so ive been avoiding the bike what with this cold spell. and i came home tonight where the missus tells me some alarms been going off all evening … its the bike. i guessed the batterys going flat and thats setting the alarm off. after much ado ive managed to wire up the optimate 4 to the bike and it seems to be doing the trick, its now 2am and the neighbours are well annoyed… so would i be tbh.
having a look through the manual for the datatool system 3 all it says is theres an intelligent low battery mode but i guess the battery went so low that wasnt helping. so its been on charge for about 30 mins now with the connectors screwed securely to the battery. the croc clips wernt doing it! not what i expected.
but is there any way to silence the alarm if the battery is this flat? it would just start wailing every 10 mins or so! if i didnt have the charger handy would it just keep going all night? i think ill pop round to woodford motors tomorrow to get some advice.
when the key’s in ignition and turned, press and hold the left (oval) button for a few seconds until you hear a beep. Then take the key out.
The only prob is that in Service mode the DT S3 will beep once every 15 seconds. Not loud, about the same as when (de-)arming the alarm.
I found stuffing a few old rags over the alarm when I had to do it does dampen the sound a bit
service mode and some rags. check. as good a idea as any. a quiet beeping alarm is better that a 10 minute persistent screamer… :doze:
annoying that no where in the manual does it say if the battery goes flat it goes bananas. so be warned. would be nice if the thing warned of battery level going low beforehand.
well finally got the optimate leads screwed into the battery posts. so i have my connection point under the pillion seat now. i can plug in the charger without having to faf around too much. do it now folks, makes life easier…
was on charge overnight but according to the optimate, battery must be on its way out. will leave it on the charger until tomorrow wont do any harm.
can i leave the optimate 4 connected to the battery on the bike for extended periods? i have a solar trickle charger i could use in future if thats the best way.
oh and all that handy work was at 1 till 2am last night, after getting home after a few beers … … … great fun that was … ah well
Sorry to hear about your issues with the bike battery and alarm. Great you are getting it sorted with a handy optimate. It may need a new battery, as you say, but optimate seem to do a good enough job rescuing batteries which are on the way out.
You can leave an optimate on as long as you like - I leave mine on whenever I’m not using it - and the battery has been okay. It shouldn’t wreck the battery. (If it does - well I apologize in advance:D )
well 1am, -5C and off goes the alarm again! argh!!
been reading and if a battery is not fully charged it can freeze causing all sorts of problems. so thats the news i guess keep the battery on the optimate permanently during freezing weather.
a 40 min each way commute is not enough apparently to fully charge bike battery.
when I don’t use it my bike is on the charge at all times, I had the problem with alarm going off when I used to charge it then take it off… could be due to power loss thinking someone is tinkering. Could also be the snow, wind etc… cats foxes?
On the datatool s3 I think you can disable the alarm by pressing the black button then the grey and the black again… or the other way around. I had my bike on the trailer once and I didn’t know how to do that so the alarm kept going off every few minutes having to switch it off by remote:)) fun drive
5am woken up by an alarm. … -4º last night. … frikken bike alarm been going off again. This time bike has been on the optimate for a few days. And its showing all green lights last night. I was anticipating this. …
I don’t think this use case was factored in. grrrr
edit: had to go into service mode with a rag stuffed under the seat. optimate also now flashing green/yellow this morning. got to be freezing battery again.
I never saw the point in alarms, all they do is go off at the wrong time, cause disruption, and flatten batteries.
I have never heard once someone say, alarm went off and it scared the thieves away or people chased them off. I have heard lots of stories off bike was alarmed and chained don’t know how they stole it.
I hate alarms - just a parasite sucking the power out of the battery and prone to immobilising the bike and stranding you when they malfunctuion - if I buy a bike with an alarm one of my first tasks is to cut the thing out.
also +1 on what kev said… best option is to remove alarm really. if you want something that goes off and noone pays attention too just get an alarmed disklock
I sympathise, except if you live in London without a garage (oh don’t you have a garage sir? yeah right), then some insurance companies refuse point blank to insure you.
They insist on a Cat 1 Thatch alarm which apparently means you can be insured.
I’m not looking forward to having one fitted and would hope it would be easy to disarm, however, these things have so many things built in to stop tampering I can see it being a problem.
Interested to hear of the outcome to your problem.
I hate alarms, they don’t work, kill batteries, annoy the
neighbours and worst of all give me tinnitus when the
buggers go off when I’m working on MetalReds bikes :w00t:
I don’t have them on my bikes.
The R6 has an immobiliser, as standard, and it has a pretty
little flashing red light that flashes when the bike is parked.
And I use an optimate for the R6, as I don’t ride it regularly,
it’s on there permanently while it’s parked.
