The NorthStar AGM Battery + Voltage Booster Upgrade

The harness just appears to convert a square plug to round. The alternator is still fed the voltage info from the alt-s circuit unless you installed some other system. It is alt-s or ECU based and the later didn’t come along in the Tacoma till 2016.

 

Came across this diagram. It does appear that the fourth wire (stator) is not used, so it's a direct one-for-one connection otherwise.

 

Then it should work just like stock in regards to the voltage booster.

 

Thanks again to @crashnburn80 for putting together this thread. I have the HKB mini on order - not sure why I didn't order it before.

I wanted to share the route I took for an AC/Wall Charger. There are a couple of different places I could've posted this but figured this would be the place since we're talking about correct charging voltage and its come up at least once in the thread asking about wall chargers.

So I initially started out with a NOCO Genius10 charger with my NorthStar (bought during the group 9 group buy). Been solid but lately my batt just seems to drop down to the 12.2-12.4 range. It would still start the truck but I decided to swap over to a CTEK charger. With the CTEK, batt was a bit better but the CTEK was still in stage 6 a day later.

Came across the Victron Blue Smart IP65 12/15 charger. Reviews were awesome (victron, right?) and while cost was up there, I wanted a top notch charger to use with AGM batts. Another + point is this charger has bluetooth and an app so you can view current charge status and manage profiles if needed.

Here are a few screenshots of the APP -







The charger has 5 presets. The 'High' preset is what I am using for the Northstar.



The High preset is in-line with charge criteria NorthStar outlines on the label.



There is also an Expert mode which can be turned on to modify the charge program and tweak the values to what you want -





There are different versions of the IP65.

I opted for the

$153 Victron Energy Blue Smart IP65 Smart Car Battery Charger 12V 15A, Float & Trickle Charger and Desulfator for Motorcycle, ATV, RV, Lithium and Deep Cycle Batteries

12v/15A charger.
There is also a

$132 Victron Energy Blue Smart IP65 Smart Car Battery Charger 12V 10A, Float & Trickle Charger and Desulfator for Motorcycle, ATV, RV, Lithium and Deep Cycle Batteries

12v/10A and a

$112 Victron Energy Blue Smart IP65 Smart Car Battery Charger 12V 7A, Float & Trickle Charger and Desulfator for Motorcycle, ATV, RV, Lithium and Deep Cycle Batteries

12v/7A available.

The charger includes clamps and eyelets however they are unfused. If you want

$16 Victron Energy Clamp Connector for Victron Energy Blue Smart IP65 Charger (30 amp ATO Fuse)

fused clamps /

$11 Victron Energy M6 Eyelet Connector for Victron Energy Blue Smart IP65 Charger (30 amp ATO fuse)

fused eyelets, you'll need to purchase them seperately from the charger. EDIT: For the fused eyelets, there are two options. One has an indicator and the other does not.
There is also a very nice

$35 Victron Energy Case for BPC Chargers and Accessories

storage case available.

So far, very pleased with this damned expensive charger but most of us know that Victron is one of the best out there.

 

That looks like a great setup! I especially like the Bluetooth connectivity and detailed level of control. If I wasn't happy with the (3) CTEKs in my garage, I'd likely go this route.

 

Question for @crashnburn80 or anyone with the dewalt charger, I'm juicing up a 27F I just bought to prep for power outages expected tomorrow (gotta keep the fish alive) and I didn't see anything to tell the charger that the battery is an AGM. I skimmed the book too, didn't see anything. Any idea how to configure things so that it'll charge up that brand new 27F for me?

 

The DeWalt unit does not have any special configuration for AGM. I purchased it for high speed charging, plus the battery reconditioning feature. It specifically says it can charge AGMs as really any 12v charger can, but I don't believe it charges at a higher voltage for AGM. In other words great to get the battery up to power fast or even trickle charge it, and the reconditioning can help reverse sulfation on an AGM which can be caused by not using proper charging voltages, but this specific charger isn't a replacement for proper charge voltage in the truck.

 

I missed this earlier. That is a really slick charger! The price for those features doesn't seem too unreasonable, and having the specific data is always a plus. Ideally I'd like to see higher than a 15A charge rate though, but the importance of that really depends on how you plan to use the charger.

 

Product page is here if you want to check out all of the details (https://www.victronenergy.com/chargers/blue-smart-ip65-charger). It really is a nice charger.

I ordered the fused eyelets and they showed up today. Connected them and found it has a 3 LED feature built in. I can't imagine it putting any serious hit to the batt but it does blink every 4-5 secs to show batt state.

 

Hah, classic, now I need to buy a 3rd charger? Hahahaha

anyway, I hope this brand new 27F can power a fish tank and heater (100w max I think) for whatever power outage we have tomorrow

 

Looks very similar to CTEK's Comfort Connect Indicator Eyelet.

 

Interesting. I compared the connector to NOCO and CTEK and all 3 are different.

I went ahead an ordered their non-indicator eyelet connector. Didn't see it the first time.

 

Proprietary connections make sense, from each company's marketing perspective. It would be too easy (for us) if they were interchangeable.

 

So I pulled the trigger and upgraded to the X2 27F before my recent trip north for the holidays. I currently have a NOCO 2D installed (only 2amp charging) that was part of my winterization.

I learned that the NOCO chargers have a low temperature shutoff (-5°F) as well as the high temperature shutoff.

I'm glad I caught this and started the truck to warm up the sensor so it could charge before sitting over night at -30°F. After reading some reviews, I learned some models of NOCO chargers have a temperature sensor in the battery lead that you can cut out and bypass while others are inside the charger body.

Anyways, the NOCO 2D was just temporary as it predated the battery. Just a warning to others in cold climates. And I'm curious if anyone else has discovered chargers with a low temperature shut off?

 

I was considering upgrading to the 2XPower from Batteries+ (Northstar) AGM but even after reading all (most) of the available info here I'm still undecided.

If I installed this in my 2019 OR and didn't do anything to alter the alternator voltage, how often would I need to put it on a charger to preserve the longevity. Once a week? once a month? ever few months? I do a lot of fairly short trips with a few 50 mile trips every so often. What if I just drove it and didn't do maintenance charging. Will it die in a couple of years.

My alternate would be the Wal-Mart Everstart Max.

 

I’ve had the 2XPower 24F and the Noco Genius 10 for three months for use in my 2018 OR.

Every time I’ve connected the charger to date, it has gone immediately into maintenance charging mode which means the battery is essentially full. I think the Noco trickle charges at around 13 volts in this mode.

I don’t know enough about the systems to say if that final little trickle charge is doing anything, but that’s my experience so far. If anyone with more knowledge would like to pipe in, I’d love to know if I’m doing anything at all by charging with the Noco.

 

Dont forget to get a charger that supports Voltages for AGM type batteries. I have more than 2 AGM batteries that have failed in 10yrs sitting in the garage to be used as a core.

 

For a charger specific to charging AGMs in a vehicle that does not support voltage boosting (or your not wanting to do the ECU programming for voltage boosting), I'd get something where you can manually specify a higher charging voltage or the AGM battery type. You need the elevated voltage to get the advantage of using the charger to prevent sulfation. I'd also suggest looking for one that has a battery reconditioning functionality as an added bonus.

 

Does the ECU reprogramming put more strain on the alternator?

 

You are talking about a ~3.5% voltage change. So in application, not in any significant way.