Got it at last

[Matt D]

Bloody great picked up my red with gray side panels and black seat 1200GS from SPC on Friday. It was well worth the wait, the ride home in the pouring was even good fun.
So if you see a red 1200GS in Gosport Hampshire its me.

P.S.

Whats the loww down with using an Optimate 3 charger, can I attach it straight to the battary or do I have to go through the accessory socket.

 

[gazza]

You will get lots of different solutions to this charging method, but I have hard wired my optimate lead to the battery and its worked faultlessly since I got the bike. Others suggest you need to buy a bike specific BMW charger. The decision is yours.

 

[kiwiAdventure]

Bloody great picked up my red with gray side panels and black seat 1200GS from SPC on Friday. It was well worth the wait, the ride home in the pouring was even good fun.
So if you see a red 1200GS in Gosport Hampshire its me.

P.S.

Whats the loww down with using an Optimate 3 charger, can I attach it straight to the battary or do I have to go through the accessory socket.

Have some great fun with your new 1200gs

I have never needed a battary charger and I often leave the bike for a month. While the bike is under warranty I would use the BMW charger if you need one at all.

 

[zeus2534]

i bought a new adventure last month - it comes with a gel battery - i have used my optimate charger via the power socket with no problems whatsoever - enjoy your new GS

 

[Mouse]

Because of the 1200's funny(*) electrics, a charger plugged into the accessory socket needs to be "intelligent" and be able to tell the bike to charge the battery from the socket. Or something like that

The upshot is, you can plug a BMW charger into the accessory socket but any other brand shoud be connected directly to the battery,

Disclaimer - this is just remembering what I've read here in the past, I haven't got a 1200 (yet).

(*) Was thinking of the CAN bus, and it reminded me of Johnny Depp in Once Upon a Time in Mexico - "Are you a MexiCAN or a MexiCAN'T?" sorry.

 

[Matt D]

Thanks for all the replys. I'm waiting on a call back from SPC to see what they recommend. However, I'm sure they will recommend their extremely expensive battary charger. I do find it hard to believe that the charger has a sense line directly into the accessory socket. Does any of the other BMW acceessories have comm's lines as well as pwr?
Can anyone can get hold of the circuit diagrams? In a previous life I was a CAM bus designer for Jaguar.

 

[Emoto]

Thanks for all the replys. I'm waiting on a call back from SPC to see what they recommend. However, I'm sure they will recommend their extremely expensive battary charger. I do find it hard to believe that the charger has a sense line directly into the accessory socket. Does any of the other BMW acceessories have comm's lines as well as pwr?
Can anyone can get hold of the circuit diagrams? In a previous life I was a CAM bus designer for Jaguar.

What happens is that the bike disconnects the accessory outlet in ~15 minutes, so you need a charger that tells the system to keep it alive, otherwise in a quarter hour, you'll be charging nothing. There is also a warning in the owner's manual IIRC to disconnect the battery from the harness before charging directly.

 

[Matt D]

Interestingly SPC have told me that connecting an Optimate III directly to the battary will do no damage to the bike in any way. They have also had this confirmed by BMW UK.

Emotto
Normally a pwr socket is switched on and off by the electronic control unit (ECU) via a FET output stage, this function will be timed by the ECU. Which would mean the battary charger would need to talk to the ECU via the socket on the CAM bus. Easy way to check this is to count the number of wires coming in/out of the socket. If the socket is intelligent their should be four wires. I will have a look tomorrow.

 

[AndyT]

Interestingly SPC have told me that connecting an Optimate III directly to the battary will do no damage to the bike in any way. They have also had this confirmed by BMW UK.

I can't imagine they would say anything else as the battery doesn't stop working when you switch the ignition off...

I think the only issue is using an auxillary socket to charge the bike. There is a procedure in the handbook which seems way over the top if you ask me. Over complicated the whole thing..they're lovelly bikes though

Just my tuppence.

AndyT

 

[(RIP) Kaister]

In a previous life I was a CAM bus designer for Jaguar.

I thought daimler did the engines - not jaguar ??

Which bit did you design - i like the conductors bell.....