Argus Battery Bug

[gordonv]

I recently installed a used Argus Battery Bug I got from a fellow GW rider, he went to a GL1800 and remove it from his GL1500.

I installed it for my recent long trip, to monitor the health of my bike, but it behaved differently than I thought. I found the owners manual online, and read it, to try to figure out what it was doing.

Charging when driving was find, a nice 14.1V.

But the % I though was my over all charge, turn out to be my battery health, the "age" of the battery. When I installed the Bug, I was at 42%. After the 2200km trip, I'm now at 37%.

So if I understand the manual correctly, I am now at 37% of the life of the battery, like 1/3 left. When I get down to 10%, it's time to replace the battery.


Anyone else have experience with the Battery Bug, and it's expected battery health?

[Bone]

Hey that is pretty neat gadget.  Did a search and watched a 5 minute  YouTube.
Below is the link for the video;

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDwQtwIwAw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DAyya5kOMmyY&ei=5_q1U9HQCoOwyAT4_YDICg&usg=AFQjCNHwuRLNQnhGfNs6dfQnJ7iSpVgIUw&sig2=W1wXi5Hc276NdvusCTbt5g

[gordonv]

Thank you, that did make more sense of how it works. Also lets me know there is a low charge for the battery also, incase I draw too much power while riding (radio and all the heated gear for my wife and I).

[Bone]

If accurate the information of the charge before things shutdown could prevent a breakdown.
Traveling alone on holidays your options for help and parts is limited a warning is priceless.

[Brian]

I have been using this product for over two years now. The battery I had then went down to the warning I replaced it. That old battery is now it's second summer in my 13hp riding lawn mower. I question the battery life reading so I installed a momentary push button in the Argus circuit to reset it periodically back to showing 100%, this way I can monitor the battery with each start. I do not think these are still being made anymore. I feel a regular volt meter would do the same thing. FYI, I have my spot lights wired independent of the start button through a relay. If these are left on at starting I will see that voltage drag on the reserve percentage left on the battery. I think this piece of black box technology is only recording the voltage drop at each start. Seeing that the old battery is now going on 10 years I have to question the operation of this meter.

[Robert]

While a volt meter will tell you current battery charge level unless you put a load on the battery and have something to measure voltage under that load then you will never know the true condition of the battery. Its a neat idea but there is one fatal flaw the bug does not know the load being applied to the battery and the size of the battery. Charge condition is also another hard to determine factor that this will not be able to determine. If you measure battery voltage on most batteries unless they are dead voltage will be around 12 volts after sitting for awhile. A sulphated or dead cell battery will measure pretty much the same. Used to be you could use a specific gravity bulb tester and measure each cell. That has gone the way of the dinosaurs. So when you draw power from a battery if it cannot keep up with the load then the voltage will drop like a rock. But you have to know what kind of load to put on what battery size and the reactions of batteries under that load. Since this bug uses the load from the bike like the starter it does not know the amount of power the starter takes, battery charge or again if that is enough to really test the battery. It averages all this information out which is never accurate. I have seen batteries with a dead cell start a car just fine until the weather changes and then it dies like very suddenly. Thats because the load exceed the batteries reserve or amp hour or cold cranking amp reserve. If a battery is low on charge you will watch the amps climb to start the car. If the starter is a little bad you again will watch the amps climb to start the car, same with a dead cell. An example if your car requires 200 amps with a good battery to start  with any condition described it may reach as high as 400 amps to start the same car with a good starter and bad battery. There is no way in the bug can determine this kind of information. Temp also does play a part for many reasons but most of all because when the temp is low the battery looses efficiency which is why a bigger battery is better. A big battery loosing efficiency will still have enough reserve to start.  More goes into batteries and starting than can be covered here but surrfice to say nothing replaces a voltmeter and draw tester to determine battery life.

[gordonv]

There was an issue with copy rights and the Bug. Seems Argus used someone else's idea, and had to discontinue making them 1-2 years ago, just after they came out with a lighted unit for nights. I was going to buy one then, but they discontinued sales.

After the youtube video, I have a better understanding of what the Bug is trying to do. Also that it's not perfect, like mentioned, there is all the other unknown issues of battery size/condition. But it does give more information than just how much it's charging (alternator working), like a possible draw on the battery based upon the voltage drain, rather than a true AMP draw. 50% of a 200 CCA battery and one of 330 CCA is not the same life expectancy.

But if there is a possibility of needing to look for a replacement battery while on a trip far from home, who wouldn't feel it's worth wild to change it before a possible failure? Others have suggested doing just that and other repairs, just because they think something might be a problem, with no evidence to help them come to that conclusion other than the bike was hard to start the last few times.

My original question was because I thought the % being shown was the charge of the battery, and I couldn't see why the battery wasn't coming back up to a 100% charge after riding 400 miles. But was actually going down. Then I found the owners manual, which explained it was giving the expected battery life left. I didn't like that it had gone from 42 to 37% in such a short time, 4 days and 1400 miles. So I needed to question more as to what this devious was showing me, so it would have a purpose. Therefore the posting here.

For me, I will most likely run this battery down to failure, no matter what the bugs reading, and then change it out. But this is because my rides are mostly local day ones.

Now when I go on my annual multiple day trip, and if the Bug is showing less than 10%, I'll plan on replacing the battery before leaving. After all I just lost 5% on my last one. But then who wants to wait for a tow, buy some battery they find locally, and maybe be behind on your ride by a day is some backs woods place? (ME! but not my wife :-(

My next battery will be a Lithium-iron battery at 2 lbs. I carry enough weight on the bike, and also need the longer storage life due to townhouse regulations on working on vehicles.

Remember, the alternator is still showing good, so at worst I can jump start it, and leave it running while fueling (I always have a spare key on me). Then I only have the hassle of the cold start of each day, till I get home in a day or 2.