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LOL-I see what you did there!!! I am hoping to install mine and weigh the old battery (i think that's what everyone wants to see-the weight difference)
The weight savings has been documented and posted by many other members including myself.
The weight savings has been documented and posted by many other members including myself.
Thanks, yours is in a 981 Spyder right? I am assuming the battery is the same for the GT4-if so we should end up at similar savings of 21.5 lbs or so. I know that the gt3 batteries seem to be a heavier battery than the GT4.
Thanks, yours is in a 981 Spyder right? I am assuming the battery is the same for the GT4-if so we should end up at similar savings of 21.5 lbs or so. I know that the gt3 batteries seem to be a heavier battery than the GT4.
Yes, 981 Spyder. My guess would be GT4 battery is the same while GT3's is approx 10 lbs heavier than ours..
Total weight savings are 21.99 lbs! (35.2 lbs(Stock battery and brackets) minus 13.21lbs(RS30 with tray and brackets) Not a bad price per lb lost considering I would need to replace my original battery pretty soon anyway. Here are some pics of the removal and install:
"Curve-ball" Charging Issues with RS-30 and Optimate 471?
- My brand new fully charged RS-30 battery only shows 3 bars on the meter (one green, two blue) - Does yours show 4 bars fullycharged?
- My Optimate 471 only gives me a blinking #5 green "Test" light and not a solid #5 green light indicating "Maintain" - Does your Optimate charger give you a solid #5 green light?
BACKGROUND - Got my battery, battery plate and Optimate charger last Friday and promptly dove into the installation. Upon completing the installation and turning on the battery, the first thing I noticed was that the battery was apparently undercharged as the built-in meter only displayed one green bar and one blue bar out of a total possible 4 bars. (Depending on how you read the Antigravity instructions and interpret the green/blue bars, this means the battery is either 25% or 50% charged at best.) Wanting a full charge, I connected the Optimate charger using the supplied "alligator clips" and began the charging process, realizing the initial charging process would take longer than 12 hours according to the Optimate operations manual. So I left the charger connected overnight and came back Saturday only to find the charger light still blinking instead of being solid to indicate it had moved to maintenance mode. Upon checking the battery, I found it now only indicated three bars (one green, two blue) which according to the Antigravity instructions means the battery was only 75% charged. I then disconnected and reset the charger/battery connection and started the process all over again leaving it charging overnight Saturday. Sunday morning I checked on the situation and was alarmed to find that it's the same as with the prior morning. Sunday afternoon I again disconnected/reset the charger/battery connection and started over only to find the same result on Monday morning. Not a happy camper at this point, to say the least.
By now in a high state of frustration and anguish by lack of progress I knew I needed to contact Antigravity so that afternoon I called but didn't get a return call until today, Tuesday the 26th. Much to my surprise, the tech at Antigravity advised that the RS-30 is basically 100 % fully charged at three bars (1 green, 2 blue) and that the supplied operating instructions are incorrect in their reference to four bars each representing 25% capacity. Of course this begs the question of why they have a meter installed with four bars (when only three are really usable) and why they supply flawed documentation which is so explicit with the meaning of each of those 4 bars. Did the tech give me a complete BS answer? Did Antigravity supply me with a flawed battery from the outset? Per my initial question above, if you have an RS -30 fully charged and displaying four bars then please let me know either by open response here or PM.
Spoke further today with Antigravity and later directly with TecMate the manufacturers of the Optimate 471. Asked them why the charger was continuing to show a blinking green "Test" light and not a solid "Maintain" light as clearly shown in the Optimate operating instructions regarding the Program LEDs. Unfortunately, I never did get a proper answer from either firm as to why my charger would not move to Maintain instead of Test, but both firms asurred me that a blinking green meant the battery was in good health. Here again, the techs may have given me a contrived answer because a blinking light is supposed to correspond to less than 70% capacity having been charged whereas the solid light is supposed to correspond with 70 plus percentage capacity charged. One would expect that with a new battery, having a full charge of 70 plus percent should be easily and immediately demonstrated by the "Maintain" mode of a solid #5 green light. Per my second question above, if you're using an Optimate 471 charger that displays a solid #5 green light when it's fully charged then please let me know either by open response here or PM.
Thanks for any assistance and support!
Oh, by the way, regardless of any bars or blinking lights, the Antigravity battery clearly starts my Spyder more powerfully than has ever been the case with the stock Porsche supplied battery.
Per Scott-two lights on the battery should indicate that it is fully charged at 13.1-13.2 volts sitting. The fourth light wont light up until the car is running, indicating the car is charging the battery. If concerned-put a volt meter on it-if you are getting 3 lights, you should be at 13.3-13.4 volts sitting. Mine with two lights showed 13.08 volts sitting (see pic a bit earlier in the thread). Your battery is good and there should be nothing to be concerned about IMO.
SORRY FOR ANY CONFUSION.... we updated the Capacity indication function on the battery but the older instructions were a take off from the PREVIOUS RS-20 battery so we missed updating that... But absolutely no flaw in production. Its a BENEFIT as I will explain...
So here's how it works... Only the first two BLUE LED lights indicate if the battery itself is in a state of charge that is NORMAL...but if the battery is reading 3 or 4 BLUE LED lights it is in the process of being charged, or if at 3 Bars it could be in a high state of charge which will sag back down to 1 or 2 Bars after a day or so. For example, if either of the first two bars are lit when you press the restart button, then the battery is in a perfectly fine state of charge. If when you press the restart button the first LED light is FLASHING then the battery is in a low state of charge and should be charged. So, to say that again if you press the restart button and the first one or two LED Blue lights light-up. you are fine as far as the state of charge. Keep in mind the first LED bar is always lit GREEN when the battery is "on". So when you press the restart button it may look blue-green on the first bar but that indicates a 13.2 voltage at the battery so that is perfectly fine and considered it normal/nominal voltage.... ONLY IF THE GREEN OR BLUE LIGHTS FLASH is the voltage low.
The third and fourth bars being lit is an indication of charging.... We put that on there because it allows you to visually see if the car, or a charger is charging the battery... so it is INTENTIONAL and a BENEFIT for just a quick deterimation of what is going on with the battery...... It's just a very simple diagnostic thing that we wanted to incorporate..... And as I stated to above it may seem a bit counterintuitive but it is actually a beneficial tool because you can press the button while your car is running at idle and it should be throwing in most cases a charge into the battery and you will see all four bars lit.
Below is a snip of the instruction section that indicates how to read the capacity indicator. We can also send you a PDF of the new instruction manual if you shoot me an email at scott@antigravitybatteries.com
Last edited by Antigravity; 06-27-2018 at 03:11 PM.
Also for the Optimate Chargers.... they do not charge the Battery as high as some other chargers.... They will not pin the battery at 14.6 or 14.8 as some other chargers do, and there is no need for that anyway. So this may not even light the 4th LED Bar on the RS-30... but this does not mean anything is wrong. They chargers are absolutely the best Chargers for Lithium.... CTEK is also fine, but Optimate is extremely conscious about their charger not continually cycling the batteries for charging purposes which is a way to not create a shorter lifespan in a battery... so they don't like super high charge rates as they feel they are unnecessary... and it is not necessary to put the battery at 14.8 to get a full charge. Keep in mind the battery will be falling back down to 13.2, which is it's nominal voltage, after taking it off the charger. IT will read about 14.5v on average while in the car and being charged by the vehicle but only around 13.8 to 14v on the Optimate... But regardless after a day or so the battery will always drop to its average resting voltage of 13.2v.
Many thanks to Scott and Polobai for greatly expanding our knowledge universe about what to expect with day to day charging of these newer "high tech" lithium-ion batteries. At this point, most of my questions have been answered and most of my confusion has cleared, particularly now that updated instructions have become available and discussed at greater length.
There's one last point of clarification that's outstanding but hopefully this evening, after another full charging cycle has taken place, I'll have the answer. The problem has been that my Optimate charger has not been moving to a solid green "Maintain" light after the full 12 hour charging cycle was complete. I'm speculating now that the reason is because I have been keeping my Spyder locked while the charging was going on even though the car is garaged. I've heard from somewhere that keeping these newer Porsches always locked results in lower parasitic drain on the electrical system. Perhaps that is not true after all.
Now I wonder whether that is in fact the root of my problem in that perhaps keeping the car locked (and it's internal systems "armed") is causing enough parasitic drain that the Optimate charges senses that drain and accordingly displays a blinking green light instead of a solid green light. I've now got the car unlocked and undergoing charging so later this evening we'll see whether my theory above is borne out. Otherwise there remains no known reason why a properly functioning Optimate charger will not transition to a solid green light after the full 12 hour charging and testing period is complete.
UPDATE:
Theory of unlocking car during charging to get Optimate charger to glow solid green after 12 hour charging period didn't work. Charger just continued blinking green. So the conditions under which the charger will display solid green for "Maintain" mode remains uncertain or undefined as far as I'm concerned. Looking forward to someone who can explain the conditions to make this happen.
Many thanks to Scott and Polobai for greatly expanding our knowledge universe about what to expect with day to day charging of these newer "high tech" lithium-ion batteries. At this point, most of my questions have been answered and most of my confusion has cleared, particularly now that updated instructions have become available and discussed at greater length.
There's one last point of clarification that's outstanding but hopefully this evening, after another full charging cycle has taken place, I'll have the answer. The problem has been that my Optimate charger has not been moving to a solid green "Maintain" light after the full 12 hour charging cycle was complete. I'm speculating now that the reason is because I have been keeping my Spyder locked while the charging was going on even though the car is garaged. I've heard from somewhere that keeping these newer Porsches always locked results in lower parasitic drain on the electrical system. Perhaps that is not true after all.
Now I wonder whether that is in fact the root of my problem in that perhaps keeping the car locked (and it's internal systems "armed") is causing enough parasitic drain that the Optimate charges senses that drain and accordingly displays a blinking green light instead of a solid green light. I've now got the car unlocked and undergoing charging so later this evening we'll see whether my theory above is borne out. Otherwise there remains no known reason why a properly functioning Optimate charger will not transition to a solid green light after the full 12 hour charging and testing period is complete.
F.W.I.W.
I connected my Optimate charger ( for the first time ) to my RS-30 last night at around 9:00 p.m. At that time it was showing a solid green light.
This morning at around 8:00 a.m. I noticed it had gone to a flashing green ( not knowing when it actually started ).
Fast forward to getting home at around 6:00 p.m. this evening. It is still flashing green.
So assuming it started flashing at 9 a.m. this morning, it has only been about 9 hours. I will keep an eye on it throughout the evening to see if / when it goes back to a solid green.
UPDATE:
Theory of unlocking car during charging to get Optimate charger to glow solid green after 12 hour charging period didn't work. Charger just continued blinking green. So the conditions under which the charger will display solid green for "Maintain" mode remains uncertain or undefined as far as I'm concerned. Looking forward to someone who can explain the conditions to make this happen.
06-21-2018, 09:34 AM
