I Burned Out Something (Roketa)

[ellpee]

After coming out for the third time to find something had completely drained the battery on my brand new 250 Roketa overnight, I thought I'd be so ve-e-ery clever and put a simple on/off switch on the positive battery cable. The idea being, just take the battery "off line" any time it'll be idle for more than an hour or so. Unfortunately, somewhere in the course of all the cutting and splicing I obviously did something wrong, because when I had everything hooked back up NOTHING worked. Key in, turn to ON position, no start, no lights, no horn, nada.

I checked the in-line fuse off the positive battery terminal first, and it had blown, but replacing it did not fix the problem. Then I checked the main fuse box, nothing blown there.

So, I'm wondering what to check next. I see there's a "relay" in the red positive cable that presumably is opened and closed when the ignition key is turned on, to let power flow to the starter. The "upstream" pole on that relay is "live," i.e., power is getting that far, but the "downstream" pole shows no voltage, regardless of the position of the ignition key. Another possible clue is that the voltage reading on the "upstream" pole of the relay shows NEGATIVE 12.5 volts, suggesting reversed polarity, though I don't know how that can be as I didn't remove/replace any of those connections. In addition, although the primary positive cable for starter/ignition purposes goes through the relay, the smaller wire with the in-line fuse, that presumably feeds the various accessories, does NOT go through the relay, so it seems like even if the relay is fried and the engine won't crank, at least the horn ought to toot. Scratching my head, any ideas welcome, as right now I have a shiny red 368 lb boat anchor in my garage.

Oh, off the subject a bit: the in-line fuse that blew was a 7.5 amp, but the parts list says it should be a 20 amp. Anybody know the correct answer?

[snugglebunny]

sorry but all i can help you with is the WHY?
do you have a alarm?
they suck batteries dead!!!!

[ryan52]

did you connect the positive and neg cables to the switch?

[ryan52]

also some switches take in more volts then others and amperage

[quicksilver]

On the relay that the heavy red wire go to is a 20 amp fuse. Check that. This might be your problem.

[ellpee]

Thanks for all answers so far.
(1) Yes, has alarm and remote start, both of which operate even when the key is removed, so I suspected them of power-sucking, which is why I had the ill-conceived brainstorm about a cutoff switch.
(2) and (3) The switch is a simple on/off from Auto Zone, 20 amp rating, and it does work as far as turning the battery power on and off. To install it I cut the red (positive) battery cable AND the smaller red wire and hooked BOTH of those to one side of the switch, since they were originally both connected to the positive battery terminal. I then hooked the other side of the switch back to the positive battery terminal. In 20-20 hindsight, maybe putting the switch in the black (negative/ground) side of the circuit would've been smarter, but too late now.
(4) That 20 amp fuse sounds promising, didn't see a fuse in the red cable anywhere between battery and relay but will sure look harder tomorrow. If I can't find it I'll post again here and beg for more help. The only fuse I saw was on the smaller red wire, the one that was 7.5 amp but parts list says supposed to be 20 amp. Still wondering which is right, by the way.

BTW, to flesh out my story a bit more, I've completely "reverse-engineered" the whole thing so there's no switch involved, everything connected as it was originally, and still nothing working. I did, however, put a jumper wire on the "upstream" side of the relay and then touched the other end for a nanosecond to the downstream side, and did get a very brief noise from something in the engine compartment. Didn't leave it on there long enough to do any damage, I sincerely hope, and I don't really know what I learned from the experiment except that if power can again get through the relay, SOMETHING will happen.

[ellpee]

Oh, a PS: Was just looking at Roketa relays on one of the web sites, and it showed three different ones including mine. One of the three clearly had a fuse box attached to it with a blade fuse, but mine didn't appear to have any fuse, and the description made no mention of a fuse. Just two poles for the red wire, and a permanently attached wire that disappears down into the engine compartment somewhere, with two connectors at the end.

[ellpee]

Oy Vay!!!! As bedtime approaches, after reading a bunch of posts I went out and checked some things, only to find I had made the biggest dumbbunny mistake possible: after wiring my on/off switch into the red cable I cross-connected the cables, red to ground and black to positive! I assume, therefore, that my electrically dead scooter is because one or more electronic things got fried because of that idiotic error. So my question now becomes, what things do I need to check and possibly replace, in what order, to get it running again with the least possible work and expense?

[ellpee]

To amplify upon my disaster, looking through the electrical parts list I see the following that I would think could have taken a hit because I cross-connected the battery:

(1) Instrument cluster (or "meter assy," as Roketa calls it)
(2) Ignition switch
(3) CDI Igniter
(4) Rectifier
(5) Relay (the one in the red battery cable circuit)
(6) Singing Sparking Relay (whatever the heck that is)
(7) Disaster Box (whatever the heck that is)
(8) Ignition Loop Assy

If anybody can add to that list, or eliminate any of those things as unlikely to have been damaged by my doofus mistake, it would help. Secondly, if anybody can suggest in what order I ought to test and if necessary replace these items, that too would help. I'm hoping I can work the problem most-to-least-likely, one thing at a time, and maybe get lucky and not have to replace the entire list.

I'm sure there are a lot of individual gadgets that form the instrument cluster, so any advice about the feasibility of testing/replacing parts instead of the whole thing would also be welcome.

[snugglebunny]

read my PM

[ellpee]

Thanks, SB, have done as you suggested.

[snugglebunny]

YQW
your quite welcome

[snugglebunny]

Jan 26, 2013 23:52:19 GMT -5 ellpee said:

Oy Vay!!!! only to find I had made the biggest dumbbunny mistake possible:

btw not all bunnies r dumb, tyvm, lol

[ellpee]

Some progress to report. Lights, gauges, clock, radio seem to be working okay, and I can get it to crank and SOMETIMES start with the remote start feature, but NOT with the ignition switch/brake on/start button method. Ideas on what to check for that one major remaining problem are welcome. So far, haven't had to remove any plastic, but am willing to take that plunge if need be. (I am, just for yuks, going to go out in a bit and buy a complete set of brand new US-made fuses to see if that cures it.)

[ellpee]

Homing in on it slowly. Replaced all fuses, got to where SOMETIMES it starts the normal way -- key/brakes/start button, but sometimes not, only with remote start. Checking wires up front now, got to the brake switches yesterday and they look okay but pretty flimsy. Would replace them with something sturdier, but no way to know without seeing them first. Ignition switch is on today's list, and becoming a prime suspect, because sometimes it does one thing, sometimes another. Learning a lot here and on another forum. Hope my adventures prove helpful to someone else down the road.

[taildrag]

Somewhere down the line I remember a post about that remote starter. It said; "If you ever start the Roketa with the remote and turn it off with the key it mixes somthing up someplace.
Rebote by...restart with the remote and shut down with the remote and never use that thing again. HTH hope this helps.

[ellpee]

Hmm, that's interesting. Will try to avoid the remote unless I'm in deep kimchee -- or I guess chop suey, since it's a Chinese scoot. As of today, all SEEMS well; found some questionable connections in the fuse box and fixed that, and got a dozen or so good, normal starts.

Yeah, one of the weird things I was getting was, I'd turn on the key, fuel gauge would power up, turn off the key, fuel gauge STAYED powered up. Cut off battery power completely, gauge dead, but horn/high beam flasher dead (allegedly on same fuse line). Go figure. Don't understand how that could be unless the gauge has a capacitor or something that stores juice between key turns. Doesn't do it any more though, at least for the moment, so will put that worry on the back burner.

Here's a general question for anybody: My Roketa came with a radio/MP3 setup. Initially I got both radio and MP3 (somebody loaned me a player), since my disaster I get power to it but no radio. Not a big issue, with my hearing I don't expect to EVER be listening to sounds while on the road, but I am curious. Truth is, I don't even know how to work the six buttons on my sound panel. One is obviously on/off, two are volume +/-, the other two anybody's guess. Anybody with the same scoot wanna coach me? I'll try to post a picture if need be.

[ellpee]

Oops, lest I add to the confusion factor, middle paragraph of that last post should read:

Yeah, one of the weird things I was getting was, I'd turn on the key, fuel gauge would power up, turn off the key, fuel gauge STAYED powered up, but horn/high beam flasher dead (allegedly on same fuse line). Cut off battery power completely, everything dead. Go figure. Don't understand how that could be unless the fuel gauge has a capacitor or something that stores juice between key turns. Doesn't do it any more though, at least for the moment, so will put that worry on the back burner.

[ellpee]

More about the sound system. Six buttons. On/off, MP3/FM, volume + and volume - are all self-explanatory. The other two are labelled S and R. S appears to change radio stations, guessing maybe it's like the Search or Seek on my car radio, but not sure exactly how it works. R doesn't seem to do anything. Who knows more about the S and R buttons and can edjummacate me?