Optima Yellowtop battery charging issue...

[McIntosh 10+ year member]

Is this the one you're using?
http://stingerelectronics.com/productDetails.aspx?delineate=832&CategoryID=36&ParentID=18

And that's also for you McIntosh. You seem to not believe anything, ever.

Very nice. A hybrid POS that couldn't possibly keep up with audio. I'm not a fan of caps in general. Band aids at best. Overpriced junk. Isn't the power supply supposed to serve that function? Buy junk, add more junk. Continue to throw good money after bad. What have you? More junk than you can sell at a garage sale.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

Very nice. A hybrid POS that couldn't possibly keep up with audio. I'm not a fan of caps in general. Band aids at best. Overpriced junk. Isn't the power supply supposed to serve that function? Buy junk, add more junk. Continue to throw good money after bad. What have you? More junk than you can sell at a garage sale.

I'm definitely not saying that a cap is the way to go, especially a hybrid cap. I will agree with you that they are band aids for poor electrical systems. That's why with 3 extra batteries, he does not need a cap. I used a cap with one electrical setup I had in my car (I have had 4 different setups in my car, the cap was in the second). I did a big 3, got a yellow top up front and I'll never use a cap again.

 

[McIntosh 10+ year member]

I'm definitely not saying that a cap is the way to go, especially a hybrid cap. I will agree with you that they are band aids for poor electrical systems. That's why with 3 extra batteries, he does not need a cap. I used a cap with one electrical setup I had in my car (I have had 4 different setups in my car, the cap was in the second). I did a big 3, got a yellow top up front and I'll never use a cap again.

You've learned something in your travels. This invariably comes with time. Your grandfather is smarter than both of us put together. A hybrid cap is all but useless. Any cap is a band aid. Put the POS in the garbage can where it belongs and run some real wire. Fuse it accordingly.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

You've learned something in your travels. This invariably comes with time. Your grandfather is smarter than both of us put together. A hybrid cap is all but useless. Any cap is a band aid. Put the POS in the garbage can where it belongs and run some real wire. Fuse it accordingly.

I wouldn't necessarily say I've learned things in my travels. "Electrical endeavors" would probably be a better term to use as I do not travel often. I have learned a great deal in my electrical endeavors.

 

[AllPro]

The 50 farad cap i have is an older Stinger with digital display. It looks like a big metal box with the blue display in the middle. Does it serve a purpose? Eh maybe, it's debatable.

The auxillary switch is for a standalone DVD player and PS2.

Thanks for the input so far.

 

[ejschultz 10+ year member]

If you replace the batteries again, hook it all up without the capacitor and see what, if any, voltage drop you may have with music playing. My strongest intuition at this point is the capacitor is draining everything rather quickly. You said it's an older cap so it may not be performing at it's peak any more. As far as everything else, if the PlayStation is in standby with the aux switch left on, that shouldn't pull much power at all. I'm assuming the aux switch turns on and off your power inverter for the AC accessories your using. The power inverter, if left on will convert the DC power to AC to keep the accessories in standby mode, which then could also cause your batteries to eventually fail. It is also a possibility that your isolator is not allowing your rear battery bank to properly/fully charge. It could be one of these reasons or any combination of them. There are probably a couple of other possibilities as well, I'm sure someone will mention them. One to probably rule out would be a defective alternator. If your front battery is fine, the alt should also be fine.