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Second Battery Installation Question: Is an isolator required?


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I want to install a second battery, the Kinetik 1200. Only amp I'm running is the rp1200.1d skar wired with OFC 4 gauge. Big 3 done with OFC 0/1 I didnt cheap out on wiring but I'm still getting bad dimming interior lights and headlights when volume is up past 30(max 40).

 

My question is, is an isolator absolutely mandatory or is it just for playing music with the car off, camping etc. I've read mixed posts on reddit that you do/Don't need an isolator, some say it will drain your batteries, others say it wont and most builds do not use an isolator. I'd rather not have to fork out the extra $80 just for an isolator and wiring. Starting battery is just some stock battery from AutoZone. The kinetik 1200 is lead-acid.

 

any help would be nice, cheers

 

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16 minutes ago, Joe X said:

 If you want to keep playing with the car off for more than a few minutes you should probably use an external charger, at least for now. 

Ok, my main concern isn't playing while the car is off I don't plan on doing that. I just don't want the secondary battery getting drained because there isn't a isolator. So I'm just trying to figure out if an isolator is mandatory, I'm pretty sure most people that do car audio don't use one right? It's just for listening to tunes with the car off so your primary battery under the hood doesn't get drained or what?

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First, you'd be better off with 2 AGM batteries, rather than 2 lead acid batteries. 

Other than that, as long as the 2 batteries are the same chemistry (lead acid and lead acid), and you're not planning to listen to music with the car off, an isolator isn't necessary. 

If the batteries are 2 different chemistries, then it would probably be a good idea to use an isolator. Me personally, I wouldn't even run 2 different chemistry batteries together, isolator or not. But what can happen is that the 2 different chemistries have a different resting voltage. With the vehicle off, and no isolator, the 2 batteries start to leach off each other, trying to get both to be the same voltage, and what ends up happening is it can greatly shorten the lifespan of both batteries. 

2011 Chevy Silverado under construction

My build log here. Check it out! 

 

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An isolator is suggested if you're going to be play with the engine off for XYZ reason. As Hermetic said, hooking up to an external charger while doing this is ideal, but I understand if situations don't allow. You can get some pretty high output power supplies too.

I have zero experience nor recommendation for this product, but spec wise, something like this would be what you'd want. https://www.amazon.com/PowerMax-PM4-100A-Converter-Battery/dp/B01ER3LH5W 

Battery-wise: I don't mean to sound pedantic, but AGM batteries are lead-acid. There are 3 main general constructions, with 3 subsets: Flooded, AGM, and Gel. With the subsets being starting, mixed  used, and deep-discharge.

Flooded - most common battery. Pretty much the one you'll get if you walk into a store and go 'hey gimme a battery.' This has the lead plates immersed in a liquid electrolyte. These batteries often(though not always) have removable caps for adding electrolytes, and also must be mounted upright due to a spill hazard.
- Pros:
--- Cheap
--- Readily available
--- Somewhat more tolerant to over-charging or bad float voltages as you can top of the electrolyte with distilled water
- Cons:
--- Plate coatings can break off, essentially removing itself from the battery and reducing capacity
--- Not tolerant to vibration
--- Spill hazard
--- Can freeze at very low temperatures and burst the casing / damage internally
 
AGM - this takes the electrolyte from a flooded battery and puts it into a fiberglass sponge instead. Optima are probably the most common day-to-day example you'll see of this construction.
- Pros:
--- Better low temperature resistance - sponges aren't saturated, therefore a freeze has room for expansion
--- Lower spill hazard (though not zero)
--- Vibration resistant as the glass mats help secure the internal coatings in place
--- Suited to high current draw situations
- Cons:
--- Less tolerant to over-charging as they typically don't have a means of servicing the electrolyte. I've done it before, but that really isn't the  use case
--- More expensive

Gel - Uses silica to turn the electrolyte into a paste / jelly
- Pros:
--- Zero spill hazard under any condition. You typically see these in mobility scooters and whatnot.
--- Stable for deep discharge use, potentially longer lifespan than other constructions for this purpose
- Cons:
--- Not tolerant to over-charging or high current use. At all.


Subconstructions:
- Starting: more, thinner plates to decrease internal resistance. Great current output, though less tolerant to deep discharge use as the plates will flake their coatings off more easily

- Deep discharge: thicker, sturdier plates designed to handle the chemical stress of being drained from 100 to 0 and back again. Higher internal resistance, will incur more voltage drop under load.

- Mixed use: in-between of these two construction types.


Now for your isolator and light dimming:

There are 2 main types of isolators. Active (solenoid) and passive (diode)

A solenoid based isolator is basically a giant relay/switch that connects the contacts together when you turn the key on. This will offer the least resistance / voltage drop in the system.

A diode based isolator uses a pair of high current diodes to prevent back-flow between 2 sets of batteries. Diodes will incur a 0.7v drop across them, along with any heat that will produce. 200 amps at 0.7v is 140 watts of heat that would need to be dealt with. Along with other concerns with respect to alternator control - 14v at the alternator will only be 13.3 at the battery.








If your lights are dimming, that's a result of equipment being able to draw very sharp bursts of current that take you from alternator voltage ~14v, to battery voltage ~<13v.

In either scenario, an isolator won't help you with the engine running. If the car is off, then it will, as your vehicles electrical system will be effectively separated from the draw.

If you want to fix this, you have 2, maybe 4* options:

1*. Install a large capacitor as close to your starting battery as possible to smooth the voltage fluctuations. It'll still happen, just less noticeable

2. Run dual alternators. Stock alternator handles the vehicle's electrical. Second alternator handles your audio gear. You'd be running 2 discrete electrical systems in your vehicle.

3. Replace various bulbs with some sort of regulated unit - anything that has it's own power supply. Headlights for example could be retrofitted to HID or LED and there would be no dimming. Interior bulbs might take some researching, if such a thing even exists. Most are just 'dumb' units. You'd want to look for something that is explicitly non-dimmable

4*. Modify the wiring in your vehicle. Find which circuit handles interior lighting, and install a dc-dc buck regulator on that. Set the output to 11v or something lower than you'd drop voltage to, and let it compensate.


tl;dr:
- Generally speaking, you don't want to use an isolator unless you have an explicit need for one. Any isolator will add resistance and failure points to your circuit.
- You should replace your starting battery with an AGM. Mixing battery constructions is a nono as AGM and Flooded will have different resting/float voltages, at ~13 and ~12.6 respectively. The flooded unit will incur a parasitic drain against your AGM when the vehicle is off.

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6 minutes ago, SnowDrifter said:

An isolator is suggested if you're going to be play with the engine off for XYZ reason. As Hermetic said, hooking up to an external charger while doing this is ideal, but I understand if situations don't allow. You can get some pretty high output power supplies too.

I have zero experience nor recommendation for this product, but spec wise, something like this would be what you'd want. https://www.amazon.com/PowerMax-PM4-100A-Converter-Battery/dp/B01ER3LH5W 

Battery-wise: I don't mean to sound pedantic, but AGM batteries are lead-acid. There are 3 main general constructions, with 3 subsets: Flooded, AGM, and Gel. With the subsets being starting, mixed  used, and deep-discharge.

Flooded - most common battery. Pretty much the one you'll get if you walk into a store and go 'hey gimme a battery.' This has the lead plates immersed in a liquid electrolyte. These batteries often(though not always) have removable caps for adding electrolytes, and also must be mounted upright due to a spill hazard.
- Pros:
--- Cheap
--- Readily available
--- Somewhat more tolerant to over-charging or bad float voltages as you can top of the electrolyte with distilled water
- Cons:
--- Plate coatings can break off, essentially removing itself from the battery and reducing capacity
--- Not tolerant to vibration
--- Spill hazard
--- Can freeze at very low temperatures and burst the casing / damage internally
 
AGM - this takes the electrolyte from a flooded battery and puts it into a fiberglass sponge instead. Optima are probably the most common day-to-day example you'll see of this construction.
- Pros:
--- Better low temperature resistance - sponges aren't saturated, therefore a freeze has room for expansion
--- Lower spill hazard (though not zero)
--- Vibration resistant as the glass mats help secure the internal coatings in place
--- Suited to high current draw situations
- Cons:
--- Less tolerant to over-charging as they typically don't have a means of servicing the electrolyte. I've done it before, but that really isn't the  use case
--- More expensive

Gel - Uses silica to turn the electrolyte into a paste / jelly
- Pros:
--- Zero spill hazard under any condition. You typically see these in mobility scooters and whatnot.
--- Stable for deep discharge use, potentially longer lifespan than other constructions for this purpose
- Cons:
--- Not tolerant to over-charging or high current use. At all.


Subconstructions:
- Starting: more, thinner plates to decrease internal resistance. Great current output, though less tolerant to deep discharge use as the plates will flake their coatings off more easily

- Deep discharge: thicker, sturdier plates designed to handle the chemical stress of being drained from 100 to 0 and back again. Higher internal resistance, will incur more voltage drop under load.

- Mixed use: in-between of these two construction types.


Now for your isolator and light dimming:

There are 2 main types of isolators. Active (solenoid) and passive (diode)

A solenoid based isolator is basically a giant relay/switch that connects the contacts together when you turn the key on. This will offer the least resistance / voltage drop in the system.

A diode based isolator uses a pair of high current diodes to prevent back-flow between 2 sets of batteries. Diodes will incur a 0.7v drop across them, along with any heat that will produce. 200 amps at 0.7v is 140 watts of heat that would need to be dealt with. Along with other concerns with respect to alternator control - 14v at the alternator will only be 13.3 at the battery.








If your lights are dimming, that's a result of equipment being able to draw very sharp bursts of current that take you from alternator voltage ~14v, to battery voltage ~<13v.

In either scenario, an isolator won't help you with the engine running. If the car is off, then it will, as your vehicles electrical system will be effectively separated from the draw.

If you want to fix this, you have 2, maybe 4* options:

1*. Install a large capacitor as close to your starting battery as possible to smooth the voltage fluctuations. It'll still happen, just less noticeable

2. Run dual alternators. Stock alternator handles the vehicle's electrical. Second alternator handles your audio gear. You'd be running 2 discrete electrical systems in your vehicle.

3. Replace various bulbs with some sort of regulated unit - anything that has it's own power supply. Headlights for example could be retrofitted to HID or LED and there would be no dimming. Interior bulbs might take some researching, if such a thing even exists. Most are just 'dumb' units. You'd want to look for something that is explicitly non-dimmable

4*. Modify the wiring in your vehicle. Find which circuit handles interior lighting, and install a dc-dc buck regulator on that. Set the output to 11v or something lower than you'd drop voltage to, and let it compensate.


tl;dr:
- Generally speaking, you don't want to use an isolator unless you have an explicit need for one. Any isolator will add resistance and failure points to your circuit.
- You should replace your starting battery with an AGM. Mixing battery constructions is a nono as AGM and Flooded will have different resting/float voltages, at ~13 and ~12.6 respectively. The flooded unit will incur a parasitic drain against your AGM when the vehicle is off.

Not to hijack the thread, but I took a screen shot of this. Tons of great information I didn't know. Thank you @SnowDrifter. Tons of great info again! 

2011 Chevy Silverado under construction

My build log here. Check it out! 

 

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6 hours ago, SnowDrifter said:

An isolator is suggested if you're going to be play with the engine off for XYZ reason. As Hermetic said, hooking up to an external charger while doing this is ideal, but I understand if situations don't allow. You can get some pretty high output power supplies too.

I have zero experience nor recommendation for this product, but spec wise, something like this would be what you'd want. https://www.amazon.com/PowerMax-PM4-100A-Converter-Battery/dp/B01ER3LH5W 

Battery-wise: I don't mean to sound pedantic, but AGM batteries are lead-acid. There are 3 main general constructions, with 3 subsets: Flooded, AGM, and Gel. With the subsets being starting, mixed  used, and deep-discharge.

Flooded - most common battery. Pretty much the one you'll get if you walk into a store and go 'hey gimme a battery.' This has the lead plates immersed in a liquid electrolyte. These batteries often(though not always) have removable caps for adding electrolytes, and also must be mounted upright due to a spill hazard.
- Pros:
--- Cheap
--- Readily available
--- Somewhat more tolerant to over-charging or bad float voltages as you can top of the electrolyte with distilled water
- Cons:
--- Plate coatings can break off, essentially removing itself from the battery and reducing capacity
--- Not tolerant to vibration
--- Spill hazard
--- Can freeze at very low temperatures and burst the casing / damage internally
 
AGM - this takes the electrolyte from a flooded battery and puts it into a fiberglass sponge instead. Optima are probably the most common day-to-day example you'll see of this construction.
- Pros:
--- Better low temperature resistance - sponges aren't saturated, therefore a freeze has room for expansion
--- Lower spill hazard (though not zero)
--- Vibration resistant as the glass mats help secure the internal coatings in place
--- Suited to high current draw situations
- Cons:
--- Less tolerant to over-charging as they typically don't have a means of servicing the electrolyte. I've done it before, but that really isn't the  use case
--- More expensive

Gel - Uses silica to turn the electrolyte into a paste / jelly
- Pros:
--- Zero spill hazard under any condition. You typically see these in mobility scooters and whatnot.
--- Stable for deep discharge use, potentially longer lifespan than other constructions for this purpose
- Cons:
--- Not tolerant to over-charging or high current use. At all.


Subconstructions:
- Starting: more, thinner plates to decrease internal resistance. Great current output, though less tolerant to deep discharge use as the plates will flake their coatings off more easily

- Deep discharge: thicker, sturdier plates designed to handle the chemical stress of being drained from 100 to 0 and back again. Higher internal resistance, will incur more voltage drop under load.

- Mixed use: in-between of these two construction types.


Now for your isolator and light dimming:

There are 2 main types of isolators. Active (solenoid) and passive (diode)

A solenoid based isolator is basically a giant relay/switch that connects the contacts together when you turn the key on. This will offer the least resistance / voltage drop in the system.

A diode based isolator uses a pair of high current diodes to prevent back-flow between 2 sets of batteries. Diodes will incur a 0.7v drop across them, along with any heat that will produce. 200 amps at 0.7v is 140 watts of heat that would need to be dealt with. Along with other concerns with respect to alternator control - 14v at the alternator will only be 13.3 at the battery.








If your lights are dimming, that's a result of equipment being able to draw very sharp bursts of current that take you from alternator voltage ~14v, to battery voltage ~<13v.

In either scenario, an isolator won't help you with the engine running. If the car is off, then it will, as your vehicles electrical system will be effectively separated from the draw.

If you want to fix this, you have 2, maybe 4* options:

1*. Install a large capacitor as close to your starting battery as possible to smooth the voltage fluctuations. It'll still happen, just less noticeable

2. Run dual alternators. Stock alternator handles the vehicle's electrical. Second alternator handles your audio gear. You'd be running 2 discrete electrical systems in your vehicle.

3. Replace various bulbs with some sort of regulated unit - anything that has it's own power supply. Headlights for example could be retrofitted to HID or LED and there would be no dimming. Interior bulbs might take some researching, if such a thing even exists. Most are just 'dumb' units. You'd want to look for something that is explicitly non-dimmable

4*. Modify the wiring in your vehicle. Find which circuit handles interior lighting, and install a dc-dc buck regulator on that. Set the output to 11v or something lower than you'd drop voltage to, and let it compensate.


tl;dr:
- Generally speaking, you don't want to use an isolator unless you have an explicit need for one. Any isolator will add resistance and failure points to your circuit.
- You should replace your starting battery with an AGM. Mixing battery constructions is a nono as AGM and Flooded will have different resting/float voltages, at ~13 and ~12.6 respectively. The flooded unit will incur a parasitic drain against your AGM when the vehicle is off.

 

Thanks for that, valuable information. So the starting battery must be an AGM in order to run an AGM in the back or the flooded battery will drain the AGM when the vehicle is off, because of the resting voltages being different.

 

 

 

 

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20 hours ago, Hermetic said:

 

Thanks for that, valuable information. So the starting battery must be an AGM in order to run an AGM in the back or the flooded battery will drain the AGM when the vehicle is off, because of the resting voltages being different.

 

 

 

 

Yes that is correct

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On 3/23/2022 at 6:58 PM, Hermetic said:

 

Thanks for that, valuable information. So the starting battery must be an AGM in order to run an AGM in the back or the flooded battery will drain the AGM when the vehicle is off, because of the resting voltages being different.

 

 

 

 

 

Right now it looks like you are running both of your batteries depleted and your alternator is likely having a hard time, since you could run into long term reliability issues with your electrical, I wouldn't mind recommending an isolator and an external charger if you are not planning to upgrade your electrical at all in the next few months.

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  • 1 month later...
On 3/23/2022 at 9:57 AM, SnowDrifter said:

An isolator is suggested if you're going to be play with the engine off for XYZ reason. As Hermetic said, hooking up to an external charger while doing this is ideal, but I understand if situations don't allow. You can get some pretty high output power supplies too.

I have zero experience nor recommendation for this product, but spec wise, something like this would be what you'd want. https://www.amazon.com/PowerMax-PM4-100A-Converter-Battery/dp/B01ER3LH5W 

Battery-wise: I don't mean to sound pedantic, but AGM batteries are lead-acid. There are 3 main general constructions, with 3 subsets: Flooded, AGM, and Gel. With the subsets being starting, mixed  used, and deep-discharge.

Flooded - most common battery. Pretty much the one you'll get if you walk into a store and go 'hey gimme a battery.' This has the lead plates immersed in a liquid electrolyte. These batteries often(though not always) have removable caps for adding electrolytes, and also must be mounted upright due to a spill hazard.
- Pros:
--- Cheap
--- Readily available
--- Somewhat more tolerant to over-charging or bad float voltages as you can top of the electrolyte with distilled water
- Cons:
--- Plate coatings can break off, essentially removing itself from the battery and reducing capacity
--- Not tolerant to vibration
--- Spill hazard
--- Can freeze at very low temperatures and burst the casing / damage internally
 
AGM - this takes the electrolyte from a flooded battery and puts it into a fiberglass sponge instead. Optima are probably the most common day-to-day example you'll see of this construction.
- Pros:
--- Better low temperature resistance - sponges aren't saturated, therefore a freeze has room for expansion
--- Lower spill hazard (though not zero)
--- Vibration resistant as the glass mats help secure the internal coatings in place
--- Suited to high current draw situations
- Cons:
--- Less tolerant to over-charging as they typically don't have a means of servicing the electrolyte. I've done it before, but that really isn't the  use case
--- More expensive

Gel - Uses silica to turn the electrolyte into a paste / jelly
- Pros:
--- Zero spill hazard under any condition. You typically see these in mobility scooters and whatnot.
--- Stable for deep discharge use, potentially longer lifespan than other constructions for this purpose
- Cons:
--- Not tolerant to over-charging or high current use. At all.


Subconstructions:
- Starting: more, thinner plates to decrease internal resistance. Great current output, though less tolerant to deep discharge use as the plates will flake their coatings off more easily

- Deep discharge: thicker, sturdier plates designed to handle the chemical stress of being drained from 100 to 0 and back again. Higher internal resistance, will incur more voltage drop under load.

- Mixed use: in-between of these two construction types.


Now for your isolator and light dimming:

There are 2 main types of isolators. Active (solenoid) and passive (diode)

A solenoid based isolator is basically a giant relay/switch that connects the contacts together when you turn the key on. This will offer the least resistance / voltage drop in the system.

A diode based isolator uses a pair of high current diodes to prevent back-flow between 2 sets of batteries. Diodes will incur a 0.7v drop across them, along with any heat that will produce. 200 amps at 0.7v is 140 watts of heat that would need to be dealt with. Along with other concerns with respect to alternator control - 14v at the alternator will only be 13.3 at the battery.








If your lights are dimming, that's a result of equipment being able to draw very sharp bursts of current that take you from alternator voltage ~14v, to battery voltage ~<13v.

In either scenario, an isolator won't help you with the engine running. If the car is off, then it will, as your vehicles electrical system will be effectively separated from the draw.

If you want to fix this, you have 2, maybe 4* options:

1*. Install a large capacitor as close to your starting battery as possible to smooth the voltage fluctuations. It'll still happen, just less noticeable

2. Run dual alternators. Stock alternator handles the vehicle's electrical. Second alternator handles your audio gear. You'd be running 2 discrete electrical systems in your vehicle.

3. Replace various bulbs with some sort of regulated unit - anything that has it's own power supply. Headlights for example could be retrofitted to HID or LED and there would be no dimming. Interior bulbs might take some researching, if such a thing even exists. Most are just 'dumb' units. You'd want to look for something that is explicitly non-dimmable

4*. Modify the wiring in your vehicle. Find which circuit handles interior lighting, and install a dc-dc buck regulator on that. Set the output to 11v or something lower than you'd drop voltage to, and let it compensate.


tl;dr:
- Generally speaking, you don't want to use an isolator unless you have an explicit need for one. Any isolator will add resistance and failure points to your circuit.
- You should replace your starting battery with an AGM. Mixing battery constructions is a nono as AGM and Flooded will have different resting/float voltages, at ~13 and ~12.6 respectively. The flooded unit will incur a parasitic drain against your AGM when the vehicle is off.

 

On 3/23/2022 at 9:57 AM, SnowDrifter said:

An isolator is suggested if you're going to be play with the engine off for XYZ reason. As Hermetic said, hooking up to an external charger while doing this is ideal, but I understand if situations don't allow. You can get some pretty high output power supplies too.

I have zero experience nor recommendation for this product, but spec wise, something like this would be what you'd want. https://www.amazon.com/PowerMax-PM4-100A-Converter-Battery/dp/B01ER3LH5W 

Battery-wise: I don't mean to sound pedantic, but AGM batteries are lead-acid. There are 3 main general constructions, with 3 subsets: Flooded, AGM, and Gel. With the subsets being starting, mixed  used, and deep-discharge.

Flooded - most common battery. Pretty much the one you'll get if you walk into a store and go 'hey gimme a battery.' This has the lead plates immersed in a liquid electrolyte. These batteries often(though not always) have removable caps for adding electrolytes, and also must be mounted upright due to a spill hazard.
- Pros:
--- Cheap
--- Readily available
--- Somewhat more tolerant to over-charging or bad float voltages as you can top of the electrolyte with distilled water
- Cons:
--- Plate coatings can break off, essentially removing itself from the battery and reducing capacity
--- Not tolerant to vibration
--- Spill hazard
--- Can freeze at very low temperatures and burst the casing / damage internally
 
AGM - this takes the electrolyte from a flooded battery and puts it into a fiberglass sponge instead. Optima are probably the most common day-to-day example you'll see of this construction.
- Pros:
--- Better low temperature resistance - sponges aren't saturated, therefore a freeze has room for expansion
--- Lower spill hazard (though not zero)
--- Vibration resistant as the glass mats help secure the internal coatings in place
--- Suited to high current draw situations
- Cons:
--- Less tolerant to over-charging as they typically don't have a means of servicing the electrolyte. I've done it before, but that really isn't the  use case
--- More expensive

Gel - Uses silica to turn the electrolyte into a paste / jelly
- Pros:
--- Zero spill hazard under any condition. You typically see these in mobility scooters and whatnot.
--- Stable for deep discharge use, potentially longer lifespan than other constructions for this purpose
- Cons:
--- Not tolerant to over-charging or high current use. At all.


Subconstructions:
- Starting: more, thinner plates to decrease internal resistance. Great current output, though less tolerant to deep discharge use as the plates will flake their coatings off more easily

- Deep discharge: thicker, sturdier plates designed to handle the chemical stress of being drained from 100 to 0 and back again. Higher internal resistance, will incur more voltage drop under load.

- Mixed use: in-between of these two construction types.


Now for your isolator and light dimming:

There are 2 main types of isolators. Active (solenoid) and passive (diode)

A solenoid based isolator is basically a giant relay/switch that connects the contacts together when you turn the key on. This will offer the least resistance / voltage drop in the system.

A diode based isolator uses a pair of high current diodes to prevent back-flow between 2 sets of batteries. Diodes will incur a 0.7v drop across them, along with any heat that will produce. 200 amps at 0.7v is 140 watts of heat that would need to be dealt with. Along with other concerns with respect to alternator control - 14v at the alternator will only be 13.3 at the battery.








If your lights are dimming, that's a result of equipment being able to draw very sharp bursts of current that take you from alternator voltage ~14v, to battery voltage ~<13v.

In either scenario, an isolator won't help you with the engine running. If the car is off, then it will, as your vehicles electrical system will be effectively separated from the draw.

If you want to fix this, you have 2, maybe 4* options:

1*. Install a large capacitor as close to your starting battery as possible to smooth the voltage fluctuations. It'll still happen, just less noticeable

2. Run dual alternators. Stock alternator handles the vehicle's electrical. Second alternator handles your audio gear. You'd be running 2 discrete electrical systems in your vehicle.

3. Replace various bulbs with some sort of regulated unit - anything that has it's own power supply. Headlights for example could be retrofitted to HID or LED and there would be no dimming. Interior bulbs might take some researching, if such a thing even exists. Most are just 'dumb' units. You'd want to look for something that is explicitly non-dimmable

4*. Modify the wiring in your vehicle. Find which circuit handles interior lighting, and install a dc-dc buck regulator on that. Set the output to 11v or something lower than you'd drop voltage to, and let it compensate.


tl;dr:
- Generally speaking, you don't want to use an isolator unless you have an explicit need for one. Any isolator will add resistance and failure points to your circuit.
- You should replace your starting battery with an AGM. Mixing battery constructions is a nono as AGM and Flooded will have different resting/float voltages, at ~13 and ~12.6 respectively. The flooded unit will incur a parasitic drain against your AGM when the vehicle is off.

Question to add, how would adding a second alternator for the system be wired up?

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