I'm going to buy an Optimate for my bike and wondered if there was a preferred model, 3,4,6 and is there any real difference between them? Why can't they just have one model and save me thinking about it?
Optimate?
- Thread starter GrumpyTwo
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Bendy toy
Registered user
I've got an Optimate 3 which works fine. The canbus friendly versions don't always cope or rather the two sets of electronics don't always cooperate.
Just wire the supplied connector to the battery and plug in the Optimate.
Just wire the supplied connector to the battery and plug in the Optimate.
Any model from the 3sp onwards is good.
morty
Registered user
canbus version has never missed a beat plus you get the standard direct connection aswell.why wire another lead when the bmw one works flawlessly??? if they didn't work they wouldn't sell.
canbus version has never missed a beat plus you get the standard direct connection aswell.why wire another lead when the bmw one works flawlessly??? if they didn't work they wouldn't sell.
+1
canbus version has never missed a beat plus you get the standard direct connection aswell.why wire another lead when the bmw one works flawlessly??? if they didn't work they wouldn't sell.
Worthwhile connecting to the battery direct, because it is a 5min job - and is absolutely foolproof.
Al
morty
Registered user
have you watched the recent episode of ice road truckers when the battery explodes???? that was a 5 minute job aswell.stop fighting technological advancements,go with the flow & stop living in the dark ages.
Bendy toy
Registered user
have you watched the recent episode of ice road truckers when the battery explodes???? that was a 5 minute job aswell.stop fighting technological advancements,go with the flow & stop living in the dark ages.
There have been various threads on this very discussion panel where people have had batteries go flat or sulphated exactly because the Canbus and Optimate did not cooperate properly. For the sake of two little wires and a simple connector why bother with the fancy electronics and error prone software. This Canbus compatible charger is one very good example of technology being used to solve a none existent problem.
Lead acid batteries are far from technologically advanced. There have been improvements of course but they have poor energy storage per weight, poor energy delivery (they give back considerably less than went in), poor temperature stability and they get clogged up with sulphates unless they have a float (aka Optimate) charger. But they do give a high current kick which is handy for engine starting and they are quite cheap.
There's another reason to keep it simple - The Optimate 3 is considerably less money than the 5.
Optimate 3 £43.95
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Optimate-12V-Battery-Charger-Tester/dp/B004TPVUMO
Optimate 5 £71.10
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Optimate-5-Battery-Charger-Conditioner/dp/B007BL766W
morty
Registered user
if we applied that theory to everything we would get no-where bendy.your bike is hugely inefficient so why do you not use a push bike instead? battery technology has moved in giant leaps & bounds but most are prohibited by cost at present but that will change.remenber when mobile phones were £2k - £3k now they're a couple of hundred quid & some have as much processing power as a small pc.i hear what your saying but it is designed for use on canbus so why not use it? c'mon get out of your comfort zone & move forward.
Bendy toy
Registered user
I love to move forward but I get wound up when technology is used to solve nonexistent problems.
Canbus is great but BMW have emasculated it. Just like Apple did with bluetooth (in their defence they have better BT support these days.
Why do we have THREE count em mechanical switches just to drive the indicators? Why to we have simple hot cold and off for the grips when canbus could have given a variety of options. The list goes on.
In mechanical terms why are we still wedded to expensive 4 strokes and wasteful gearboxes?
BRP Rotax have proved that today's 2 strokes are clean, powerful and fuel efficient. So why did bmw miss the boat with the new LC?
Transmissions with helical gears are expensive and waste power. What's wrong with epicyclics as used in bicycles. Clearly we can't have hub gears on a motorcycle but we could use the same tech.
Epicyclics share the load between 3 plant gears. So straight cut makes no noise and wastes minimal energy.
A great deal could be done but all we get is a battery charger that let's me plug it into the cigar lighter socket. Facebook. That itself is another crummy 1960s throwback retained because it's cheap.
Canbus is great but BMW have emasculated it. Just like Apple did with bluetooth (in their defence they have better BT support these days.
Why do we have THREE count em mechanical switches just to drive the indicators? Why to we have simple hot cold and off for the grips when canbus could have given a variety of options. The list goes on.
In mechanical terms why are we still wedded to expensive 4 strokes and wasteful gearboxes?
BRP Rotax have proved that today's 2 strokes are clean, powerful and fuel efficient. So why did bmw miss the boat with the new LC?
Transmissions with helical gears are expensive and waste power. What's wrong with epicyclics as used in bicycles. Clearly we can't have hub gears on a motorcycle but we could use the same tech.
Epicyclics share the load between 3 plant gears. So straight cut makes no noise and wastes minimal energy.
A great deal could be done but all we get is a battery charger that let's me plug it into the cigar lighter socket. Facebook. That itself is another crummy 1960s throwback retained because it's cheap.
I have used a 3sp for years to good effect. For connection, I swapped the canbus driven accessory socket for a Powerlet one now wired direct to a fuse box (installed for a multitude of reasons) via the battery. This makes it a simple operation to connect the Optimate but also gets rid of the 5amp limitation for compressor use and the socket remains usable with the ignition off.
I've got an Optimate 4 with the waterproof connector hard wired onto the battery. It's been foolproof so far and was about £50 including the connector from memory..
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