I\'ve installed a WS500 about 6 months ago and it\'s working fine at first sight. When giving more attention to the data, I noticed that the alternator only goes to about 27V and never reaches the target battery voltage of 28.4V (24V system). Shouldn\'t the regulator reduce the amps and get the voltage up more?
It could be a couple of things.
First, check the charge parameter of the alternator. It may have a very conservative profile. The Wakespeed site has quite a few preconfigured profiles if you are reluctant to create your own.
And I have seen some alternators, like some APS units I had, that struggle to get much more than 27v, so check to see if your field output is staying at 100 percent, or is the charge profile pulling it back.
Hi Rick,
I\'m using the CPE#8 LiFePO4 profile, so target voltage is about 28.8V. I had the alternator in small mode, but changed it to 100% output through the software and redid the test. Field is 100% and voltage doesn\'t go to target voltage mode.
The alternator is a Prestolite 24V 100A.
if your field is at 100% it seems it may be a limitation of your alternator. at a 100% field output your WS500 is doing everything it can. Strange, but I have found that most any 12V alternator will push out 15 volts, but some 24V units struggle to get much past 27.5V
Do you have good quality very large conductors coming from your alternator \"plus\"? You would be surprised at the voltage drop you will get from an undersized cable. Here is a nice little wire sizing tool from BlueSea that might help you.
Blue Seas circuit wizard tool link:
http://circuitwizard.bluesea.com/
Hi Rick,
we measured the voltage drop and it\'s about 0.4V, wire size is 90mm2 or AWG 3/0. The wakespeed gets voltage information from the battery through a volt sensing wire.
