I've used Wakespeed for years (
https://seabits.com/tag/wakespeed/) and appreciate the fact that the product is a fresh approach to regulating an
alternator. Using more than just voltage as a guide, and using technology that mirrors a standard AC
charger just makes a lot more sense, and we should not only have one company to choose from that has taken this approach.
However, the product is hard to use, changes constantly, and is an absolute pain in the ass to configure. I'm a seasoned tech nerd, having spent my life since I was 16 working in the guts of
computers, command line, and everything else in between. I still do that to this day, and even with that background, I find the command syntax and configuration files for Wakespeed to be frustratingly difficult to
work with.
Having to use a USB cable to program and
monitor it is difficult as well - at the minimum there should be some factory provided means of monitoring the device given the
price and complexity. Blinking lights on the front just don't cut it. Yes, you can create a
NMEA 2000 cable for it, but that is a moving target as well - I've had a decent amount of issues with it interacting with other devices.
I have over 200
email threads around Wakespeed going back almost 5 years. Many of these are trying to
work through issues, understand configuration, or generally just use the product. I think that in and of itself is a red flag for anyone wanting to use the technology who doesn't have a lot of time and patience.
I still like the product and think it is one of the only choices we have for
LiFePO4 or other high charge applications, but you have to know what you're getting into. You'll need a lot of time to configure and manage things, and patience when an upgrade changes behavior that may not be well documented.