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This past summer, I installed a Wake 500 Pro Bluetooth. Here's my honest opinion about it. We have a big announcement. You can now become a YouTube member. You can join as a YouTube member right now here on screen for custom loyalty badges and emojis. [music] Or, if you are looking for exclusive early access to our videos, live Q&As, and more direct [music] support on your project, we also launched our brand new Patreon page linked in the description below. Thank you so much for watching and being [music] part of the Pacific Yacht Systems community. Now, let's get back to the video. Hey everyone, welcome to another installment of Deck Talk. This is Jeff Cote with Pacific Yacht Systems. And today, I'm going to be talking about what are the features and benefits of using a Wake Speed WS500 Pro with Bluetooth on your boat. So, this past summer, I decided to upgrade my external regulator to the Bluetooth model of the Wake Speed 500. And I did that because I wanted to actually understand what was going on with my alternator. So, I have a high output alternator on my boat like many of you might be contemplating on your boat. And it was driven by a Wake Speed, but I didn't really have the ability of knowing what the regulator was doing, what was seeing. I could measure current cuz I had have a basically a sensor for that, but I really wanted to understand like was the alternator overheating, was it max putting out maximum field, and I wanted to be able to not only see what was happening, but also configure my external regulator and have it perfectly dialed in to maximize the output of my alternator. So, what I'm going to be talking in this video is really what are the benefits of and what I basically came out from using a Wake Speed 500 Pro with Bluetooth so you can have it app. My purchase of the Wake Speed WS500 Pro Bluetooth was done on my own dime, my own money. This is not at all an endorsement from the manufacturer. It's just my legitimate thought on what I think of the product. So, first thing I think, which is amazing, is configuration. There's multiple pages on the configuration side, but I'm just going to talk about the things that I really liked. The first thing that I really came out to me was being able to set the threshold where I want the maximum temperature of my alternator be. So, the default is 100° C, which I find a little bit hot, and so on my boat, I actually decided, because I sometimes I'm running the engine for extended periods of time, uh while we're cruising going along the coast, some days it's 8 hours, 10 hours of motoring, and I wanted my alternator not get too hot. And so yes, of course I have fans both in and out of the engine room to help cool the engine room, but all of that, it's still at max output, the alternator still gets hot. And so I was able to, using the Bluetooth app, actually set the alternator max temperature to 90° C. Now, what that means is obviously the alternator is going to actually basically, or the Wake Speed, is going to pull back on the alternator and not max do a maximum output as it gets close to 90. So, you're not obviously, sometimes you're going to taper back, but I'm doing that to save in the long run my alternator. So, being able to configure a custom temperature is great. So, was able to do that. The next thing that I also ended up doing was different RPMs, the alternator would not always be fully loaded. So, I had lower output or lower load on the alternator at lower RPMs. So, let's say from 1,000 RPM or 800 to 1,100, from 1,100 to 1,400, and I basically had different stages or levels of output, and I would only have maximum output on the alternator at 1,400 RPM. And here's another one, I tapered it off. If I'm over 2,600 RPM, I also tapered it off then. I figure if I'm going really fast and I'm then I don't want my alternator to take too much load off my engine. So, creating a custom sort of like load profile was huge. So, now my engine at really low RPM is not loaded too heavily with the alternator. And if I'm wide open throttle for whatever reason, then also my alternator is actually pulling back. So, that's a really nice feature that I liked in the app. And by the way, there is dozens upon dozens upon dozens and dozens of features you can do. Sounds overwhelming, but if you start geeking out, it can be really fun looking into all of that. Now, what's really nice about all of this is you have a monitoring feature on the Wake Speed Pro. So, while you're underway, you can actually via Bluetooth and via the app see what your alt what the regulator is doing to your alternator. You can actually see if it's going full field. You can see the temperature of the alternator, which is great. You can see the temperature of your Wake Speed, see what the temperature of that is. And then you can also make sure that like what target voltage is, what the voltage at the alternator is, what's the voltage actually at the batteries. It's just so empowering to be underway and see that actually, yeah, like I'm max field, meaning my alternator is driven at the max, which is what I want many of the times. Or, oh, I'm noticing that my alternator is not outputting as much. Why is that? You look in the app, the alternator is now driven by the Wake Speed at maybe 80%. You're like, oh, I'm 80% of my alternator right now. Why? Because I'm trying to not run it too hard so that the temperature of the alternator stays a little bit cooler. And so, I found myself throughout the trip pretty much not all the time, but you know, looking at the alternate output and wondering what is my alternate output and how is my alternator being driven? And my Wake Speed was able to give me that information right on the phone. So, you can look at that while you're underway in the cockpit. And I would say those features in themselves are definitely worth it. Especially if you're curious and you want to know what's happening at your alternator, this Bluetooth model allows you to have that app and that app gives you total understanding of what's happening at your alternator. And that's why I would say it's an absolute thumbs up for me compared to the one that didn't have it. If you're considering to get one, I would consider for sure the Bluetooth model as it gives you way more monitoring and customizable feature that can be done by a do-it-yourself. So, if you made it this far in the video, thanks so much for [music] watching and hear my story with the Wake Speed 5000 Pro Bluetooth. If you haven't subscribed to the channel, please do so. It helps us grow [music] and reach the fellow boaters. If you're in local waters here in Vancouver or the Pacific Northwest and you'd like to have Pacific Yacht Systems help you >> [music] >> with a high-output alternator and external regulator for your boat, reach out to us. We're here to help. The links are in the description below. Thanks so much, everyone, and be [music] safe on the water. Take care. Hey, fellow boaters. We're going to be doing a lot more [music] tech talk videos. If you've got any suggestions for future video, leave them in the comments below. Once again, thank you for watching.