Brown wire on R/R???

[Staffan]

Read the thread about the yellow wire. I think that my R/R is not OK. When i look at the R/R of my other bike (GS550E-83) it only have two wires out. The V has four. Now i know what three of them are doing but what does the brown one do.

I think i have to buy a new one and if it is possible to use an R/R without the brown wire it will help me to save money.

All i know is that it is +12v from the main switch.

Staffan

[h2olawyer]

The brown wire is necessary on the Vision.  It is the yellow one that is unused.  The brown wire is part of the sensory system that tells the regulator whether or not to allow more current to charge the battery and run the lights or other accessories.  The yellow wire is most likely for a lighting system on other bikes.

H₂O

[VisionMeister]

Supervision had an earlier post about the Brown (sense) wire. It apparently is routed through the key switch and back to the R/R; meaninng it has lots of opportunity to build resistance due to the length of travel and connections it passes through to get voltage level to the R/R.
He suggested simply connecting it directly to the positive post on the battery to bypass the possibility of error.
I have done this without any problems.

[joevacc]

I think that that puts a load on your battery that will eventually drain it.

[kiawrench]

the brown wire is used by the r/r sort of like a "fuel gage " for the electrical system-- is allows monitoring of what the voltage is at any given time in the system,,this will key the r/r to charge ,or not charge depending on needs of the bike .

the yellow wire is a "heritage wire "  , not used by a vision,, it was originally intended to be the power feed wire for headlamps, rear tail lights ,and gage lights. on older bikes, these items were not "auto on " with turning the key (as per electrex )  see charts for addl details .

you can , if so desired , use the yellow wire to feed a aux lighter socket, allowing power to be used for radio,gps,camp cooler,,, or in my case , an snap on logic probe ,, to allow diagnosis of other electrical issues .( fused lighter socket set-up- wal mart, 3.89  )

[Rick G]

I still have my logic probe from computer school, how do you use it to diagnose problems?