meter.

I wonder how they reach the figure of 13.2 volts - unless they have a regulator onboard too - which can only be a good thing!

Keep us posted on your findings.