| Author | Message | ||
     Thisflatearth |
I purchased a solar charger that plugs into the "cigarette lighter" socket on a car/motorcycle. It is the infamous VW ebay model. My question is, will it back charge the battery through the socket even though it is hooked to the ignition? Does the ignition disconnect work both ways? If so I will try and modify it to fit into my battery tender plug or add an accessory socket directly to the battery. thanks dave | ||
| Rwven |
No can do...You'll have to rig something to an always on circuit or direct to the battery. | ||
| Hughlysses |
The ignition switch disconnects the accessory outlets when it's turned off, so it wouldn't work to charge your battery that way. I suppose you could just cut the plug off and hook the leads directly to your battery though. | ||
| Ratbuell |
I'd lop the end off the charger (make note of the polarity first!!) and hook it to a battery tender lead. If you want to be able to use it on multiple vehicles (like a car), make sure to leave some wire on the cig lighter end so you can splice another battery tender plug onto it, so you can plug it back together. Just remember to keep the polarity straight. If you're using it on a car, the same rule applies - you have to have a battery-hot lighter/outlet (works even with the key off)in order for it to work. Any ignition-switched outlet is "disconnected" when the key is off, and you'd be doing absolutely nothing plugging into that. | ||
| Ronmold |
Time to convert the dash socket to always-on as I will do this Spring. Run the hot lead of the 12v dash socket to one of the red wires that go to the key-switch. It's fused at 15A but you may want to use a small inline fuseholder with a 5A that would blow first if there was a fault as smoking the 15A will shut down your ride fast! | ||
| 7873jake |
I have a SunlinQ 6.5 watt folding solar panel that I thought would marry up nicely with a little luggage rack that fits atop the Journey topcase I saw one time somewhere in a picture (but can't recall at the moment). With a little creatively hidden wiring and some small black bungee material to attach it to the goofy little rack, this flexible, folding solar cell could be adapted to trickle/maintain a Uly batt pretty easily. The SunlinQ cell is super thin and flexible but looks and feels nearly bombproof. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Ronmold - if it were me...I'd convert the underseat plug, that way you'd still have "normal" use of the dash circuit for running GPS or some such, and not having it drain the battery at key off. But that's just (always-forgetting-to-turn-stuff-off) me  | ||
| Rwven |
Here is all you need. No cutting of wires and splicing and all that... http://www.spoiledbiker.com/pac024-18.html | ||
| Ronmold |
No cutting or splicing? Gee what fun is that.... Yeah, rear socket would be very easy (Message edited by ronmold on January 12, 2010) |
