Alternator-Regulator wiring......

[Wishuponasub]

Alright guys so I have some questions as I have made some mistakes during my planning from lack of knowledge. 

2010 dodge caliber - 270 amp CES alt in stock location and 390 CES alt as secondary. I will be using CMax and maxwells for a bank. The 270 is externally regulated but it is controlled by the car's pcm or whatever. The 390 is externally regulated as well. So I originally thought that I could use the one regulator to control both alts. I was told by Jonathan Patrick that I couldn't control 2 different output alts with one regulator so enter my mistakes lol.

So my questions are:

1. Can I run the alts at different voltages? Like the 270 at pcm controlled voltage ~14.2 to 14.4 and the 390 at 15v. Or would that cause the pcm to shutdown the 270?

2. Should I just set the 390 around 14.2 to 14.4 to run with the 270?

3. Should I just run the 390 to the bank so I can run the bank at a bit higher voltage?

4. Is this what I need to be looking at to wire this bad boy up?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. 

[SnowDrifter]

I'd ground the reg to the alt casing

Fuse the battery charge wire near the battery



-I'd run the alts at the same voltage. But depending on your idle speed, the 390 might not have much idle output. In which case set it *slightly* higher. No point in energizing the field if it doesn't do anything

-I wouldn't try to run stuff at the highest possible voltages. 14.2-14.4 range is plenty fine. Once you drop voltage, you're dropping to batt resting anyway. Charging higher just increases the chance you boil off you batteries. In b4 everyone screeching they've run 15.8 daily for 87 years without issue. It's my 2 cents. Take it or leave it


Also: If you're comfortable soldering small wires, it might be well worth your time to put a multi turn potentiometer in place of the included pot on the regulator. Makes it 100x easier to set voltage. Can dig up part numbers and possibly a pic if you're interested

[Wishuponasub]

Thank you for the words of wisdom SnowDrifter. The only reason I was even talking of a higher voltage is because after I bought the CMax I started to hear they like 16v. But I will be running Taramps so I dont wanna go that high and hell the cars electrical probably wouldn't handle much above 15 anyways.

Also I have the CES regulator as well not the transpo. 

[SnowDrifter]

Whoops read past the cmax bit

That changes things

1. Don't use any lead/acid batts in the system. If you'll run lithium, run them the whole way. Different resting voltages and all that jazz

2. Not sure which regs CES includes with their alts. Most externals I've seen use the transpo, but pics/info here would be nice to have.

3. Again with the info. I've seen the cmax things popping up but could you give me a link or something to them? Will need to check specs and evaluate what an appropriate charge voltage would be

4. Which amp(s) are you running?

5. Going a bit beyond your question; but how are your lithiums wired? Do you have a cell balancer?

[Wishuponasub]

I'll try to dig this Info up and post back tomorrow. Thank you again.

[Wishuponasub]

I'm having hell trying to find the actual manufacturer to get specs. So far this is all I have found.

Also here are some pics of the regulator.

There is supposed to be a knob on the pot but I believe it was left off. I still have to dig around in the box if I still have it.

Yes i will be doing a front batt delete. May throw a bank of maxwells there but I'll probably put them in the back.

So the build is a 270,390 alt to 3-45ah cmax banks and 2 banks of maxwells. 4 taramps MD 8ks (at .7 DCR/1ohm)on 4 FI Team 15s.

Now to the batt questions....

Its 36 cells. 4 banks of 9 parallel in series. No balancing.

Sorry for the rambling. Its early and I'm at work.

[SnowDrifter]

yeah that's defo a different regulator than what I've seen. I wouldn't fuss with it.

As to the batteries: They appear to be standard 3.7v cells, with a 4.20v max voltage. Chemistry being LiMn2O4 IMO, both for workability, safety, and cell life, target a charge voltage of 4.05-4.10v per cell, which would put you at between 16.20 and 16.40v. Keep the cell voltage above 3.20, or 12.8v for the pack.

You'll note the vastly different operating voltages between these and a traditional lead-acid battery. These will be discharged at the same voltage an AGM would be charged. Consider what happens when the car is off and why running these together is a poor idea.(charge voltages aside)

[Wishuponasub]

Ok. So then my best bet is probably the 390 to the bank in the bank at ~16 and just leave the 270 for the vehicles electrical. I may put the mids and highs on the 270 and front battery as well.

And as far as the regulator wiring diagram, I'm good except for the couple changes you mentioned. Thank you very much @SnowDrifter

[SnowDrifter]

Definitely agree with that plan. 16v is getting to the range where you'll want to run a separate electrical system for it.

You will, however, want to invest in a balancer. This isn't an optional step. Can go into detail on it if you'd like, but I'd first encourage you to do some reading about lithium cells - I feel it's important to understand the nature of the beast vs. having a tick box of various answers, ya know?