Jump to content
SAU Community

Changing My Car Battery With A Solor Panel

Deano 1

By Deano 1,
in Engines & Forced Induction

 Share

Recommended Posts

Deano 1 Mentor

Deano 1

Posted
Posted

Hey all,

I dont realy drive my GTR much it sits in my garage under covers for weeks on end, i recently brought a Dry Cell Battery for it and with all this cold weather and my alarm on in my car, my battery seams to run flat, so i brought a Solar panel just a little one, that i can put on top of my shed and run some small cables into my engine bay and onto my battery, so when it comes time to fire the old girl up i can just unclip the panel and turn the key....

this is the panel i brought http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...e=STRK:MEWNX:IT

my question is, will it harm the Ecu or anything eles, having a small amount of Ac Current tickeled into the battery if i leave everything conected under the bonnet. my clocks and all dont run out of wack. If you get what i mean.

thanks all

bit of a weird Question i no, but theres some smart cookies on here im sure one of you can help.

Deano : D

GTRPowa Rising Star

GTRPowa

Posted
Posted

Looks like a cost effective idea. It says you don't need a regulator, I don't know if that means it has one though or what.

On top of that, does the panel draw current (residual) at night?

I recently purchased the Projecta charger that fits in the engine bay, purpose built, but only 250mA, charged a dead battery in a day and a half. So the 350ma from the panel would be more than enough on sunny days.

I also don't see anything about overcharge protection?

jiffo Mentor

jiffo

Posted
Posted

So long as your car battery is in good order you won't damage anything. It's DC, not AC.

But if your car battery dies, there's no resistrance for the panel and they'll go to nearly 20V on open circuit.

I drove for years with a 40W panel bolted to the roof racks of my mini back in the day.

Generator had died and the panel kept everything going great, until it rained.

GTRPowa Rising Star

GTRPowa

Posted
Posted (edited)

Overcharging:

http://www.ehow.com/about_5099009_causes-c...overcharge.html

In there it also mentions the need for a regulated supply.

Think of the panel simply as the power supply, as normal battery chargers have a power supply. But any half decent battery charger will also have trickle/overcharge protection, amongst others. However with a solar panel you'd also want the added protection of undervoltage.

If I went the solar panel alley, and had what you have, I'd be looking for a 14v regulator (15 is hard to regulate if that's the max you'd get from this china panel) and some form of deep cycle battery. Plug the panel in on a sunny day once a week for a few hours. Therefore you won't need overcharge protection, you have a regulated constant 14v charge at 350mA, and not much risk of undervoltage. (Which undervoltage wouldn't be disastrous, just possibly drain a tad from the battery instead of charge)

Edited by GTRPowa
Deano 1 Mentor

Deano 1

Posted
  • Author
Posted

hmm i was hoping to just plug the panel in and forget about it till i wanted to go for a cruise, pull the conectors off the battery and start it up. haha looks like its not goin to be that easy, The battery is a Brand New dry Cell prob max 2months old. where would be the best place to get a regulator?

when i think about it the overcharge protection would be a good idea, plus over voltage will fry my ecu if its pumping a heap of volts into my battery when i go to start the car??

GTRPowa Rising Star

GTRPowa

Posted
Posted (edited)

Well you'd have the charger off before even turning on the ignition, but by overcharge I refer to damage to the battery from sitting at a higher than normal voltage for too long.

Examples to look at for regulators, I found:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/12-VOLT-6AMP-SOLAR-...=item3f00832ce1

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Solar-Panel-Chargin...=item2a069822fc

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/NEW-Solar-Panel-Vol...=item563dc1d1f0

etc etc, just search for 'solar panel regulator' - sort by price, look around the $50 and under section, lots there.

"It also includes reverse-current protection for connection to solar cells - this is so that the battery won’t discharge into an inactive solar cell during night."

I bought this: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/PROJECTA-CHARGE-N-M...=item335e8438b4

Can be mounted in the car, comes with Aligator clips, as well as a set of lugs so you can wire up permanently, very small unit, comes with mount bracket too, leave in car for good. Charged a 6 month old dead battery to full in 30 hours, then maintains it from there. The 240v lead is about 200mm long so you don't have excess leads in your bonnet.

Edited by GTRPowa
The Dan Grand Master

The Dan

Posted
Posted

Don't forget, guys, that it's a dry cell battery he is talking about. These need to be charge-discharged slowly. It's a special process that can only be achieved with smart chargers. It will charge the battery, sure, but it will fail quickly if you keep charging it like that

SoFreshSoClean Proficient

SoFreshSoClean

Posted
Posted

Yeah, dry cells and new calcium batteries need different charge modes. The new projecta ones have seven modes! I remember reading about it, they are something like boost, hold, pulse, maintain, stuff like that. Its definitely not a simple process.

However I guess you could wire up the solar panel to power the battery charger if you were keen enough :)

PM-R33 Grand Master

PM-R33

Posted
Posted (edited)

Mines constantly connected to one of these now after hearing great things from every one that has used one. And for $70-$100 its a bargain.

CTEK_xs800_rend.jpg

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Tr...tml&hl=ctek

Edited by PM-R33
tridentt150v Grand Master

tridentt150v

Posted
Posted

If you get a solar panel where you can access the rear connections then you can put in a blocking diode. The diode will stop overnight or really cloudy day discharge and also protect the solar panel from spikes when you start the car. If not then you can solder one into the lead, not as neat, but it works.

I would always run with a regulator, solar panels can get up to 20-25 volts on a hot sunny day, a regulator will stop this charge from going straight to the battery and probably peak out at 14 volts.

Also if you have a solar panel that is epoxied in then you can place the blocking diode at the regulator. We use PR10L Sunergy's and 30w solar panels everywhere and have few problems. I can't remember the size of the blocking diode, but it would be around 5mm thick and 8mm long.

If anyone wants more info I'll hunt up exact gear specs and supplier contacts etc

R31Nismoid Grand Master

R31Nismoid

Posted
Posted
Mines constantly connected to one of these now after hearing great things from every one that has used one. And for $70-$100 its a bargain.

CTEK_xs800_rend.jpg

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Tr...tml&hl=ctek

Yeah we have CTEK come along to a SAU-Vic Gen Meeting, and gave away a few of their chargers :D

VERY interesting product for the price the way the cycling works (as Dan mentioned it's a requirement for battery life) and so on.

While this is a great idea, I think given the practicality of the product already on the market for around $30-40 more (I'm counting setup time as added expense)…

It's close to being equally viable in many respects. If you were talking several hundred then perhaps it would be a different story.

And I believe you get a reasonable warranty :)

GTRPowa Rising Star

GTRPowa

Posted
Posted
Don't forget, guys, that it's a dry cell battery he is talking about. These need to be charge-discharged slowly. It's a special process that can only be achieved with smart chargers. It will charge the battery, sure, but it will fail quickly if you keep charging it like that

Yeah I noted that as I was shutting down last night :P

Whats the discharge cycle on a dry cell? Aint it around 1 discharge per 30 recharges?

tridentt150v Grand Master

tridentt150v

Posted
Posted

OK, I did this today.....used a BP Solarex 10 watt panel [i can get them surplus from work] and a Plasmatronics PR1210L regulator. I routed a a wire off the postive terminal on the battery and took it around via the drivers side and along the firewall to the number plate light lead grommet. I made up a small bracket with a spade fitting and pop rivetted it to the car just above the number plate. Then I used a sealed connection plug and slid it onto the spade of the bracket. So now I have a plug just above the number plate that I can plug a solar panel lead in any time I need to.

I'll see how the battery goes, its only 11.4 volts at the moment [because I'm waiting on my WMI control unit to come back from the USA], so it will be interesting to see how it responds.

  • 2 weeks later...
tridentt150v Grand Master

tridentt150v

Posted
Posted

It hasn't been a good 10 days here, only one or two with full sun......otherwise overcast and wet.

But the battery has charged up from a low of 11.65 to 12.35 volts and likely more to come. The end voltage [from measuring output] will be more like 13-14 volts. I haven't bothered measuring amperage input because of the cool and less than ideal conditions. If I get a couple of days of good warmish weather, I'll do an inline amps test and post up the results.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • MBS206
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By MBS206 · Posted

      Even more fun, leave all the ADAS stuff plugged in, but in different locations, hopefully avoid any codes!   And honestly, all these new cars with their weird electronics. Pull all the electronics out Duncan, and just shove an aftermarket ECU and if needed a trans controller in, along with a PDM. Make it run basic but race car styled!
    • Duncan
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By Duncan · Posted

      To follow up a question from earlier too since I had the front bar off again (fking!) This is what is between the bumper and the drivers side wheel And this is the navigator side, only one thing but its a biggy! So basically....no putting coolers in the wheel arches without a lot of moving other stuff. Assuming I move to properly race prepping this car I'll take that job on and see how the computers respond to removing a whole bunch of ADAS modules
    • Duncan
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By Duncan · Posted

      So I prepped the car for another track day on Wednesday (will be interesting to see coolant temps post flushing out and the larger reservoir, with a forecast of 3-14 being 20o cooler than last time I took it out). Couple of things to mention; since I am just driving the car and not taking a support vehicle, I took the rear seats out and just loaded the back up Team Trackday style. Look at all that space! To cover off removing the rear seat....it is weird (note the hybrid is probably different because it wouldn't have folding rear seats) Basically, you remove the lower seat base, very similar to a r series but it is a clip that pulls forward to release the base rather than it being bolted down. Easy Then, you need to remove the side section of the rear seat on each side. There is a 14mm head nut at the bottom of the side piece, the it slides upwards off a hook at the top to release; you also need to unhook the seatbelt from the loop at the top. Then the centre piece is weird. You need to release/fold the seats forward with the tab in the boot on each side From there, there are 2,x12mm headed bolts holding the rear of each seat to the folding bracket, under the trim between the rear seat and the boot (4x christmas tree clips there, they suck). The seat is out but you can see where the bolts attach to the bracket
    • RP1421
      S15 Spec R

      By RP1421 · Posted

      As discussed in the previous post, the bushes in the 110 needed replacing. I took this opportunity to replace the castor bushes, the front lower control arm, lower the car and get the alignment dialled in with new tyres. I took it down to Alignment Motorsports on the GC to get this work done and also get more out of the Shockworks as I felt like I wasn't getting the full use out of them.  To cut a very long story short, it ended up being the case the passenger side castor arm wouldn't accept the brand new bush as the sleeve had worn badly enough to the point you could push the new bush in by hand and completely through. Trying a pair of TRD bushes didn't fix the issue either (I had originally gone with Hardrace bushes). We needed to urgently source another castor arm, and thankfully this was sourced and the guys at the shop worked on my car until 7pm on a Saturday to get everything done. The car rides a lot nicer now with the suspension dialled in properly. Lowered the car a little as well to suit the lower profile front tyres, and just bring the car down generally. Eternally thankful for the guys down at the shop to get the car sorted, we both pulled big favours from our contacts to get it done on the Saturday.  Also plugged in the new Stedi foglights into the S15, and even from a quick test in the garage I'm keen to see how they look out on the road. I had some concerns about the length of the LED body and whether it'd fit in the foglight housing but it's fine.  I've got a small window coming up next month where I'll likely get a little paint work done on the 110 to remove the rear wing, add a boot wing and roof wing, get the side skirt fixed up and colour match the little panel on the tail lights so that I can install some badges that I've kept in storage. I'm also tempted to put in a new pair of headlights on the 110.  Until then, here's some more pictures from Easter this year. 
    • joshuaho96
      R32 GTS (RB20DE) Injectors Replacement

      By joshuaho96 · Posted

      I would put a fuel pressure gauge between the filter and the fuel rail, see if it's maintaining good fuel pressure at idle going up to the point when it stalls. Do you see any strange behavior in commanded fuel leading up to the point when it stalls? You might have to start going through the service manual and doing a long list of sensor tests if it's not the fuel system for whatever reason.
×
×
  • Create New...