ODB-ii solar trickle chargers

Victor Huge

Victor Huge

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I looked into it myself as i have a weak battery but honestly, the money is better spent on a new battery rather than such puny solar cells. Still they do make panels big enough to charge your battery that could fit on the rear shelf, still not really worth it though.

What i'm thinking about is a super capacitor bank instead of the lead acid battery:

http://2600f-supercapacitor.blogspot.ca/2013/03/super-capacitor-vs-car-battery.html
 
imo000

imo000

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Alternators are not built to constantly charge empty capacitors or dead batteries. You will.wipe it out. Since that page states these capacitors can handle 1000 rrecharges, that's not a lot. 4 starts a day makes it less than a year to reach 1000.
 
Victor Huge

Victor Huge

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I think you read the cycle count of the lead acid battery by mistake as a super cap is something like a million full cycles (they list it there as greater than 500,000). How often are you doing full discharges anyways if all you are doing is starting your engine? With a cranking time of around 30 seconds, a start is nowhere near a full discharge.

In regards to what you said about alternators, I disagree. An alternator is built to provide up to it's max amp rating, what you do with those amps is up to you.

These things are impressive, check out the video that inspired me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvbuJwYnbvE
 
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macoombi

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I've been using the 2.5W version for about a year. Bought two more to plug into the trunk plug in my ALH. I'm just hoping that the half amp trickle charger might be enough to keep the battery charged when the car has been sitting in the parking lot at the airport for a week. If it makes the difference between starting and not starting it'll be worth the $45 I paid for them. Probably as effective as pissing on a forest fire though.
 
imo000

imo000

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Victor Huge said:
I think you read the cycle count of the lead acid battery by mistake as a super cap is something like a million full cycles (they list it there as greater than 500,000). How often are you doing full discharges anyways if all you are doing is starting your engine? With a cranking time of around 30 seconds, a start is nowhere near a full discharge.

In regards to what you said about alternators, I disagree. An alternator is built to provide up to it's max amp rating, what you do with those amps is up to you.

These things are impressive, check out the video that inspired me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvbuJwYnbvE
Click to expand...
Sorry I must have missed the article. However, I stand by my alternator comment. For the last 20 years, alternators are not built to run at full capacity for a long time. It will kill them in a pretty short period. They are supposed to charge then battery that the starter used and then whatever the accessories will pull occasionally. Unlike the older times when alternators were over build, nowadays they don't waste money on things like this. Everything is now about maximizing profits and every cent or fraction of a cent counts. The bean counters drive the car industry now.
 
mjhandy

mjhandy

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Interesting. I used to leave the solar panel on the rear deck and plugged into the trunk, would be nice to have it on the side window and use one of the rear plugs, there are two plus the 110v.

Thanks!
 
P2B

P2B

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imo000 said:
However, I stand by my alternator comment. For the last 20 years, alternators are not built to run at full capacity for a long time. It will kill them in a pretty short period. They are supposed to charge then battery that the starter used and then whatever the accessories will pull occasionally
Click to expand...
Why would the alternator have to run at full capacity for any longer to replace the energy used by the starter if that energy came from a capacitor vs. a battery? If anything the capacitor would accept a higher change rate than the battery so a given amount of energy would be replaced in the same or less time.

Simon
 
Victor Huge

Victor Huge

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Exactly what I was about to say Simon! An alternator recharging a dead supercap bank won't have much time to heat up as it will really take a minute or two
 
P2B

P2B

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Victor Huge said:
Exactly what I was about to say Simon! An alternator recharging a dead supercap bank won't have much time to heat up as it will really take a minute or two
Click to expand...
Mind you, I don't have much confidence that a capacitor bank which can only crank a 4 cylinder gasser for 30 seconds would start my ALH at -20C :eek:

Try it and let us know :)

Simon
 
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rwolff

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In the trade publications I've seen ads for a supercapacitor that replaces one out of a set of 4 group 31 batteries (needs some rewiring - capacitor charges from batteries, cable from capacitor goes to starter solenoid, everything else draws power directly from the batteries). That capacitor is probably enough to start an ALH at -20 Celcius, considering it's designed to "light up" a big-bore engine (14-15 litres).
 
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