Forum:
Four trak Timberline 1994:does anybody know how to re-wire the cigarette lighter so that it is live when the ignition is off? This is to enable use of a solar panel to trickle-charge the battery when the vehicle is not often used.
Maurice
Four trak Timberline 1994:does anybody know how to re-wire the cigarette lighter so that it is live when the ignition is off? This is to enable use of a solar panel to trickle-charge the battery when the vehicle is not often used.
Maurice
TOTAL WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY
If you are talking about the solar panel that's about the size of a computer keyboard and costs £15 and sits on the dash of the vehicle, then IMHO, you've been had (just like me).
Most of the energy they receive from the sun goes to make the little red light on the fag lighter plug flash. Yes, its very impressive flashing away in dull weather, but unfortunately, that's all it's doing .... well unless you count 1/100 Amp as a useful chargeing current.
rf man (ex C.Eng, MIEE )
PS. I'm ex Member of The Institute of Electrical Engineers because they refused to support a reasonable number of their members in their opposition to stealth tax IR35 and I withdrew my membership.
Solar panel
Thanks for the help. I have not yet bought one, but was thinking of the one you mention. The output is not quoted, but judging by the size of one I use to keep a boat (ca = car battery size) battery up, it looked a good option. At present I use a 240v trickle charger for the Daihatsu, but that is a hassle to set up each time. Maybe a larger panel is the answer. Probably need about 3W? I still don't know how to wire up the cigar lighter to bypass the ignition, any clues?
Maurice (FICE, etc.)
Maurice
trickle charger .... dead easy
Many moons ago, I used to rely on a Vauxhall Chevette (pause to roll around laughing ! ) to start reliably at about 0530 on winter mornings.
This was done by trickle chargeing the battery overnight from a charger in the garage. The garage at the time was rightly full of British motorcycles and the car was in its place, OUTSIDE !
The charger connection was to a pair of 4mm banana sockets in the front bumper which went via a fuse to the battery. When I was ready to leave the house, I turned off the charger by tripping the garage circuit breaker in the house, jumped in the car, started up and backed out of the drive as normal. The banana plugs pulled out of the sockets by themselves.
All that was necessary to do was to remember to re-insert the banana plugs when returning home and to turn on the garage power when going to bed.
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Noted comments about modern solar panels and switch-mode charge controllers. There is still a hell of a lot of specmanship going on to make a marginal technology look a LOT better than it is. Mounting my hobbyhorse for a short while, an example is the proliferation of wind turbines. From German experience of their installed capacity of 7000 MW. This sounds brilliant, until one reveals that average power was found to be a mere 1700MW with one day manageing a measly 8 MW.
Solar trickle charger
Thanks rf man,that is what I thought might be the easiest solution.
Could'nt agree more about iffy wind "power". Maurice.
Maurice
Ignition wiring.
I have said elsewhere that the wiring of 4traks must have been designed by an inscrutable oriental gentleman on too much saki.
I would suggest that the best way to bypass the wiring is to disconnect the existing live wire ( +ve to the tip of the fag lighter plug) that feeds the fag lighter socket. You can keep the existing earth connection to the body of the socket. Next run a wire 1.5 to 2.5 square millimetres cross-section direct from the battery positive via a 15 to 25 Amp fuse, through the bulkhead to the socket. If you like, you can install a switch in the line to break the connection.
I must admit that it's much easier to do it this way than to scrabble around with wiring diagrams which defy Western logic !
Sunny Power
Agree with RF mans comments to a point, but new technology means better panels are available.
15 watt panels are available, these convert to about 1 amp of useful power in reality, but certain conditions need to be observed.
Batteries need to be fully charged before connecting, these provide a maintenance charge and will not usually provide enough power to charge a battery. Disconnect the battery before connecting the panel, such items as alarms or clocks for example, consume power continueosly, negating the effect of the panel.
You will need to investigate the actual output of the panel as the claims are often based on full sunlight equivelant to that of the sahara desert, and are often erroneous to say the least.
My considered opinion is to use the new generation of digital multi stage charger, these cost around £30 from specialist electronics suppliers. These chargers are small and compact, they provide around 4 amps of power to charge the battery, and switch to a maintenence charge when the battery is charged, they can be left permenently connected to the battery, and the battery terminals can be left connected. No need to recode radios, have the alarms disconnected, and have to reset the clock.