can a power commander drain battery?

[borto1990]

I went to start the bike after installing the "ultimate" baffles and nothing. actually, it sounded and looked like the lights for nuetral ect were blinkin at me. checked the battery and she was at 6 %. I checked my garmin, which was off, i switched it on. the only other thing I added was the powercommander. which is plug and play so it should not go on till the key is on I assume. anyone have an issue with this?

[cactusjack]

Aren't the only connections to the PCIII the plugs to the injectors and a connection to ground? I installed one a few years back, not really sure.

If that's the case, the PCIII is powered by the injector circuit, which should NOT be on if the bike is turned off.

[borto1990]

that's right CJ.. that's why i am confused. the garmin nuvi 750 has a slide switch to the left. I hit that and it powered up like normal. that is hard wired to the battery with a inline fuse.. had that been on I would understand, but it powered on like normal when I slid the switch. maybe the key was not all the way off?

[cactusjack]

Even if the key isn't all the way off (switch in the lock position), nothing should be powered up. I suppose it's possible you might have a bad PCIII, but I think that's fairly unlikely.

If this is a 1600 Nomad, a lot of us turn the ignition on with the key, then remove the key. When we stop, we turn the switch somewhere between the "ON" and "LOCK" positions, and it shuts everything down as if the switch was in the "LOCK" position. So if you have a 1600, not turning the ignition switch of all the way shouldn't leave any circuits hot.

Is it possible the switch may have been turned past on to the "park" setting where it leaves the tail and running lights on? The Garmin shouldn't need a lot of juice to operate, so it's not a good indicator of the health of the electrical system.

Where did you obtain this 6% number from? Just curious.

[ringadingh]

Your battery may have just died, by having some cells go bad, or you have a bad connection at the terminals, or a short in the wiring somewhere. Charge the battery,clean the connections and see if that works for starters. Then you can keep looking and replace the battery if that doesnt fix it.

[borto1990]

yea, the bike is a brand new 08 1600. the 6% was putting the schumaker battery charger on it and it tells you the percentage of charge on the battery. it only took 15 minutes to get it back to 100. if it was loose connections, wouldn't it just not start, or would that drain the batt? I know the garmin was not "on". does it have a "sleep" mode, I am not sure but to drain the entire battery is something I would think it shouldn't do. especially since I just had it running 2 days ago. I just got my filter, I'll throw that on and run it for a bit and keep an eye on it..

[macmac]

I never mess with a PC III, but Jack has and if he says there is 3 wires only then I have to assume Jack is right. Weird set up.. The way Jack says the PCIII works it can't drain the battery so long as the key switch is off and would have no draw really with the switch just On.. And the GPS no way, not even over night for 2 nights.

I never messed around with a gps, but my idea on that is it doesn't eat 1 amp an hour, and then if it did it would run for 18 hours...

Strange problem so far...

Another thing I wonder about is the key switch has a 'Parking Lamps' possition passing ON, and it leaves the tail light and the amber ft sigs on, which in day light you could walk away from and not really know it..

That might well run a battery flat in 2 days.

[spirello]

I would say its more than likely your gps even if it is off it could stiil pull a little bit of power. I have a alpine stereo on my bike and even with the stereo off if I let it sit for a 3-4 days it will kill the battery. So I put it on a toggle switch with the memmory going to hot and I havent had a problem since. I just flip the toggle to off instead of the power button on the stereo. Hope this helps. And buy the way I also have a pc111 on mine and with the bike off there is no power draw. I checked mine when my battery went dead the first time.

[taranis]

Originally Posted by borto1990

that's right CJ.. that's why i am confused. the garmin nuvi 750 has a slide switch to the left. I hit that and it powered up like normal. that is hard wired to the battery with a inline fuse.. had that been on I would understand, but it powered on like normal when I slid the switch. maybe the key was not all the way off?

That's your problem, right there. Even though the GPS is off, it continually draws current to keep the internal battery charged. Damn near drained my own battery when I left it plugged in overnight. Recommend you rewire that to a switched circuit.

[macmac]

Or run a auto float charger all the time, which everyone here should be DOING!

In season I run a voltmeter and leave it on.. It is on 100% and I can see it glowing in the dark as it monitors the battery and the charger when the bike is plugged in.

I work at home so the bike is plugged when I am working.. The only time the bike is not plugged in is when I am riding. You may leave it unpugged for 8 hours at work, maybe 10.

The battery is a rinky dink 18 Amp hour battery (Ah) I almost find it amazing it can start this engine at all.

And that is likely since the #2 cly has comp relief.