How do you limit amps for charging?

[michael pierzga]

Gee, I cant remember the original posters name ? At any rate...read Eds description of how an alternator works.. specifically how an alternator senses the state of the battery to determine how much output it supplies and you will find your answer.

[pistnbroke]

Nice to be asked !! yes a good idea and one I had not thought of ...if you have a very big house bank well run down then it could be a while before the strting battery comes in . as you say starting typically only needs about 0.2 AH or less so you got lots of starts in your battery !!

Its easy to up the voltage regulator setting but less easy to drop it . But if we are only talking a 50 A alternator here a big diode in the feed line would drop it 0.7v

And NO lamiaspaska you cannot drop the volts with a long lead thats a resistor and when the charge current drops to zero so will the voltage drop ...

The 12 v doctor information has far too much information for most people to absorb ( the Zener diode in dia 61 is in the wrong place) and the only dual battery system shown is a very dated 1970 dual diode solution ..great reading/reference for an auto electrician though....

[Pandoras box]

Throttle control and a amp meter is a simple answer for the question originally asked.
Just my thoughts, Mike

[Boston]

bookmark for future read
great thread tho
cheers