solar battery charging

[5seaterT5x2]

I have a solar panel charger that plugs directly into my EOBD socket inside the car. Just rest it on the dash and the flashing blue led tells you that its charging. Brilliant.
Don't even have to open the boot to get to the battery, which is impossible without proper tools on a P2. Unit also has crocodile clips if you want to connect it directly to the battery.
It cost me £24.

Don't buy it off eBay else it will cost you £29. Just find an AA man and ask to buy it off him.

got mine at maplins electronics

[jotter22]

So if you use the crocodile clips do you have to disconnect the battery or can you let it charge with the battery still connected?
Tony.

[LeeT5]

So if you use the crocodile clips do you have to disconnect the battery or can you let it charge with the battery still connected?
Tony.

You can leave battery terminals connected, its totally safe.

[5seaterT5x2]

and the saga goes on and on, ok have had a new fault code appear 1-2-3 which seems to indicate drivers side interior temp sensor shot ;-/ sigh lol aint had this code before that i remember, guess this could be summat to do with battery going flat? so guess i'll have to get one or possibly 2? (one for passengers side) have tried testing battery drain with multimeter and i guess i must be doing summat wrong as cant get a reading on amps it's a Gunsons digimeter 320 with positive and negative sockets for probes with a third socket for amps helpppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp lol and now it's gonna snow again ffs

[LeeT5]

and the saga goes on and on, ok have had a new fault code appear 1-2-3 which seems to indicate drivers side interior temp sensor shot ;-/ sigh lol aint had this code before that i remember, guess this could be summat to do with battery going flat? so guess i'll have to get one or possibly 2? (one for passengers side) have tried testing battery drain with multimeter and i guess i must be doing summat wrong as cant get a reading on amps it's a Gunsons digimeter 320 with positive and negative sockets for probes with a third socket for amps helpppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp lol and now it's gonna snow again ffs

I think you should read up on Amps and volts mate. You cannot measure Amps across the pos and neg terminals. Amps is a measure of current flow and can only be checked on one side of a circuit when under load. ie on the Pos side OR negative side. Its too difficult to explain in text. There is plenty of info on the web. If you read up then you will understand.
Probably easier to just buy an Amp clamp from Maplins then you can just check for a drain on individual cables on any circuit. Anything less than 0.2amps is totally acceptable. You must remember that some ECU's can take up to 10 minutes to enter 'sleep' mode and therefore must be taken into consideration when checking for a drain.

Hope this helps.

[5seaterT5x2]

I think you should read up on Amps and volts mate. You cannot measure Amps across the pos and neg terminals. Amps is a measure of current flow and can only be checked on one side of a circuit when under load. ie on the Pos side OR negative side. Its too difficult to explain in text. There is plenty of info on the web. If you read up then you will understand.
Probably easier to just buy an Amp clamp from Maplins then you can just check for a drain on individual cables on any circuit. Anything less than 0.2amps is totally acceptable. You must remember that some ECU's can take up to 10 minutes to enter 'sleep' mode and therefore must be taken into consideration when checking for a drain.

Hope this helps.

yes indeed i understand you need to just use one side of battery etc but totally accept im doing summat wrong just dont know what, i like the sound of that amp clamp i'll look it up i like maplins

[5seaterT5x2]

good old you tube think i can see where i'm going wrong

[960kg]

I think you will find despite a blue light on the device saying it is charging the battery that this is only a light to show that the device is working!!!!!!

The device cannot charge the battery via the obd socket OR the cigarette lighter sockets as they are all disabled when the ignition is off.

The ignition must be switched off when plugging in your odb scanner or reader then turn on the ignition, so therefore the obd connector is dead and separated from electricity via the ignition switch so the battery cannot be charged if the circuit is broken by the ignition switch.

The cig. lighter works the same way and can only be used when the ignition is on.

The time taken for the ECU to be dead of current on our Volvo`s is the 850 is about 150 seconds and the V70 because of the immobiliser 254 seconds
this allows for the ECU relay to discharge the leccy and allow safe removal of the ECU.

[5seaterT5x2]

no i could'nt lol although the stupid machine was coming on and showing like hey i'm working oh no it was'nt bleedin fuse insde gone duff, why the bleedin ell avit coming on if it aint working??? arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

and breatheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ok well more good news it's looking like a breaker/scrapper more n more seems the 2 sensors in the roof are duff the drivers side causing all kindsa greif BRAYDONS aint got em new or 2nd hand and new they are a mere £62 plus vat x 2 of course...............so do i keep on or call it a day n maybe replace it with a later model (V70 P1?) break it/keep it for spares? guess some bits will be ok for slightly later model? oh the joy. anyway i need a lay down.............................................. ...........................................

[LeeT5]

Error.

[LeeT5]

I think you will find despite a blue light on the device saying it is charging the battery that this is only a light to show that the device is working!!!!!!

The device cannot charge the battery via the obd socket OR the cigarette lighter sockets as they are all disabled when the ignition is off.

The ignition must be switched off when plugging in your odb scanner or reader then turn on the ignition, so therefore the obd connector is dead and separated from electricity via the ignition switch so the battery cannot be charged if the circuit is broken by the ignition switch.

The cig. lighter works the same way and can only be used when the ignition is on.

The time taken for the ECU to be dead of current on our Volvo`s is the 850 is about 150 seconds and the V70 because of the immobiliser 254 seconds
this allows for the ECU relay to discharge the leccy and allow safe removal of the ECU.

I'm afraid your wrong.

PIN number 5 is signal ground earth and PIN number 16 is B+ Live direct from the battery.
This is on ALL 16 pin EOBD diagnostic plugs.

The solar panel plug is wired to these two pins and therefore charges the battery even when the car is switched off.

[5seaterT5x2]

Thinking i may have had enough, have spent fair bit of dosh on it just recently what with strut brace and new battery last year top end rebuild/professionally refurbed head, valve guide seals etc new rad, new thermal switch, new rear genuine pads, new mot. and now looking at mabey another £150 plus for new cabin temp sensors and will it end there????? who knows, if i got a serious offer over £500 think i'd let it go

Not forgetting this car has £1500 worth new anyway of LPG system

[960kg]

Yes, you are right about the obd plug but what is your explanation about the cig.lighter connector as on the link at Maplins?

Also if you say it is charging your battery how do you know as you can`t get a big enough resistor across the batt. terminals to measure a drop???

A bit "connish" if you ask me, especially as the alarm must be using at least what the charger is supposed to put in and the fact how far the charger is from the battery via all the wires?

One knows how thick the wires are on the alternator for charging so i feel sorry how many amp. will be travelling down the thin wire from the solar panel especially at night or on a cloudy day.

These gadgets are ok in Theory but not in Practice

[5seaterT5x2]

Parts definately required at least the onboard diagnostics says so 9134822 for the drivers side and possibly also 9134821 for passengers side

[LeeT5]

Yes, you are right about the obd plug but what is your explanation about the cig.lighter connector as on the link at Maplins?

Also if you say it is charging your battery how do you know as you can`t get a big enough resistor across the batt. terminals to measure a drop???

A bit "connish" if you ask me, especially as the alarm must be using at least what the charger is supposed to put in and the fact how far the charger is from the battery via all the wires?

One knows how thick the wires are on the alternator for charging so i feel sorry how many amp. will be travelling down the thin wire from the solar panel especially at night or on a cloudy day.

These gadgets are ok in Theory but not in Practice

I'm talking about the solar panel the AA sell. It doesn't have a cig charger, only croc clips and obd connector.
They are meant as a battery maintainer, not a charger. There intended for people that do less than 2000miles a year or for owners of prestige cars that come out only when the sun shines at the weekend.

They output approx 0.2amps which is enough to maintain a battery in good condition and prevent it from going flat. If you think there a gimmick then don't buy one. I know they work very well if they are used for what they were intended for.

[Jamest5r]

Parts definately required at least the onboard diagnostics says so 9134822 for the drivers side and possibly also 9134821 for passengers side

Give Nealevo a shout mate he's just broken an 850 and im sure he would do the parts dirt cheap for you.

[5seaterT5x2]

Give Nealevo a shout mate he's just broken an 850 and im sure he would do the parts dirt cheap for you.

yea mate will do thanks, depends on the model as to whether the car has these dam things. only on cars with electronic climate control it seems. Braydons have sev eral breakers but none with the electronic climate control ;-/

[Harvey]

Yes, you are right about the obd plug but what is your explanation about the cig.lighter connector as on the link at Maplins?

Also if you say it is charging your battery how do you know as you can`t get a big enough resistor across the batt. terminals to measure a drop???

A bit "connish" if you ask me, especially as the alarm must be using at least what the charger is supposed to put in and the fact how far the charger is from the battery via all the wires?

One knows how thick the wires are on the alternator for charging so i feel sorry how many amp. will be travelling down the thin wire from the solar panel especially at night or on a cloudy day.

These gadgets are ok in Theory but not in Practice

Well at night the diode in the panel stops the batt feeding the panel .
These panels are very good as leet5 says to maintain the battery not to recharge a discharged battery.
I would say fitting one will be a hole lot better than not fitting one .2 amps is always going to be better than 0.0 amps.

If you want to charge a discharged battery you would need one of these or bigger depending on the capacity of your battery




And a charger controller linked in to stop over charging,we fit these to 40ft trailers for power to the inside lights when on loading bays ,when the unit is not hitched up ,as LEDs lights are used on most new trailers

[5seaterT5x2]

ok well the issue of suspected cabin sensors erm worn out has been resolved. but am still on the trail of this battery drain fault, finally got the multimeter sussed and working, connected it in line etc to battery pulled all blade fuses in turn and nothing am currently getting a reading with alarm on etc of - 0.13/0.14 so i'm thinking this must be within acceptable limits? a mate of mine who is really quite clued up both on volvos albeit slightly older ones and is a commercial vehicle mechanic in his day job, he seems pretty convinced it will be the alternator causing the problem sighhhhhhhhhhhh so guess i'll be in the market for one of those shortly if anybody has one for sale please let me know i see em on flea bay new for £200 but dont think i'll be going there................ oh the joy lol.

But on the upside now that i've changed that duff non volvo temperature sensor the car seems to be running fine at lasttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

[LeeT5]

An acceptable drain is anything up to and including 0.20 amps. Remembering of course that ecu's can take anything up to 10 minutes to power down. So always come to a final conclusion after this.

Regards the alternator, it needs to be tested under load. I advise having a garage check it as if you do it incorrectly and do not understand the readings on both sides of the battery then you can easily be led up the garden path. There are many things to consider before condemning an alternator including the condition of the battery. Getting it wrong will cost lots of money.