Topic: "Dancing" Voltage?

[nhg2112]

Anyone ever have trouble getting a consistent voltage reading on a lithium battery?

I recently tried to grab a voltage reading while idling and it was dancing around all over the place - going from positive to negative, 3v to 18v. All of this was with the charging system completely disconnected - only system was power from the battery to the coils (5 ohm). Battery is a ballistic Evo 2 8-cell.

I tried getting a reading with a separate, more expensive multimeter and was still having the same issue.

The bike runs fine and the battery/wires aren't getting hot or anything.

Any ideas?

[scottly]

Why are you checking the voltage with the charging system disconnected?? Lithium batteries will show inconsistent voltages when fully charged with a stock mechanical voltage regulator as the regulator points open and close, but only 1 or 2 volts. Is your battery properly grounded?

[nhg2112]

I've got a solid ground. The 'dancing' was happening with the charging system connected too so I tried disconnecting it to see if that was the cause. Still have the mech. regulator, new rectifier. 

Maybe I'm not understanding how the regulator works - does it pulse often in short bursts or is it a more slow, prolonged charge? I was under the impression the battery would drop below 13.5, the regulator would turn on for a minute or two and then turn off.

The bigger issue here is that I can't get a solid voltage reading to adjust the reg so I've been erring/adjusting on the side of not charging it enough.