Andy, AlanC, Leedsman and all other contributors,

I always thought the [Leedsman] batteryMOD & InlineSTAT should be part of a Trilogy. The third one being a battery solar-maintainer, they, with a full desulfator do exist at top end price in America but not as far as I can see in the UK or Europe. It occurs to me that if I dropped my sights a little a capable non-desulfator version could be had for a reasonable cost in the UK.

Some here will remember I also went solar charge maintainer that year we all went 'winterizing' and found that 2 years it worked and one year [lifestyle] it didn't. I'm currently looking at ditching my cheepo Maplins 4W panel and buying a better 10W panel & charge controller. The Maplins panel was always going to be on the extreme edge of useless when I bought it and I knew it at the time. The panel I'm now looking at should [claims to] make more than a 1/2amp [1W] in the worst of the winter which is double the IOD mA loss 'at rest' on my 05.

So anyone want to help by checking my figures and see if my quesstimate of a 1/2amp [1W] will be workable ?

According to Chrysler's own workshop manual :

Allow twenty minutes for the IOD to stabilize and observe the multi-meter reading. The low-amper- age IOD should not exceed twenty-five milliamperes (0.025 ampere). If the current draw exceeds twenty-five milliamperes, isolate each circuit using the fuse and circuit breaker remove-and-replace process in Step 4. The multi-meter reading will drop to within the acceptable limit when the source of the excessive current draw is disconnected. Repair this circuit as required; whether a wiring short, incorrect switch adjustment, or a component failure is at fault.

Ta lads !

 

The 0.025 ampere draw they are talking about is what it takes to keep the clock working and to power the receiver for the keyless entry. 0.025 X 24 hours is about 0.6 amp-hours/day.

If you can get 1/2 amp for 8 hours/day in the winter, that runs to 4 amp-hours per day which should be plenty.

Solar cells will be affected by clouds, shadows from nearby buildings, snow on the glass and lots of other variables one needs to be aware of.

 

and living in England.

 

Q, where do you plan to mount the panel and will it be a permanent fixture?

Did you see the thumbnail at the bottom of the ad' They do a 20W kit for only 20 quid more.

 

Our motas are easily able to handle an unseen roof mount if thats the decision its the cabling without drilling holes in metal. Boot or side opener windows for the cable direct to 12v boot lighter socket should be easiest and clean & quick to reverse. I was going to suck it and see putting it where my old one has been for three years just behind the front windscreen.

Yes the next biggest is only coppers so no problem - I linked to that one just as an example Al. There's 17W tops at summer best and 1W (ish) at winter on the one I linked you to, I was looking for an absolute minimum of replacing the IOD. Even if I put a walloping 50W panel in, the battery can't be overvolted, the regulator will take care of that.

I've got a NOCO boost and even a spare fully charged T21 800aH - I was looking for a lazy permanent fix experiment that would work @ IOD + numbers, such that anyone with my lifestyle issue could have a no contest solution available if they choose to go that way.

 

Interesting idea there QinteQ, to be honest I've never had need for one myself as using the car daily keeps it happy enough charge-wise (And I'd taken out my Leedsman batterymod by mistake and just realised I've not put it back in!).
The figures there look sensible, I've not tested my IOD draw so will do that this weekend and get you the figure mine pulls for comparison.

For solar mounting, yep under the roof bars it'll be happy there, for wiring I'm not sure, you'd want to be as far forward as possible to cable straight into battery, so perhaps you could somehow 'pin' it along the outside of the front windscreen and just go in straight under the bonnet? Avoiding poking into the cabin!

 

Ta for the reassurance on the figures. The boot mount cigarette lighter is direct to battery the same as the internal LHS drivers seat cigarette lighter. The only one of the three [panel - controller - desulfator] bits than needs to be as close as poss is the desulf board isnt it ?

BTW I was on AGM then and most of us will be AGM by now and it occurs to me that the safe μF we chose for the buttonMOD could be changed to give closer to 14.4V than the 14.1 I get. I went 13.9 to 14.1 it would be nice to have that extra .3V, it would make a hell of a difference on a big 80aH even over such a short charging time frame as 15 minutes.

Ta Andy.

 

Hi m8,

Did a test, just realised I only tested the IOD fuse draw itself (should have done the battery term itself, might try that tomorrow) but putting current test through IOD I got:
0.8amp up to 10 minutes after door close (waited until internal lights went out)
0.03 over the 10 minute mark, which I'm pretty pleased about!

So yes the panel you're looking at will keep it topped quite nicely. Good point on the rear cigarette socket (Mine doesn't have the boot mount one, which I was disappointed as my last did!) so that will do the job as yes it's direct battery fed, so feeding in there will be ideal (It's also fuse protected so that works both ways, if a short happened on the panel it would just trip that fuse).

On the buttonmod, yep I'm going to revisit since I left mine out so will get the right resistance that gives me max and post back (Remember its ohm Ω resistance not microfarads μF (capacitance)!)

 

I was thinking 22K Ω @ 1/2 watt would be a goodish guesstimate for keeping it under the 14.6[ish] although I'm sure it would be safe a little higher. I'll be happy if I can get to the extra .3's @ 14.4

 

Forgot to add maybe the loom is already there, have a look behind the LH panel next time your in there and bung on a more modern 50W + usb combo chargers for the kids.