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[Music]  [Music]  you  so we've been talking about batteries we  talked about chargers we talked about  inverters converter chargers and we also  brought about alternators so now what  we're gonna talk about is an external  regulate we're not going to spend crazy  amount of time but I do want to bring up  the concept of an external regulator  external regulators are devices that  convert an alternator to be smart  ultimately it's it's it's putting a  brain on an alternator internal regulars  that we talked about a little bit  earlier are overly cautious and they're  not gonna give you as high an output of  this charge rate external regulars to  give you an example are stock item on a  tiara boat why would tiara put stock all  external regulars on their alternators  actually tiaras have a lot in common  with sailboats they're going and they're  not running their engines for a lot of a  long time you've got a tiara and you're  cruising at 25 knots 30 knots you're not  gonna be doing two three hours a day I  mean you're gonna be going around in  crew violin I mean 90 nautical miles is  you got 60 nautical miles between Sydney  and Nanaimo not even 45 maybe I mean  you're not gonna be running your tiara  Nanaimo Sydney Sydney to Vancouver  Vancouver back to Nanaimo you're running  that boat for maybe 30 minutes maybe an  hour maybe an hour and a half maybe well  you know that's why they have a tiara  yeah but the point is that even power  boats will have external regulators and  I also see a lot of motors when we  design projects for other boaters we're  saying well how about putting an extra  regulator on your trawler if you don't  have an and your you need to create  power not only to offload the loads that  are running on your boat when you're  underway but to really make a lot of  gains because some boaters are maybe  running their boats for 3-4 hours a day  as they're going up north and within  that 3-4 hours as they're going gonna  last every day of running the boat or  five hours they want to do everything  they can to bring their batteries back  up so that they can run their boat  overnight for one day or two and then go  on again  so that purpose of an external regulator  is to make your alternator better really  so it's a little crazy I know I was  trying oh my god how am I gonna put them  in but whoever came up with this device  must have been so proud of themselves  because it is a perfect device in terms  of what it does it's sort of the dream  it will miraculously offset and it turns  your alternator in this incredibly  sophisticated device it's gonna offset  voltage drop which is a really big deal  voltage drop is a really big deal on  some boats you could be losing twenty  thirty percent because a lot of people  have undersized wiring between their  alternator and their batteries but  generally you should be at least ten but  they'll actually offset the ten or even  more of the voltage drop which is kind  of amazing they're gonna be temperature  compensated for the batteries they're  gonna actually tell you when the alter  is getting too hot it's actually gonna  be looking at an alternator temperature  and alternators die because they get too  hot because they're working so hard it's  actually gonna pull back and it's gonna  say you know what I know you want me to  work out at 100 amps but right now the  altar is too hot I'm going to pull back  the output and I'm gonna let the  alternator cool off so they're actually  gonna change the nd or adjust the output  of the alternator  so you're basically got a device that  converts alternate output and makes it  smart right that's basically what it  does you also you have a device that can  actually be configured for the type of  battery that you have so not only when  you think about an internal regular it  assumes that you have flooded lead-acid  battery if thinks that your batteries  are just vanilla  there's just nothing special about them  but when you have an external regulator  you can actually dial in and say I want  my charge profile to say bulk I want to  stop at fourteen four fourteen six I  want to have absorption timer to be so  much and I want my flow voltage you can  totally geek out with an external  regular you have complete control so  that's really good and the temp it's  temperature compensated charging is also  very important by the way these devices  are not crazy expensive  you know in Canadian dollars you're  looking five $700 for these devices  about in the range so it's not  completely unacceptable and again for  sale boaters really popular because  ideally you want to sale motor out of an  anchorage and maybe motor in Anchorage  and for some boaters what I see is maybe  a little running the alternator an hour  out an hour in or half an hour out half  an hour in and then within that one hour  window of running their engine they'll  do everything they need to recharge  their batteries to stay in overnight so  here's an example of a serpentine kid  that comes with a high output alternator  where you can actually convert an  alternator that's made for the belt the  belts are really I mean I know we have  them all on our boats most of us but  they're not a great way of transmitting  the rotational energy of the engine to  the alternator and so just this week  alone I did three projects where we  actually converted alternators to  serpentine belts so it's a very popular  item for boaters that don't have a  generator and want to have more done  from their alternator yeah serpentine  kit Canadian is about eight hundred  seven hundred depending but it's it's  it's not bad at all so here's an example  of a retrofit and these the company that  does it is actually Canadian it's  electro max they have a Fleming over  three hundred kits already all yaddam  our engines universal you talk I mean  they have 300 conversion kits that are  actually created pretty much for every  engine that is out there and so you  actually simply bolt them back on like  you don't have it's not complicated it's  do yourself like we're doing a Catalina  50 where I think it took about a couple  hours to put the kid on like it's not  too time-consuming some of them are more  involved than others but it can be  pretty straightforward electro max out  of Toronto they're great  oh this is the dream yeah question is  the the service civility or the  maintenance of the v-belt if you don't  have a spare v belt on your boat you are  simply not aware of how quickly your V  belt will fail so if you have a V belt  on your boat that is moving your  alternator and your water pump you must  must black-and-white carry a spare with  you okay  first of all there there are all  different widths all different lengths  you're not going to go into the middle  of nowhere and give a specification of  what you need and expect them to have  them like in a big city no problem in  Coover Victoria and an IMO all those  places sure but as soon as you're going  up don't think you're gonna go to for  example an island and desolation sound  and go oh yeah you've got that V Bell  for me because I'm looking for so and so  like it's not gonna happen so carry  v-belt spares or spare v-belts now with  a serpentine you're basically it's never  gonna go like um never to the point that  we recommend a spare because I'm always  thinking safety factor but you'll never  use it the the amount of energy transfer  on a serpentine belt you look at the  surface area because that's what it is  right here is way more than a V belt  multiples up so they just don't slip and  the slippage is what's causes wear right  it's that glazing effect I'm not a  mechanic but you know voter right we can  all relate and they talk about the belt  being shiny right that shiny belt is a  belt that has been glazed and that's  slippage that slippage as we know heats  never good for anything and to begin  with an alternator lives in a very  inhospitable place so more heat is worse  right so we better for serviceability  and also we talked about that too like  if you're gonna change and this is  incredibly important okay this is  another kind of huge takeaway rule  number one nothing is easy perfect let's  always go back to rule number one if you  change your alternator to an external  regulator if you had a fifty-five amp  alternator a 120 amp alternator  you never got 120 amp out of that  alternator ever  and the Builder of your engine knew that  so for example a stock 55 an alternator  is generally daisy chained to the  starter solenoid police post with a 10  amp 10 gauge wire rated for only 30 amps  so think about it the manufacturer used  a 30 amp wire gauge 10 between the  alternator and the starter post that's  it tiny 10 10 gauge is smaller than a  pencil now you're taking that 55 amp and  you decide to make an external regulator  on it it's gonna give you more than it  ever did that wire is most likely now  under sized and remember that slide we  were showing about old vs. new on the  alternators guess why we go to new a lot  well if I'm gonna change the wire  between the starter post and the  alternator I might as well just run a  new wire to the battery that I want to  connect and that's sort of the genesis  to doing it right like if you're gonna  start the journey and I see this on my  boat all the time I'm like oh I'm doing  this oh well while I'm doing that I  might as well do this oh wow I'm doing  that and the project starts with like  eight hours and I'm like 40 hours in and  I'm like long now I can't not do it that  would be one of the low-hanging fruit is  if you're gonna reach Ange the wire  which is probably undersized to begin  with on your alternator you might as  well run it to where it should go it  might be on you in your case to your  engine battery or you might go to your  house battery there's pros and cons and  there's it's a dilemma you have to make  a decision but make sure you don't  assume that the alternator wiring is  sufficiently sized to handle any sized  alternator you're gonna throw on that  engine I've seen the wires burnt like  I'm talking like a cigarette like like  that the literally the jacket of the  wires melted back not like one inch but  four or five inches that's how hot the  wire got that the jacket actually got  cinched back so very important that when  you change your alternator or you make  your alternator better by putting an  external regulator you also think oh my  god I should look at the wiring can the  wiring handle all this new power other  thing funny fact  if your alternator has a negative return  lead which some of them do because  there's a negative post on the  alternator my previous owner thought  that electricity was really more of a  ground as a reference point and somehow  electricity traveled just on the  positive wire not joking and by the way, a desinger no joke decided that for him  he thought that connectivity was gonna  only happen on the red wire and all the  negatives never had to be big because  they were more like a common reference  point so my alternator when I got my  boat was in that 120 amp alternator had  a great positive wire it was gauge he  went all out one off perfect voltage  drop was like negligible like it was  like basically like the alternator was  on top of the battery the return path  was engaged 10 wire because in his mine  the ground was a reference point he  thought it was a chassis ground he  thought it was somehow to keep  everything common he didn't realize that  when we talk about electricity we're  talking about circuits circuit means  goes one way it's got to come back so  the path the return path has to be equal  to the path going to the device very  important well know who that engine was  also know it's different because he  actually the engine battery is connected  two on one and the house was on another  one he actually did a custom job it was  an amazing yeah okay so basically that's  a little bit of a recap  any questions on serpentine not  serpentine external regulators  absolutely we do that all the time  question was can we install or modify an  existing alternator with an internal  regulator and have that internal  regulator on an existing alternator  modified for an external regulator and  the answer is yes what you do is about  $50 you bring into an alternator shop  maybe some will charge you 75 but here  in the city is about 50 bucks and then  what happens is they give you a wire and  that wire that you connect  is called the field wire the field wire  is what drives the alternator and the  output the field wire that drives that  alternator is that blue wire right here  that's basically like you actually  putting your foot on the actuator on  your car right you you that's what  actually is driving the alternator to go  full field there's a term or pull back  when the batteries are sufficiently  charged any other questions on external  regulators yes go ahead in the back  yeah so the question good question does  a serpentine belt reduce the horsepower  demand that an alternator when it's  excited load up on the on the engine and  the answer is no it does not change the  horsepower what it does change is you  when you think about this is a big  challenge when you're loading up a large  alternator on an engine as you're  adjusting and tightening the v-belt  right you're actually that's actually  hard especially not on the crankshaft  pulley that's fine the water pump in the  front of the engine as your side loading  that there's so much tension that you  can put on that before it actually  becomes too hard the good thing about a  serpentine is because you don't need  that separation to create a good contact  you're gonna affect effectively less  side load the water pump there is no  doubt besides money and the ability to  put one on your boat that everybody  wants a serpentine kit that's just  everybody wants one sort of like an  isolation transformer it's not like the  jury's out on if it's a good idea or not  everybody wants one it's a question can  you fit one in and do you have in terms  of your priority lists on your boat is  it enough of a priority to do it fine  actually but if one was given to you or  offered to be installed on your boat no  one would say well you know what  actually I'm gonna stick with a v-belt  nobody would say that any other  questions yeah go ahead yeah well that's  a good question question was where  should the external regulator be mounted  should it be inside the engine room or  outside of the engine room the leads  from the external regulator are not that  long so in an ideal way ideal world  you'd have it outside of the engine room  especially on sailboats those little  tiny little engine rooms get smoking hot  like crazy like insane right there off  the wall hot so where how do you mount  an external regulator near an alternator  and you only have about four five six  feet of cabling and not have it in the  engine room and then have the cover on  but not in so ideally yes it's better  but that being said you know what  realistically they're made to handle a  lot of heat like I see them a lot in an  engine room on sailboats power boats  it's easier right the bigger the engine  room the less heat there is right but in  a sailboat it gets pretty warm there's  not a lot of airflow in a sailboat  engine room well engine room is a wee  misnomer here you have a sailboat and  you have an engine room congratulations  congratulations financially you've done  a few wise decisions in your lifetime  okay  but yeah so in an ideal world yes but  practically often you'll find them in  the engine room themselves yeah yeah  it's a sit and there's a lot of gotchas  with external regulator I just want to  say I can't I could spend an hour  talking to you on the problems that I've  encountered seeing external regulators  miswired on boat or people again not  reading the manual and foregoing like  90% of the benefits and being proud of  themselves and thinking all I did so  great here like it's amazing and look I  didn't even use a manual look how good  I'm doing and I'm like you defeated the  whole purpose of this incredible device  if I met the inventor I'd be high-fiving  him we'd be hugging it out I'd be like  wow it was genius so smart and they're  like  oh is that what it does I'm like you  spent all that money and you're forgoing  all the benefits if you're gonna choose  to put an external regular on your boat  please take the time to read the  instructions even if you're gonna  delegate the task to someone else make  sure that person is the type of person  who cares about doing things right as  opposed to just telling you what you  want to hear and doing it quickly okay  because you will forgo all of the  benefits and I've seen also miss  installs where the batteries literally  like massive damage can happen if it's  not installed properly if it's installed  properly it will be heaven but if you  don't it's gonna give you a lot of grief  any questions on external regulators  yeah electro max ballmart would be the  two main ones there used to be zan  tracks used to make one but i don't  think they do anymore  and ball mar and electro max really I  think the two biggest players anybody  else have any other recommendations I  don't think there really is those are  two big players oh yeah yeah the problem  with you know what we're not gonna go  that's a can of worms that could be a  whole day on lithium I lessons learned  from lithium ion installations yes you  can custom profile but the problem is  not the external regulator it's the  alternator because the alternator is  gonna work imagine it's it's it's like  it's like feeding a Kodiak bear like you  can't feed it enough fish to quench its  desire to have current like they are  endless so the alternators burn out you  need a really strong beefy alternator to  feed a lithium iron a lithium phosphate  battery bank otherwise they just simply  the limiting factor is not the battery  anymore the limiting factor the weak  point is the alternator so you need a  really amazing alternator when you do a  lithium iron phosphate battery well you  can but you gotta just I just saying is  like it's nothing use cookie cutter cook  cookie cutter what I'm saying is go back  to rule one rule run is nothing is ever  easy always go to back to that rule and  with lithium if you don't do that rule  you're just gonna be in a world of hurt  world of hurt okay any other questions  on external regulators see that again  yeah actually there's the electro max  actually has the ability actually be  going to a computer they'll do pin out  four gauges like for example ball Mar  will actually intercept the tack output  to know if it actually the alternator is  actually working which is silly but it's  possible that you're altered regulator  might say oh I don't need to work  because the batteries are certainly in  charge and then if you enable the mode  to say well you know what even though  you don't need to I want you to work so  that I can actually get my tach output  that's a feature that ball Mars Ballmer  has but this is getting weird eking out  right now right like let's be see people  glazing over there's like whoa too much  information here Jeff like not go too  crazy okay if you want to talk about I  could literally talk an hour about just  this device and I'm not done we're  starting like we're just okay it's a  neat device ultimately external  regulator think I want to have my  alternator recharge my batteries faster  that's ultimately the purpose okay