Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="jrwalte" data-source="post: 4657946" data-attributes="member: 584454">Caps can have their place.&nbsp; The alternator is reactive to power needs (it only produces as much power as required as it is needed by means of the regulator). You can have all the power in the world in your alt, and at the beginning of an extremely high power hit your alt will still not provide the needed power for a very short duration (until its regulator detects the voltage drop and throws in more electricity to the magnetic field of the alternator, which outputs more power - this happens in milliseconds). During this time your amp draws power from the battery.Adding more batteries also resolves this issue, as their reserve capacity can handle the short duration the alt isn&#039;t providing the power, but the advantage with the cap is it provides that power for the short duration at the voltage of the alt (around 14) instead of around 12, which helps prevents dimming of the lights better.But if you don&#039;t have an alternator that can provide the power to handle your amp (after the regulator kicks up the output) then a cap will do nothing for you, as it may not even provide the power for you amp for even a second. You need more batteries. A cap can actually improve the life of your battery, since it isn&#039;t constantly getting hit by those constant high power demands before the alt provides the power.I currently have this issue in my car.&nbsp; I have 180 amp alt, more than plenty to provide power for a 1900RMS system.&nbsp; But my lights will still slightly dim for a fraction of a second on hits from the drum line when volume is really loud, but my voltage never drops below the high 13s on a meter.&nbsp; I could add another battery, which would help prevent the dimming by giving more reserve capacity and help prevent the momentary high drop in voltage, but a cap does that job better - and I&#039;m not wearing my batteries down with constant usage.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="jrwalte, post: 4657946, member: 584454"] Caps can have their place. The alternator is reactive to power needs (it only produces as much power as required as it is needed by means of the regulator). You can have all the power in the world in your alt, and at the beginning of an extremely high power hit your alt will still not provide the needed power for a very short duration (until its regulator detects the voltage drop and throws in more electricity to the magnetic field of the alternator, which outputs more power - this happens in milliseconds). During this time your amp draws power from the battery. Adding more batteries also resolves this issue, as their reserve capacity can handle the short duration the alt isn't providing the power, but the advantage with the cap is it provides that power for the short duration at the voltage of the alt (around 14) instead of around 12, which helps prevents dimming of the lights better. But if you don't have an alternator that can provide the power to handle your amp (after the regulator kicks up the output) then a cap will do nothing for you, as it may not even provide the power for you amp for even a second. You need more batteries. A cap can actually improve the life of your battery, since it isn't constantly getting hit by those constant high power demands before the alt provides the power. I currently have this issue in my car. I have 180 amp alt, more than plenty to provide power for a 1900RMS system. But my lights will still slightly dim for a fraction of a second on hits from the drum line when volume is really loud, but my voltage never drops below the high 13s on a meter. I could add another battery, which would help prevent the dimming by giving more reserve capacity and help prevent the momentary high drop in voltage, but a cap does that job better - and I'm not wearing my batteries down with constant usage. [/QUOTE]

Verification