Speed Rs Keyless Shenanigans

yes, I realise as I use Lipos in my racing quads and so pretty familiar with them.
Of course, you’re absolutely right, the relevant measure is the maintained voltage under load but everything points to this being the issue. I don’t currently have a practical way of testing. I could probably wire up a resistor and some form of bench test but at the end of the day, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I can check if the bike still powers up in 2 weeks time and also then remove the battery and check it’s voltage.
I could yet be wrong and so not ready to down tools quite yet but I’m confident this is the issue and it has to be either due to duff batteries or a drain in the fob itself.
Worryingly, it was working a couple of weeks ago with a new battery and then stopped after the key had been in a drawer whilst turned off over this period and of course, that points to a possible drain in the fob and contraindicates the fake battery theory but I want it to be the latter. Has to be one or the other . . . . .

 

OK - just had another thought.
With the key fob switched off. I took the battery out and measured the resistance across the two contacts in the fob. My rudimentary understanding of electrics told me it should be open circuit but then, maybe not?. . . . I checked with the Fluke meter and found no continuity when set to the continuity setting. Next I measured resistance across the contacts and found 1.84 M Ohms!!!??
That’s a very high resistance but the repeat readings were consistent and I would have expected a true “short” to give a much lower reading?
If we apply ohms law, that gives a discharge current (with the key switched off) of 1.8 micro amps - obviously more in standby but not possible to measure as I suspect standby mode would require the battery connection to remain active?
Typically a CR2032 should have a capacity of around 225 mah and so this level of draw with the fob turned off, should give a battery life of 125000 hours or 14.2 years. Hmm . . . Doesn’t sound like 2 weeks in the drawer should cause premature failure. If the eBay batteries conk out after 2 weeks because they can’t even support this current then this test would support the notion that the fob is OK and it’s down to duff batteries.
Anyone know more about electrics than me, please give us a steer. . . .

 

yes- that would be possible but as you say, super tricky.
What is bugging me is the fob worked fine with a new battery, I switched it off and then 2 weeks later when I switched it on again, it wouldn’t work but another new battery does.
So, in 2 weeks with the fob turned off, the battery has lost its guts and this could only be due to a short when turned off or a battery so puny that 1.8 micro amps for two weeks fubars the thing. Hard to imagine that the duffest of fake, duff batteries could get screwed by that and yet the resistance across the contacts with the fob turned off says this is so. Bizarre indeed - let’s see what happens in another 2-3 weeks

 

yes, it’s mentioned in the thread. It only shuts off when powered up and the starter switch left in the “kill” position. Gives you a couple of minutes before doing a Rip Van Winkel on you. . . .

 

Well peeps . . I'm back again.
I've been working on the bike for winter maintenance and needed to power up today to run the ABS pump.
The Smart key was working fine two days ago but . . .not today. Dead as a dodo.
I replaced the battery with a new one and bingo - up and running again, no problem. I've been storing the battery switched off.
It's now been perhaps 3 hours or so since I removed the battery from the fob and just checked the voltage and found 3.215V!!!!!!!
Jeez, what the hell is happening here - I was expecting sub-3V. Now, I know the capacity could have fallen so that it can't provide the amps needed but if that was the case, I wouldn't be expecting to see 3.215V.
I've just popped it back in and bingo - wretched thing powered up straight away.
I wonder if there's any chance that when left switched off for a period of time, the key somehow needs a kind of "hard" reset and this could be provided by removing and reinstalling the battery perhaps???
Next test before I plague the Stealers will be
1. Keep current battery in the fob until the bike does its Rip Van Winkel routine and then remove the battery, replace with the same one after maybe 2-3 minutes and try again.
2. Subject to whether or not the bike then powers up, I can switch out the battery for the known good one which I have removed earlier this evening and see what pattern emerges
The next thing to try is perhaps storing the fob in Standby mode - if it remains reliable when left in standby and the battery lasts 6-12 months, I could live with that and will know that for some reason, it doesn't like being left switched off - I'm jumping the gun here.
Doesn't look like it has much to do with counterfeit batteries and so it would seem that theory is blown out of the water . . . . .

 

everything points to it being a duff fob but if it works OK by leaving it in Standby mode, I may choose to do nothing - it’s a big if though.
I want a definitive description of the problem before I speak to Triumph.
It’s out of warranty but I might yet see a goodwill gesture but I doubt it.
Course of action will depend on cost I guess.
Will post again in a couple of weeks when I have fully checked out the above and also perhaps spoken to my dealer

 

Sorry to hear this Jason. Do keep us posted on your investigations. My bike was working last time I tested it with the key having been left in Standby for nearly a month and so bizarrely, does seem to be behaving itself at the moment. For me at least, the jury is still out

 

By way of an update . . . I've been working on my S1000 for the last couple of months or so - just winter maintenance etc but decided yesterday to retry the S3RS key fob.
It's been left switched off for the last 5-6 weeks and so I switched it on and tried it - bingo! No problems.
I switched the ignition on and off several times and it worked flawlessly and so whatever the issue, it does seem sorted for now.
Given the only variables have been changing the batteries and fiddling with the contacts, it would seem the issue must either be duff/substandard CR2032 batteries or the poor design of the contacts. Anyway, now it's working again, I sure as hell won't be taking out the battery again until it totally dies on me. Unless of course, it starts playing at silly buggers again

 

I’m interested to hear there’s a software update. My bike was new in April 19 and has never been back to the dealer and so if there is an update, I guess I should pursue it - I will ring and check with Lings.
My keyless issues started after I first changed the battery but of course, it might not have needed changing and the issue I was having could have been the first manifestations of the problem.
At first, I suspected fake 2032s but around the same time, I read about the issue with the contacts.
I bent these upwards slightly and also slid the contact plate back and forth a few times to ensure it was making a decent contact but the results weren’t consistent enough to be able to draw conclusions.
I then wondered if perhaps leaving the key turned off for a period of time caused it to lose sync but after changing the battery 3-4 times and messing with the contacts, the thing finally decided to consistently work and has remained that way over the winter.
One of the more confusing aspects which made me think it might not be the key fob was that when the system appeared dead and unresponsive, I was forced to use the key passively by holding it above the rear shock but thereafter, for the next few starts, the damn thing worked properly in keyless mode without me having fiddled with the fob in any way - go figure!!!
Basically, it’s an unreliable, shite design by Triumph.
The jury’s still out for me because the bike’s been SORNED all winter and I’ve only tested it intermittently.
I’ll be on the road in April and I guess that’s when we’ll find out more. Either way, it seems I’m in good company!!

 

For anyone still following this thread. . .
I prepped the bike today - the last time I checked the keyless ignition was perhaps around 3-4 weeks ago and the key has been stored turned off.
I turned on the ignition perhaps 7-8 times and all worked flawlessly until . . . It didn’t!!!!
The bike simply refused to power up.
I was getting the telltale red LED flash sequence on the dash in response to pressing the power button but nothing happened. I tried it maybe 10 times or more and she was dead as a dodo.
I left the key turnrd on but held it above the rear shock as per passive mode and pressed the power button and the bike powered on normally and continued to do so thereafter when used in the normal keyless mode. . . Go figure!!!!
Surely this result supports the notion the problem is the bike and NOT the key since I hadn’t touched the key?
The only way this could be the key is if there is some kind of sync going on with the key which requires the key to roll on after an activation perhaps and this isn’t happening???
I don’t understand it but safe to say - Triumph’s keyless ignition is a like of shite and I won’t ever again buy a bike fitted with this wholly unnecessary system. . . grrrhhhh!!!!