Oh shitsky...I plugged mine in and after both lights flashed a minute, it went to Charge mode . It's been in Charge mode for two months. I just pressed Store last night.

....how much you wanna bet it makes no dif at all? It will crank through another season.

Got charger today. From these threads I'm sure I'm the biggest abuser as I do nothing and freeze it a regular basis. I will try All I have read from you guys but I don't hold much hope based on past experiences.

Don't misunderstand,,,, it still starts and always did but first turn of key = 12.6v

Well tried what Shawn said tonight and it didn't work, hit the "Store" button and I get the exact same four flash then pause sequence. Cells are apparently way outside limits.
Bike is cranking beautifully, I can't see any difference. Tempted just to let it ride.

They want the battery back to take a look at. If they would commit to giving me a new one, possibly an upgrade, I would consider it but riding season is in full swing down here. I know how these things work, two weeks down time minimum!

@Romans- let us know if it charges or you get the 4 flash sequence, now I'm curious. Send it back if it's toast, I hear Shorai will replace it for free, very generous warranty plan.

On the next one, use the charger every few months or so to rebalance.

@Dragmeister- nope, two chargers, a Schumacher for the L-As and the Shorai.

* Last updated by: Kruz on 3/15/2013 @ 7:20 PM *

I may try to balance this battery by myself, it 's not exactly rocket science. To bottom balance the cells, you just need a precision voltmeter like a Fluke and a Radio Shack resistor of the proper Ohms and wattage.

You have four cells and a 5 pin BMS plug.

You can ring out the terminals with your voltmeter. Each cell should be at 3.585 Volts if at 100% state of charge.

If one or more are below this value, then the battery is unbalanced. To "bottom" balance the cells, simply discharge each high cell one at a time using the resistor as a load until all match the voltage of the lowest cell.

Now plug it into the Shorai s charger and take it up to full charge. All four cells should now read 3.585 or very close. The manufacturer tries to match cell efficiency when they put a pack together but this isn't NASA, it's mass produced stuff so they'll never be perfect, close enough though and regular use of the charger should keep them balanced.

This is actually all the BMS01 charger does, charges/discharges each cell individually to match voltages, really simple stuff.

* Last updated by: Kruz on 3/17/2013 @ 7:36 AM *

Yep flashing

It's toast Romans..... the battery that is.....It may last for awhile longer though.

I think I'll run mine until it craps out and then send it back to Shorai. At this point I'll get only 25% off a new one since I have between 24 and 36 months, so might as well wait.....or not even bother with warranty at all and just buy a new one when it finally goes. If I can get 3 years out of this one I'll be happy and I'll use the Shorai charger from now on to keep them balanced.

Shorai needs to put this is their manual "WARNING: FAILURE TO USE A SHORAI CHARGER PERIODICALLY WILL DRAMATICALLY SHORTEN YOUR BATTERIE'S LIFE AND MAY VOID THE WARRANTY"

I kept mine on "store" mode...with only the yellow light(solid).Went to start the other day...fired right up...no engine light.Had been sitting on store for several days.I think a guy needs to 'charge' first...get that solid green light...then put in store mode,turning off the charge mode(green lamp).It does say to disconnect once it's 'charged'...OR....put in 'store mode'....but not both.Once it's charged...it's not supposed to stay 'on' apparently(charging).Any voltage drop after that,the store mode corrects for.

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 3/19/2013 @ 6:53 AM *

It's been five days since I last heard from the support crew at Shorai, they were supposed to get back to me with the updates on the firmware.

I was going to try to rebalance the cells in my battery manually, get them close enough that the charger won't throw an error code but it's a little more difficult that I first thought. I bought a digital VOM the other day but it does not have the accuracy to do the balancing. Because of the table top flat discharge curve of a LiFePO4 battery, I need something like a laboratory grade Fluke with resolution to milivolts to do this right. I'm thinking if I can get this battery back in the ballpark though, the Shorai charger will pick up the slack from there and balance the cells.

I need to find a five pin female JST (XH) connector commpatible with the male connector on the Shorai battery so I can rig up some LEDs to individually bleed each cell by throwing a load on them.

My 14 started yesterday, first time this year in admirable fashion. Yes, it cranked over about 8 strokes but no backfire the battery did it without a second try.

Today, The Shorai turned and turned and turned. Bbike backfired. I gave up and tried 3 hours later when the ambient temp was 20 degrees higher. She started after a couple backfires and a few attempts.

Battery voltage was 12.8 when I first tried after the air temp rise. Then it went to 11.1. Then I let it rest a minute. It went to 12.6 and then it started and the battery voltmeter went to 13.3. Reads 13.1-13.2 idling at op temp.

Does this sound like normal battery performance based on what you can tell from the voltmeter reading on the bike?

When running the bike the voltage reads 13.8 most of the time. Drops to 13.6 at times.

That's your charging system voltage and the bike volt meter is probably reading a little low. With a full charge your Shorai should be at 14.34 Volts if all cells are good and it's in balance.

I'm going out on the CBR here in a few minutes, I'll check voltage with the new digital VOM when I get back and post results.

Shorai did get back to me and wants my battery back, they said they'll replace it if a cell is bad.

Battery voltage was 12.8 when I first tried after the air temp rise. Then it went to 11.1. Then I let it rest a minute. It went to 12.6 and then it started and the battery voltmeter went to 13.3. Reads 13.1-13.2 idling at op temp.

When running the bike the voltage reads 13.8 most of the time. Drops to 13.6 at times.

My situation exact same when read from bike on board display.

I rode my CBR for 30 minutes tonight and checked voltage with the new digital VOM, 14.19 volts. Shorai says it should be 14.34 volts at 100% state of charge. Cranking very strongly, I may just not worry about it and keep riding.

Romans, is your battery charging OK on the new Shorai charger?

Battery voltage was 12.8 when I first tried after the air temp rise. Then it went to 11.1. Then I let it rest a minute. It went to 12.6 and then it started and the battery voltmeter went to 13.3. Reads 13.1-13.2 idling at op temp.

My situation exact same when read from bike on board display.

Romans, is your battery charging OK on the new Shorai charger?

...and how old is the battery?

Mine is 2 years old. I've used the Shorai charger for the last two winters. Never during the riding season.

I think my 14 amp Shorai is just fine. I just need to change those plugs.

Rode my ZX-10 this afternoon and checked voltage on the new Shorai, 14.52 volts on the new digital VOM, so it's a bit optimistic. These batteries cannot be higher than 14.34 Volts at 100% charge but the important thing is my two year old Shorai in the CBR tested 14.19 Volts with the same meter after a ride so it's down .33 volts on the new one. That's a significant difference I would think.

* Last updated by: Kruz on 4/1/2013 @ 6:39 AM *

A little back of the napkin calculating tells me that if three of the four cells in my battery are OK and only one is weak and it is .33 volts low, that cell is at about 35-40% state of charge which means my pack has a capacity of 35-40% as cells in series have a total capacity of the weakest cell.

If I can find a 5 pin BMS connnector somewhere in town, I'm going to try balancing this thing myself. If I can't, off to Shorai it goes for a replacement.

I'm still stoked on these batteries because of the weight savings and good cranking performance but a little more cautious now. I have one in the CBR1000RR, ZX-10 and ZX-14 and all seem to be doing well. I've decided to stay with lead-acid in my VTX though and probably in my ZX-6R until I figure out how these things are going to hold up over the long haul.

My OEM battery only lasted 3 years.

I was buying into the hype these are five to ten year no maintenance batteries and thus worth the high cost of admission. We'll see how this all pans out.

Rook, do you have a decent VOM you can check voltage with after a full charge on the BMS-01? I picked mine up at Walmart for under 30 bucks , Innova 3320. Not a Fluke for sure but plenty accurate for general maintenance. I had a Simpson 360P, labaratory grade accuracy but impractical out in the shop where stuff gets banged around. I left mine out in the back seat of the car one summer and the 140 degree temp smoked it. A cheap digital would laugh at that kind of abuse. I watched a guy throw his Fluke against a wall one time, picked it up and it worked perfectly. They're a little expensive to be doing that but Ai got the point, they're almost bullet proof.

Rook, do you have a decent VOM you can check voltage with after a full charge on the BMS-01? I picked mine up at Walmart for under 30 bucks , Innova 3320.

just the one on the multifunc meter. Pretty sure I saw the Innova at Harbor Freight. I'm satisfied my battery is okay. If it's like the last one, it will give a few warning signs and then up and die all the sudden. I think you're better off changing the battery after a reasonable expected duty life. If you keep it after it should have been replaced, better not wander far from home.

The multifunction display voltmeter on our bikes will sense you are hooked up to some sort of power supply, beyond that it is not accurate enough to be of much use. If you look at that chart I posted earlier, you need a super accurate voltmeter to gleen anything meaningful about the state of charge of an LiFeP04 battery, the discharge curve is almost table top flat.... i.e it takes only a few hundreths of a volt difference to make a huge difference in the state of charge.

* Last updated by: Kruz on 4/2/2013 @ 7:04 AM *

maybe I will pick up a voltmeter on blue light special, then. However, it seemes the OEM VMeter is giving some valuable info. After sitting 3 days, the bike was reading 12.6 this on the OEM multifuncometer. It had some trouble starting. Cranked slow. Not terrible slow like dying but pretty slow. Backfired 3 times. I hate that. I rode for 15 minutes after a good warmup. The temp went down to 2 bars by shutdown. The bike sat 2 hours in 30 F air. I went out and The battery v was 13.6. Hit the starter and it fired right up.

Think i will try putting the battery on the charger if it is going to drop below 13V from one start to the next. Might be necessary in the cold weather if I do not ride for a few days.

...might help to change plugs too but I want to wait on that so I can try a warm engine compression test at the same time.

Here is a new 4 ya. Plugged in charger, two minutes later looked over, only because I smell burn. Smoke coming from charger. Check, green charge light still on, storage still seems to work ? It would appear from testing the 6 Volt side output has fried,,, Explain that. Makes me brain hurt.

I'm with you Romans, I don't even want to think about my batteries anymore. Life used to be so much simpler, you bought a new lead battery, stuck it in there and rode for three years. When it got slow to crank you bought a new one, EZ-PZ lemon squeezee. How's the Shorai cranking your bike?

I don't even want to think about my batteries anymore. Life used to be so much simpler,

2nd, 3rd 4th & 5th. Some things get to be more trouble than they are worth. Shorai has got me pretty close to tapping out. You know, Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt. I knew these were new tech when we got in. So I'm not pissed off just chalking it up to part of the learning curve.

My thought are as follows

You run this battery down for any reason your time left will soon run out.

That's not what bugs me. It's the way they die. It's Exactly like a light bulb and I Hope your not like me and 200 miles from home ?

Also, like I posted in the past,,,, you have not lived until you try jump starting A ZX-14. All Bad. I do NOT want to do it a forth time. They do not fire up like you would expect. But when they do look out !

So begs the Question,,,, If Your Not Racing For Money, why put yourself through it ?

Having just said that, 10 bucks says I'm going to run it untill death do us part Lol. Some people just don't learn