On Sunday, June 23, 2019 at 9:56:21 AM UTC-4, Dean Hoffman wrote:
On 6/23/19 8:39 AM, trader_4 wrote:

And so far I haven't seen any evidence presented here that shows modern
ones can tell the difference and care about it either. The ones I've
seen, still have a voltage regulator in the alternator that functions
like it has for most of the last century. Rod claims to know so much,
including that they use the resistance of the battery cable to measure
current, but he can't produce anything other than his own flapping BS
gums and he's likely just doing the usual, making it up on the fly
and lying.

One problem with what he's suggesting is the connection from the
cable to
the battery itself if I understand what he's saying. I've seen so many
bad connections
over the years. Wiggling that connection or putting a sheet metal screw
in it changes
the resistance dramatically.
A few feet of wire in an engine compartment won't have much
resistance to measure.
It would take a very sensitive tester to measure that little bit. 14
awg copper wire has about 2.5 ohms resistance per 1000 feet. #2 awg
wire has about 0.16 ohms per 1000 feet.

Bingo! We have a winner! Exactly what I was thinking when I said
it seems unlikely that they would use the resistance of a heavy, 2g
battery cable to try to measure current flow to the battery.
Especially when cars have worked fine for decades without measuring it
at all. All the systems I've been familiar with the alternator/VR
just target a fixed voltage. You have 3 feet of wire, to determine
whether the battery is getting 100ma or 10 amps, good luck with
that, especially in a potentially noisy environment, with system loads
turning on and off rapidly, etc. Figure out how small those voltages
would be.

Rod just makes crap up on the fly, he's caught doing it all the time
and has zero credibility. If this method exists, I'm still waiting
for a reference that shows it. I just googled for alternators,
VR, charging, and all show the basic system targeting VOLTAGE,
nothing about sensing current flow into or out of the battery.
I think the bottom line is that auto batteries are fine being
presented with ~14V. They either charge if needed or accept a small
current anyway, with no harmful effects. And if not, then how
did alternators/VRs work just fine without computers or fancy
circuitry, for better part of a century?

And note I'm not saying that some cars, somewhere don't have some more
advanced system, it's certainly possible, maybe to slightly reduce
wasted energy, at the expense of increased complexity. But the OP
was asking about charging systems and batteries in general and if
something fancy is going on, it's not central to the question he asked.
And if this system does exist, still waiting for Rod to show it to us.....