Robert

I'm happy your ride back in shape. what are the things you using for amp feet? Keep up the great work.

This is defiantly things that the average person doesn't know. Hell these last posts opened my eyes to a little bit more things. It sucks to have had to spend money on anything and fid out later that its not going to work how you want it to. The only thing I can add to anyone that is looking at either mechman or DCpower, I might be off but go to autozone and read the haynes book on where your engine RPM is at idle and then see what can be done for you. This last sentence might offend but I think that This should have been caught way before a sale was ever made. INB4

Beast amp!!!!!

Leave it how you have it but add that ground fron NEG stud on alt to the NEG on battery. Mechman puts it there for a reason.

Or call XSpower tell them your combined RMS and the batteries you have, they will tell you exactly how far what you already have goes.

From the batteries I currently have which is XS S3400 under hood and a D1200 in the trunk, I've called XS to ask if there would be a difference in switching them and they said there really wouldn't be difference. I have them in parallel with each other directly connected. If your going to look into new battery or batteries take a look at the XSpower chart. It shows you how each battery does alone and as a secondary battery. If I decide to keep this car going my plan is to get one D3100 in the trunk, because you have to also take the 4ch into account and from what I've read the AB class amp is kinda on the power hungry side now add in that BC3500 and I will want a good amount of battery reserve, and that D3100 should hold up pretty good linked to the S3400. I would aim at one D3100 for the trunk and keep the HC1800 up front.

Here you go Sho... Quote.. Posted Yesterday, 08:33 AM "You have a little resistance in your ground right now. Not a lot, but as your power output increases you need to increase ground capacity. Conducting ground through the alternator case, through the engine, through the chassis and then to the battery is not efficient. There is no reason on a car audio vehicle to add an additional ground to the engine, it's not part of the charging system and the OEM ground is adequate for the OEM engine management. The ground needs to be improved for the alternator and the best way to do so is by directly grounding the alternator case. 12.5v is a bit low for resting voltage. The alternator is charging at 14.7-14.8 at idle, this is good. Your voltage drop is going to be due to inadequate battery capacity (weak battery), bad grounds, excessive clipping, but not likely a problem with the alternator. Keep in mind that your amplifier is powered by the battery, not the alternator, the alternator is there to maintain the battery. " This was said in someone else's issue, but worth a read.

My wifa depositing funds for that very one right now. I had a schumacher charger but I felt it would have problems down the road because it had a moving part in it which sounded like a fan that the grease dried off of. I bought a battery tender plus a week and a half ago and it took a good while to do a S3100 and A D1200 by themselves if it was putting out the full 1.5amps charge. The schumacher was good about the 15amp output as it would charge them both connected in about 10min. Now the XS charger does the 15amps and can charge a battery bank pretty good, don't know if it has a cooling fan that will end up doing the same though.

From the looks of it that charger is probably good for doing one battery at a time.

No problem! Some of us just have a curse on us when it comes to this hobby, and it gets expensive. Hell I have my fair share of gremlins in my car that needs working out. a year ago when I started my car I even ran 1/0 all the way from front battery positive to rear positive and a 1/0 negative run from rear battery negative back around to the front battery negative post. I was reading I think it was either Matt or Eric said that really only the negative from the alt post to battery and the cars factory battery to block were enough for a good charge and overall performance. I can't remember where I saw it but its very recent. If I find it I'll post it for you but you might stumble upon too.

While driving it should be 14.6 14.8 while driving. Since its cold the alt probably just starting to feel the effects of that drive. So by the the time you get home its getting in the "normal" operating temp range. I went through a couple of ways of tinkering with the AVBM and in the end my results were yes the AVBM comes from mechman at the 15v cold range but my car revved up high beams on and AC fan on to simulate load I set the AVBM while touching the front battery post with a O scope and set it at 14.8v cold start while RPM was up and all that other stuff on. On the hottest summer days after a 30min drive my voltage would drop down to 14.2 14.3v. Now that its cooler without messing with anything it licks 15v at startup but then drops a tad down to 14.4 14.6v. In the end if you charge batteries, triple check your grounds including the one off the negative output stud on the alt to the battery negative post it sucks to have this fall right under the alt's turn on speed. Obviously I do care to try to help you across close to tree different websites on just about the same topics. Good luck.

Matt still alive and kicking over at mechman, He's always jumped on the phone before Eric started helping out under a year ago. Matt always was cool to put up with my dumbass questions that he's heard a thousand times. Eric from what I understand and correct me if I'm wrong picked up all the forum loads as well as selling units and tech support. From personal experience they have always helped when needed even at the very moment I called while standing overlooking my car wondering about the install. My opinion is for both companies in that "you can't please them all" They are used to it and by now we should be too.

off to work guys will check in on this tonight

OP cool I understand he's trying everything under the sun to not fry his amp or batteries and supply proper working voltage to everything. To keep it safe just make sure to not to charge over 14.6v for longer than 5 min at a time or you can gas the battery and that the charger has a AGM and float mode. If your doing one battery at a time and have time to kill a small charger not a "maintainer" will work, but if your doing multiple batteries and don't have time to spare get something with a little more amperage.

yup I read that also... but that XS1215 charger ain't no slouch and I would be a fool not to have confidence on their chargers ability to take care of my batteries.

If you set the alt AVBM like it most likely said in the instructions around 2000rpm "cold start" to 14.8 14.6v and say the temp outside was example 30 after the car warms up it sits 13.8 all is good. then tomorrow its 25 outside the voltage will be higher because of the temp. Thats what mine always does. So thats where the fine tuning comes in. Sucks kinda but you will find a balance thats fine between varying days of temp. I think your car default voltage after it warms up is 13.8v which is also fine with your amp, 14.4 would be "ideal" but if your car is happiest at 13.8 don't stress it to much. Sorry to jump in like this don't mean anything bad just seems like your chasing 14.4 or even a bit higher and you have to see that in the alt instructions it says to check with manufacture of your car to see whats a safe voltage for your car. As for the charger Nathan said it all and anyone that has bought a XS battery in general has read that bright orange sticker that comes with the battery warning about how much to charge them at. Like someone said if you don't mind waiting a few hours depending on the state of charge of your batteries could be less but I doubt it since I know that 3500D puts in work you will want to make it second nature to always charge your batteries. I will give you my personal example with what I'm going through with chargers. I have a xs S3400 and a D1200 but my charger only puts out 1.5 amps so its going to take awhile to charge the batteries even with how my car is busted right now I still charge them. In the next few days I'm ordering the xs 1215 charger simply because it can push 15amps at 14.4v. this means to me my batteries will get a somewhat faster charge and in the future say I get two D3100's I will be able to charge the battery bank better with a better charger than a weak 1.5amp charger. I did my batteries one at a time with a battery tender plus and it took awhile on each one. I kept the Oscope on the terminals and checked up on it every here and there and it always was around 14.4 and bounced 14.5 for a few seconds. Sorry for swerving like this I hope you get things straightened out.

read later post this was a banana finger putton push......

your supposed to do it "cold start" say first thing in the morning and its best to have someone rev rpm's up to 2ooorpm and with high beams on/AC to simulate a load. Then you will have set it right. 14.7/14.8 should be that set point at cold start that way as the engine bay/ALT warms up the voltage will settle down around 14.4/14.6v Aim at getting it at 14.4v AFTER the ride home at idle. As the day warms up there might be a slight drop in voltage but it should only be small difference, again because of the overall temp of the ALT.

the ECU thing lol the throttle body can of spray and a old sock will clean the throttle body. Just put the sock on your hand spray into the TB and some on sock and finger that bish!!!! As always good luck bro.

A battery maintainer is not a charger it can do more bad than good to the batteries. I was about to go that rout also but read the instructions in the store.

I would start looking locally. but be very picky please. Lots of "know it all's" will probably charge up the booty for this too.

and adjusting the AVBM exactly as instructed should help some too. Good luck.

that inlet tube connects to the throttle body. Follow the path like this, air filter box, mass air sensor tube, keep going a little bit until the black plastic tubing ends and that the throttle body. Its the part you can rev your engine by hand. I might be wrong but looks like your car might have a plastic cover hiding it a bit that you have to remove to see everything better.

I may be wrong but the actual winding pattern is different. Yours also has a good amount of copper in it, it's just layed against itself rather than "S" wound. I figure they can get more output in a smaller case keeping the "O.E." fitment than bumping up to a larger case. I may be entirely wrong but maybe someone with knowledge will explain it better. Badass Alt OP!!!!!