Battery Current Sensor and adding another Ground

[rosepaule]

Hey guys, Ive got a 2019 Denali 1500 with a 6.2...

 

Anyhow, I am upgrading the charging system and have run into an issue with adding a larger ground cable to the negative battery post because the new Battery Current Sensor is built into the damn terminal clamp and no longer a cicular clamp like the previous generation trucks had......

 

Anyone have any ideas on how to circumvent this and still have the BCS working and functional... maybe using the older style clamp and adapting it to work in place of the sensor that is on our trucks?

[calgator73]

How much current are you looking to draw?  Winch?

[rosepaule]

15 minutes ago, calgator73 said:

How much current are you looking to draw?  Winch?

Big 3 upgrade and installing a 2nd battery with smart isolator 

[kickass audio]

I ran a single 0 gauge OFC wire through the hall effect sensor and it barely fits. I had to rub vaseline on the wire to coat it and jam it in the sensor. I fed it through without the ring terminal installed and once it was ran I crimped on the ring terminal.

 

How I ran my wires is that the OEM battery is in the OEM location and I have an aftermarket group 34 AGM battery installed on the drivers side location (I have a 2014 so I have that luxury).

 

I ran 0 gauge wire from the positive terminal of the OEM battery to the positive terminal of the second battery. 

 

I ran 0 gauge wire from the negative terminal of the OEM battery through the factory hall effect sensor and then to the negative stud of my aftermarket alternator.

 

From the negative terminal of the aftermarket alternator I ran another 0 gauge wire to the second battery under the hood and I then ran a 0 gauge positive from the positive stud of the aftermarket alternator to the positive terminal of the second battery under the hood.

 

I will say my truck has a bit of flickering lights with no additional loads on other than the factory electronics. I am not sure if this is because the alternator is a 370A unit and is able to regulate power faster now or because I did not run all ground paths through the damn sensor. I am planning this summer to switch the one ground wire from the stud on the alternator to the OEM battery negative terminal to see if that helps any. If I have a huge load increase like my system turned up quite a bit I can get the voltage to stay steady but at idle with the factory electronics turned on I found that the voltage runs between 16.5v to 14v very fast each time the air conditioning clutch kicks on and off.

[calgator73]

Interesting.  If both the new and old style sensor are 3-wire hall effect sensors then it should be okay to use the old style.  Just verify the pin outs to make sure GM didn't reconfigure.  Should have 5 volts from the BCM if the new ones are the same.

[kickass audio]

33 minutes ago, calgator73 said:

Interesting.  If both the new and old style sensor are 3-wire hall effect sensors then it should be okay to use the old style.  Just verify the pin outs to make sure GM didn't reconfigure.  Should have 5 volts from the BCM if the new ones are the same.

Something I wondered but don't think is possible would be to leave the factory sensor and wiring alone and add another sensor perhaps in series for the sensing wires (I would need to see which one is data and which one is the +5v reference and ground) and add the aftermarket cables through that. 

 

It does look like the new sensor is still 3 wire but maybe the resting rating on the wires is different from the older clamp on style to the new closed sensor.

 

I also looked at rockauto and found 2 revisions for the older sensor. Neither are able to be opened but I see that one refers to a 5v reference and another is a 10v reference for the sensor.

Edited January 19, 2021 by kickass audio

[rosepaule]

On 1/18/2021 at 8:44 PM, kickass audio said:

I ran a single 0 gauge OFC wire through the hall effect sensor and it barely fits. I had to rub vaseline on the wire to coat it and jam it in the sensor. I fed it through without the ring terminal installed and once it was ran I crimped on the ring terminal.

 

How I ran my wires is that the OEM battery is in the OEM location and I have an aftermarket group 34 AGM battery installed on the drivers side location (I have a 2014 so I have that luxury).

 

I ran 0 gauge wire from the positive terminal of the OEM battery to the positive terminal of the second battery. 

 

I ran 0 gauge wire from the negative terminal of the OEM battery through the factory hall effect sensor and then to the negative stud of my aftermarket alternator.

 

From the negative terminal of the aftermarket alternator I ran another 0 gauge wire to the second battery under the hood and I then ran a 0 gauge positive from the positive stud of the aftermarket alternator to the positive terminal of the second battery under the hood.

 

I will say my truck has a bit of flickering lights with no additional loads on other than the factory electronics. I am not sure if this is because the alternator is a 370A unit and is able to regulate power faster now or because I did not run all ground paths through the damn sensor. I am planning this summer to switch the one ground wire from the stud on the alternator to the OEM battery negative terminal to see if that helps any. If I have a huge load increase like my system turned up quite a bit I can get the voltage to stay steady but at idle with the factory electronics turned on I found that the voltage runs between 16.5v to 14v very fast each time the air conditioning clutch kicks on and off.

If I had any other truck besides the 2019 or newer Next Gen trucks, I would be fine....

[kickass audio]

8 hours ago, rosepaule said:

If I had any other truck besides the 2019 or newer Next Gen trucks, I would be fine....

GM never changed the sensor between the K2 and new T1 trucks. It's the same wire gauge and everything as the previous versions. You just need to find something that has a small enough outside diameter or is soft enough to make the wire become somewhat oblong instead of round to jam it in the sensor.

[rosepaule]

14 minutes ago, kickass audio said:

GM never changed the sensor between the K2 and new T1 trucks. It's the same wire gauge and everything as the previous versions. You just need to find something that has a small enough outside diameter or is soft enough to make the wire become somewhat oblong instead of round to jam it in the sensor.

I dont think that is true foe the new T1s... lemme go look again. I'll return back with pics. 

[rosepaule]

GM never changed the sensor between the K2 and new T1 trucks. It's the same wire gauge and everything as the previous versions. You just need to find something that has a small enough outside diameter or is soft enough to make the wire become somewhat oblong instead of round to jam it in the sensor.

Couldn't upload it for whatever reason.

Here is a link to my onedrive share. https://1drv.ms/v/s!Atug1wumAmsBi7gxw8r9Sdvbvl3kYg

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

[kickass audio]

On 1/22/2021 at 11:31 PM, rosepaule said:

Couldn't upload it for whatever reason.

Here is a link to my onedrive share. https://1drv.ms/v/s!Atug1wumAmsBi7gxw8r9Sdvbvl3kYg

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk
 

Well I will be damned. Rockauto has failed me and lists the old style sensor that has the ring style sensor where if I look on GM parts direct it shows the same sensor you have mounted directly to the stud on the battery. Sorry I assumed they were right with their parts listing showing the same sensor my truck has, I even looked at the 2020 and 2021 series and they all show the old style.

 

From what I can see both sensors have 3 wires going to them but I could not see the actual sensor online to verify the pinout of the new sensor you have and compare it to the old ring style sensor on my K2.

 

What I am wondering is if the sensor on your battery is simply like a small stud similar to where you clamp the terminals onto the battery and it has a tiny hall effect sensor directly around that and is able to measure how many amps you are pulling. I believe that is how it is setup but cannot confirm since I have not seen this new style terminal torn down yet.

 

I did see on GM parts direct that the sensor is under part number 13526053. I do not see any different versions available for that terminal for the 170 or 220a OEM alternator setup, only the fuse panel was different.

 

My assumption here is that if I am correct in assuming the new sensor you have is setup with a straight metal stud that has the hall effect sensor immediately around it and can carry a decent amount of amperage without overheating or possibly breaking (if GM decided to make it as a fusible link type setup which I doubt) you should be able to just bolt your negative ring terminal onto the same landing point as the rest of the grounds and tighten up that nut and call it a day.

 

I wonder if anyone on here had the dealer install a plow package or anything else to see if they just bolted the negative direct to that long stud on the sensor and everything works as normal. I also wonder if I could take advantage of this new setup on my truck and ditch the old sensor and put the new one you have on my truck and make my life easier.

 

 

[Transient]

Iirc, the snow plow prep package utilizes what GM calls the F Block fuse pack that is just a bunch of hardware that goes into a fuse box at the battery. Part number 84667090. It's about $40+ on GM Parts Direct. It looks like it ties into the vehicle electrical system and uses the ground that's already in use. The cable that connects to the 60 amp fuse in the 2nd pic is a power supply. It's the only connection not using plugs in the auxiliary switch setup. 1 pic is the parts in the above mentioned part number.

 

You can go to www.gmupfitter.com, click on Technical Bulletins on the left side of the top tabs, then the View All Bulletins button on the lower right side. 2nd pic is from bulletin 153b.

 

 

 

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[rosepaule]

8 hours ago, Transient said:

Iirc, the snow plow prep package utilizes what GM calls the F Block fuse pack that is just a bunch of hardware that goes into a fuse box at the battery. Part number 84667090. It's about $40+ on GM Parts Direct. It looks like it ties into the vehicle electrical system and uses the ground that's already in use. The cable that connects to the 60 amp fuse in the 2nd pic is a power supply. It's the only connection not using plugs in the auxiliary switch setup. 1 pic is the parts in the above mentioned part number.

 

You can go to www.gmupfitter.com, click on Technical Bulletins on the left side of the top tabs, then the View All Bulletins button on the lower right side. 2nd pic is from bulletin 153b.

 

 

 

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Hey bro... not sure if you are responding to the wrong post or if you misunderstood my question. SIde note... I have the Aux switches installed and have this Fust Block pack installed already.... however, my original question was how to get a second GROUND cable installed on these trucks since they changed the Battery Current Sensor from a clamp type hall effect sensor to it being mount to the negative terminal grounding cable.

[Transient]

I responding in line with the post above mine. It concluded with a question about utilizing the snow plow prep package. I was trying to explain that package doesn't use a 2nd ground based on the info I was able to present.

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