External voltage regulator

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Do you think sending 15v to the battery until it warms up is absolutely terrible for the battery? Like, catastrophic failure bad? I really don't know how much of a difference .2 volts can be. I suppose it can be not much, or a hell of a lot
I don't believe the LiFePO4 chemistry can have dangerous failure (like fire or leaking) but it's hard to tell how hot you can charge them without knowing what cells they use and being able to look at the spec sheet. Generally over-charging any battery at all is very harmful so you could at least expect to dramatically shorten its life expectancy.

This is the external regular I've used in the past and seen others use. I do not know which wire(s) you'd need to replace in your stock harness on your vehicle but be sure not to over-pay too much buying the same unit from some boutique alternator company:
 
I don't believe the LiFePO4 chemistry can have dangerous failure (like fire or leaking) but it's hard to tell how hot you can charge them without knowing what cells they use and being able to look at the spec sheet. Generally over-charging any battery at all is very harmful so you could at least expect to dramatically shorten its life expectancy.

This is the external regular I've used in the past and seen others use. I do not know which wire(s) you'd need to replace in your stock harness on your vehicle but be sure not to over-pay too much buying the same unit from some boutique alternator company:
Nice! I like CES and have ordered from them in the past. I'll have to look up how to install it. I only have the one wire that goes from the 4 pin harness to the 12 volt switched source, and that's not a stock part. So installing it should either be easy or it'll turn into an absolute pain in the ass. Either way, I feel it needs to happen. Hopefully there's some YouTube videos lol
 
Nice! I like CES and have ordered from them in the past. I'll have to look up how to install it. I only have the one wire that goes from the 4 pin harness to the 12 volt switched source, and that's not a stock part. So installing it should either be easy or it'll turn into an absolute pain in the ass. Either way, I feel it needs to happen. Hopefully there's some YouTube videos lol
It's a ground, a wire to +12 ACC or RUN and the field wire out to the alternator. I'd run 8 gauge cable and be sure you have good solid connections and ground. They'll get a little wonky if you don't have solid +12 and ground.

I saw those on Amazon for a little less but 130 was a good price even 6-7 years ago or so when I bought mine. Some of the alternator brands slap their logo on those and mark them up closer to 200$
 
It's a ground, a wire to +12 ACC or RUN and the field wire out to the alternator. I'd run 8 gauge cable and be sure you have good solid connections and ground. They'll get a little wonky if you don't have solid +12 and ground.

I saw those on Amazon for a little less but 130 was a good price even 6-7 years ago or so when I bought mine. Some of the alternator brands slap their logo on those and mark them up closer to 200$
Ok. Thank you for taking the time. Let me see if I have this straight.
The positive, I don't 100% understand what exactly is meant my ACC or RUN source. Does that mean a switched source (I Google the terms, and that's what I think it means)? Right now, I have my switched 12v source to the alternator coming from the O2-1 fuse in my fuse box (one of the 2 fuses used for the O2 sensor). That is a 16 awg wire. If you don't mind taking the time to explain, where/ how can I use an 8 awg wire for my switched source? Maybe just come from the battery to a switch in the cab? All the videos I saw on YouTube use 16 awg... but we all know that doesn't mean they all did it the right way. Do they make a fuse jumper that has an 8 awg out? I've never seen one.
The ground, that's easy. I can just ground that to the battery (then to the frame).
Also, the field wire is 16 awg at the moment, coming from the harness. Would that be ok to keep 16 awg? Diving in, taking apart the harness, and replacing the 16 with 8 might be past my level of knowledge.
And, I might have seen wrong, but that specific regulator just has an analog knob to adjust it. I can set it initially with a multimeter, that's no issue, but to monitor it (make sure for whatever reason down the road, the knob doesn't get bumped or whatever), how can I do that real time? Just purchase a normal voltage meter and install it at the alternator positive out? Would that work effectively? I have one already for the amplifiers, but I was going to install that at the amplifiers to monitor what the amps are seeing. That wouldn't be an effective means of monitoring the alternator output voltage I would assume.
Just a little foggy on the details. Sorry for the lengthy follow up question.
 
The positive, I don't 100% understand what exactly is meant my ACC or RUN source. Does that mean a switched source
Yes, you want it ONLY live when your car is running. Google your make/model and tap in under the steering column or wherever is convenient. If you already have one right at your alternator you could use that but you may opt to mount the blue box elsewhere like under a seat or in the trunk. I have seen people with these mounted under the hood but I'd guess not being somewhere quite so hot would probably be preferable.

16 gauge should be adequate, I used larger mainly because the beefier cable is going to have more rugged insulation and will be less likely to fail over time from any sort of wear or deterioration. If something goes tits up with your connection your alternator could start charging extremely high and boil batteries and possibly destroy a lot of other stuff in a jiffy so whatever, just make sure everything is solid. I used a T-tap under the steering column for the switched power and just trimmed down the 8 gauge enough to fit it into the yellow crimp terminal to plug into that.

You are correct it's only the potentiometer on a wire to control it. You'll need to buy a voltage display separately. I use audiopipe branded one that seems to work well enough and we used the Stinger branded one in my brother's car since we got it for a good price from the site we bought all his cable and stuff. There's plenty of voltage display options so take your pick. If you have different voltage at one point in your system than another you're doing something terribly wrong. Wherever you pick to monitor voltage should all be showing you the same reading. Electricity moves at nearly light speed and we're aiming for near 0 resistance anywhere in the system.

Even the cheap ones should do and your voltage may wiggle around a little bit with weather and battery state so it's good to be able to have a display and keep an eye on it until you're confident it's in a safe place. All batteries are a bit different tolerance for voltage but generally anything above 14.8 will hurt them rather quickly so ideally you don't want to ever see numbers above that.
 
Yes, you want it ONLY live when your car is running. Google your make/model and tap in under the steering column or wherever is convenient. If you already have one right at your alternator you could use that but you may opt to mount the blue box elsewhere like under a seat or in the trunk. I have seen people with these mounted under the hood but I'd guess not being somewhere quite so hot would probably be preferable.

16 gauge should be adequate, I used larger mainly because the beefier cable is going to have more rugged insulation and will be less likely to fail over time from any sort of wear or deterioration. If something goes tits up with your connection your alternator could start charging extremely high and boil batteries and possibly destroy a lot of other stuff in a jiffy so whatever, just make sure everything is solid. I used a T-tap under the steering column for the switched power and just trimmed down the 8 gauge enough to fit it into the yellow crimp terminal to plug into that.

You are correct it's only the potentiometer on a wire to control it. You'll need to buy a voltage display separately. I use audiopipe branded one that seems to work well enough and we used the Stinger branded one in my brother's car since we got it for a good price from the site we bought all his cable and stuff. There's plenty of voltage display options so take your pick. If you have different voltage at one point in your system than another you're doing something terribly wrong. Wherever you pick to monitor voltage should all be showing you the same reading. Electricity moves at nearly light speed and we're aiming for near 0 resistance anywhere in the system.

Even the cheap ones should do and your voltage may wiggle around a little bit with weather and battery state so it's good to be able to have a display and keep an eye on it until you're confident it's in a safe place. All batteries are a bit different tolerance for voltage but generally anything above 14.8 will hurt them rather quickly so ideally you don't want to ever see numbers above that.
Right on man. Thank you! A lot of good info right there. I really appreciate the time
 
Right on man. Thank you! A lot of good info right there. I really appreciate the time
As a back story, I used some just whatever cable I had laying around initially and my voltage started to shoot to the moon driving one evening. First thing I noticed was you know when you notice headlights dimming? Well it was the opposite of that where the headlights were all of a sudden super bright. Pulled over quick and disconnected the alternator and drove home on the battery. When I popped the hood I could see the juices in the battery boiling.

Not sure exactly what was the weak link but I went for beefy cable and made sure all the connections were sound and didn't have a problem after that.
 
As a back story, I used some just whatever cable I had laying around initially and my voltage started to shoot to the moon driving one evening. First thing I noticed was you know when you notice headlights dimming? Well it was the opposite of that where the headlights were all of a sudden super bright. Pulled over quick and disconnected the alternator and drove home on the battery. When I popped the hood I could see the juices in the battery boiling.

Not sure exactly what was the weak link but I went for beefy cable and made sure all the connections were sound and didn't have a problem after that.
I'm going to try and figure out how I can up the wire gauge. I have no idea at the moment, but I'm already looking around the internet trying to find a solution that'll work. I'll figure something out.
I have plenty of fuses behind my brake pedal (at least one switched that was connected to the battery isolator I used to have). So mounting the regulator behind the dash shouldn't be an issue. I have to take it apart anyway to fab up a mount for various things anyway.
Since deciding to ditch the AGM's and go lithium, I bought a C rated fire extinguisher, another socket kit that just has the sizes I need to work on the system (I took all the other sizes out for ease of finding what I need. I can never remember sizes), and a set of good cable cutters. Just incase. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. I'm just trying to cover all my bases and be as safe as possible
 
I'm going to try and figure out how I can up the wire gauge. I have no idea at the moment, but I'm already looking around the internet trying to find a solution that'll work. I'll figure something out.
I have plenty of fuses behind my brake pedal (at least one switched that was connected to the battery isolator I used to have). So mounting the regulator behind the dash shouldn't be an issue. I have to take it apart anyway to fab up a mount for various things anyway.
Since deciding to ditch the AGM's and go lithium, I bought a C rated fire extinguisher, another socket kit that just has the sizes I need to work on the system (I took all the other sizes out for ease of finding what I need. I can never remember sizes), and a set of good cable cutters. Just incase. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. I'm just trying to cover all my bases and be as safe as possible
Don't get hung up on the 8 gauge if you're confident everything is solid and run somewhere safe, but it certainly won't hurt if you have some kicking around. If you put yourself in the situation where you have wonky connection on account of trying to mate 8 gauge with something else you're not doing yourself any favors.

I've always carried a fire extinguisher, only time I had to use it was for another bloke who's car was burning on the side of the road. A trucker also tossed us one that we used but I think too little too late and the car went up anyway and I gave the dude a lift home. We just kept backing up figuring it would be some Hollywood explosion, there was a bit of a fireball when the gas tank went up but nothing like the movies. I'm pretty sure the lithium we use in a car (various flavors of LiFePO) doesn't fail dramatically like LiPO but fire extinguisher doesn't cost much and may come in useful.
 
Don't get hung up on the 8 gauge if you're confident everything is solid and run somewhere safe, but it certainly won't hurt if you have some kicking around. If you put yourself in the situation where you have wonky connection on account of trying to mate 8 gauge with something else you're not doing yourself any favors.

I've always carried a fire extinguisher, only time I had to use it was for another bloke who's car was burning on the side of the road. A trucker also tossed us one that we used but I think too little too late and the car went up anyway and I gave the dude a lift home. We just kept backing up figuring it would be some Hollywood explosion, there was a bit of a fireball when the gas tank went up but nothing like the movies. I'm pretty sure the lithium we use in a car (various flavors of LiFePO) doesn't fail dramatically like LiPO but fire extinguisher doesn't cost much and may come in useful.
Well, I figure anything could fail, right? Fuse, amps, cable, battery... Who knows. Better be safe than sorry.
Yeah, I've seen plenty of car fires on the side of the freeway, nothing like the movies, but they get hot as sh*t though! When you live in a place as densely populated as I do (San Francisco Bay area... Oakland to be exact) you see some..... let's say interesting things lol. Now, the tanker truck I saw on fire, it didn't explode, but the huge flames did look like something out of a movie. That was crazy. And the natural gas transmission line that blew years ago that I worked on, that was insane!
 
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