If I hadn't met you in person, I would guess you were playing with me.
:lolrolling Yea I get that sometimes even in person. But no I'm not playing, just confused and trying to learn. I suppose many times I'm guilty of playing tricks on my own mind since I tend to become overly concerned with the immediate sometimes confusing the whole picture.
BTW, I did find a Hall-Effect DC amp probe online but it was $229 bucks. Don't need to know my amps that bad yet.
I've always had a mental block on deciphering the separation of Volts and current, all the way back to my night college Electronics I class in 1975. In my Pea brain voltage is dependant on a build up of electrons and current happens when the former is conducted with a low enough resistance to an vaccum of elections (floating around their respective atoms). There can't be one without the other but I get kinda out in the outer boundaries sometimes trying to visualize the ramifications how more current flows WITHOUT more voltage in some scenarios.
In case you haven't notice I am a visual sort of learner. Once I get the concept visualized I can then move into the abstract but not before.
I do realize that by it's chemical nature the battery can only product 2volts per cell. And that 6 cells wired in series is how it steps up the total nominal voltage to 12v give or take the small amount of internal resistance inside the battery.
The internal resistance goes up (or down) depending on the size (area) of the cell platea. Which BTW denotes the amp or current capacity of a battery. The larger (or more square inch of) the plates the less internal resistance inside the battery to the chemical 2 volts per cell, thereby giving more current flow. I = E/R. This same concept is in exact relation to hooking two batteries in parallel, giving more amp capacity at the same chemical volt cell arrangement potential. I can at least visualize that.
Jumping batteries is also a parallel hook up. Of course when one jumps a weak battery with a good battery there is a potential difference in the weaker battery needing jumped so the current is directed at an infinite rate less the internal resistance of the two batteries and the jumper cables. It is my understanding that becuase of this rapid current 'low resistant short' it is easier on the life of the battery to slow charge instead of jumping (if possible of course).
The plot (in my brain) thickens as you move from cell electron generation, into adding a rectified current potential of a larger voltage into the scenario.
The reason I'm confused as to why you say that testing the amps of the battery cable will not be reflective of system amps is two fold.
1. I consider the charging input + the battery input to be the "system current". Why ? Becuase the nature of bike and car systems now days can't operate normally without both. That's just my observation, I have no other source to base that acertation on. So forgive me if that concept seems incredulous.
2. Quite aside from concept (1) and on a separate thread of thought, I do understand ( I thnk) what you are saying as the impact by the increased line voltage provided "during operation" by the regulator input.
I.e. if you physically unhook the regulator input from the system and run totally off the battery (12v nominal), you would have I (sys amps) = E (batt v) / R (sys resistance). So (forgetting for a moment about inductive locked starter rotor ramifications) and lets just say if you have a set total system resistance of X ohms so that this scenario produced 30 amps or -> 30 = 12v / XRt.
Obviously X in this scenario = 0.4 ohms (in paralllel RT is less than the individual Rs). So if XRt remains constant and we hook the regulator supply back into the circuit and line voltage goes up to 14v we now have 35 amps = 14 volts / 0.4 RT.
Anyhow I see you have sent me an email so I guess when we both have time we should continue other theory or instructive concepts privately out of respect for this thread.
But in closing I would like your input here in as much of your opinion of the facet of system amps being described as 'including' charging input or 'not including' charging input. Or in other words why would one want to care what the system amps be without the charging input ?
