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[Music]  hi Jeff Cote with Pacific yacht systems  we're gonna talk a little bit about now  that you've made a decision to actually  get an external regulator for your boat  a device that makes your alternator  smarter and recharge your batteries  faster you're gonna be thinking about  what do I do to install it so I'm gonna  give you and share a little bit we've  installed like I've said hundreds and  hundreds of these devices I have one on  my own boat but it's not a super  straightforward install and there's a  few gacho's I'm not gonna share  everything but I'm gonna give you enough  information so that you can educate  yourself and read more about it before  you tackle this project so first thing  to realize is that your external  regulator is gonna actually create a  higher output from your alternator  so whatever wire is connected right now  to your alternator positive post it  might very well be that that alternator  wire is actually too small so that's one  thing you need to worry about the other  thing too is that your external  regulator it has a voltage sense wire  and if you really want to take benefit  of that voltage sense wire which offsets  the voltage drop from your X term from  the alternator to the battery you're  gonna want to connect that voltage  sensor wire directly to the battery that  is connected directly to your alternator  okay this is a very important key if you  forget this step and you don't do this  step you will burn your batteries and  they will boil over and you will lose  your battery bank so make sure that your  alternator output wire from the positive  post is connected directly to where your  voltage sense wire for your external  right here leaders connected that's one  thing when you change the wire because  you most likely will have to change the  alternator wire because now your  alternator is outputting more you're  gonna need to make sure that the fuse  can handle that larger wire so you don't  want to have nuisance tripping the thing  you want to do and take advantage of is  customizing or changing the charge  profile of that external regulator so  you can actually go in there and  actually if you're you want to geek out  and you want to literally set every  parameter you can do that or you can  char choose custom preset profiles like  AGM flooded lead-acid lithium whatever  the charge profile you want they have  preset charts profiles so make sure you  set that up take advantage of the  optional temp sensors for both the  battery and the alternator and then the  other thing that you want to do is  remember you're going to be driving that  alternate pretty hard so make sure that  your V belt or your serpentine belt is  able to handle now this alternator  working harder than it has in the past  so those are some of the tidbits that  you have to look for we write a monthly  column in the Pacific yachting magazine  called Tech Talk and we've written quite  a lot of articles or longer articles on  external regulators and if you're  curious and you're going to tackle this  project on your own make sure you edit  yourself before doing so thanks for  joining us