question regarding DC Control

[jeff5347]

I got the controller in and it is all wired and now need to fine tune. Question is i have the sensor mounted up top near the upper rad hose that connects where the tstat is. I had it near the lower rad hose but it wasnt coming on till 210. Is near the upper hose ok. The other question is i thought this was supposed to not drain the voltage as it would slowly ramp up. It does slowly ramp up but once fully spinning it drops my volt gauge to 11 volts. Not good. When it is off it is near 14. I have a 108 amp alt so it shouldnt drop it bad. Wiring is like this.
1 Pos output to pos of fan
2 Neg to fan negative and to headlight neg on the rad support. Is that an ok ground or not good enough?
3 Pos input is connected to the ign on the fuse panel.
4 yellow wire to activate is connect to the same place # 3 is. is that ok.
before putting the taurus fan and controller on my voltage w the 108 amp alt didnt usually see below 13-13.5 with a black magic fan.
Any helpful hints on the wiring and how to increase the voltage. this isnt good as it is now drainingh and not charging the battery and now i am needing jumps to start the car. :help!:

[jeff5347]

ok started it tonight (own its own) so weird. But it stated 14 volts with no acc on. turn headlights on and such not a bad drain maybe down to 13.5 or so. Once the fan comes on it again eats the electricity and a funny thing starts to happen, The more i rev the engine the lower the volt gauge goes. Whats up with that? I can see the gauge flucuate as the fan starts to turn but while it is turning, rev the gas, the voltage starts to drop. Let off the gas and let it idle the gauge starts to climb back to a somewhat respectable voltage. What gives?:banghead:

[baskin]

On the wiring, that's probably not the best place to get the high current, you want the lowest impedance connection to the battery that you can get, as you have it set up, you have a lot of extra load on the fuse panel, the Taurus fan can draw up to 35A under backpressure

http://www.dccontrol.com/faq.htm#batt

You really want the sensor on the radiator output, as close to the radiator hose as possible. It'll still ramp up smooth with it on the radiator inlet, but it may not regulate the voltage smoothly, you're probably better off just offsetting the temperature with the jumpers.

[jeff5347]

Brian,
thats what i was thinking. Only thing is my batt is in the trunk. Its a good 15 or more feet away from the controller. I have 10 gauge wire. Could i run the pos input to the batt pos in the trunk. Would this maybe cure the voltage load. Would the way i have it connected make the voltage drop lower when the engine is revved? Sorry for all the ? but i always have a dead batt after a drive now.
So basically w/ batt in trunk what is the way to wire the unit up. Also what is the bes possible - source for the controller?
Curious question. Its in a 68 camaro. Would i be able to connect the + input to the horn relay where there is a pos source or is this a bad idea and if so why? Also so i get every random question running thru my head out, connecting the pos input source to the batt terminal on the alt is not advised im sure, correct?


Jeff

[baskin]

Running it back to the battery would be the best way to do it, but that's a lot of labor. The positive starter cable isn't as good, but if you have the 1.5ks filter, it'll work fine, either one will help a lot on the voltage problem, the run to the fuse box is probably 10 gauge and at least 10 feet in length, so that fan probably drops the voltage across it 1-2 V. I'm not sure that circuit will last too long with an extra 35A on it.

The thing that will help most is to set the fan up so that it's not running full speed all of the time, the sensor is offset by 15 degrees, so having it on the engine outlet without any jumpers will cause it to do that and also won't allow the fan to shut off once the car is moving. Given the same cfm, the Taurus fan should draw less current than the BM fan that you had before.

[jeff5347]

i dont have the filter but it wouldnt take me long to run the pos input to the batt in the trunk. Are you saying if i do this the dc will fry real quick., i am going to do the wiring to the trunk if you say that is the best way. Once i do that then i will fine tune the controller more. Yea the way it is now is a 10gg and about 10 maybe a little less. give me the ok on the trunk to pos input and ill get the filter and fine tune. all in all i like it. jus tdont like the weird voltage drop it gives off

[baskin]

I probably have several hundred customers running off the starter solenoid on the Fords and 100 or so back to the battery and haven't had problems with either setup using the filter. I had one run without and the controller didn't die, but the internal filters were shot after about six mos, so the low speed operation was pretty rough. (the output devices adapt when the filter isn't able to handle the load or wears out by dumping transients into the fan, the multiplexing produces the rough operation)

[jeff5347]

is 10 gg wire enough to run the the batt or what size do you recommend. So the filter connects between the + and - on the controller?

[Madspeed]

Your going to need larger than 10 g to go that distance and carry that kind of current.
Try somthing like 8 or 6 guage, the diamiter of a pencil.
How does your alternator connect up ? where does the pos terminal goto from the alt? and what Guage wire is it?

[jeff5347]

Its been quite a while since i wired the alt up. SO i would have to trace the wire to see where i ran it to. As far as gauge it is 10 gg. the plug is the 2 wires and one goes to the horn relay and again need to trace the other as not sure where i ran it to. the gg of those 2 is maybe 12