Update: This product won the 2023 IBEX Innovation Award, congratulations to the ARCO team!
With the increased power, cost, and weight of lithium batteries, yachts and RVs have an opportunity to eliminate gasoline generators entirely and rely solely on battery banks. However, battery banks alone have the same disadvantage as electric vehicles: the infrastructure for charging when away from your home port is not as accessible (today) as motor fuel. The ARCO Zeus smart regulator sets out to solve this problem by allowing you to recharge your battery banks by pulling power from an existing or upgraded engine alternator.
This system allows the user to configure a multi-stage charging profile, typically selecting one from a list of known manufacturer’s profiles, and setting their regulator output limits. The Zeus takes these parameters and drives the alternator field current in a real-time feedback controller that simultaneously balances the objectives of target voltage, current, and temperature even in the presence of disturbances from engine throttle modulation and step changes in load as devices on the vehicle are switched on and off. The system can communicate with common OEM powers systems and can synchronize power generation across multiple engines and alternators. All of this comes together in a user-friendly smartphone app (iOS and ANDROID) that allows for easy setup, diagnostics, and monitoring of charge status.
Official product photos from the ARCO Zeus page:
