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Automotive voltage regulator...how do they work?

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joecool85

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I've seen them all over eBay, and I was wondering, how do they work? Here is a link to a couple of them:

**broken link removed**

**broken link removed**
 
Looks like a load of crap to me!

All the devices listed have been designed to tolerate electrical noise. It won't make the engine start faster or run any better for sure.

It wouldn't be any trouble to make a regulator to filter out spikes and provide a more constant voltage. However, that one sure doesn't look big enough for more than a few amps. In fact it's difficult and expensive to build a regualor without knowing what kind of loads it will need to feed. And like I say, there's just no need.
 
I thought it was strange that it said the engine would start faster...but I don't know enough to say too much about that.

What role does the electrical system have in the running of the engine after it's started up or the operation of the throttle? I'm pretty sure none, but I don't know much about cars.

And how fast do you need to start your darn car anyways? lol. It's pretty much instantaneous the way it is now.
 
second one is clearly just a few capacitors, I assume thats what the first one is too.. basically, its going to do bugger all really :p
 
Power Voltage Stablizer.. The second one is pretty though.. I see 5 caps and a couple other parts in there. So it goes across the battery and somehow your gas powered engine is running faster.. If it somehow takes some load off the alternator maybe.

Now if in a race it dropped the AC compressor and alternator out.. That would help. But the results might not be so good if it did it all the time.

I think it is bull too. But his feedback is good and he has sold a lot of things.

STILL BULL.
 
dknguyen said:
What role does the electrical system have in the running of the engine after it's started up or the operation of the throttle? I'm pretty sure none, but I don't know much about cars.

Where do you think the spark from the spark plug comes from? Battery voltage is boosted by the coil before being distributed to each cylinder. Of course, all this is governed by the on-board computer, which, by the way, is powered by the electrical system.

AllVol
 
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mramos1 said:
Now if in a race it dropped the AC compressor and alternator out.. That would help. But the results might not be so good if it did it all the time.

If it could drop the electrical load of these attachments, the engine would not turn any faster. For an RPM increase to occur, it would have to cut the drive belts to the AC and alternator. This ol' hillbilly might be an electronic newbie sort of, but I do know about racing cars.

AllVol
 
But more power to the computer is not gonna help :)

Or cutting the belts :) (funny I recall a neightbor that would get out as take the belts off his 197? Plymouth Satellite when he got to the school to race.)

Fire to the plugs would, but that would probably be more of a software change.

And it looks like the second unit is labeled for some electronic items in the car?

I would still save my $50.. That is 1/2 an OlimexICD2
 
Thanks guys. I wasn't planning on getting one, but someone on teamzx2 got one and swears by it. I think he believes it works because he spent money on it. And in theory it would help. Sensors are very voltage susceptable. For instance, trying running you car on a dyno off of the battery (12.5v) without the alternator (14.4v), you will have some serious power issues. On that same note, I had done some calculating on the subject a while back when I was thinking about adding a cap off the battery to do basically what this says it will. You would need at least 10 farads to make a difference!!! Thats WAY more that this could be, it looks to me like those would be somewhere in the 400uF range or so.
 
Its a load of crap,the ouput from the stator on the alternator is three phase,each phase is passed through a diode to the battery and three to the regulator although there are more in the actual circuit. The regulator controlls the rotators current which in turn determines the ouput voltage. I don't know what this device is supposed to do,it looks like a high power resistor,if it's capacitor where is it connected and how does it work.
 
THe alternator provides way more power than the capacitors could ever store, and you keep having to charge up the cap after it empties. It's not like the capacitors charge up in 1 second and then provide power for 2 hours. It's like if you were filling a swimming pool (load) with an oil tanker (alternator) would be made more efficient if you used a bucket (capacitor) so you wouldn't have to drain the oil tanker as so much or as often.

The capacitor is so weak compared to the alternator it does nothing. Remember, gas has an energy density 100 times of batteries, and caps have even less energy density than batteries. A drop in the bucket makes no difference, but costs a noticeable amount of money in this case.

There are more mechanical friction and wind-resistance power losses in the car than the alternator.
 
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You're talking about the load during engine running time,i'm talking about the load on the battery during starting. If the A.C. compresser and alternator are not producing the load on the battery is much reduced and the engine would start more easily. They used to use a ballast resistor but I don't think they're used today.
 
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