BrAdAsS

If only more of the right people actually knew how hard it is for some of us to find a h/o alternator, in particular a non-usa made alternator......

01zx3 I didn't want to post, but; what about those people? I don't compete, did you mean the OP is competing? My bad, I missed the OP saying that when I read through all the posts.. Im still wondering what practical information for the OP your message had. If you have 2x batteries, that will help maintain the voltage under load car off, but, still, as soon as you exceed the capacity of your alternator completely it will drop to the uncharged battery's voltage. Does your vehicle already have a dc:dc converter for the headlights? Some vehicles have one from factory. By the sounds you still have the same problem, but, your alternator is able to supply enough to cover the majority of extra load from your stereo before it reverts to battery voltage - hence the voltage drop. Looking at your sig, you have one alpine type r sub powered by a 2400wrms amp... Do you compete with that do you? Upgrading to a bigger alternator before the 2nd battery would have more of an effect on dimming by maintaining the higher voltage when the car is running. If the car lights dim when the engine is off then the alternator is not the cause. A 2nd battery would help more then. I wouldn't consider it as safe to let 300A flow through a cable that only needs to supply 150A. The whole point to matching the fuse size to the equipment. OP I have a 4x100wrms and a 1x550wrms Alpine combo with a D34M bluetop and police-spec 120A alternator, all 0 gauge. I myself use 80A and 120A resetable circuit breakers at the amps and a 200A fuse at the battery. My vehicle consumes a good portion of the alternators output to run which doesn't leave the stereo as much as it needs, hence why my lights dim.

Battery voltage is say 12.6v and Alternator voltage is say 14.4v. The dimming is noticeable as the alternator output is exceeded by the additional load, so the draw defaults to the battery voltage which is always lower. Another battery will help, but it still will attempt to do the same thing when the alternator output is exceeded. The fuses should be rated to handle the maximum draw/charge going through the cable to match your setup/gear..

The alternator and battery could be upgraded, but, your still not addressing the problem directly. The problem is the bass hits, drops the voltage and lights dim. Another option is to see what the voltage is dropping to and use a dc to dc converter to run the headlights, rated to work from 9v to 15v. This will counter the bass hit-voltage drop atleast for the lights so if it hits 10v on a bass note, it's still making the same light as it does at 14v. I've noticed my HID's don't dim, so I pinched that idea from them. No converter is 100% efficient so there is a small overhead trade-off.

Coming from someone who has built 1000's of alternators in a factory, It would have been handy to see this back then.. As mentioned above, he used starter motor terminology talking about the alternator.. Although I've only seen his one vid so far, he could have mentioned a few pointers about variations you would see.

Hello to everyone who see's this. Im BrAdAsS, Im from Australia. Right now Im livid. I have joined this forum as It was a link from Darvex's homepage. He stated he uses this forum, hence why I'm writing this to say hello, and to warn everyone simultaneously as this is one of my pet hates and I would hate to see this person rip anyone off. I wish to make public the fact that Darvex is a joke. Im into car audio, and I want to buy hundreds of dollars worth of items to improve what I already have. I emailed this Trail McFarland fella that runs the Bag Boy ebay store and had setup an order for over $400. Before anything else, this Trail fella has blocked me from completing the transaction for absolutely no reason, he will not reply to emails that I send to his ebay store or directly to the Darvex website. The joke part is the fact I got my mate to email him asking if he could place an order. The response was almost immediate, and quote: ---------------------- Sure. That’s no problem. If you have the list or parts needed let me know. I’ll be happy to get you a quote with shipping. Thanks, Trail McFarland ---------------------- From my experience I wish to let everyone know that this person not only is out to waste your time but also does not give a shit about his customers, and will more than likely extend the same "customer service" he has shown me. Please be aware of this person and ebay shop and website as he is dishonest, pathetic and will waste your time. If you have a look on the darvex website and the statements regarding customer service you will see this is complete rubbish.