The old Coupe is not used as often as it used to be... I often can't park it near the house, so wondered about a solar trickle charger. Anyone used one of these?

I note some use the cigarette lighter, and some connect to the EOBD socket. Does the Coupe have the latter? I have seen it called OBD II, or ECU OBD, and I assume it is the same? And if this is possible, is it better?

Thanks for any help!

I use one for my track coupe. I use the battery to connect to with the panel facing the sun in the back window.
Works very well.

Thanks magooagain - do you mean that you run a line directly from the battery to the solar panel?

Yes correct. Sorry I wasn't clearer.

No problems. Sounds good. Does plugging it into the cig socket give the same current?

I used one of these on my old Peugeot 306 cabby before I removed the dud alarm that was draining the battery but I found that using the ciggy lighter used to somehow cause a fuse to blow (on an unrelated circuit) so a direct connection is probably best.

hmmm I think I might go for one of these!

I have a motor home too which wont get used too much over winter. Do you think one of these would be useful for that? The motorhome is in storage so will be unattended for weeks at a time I take it they can't do any harm.

[quote=came2dance]hmmm I think I might go for one of these!

I have a motor home too which wont get used too much over winter. Do you think one of these would be useful for that? The motorhome is in storage so will be unattended for weeks at a time I take it they can't do any harm. [/quote





No don't do that Chris. Either take them off the vehicle and store at home in the warm and maybe use a battery conditioner. Or plug the camper into the mains every 3 or 4 weeks for 24 hours.

Don't let them go flat.

A trickle charger is only good on good batteries.

Mine wouldn't work on the cigar lighter for some reason,although I have the correct cable.
Battery conection works well.

Well they are good batteries at the mo. 1 yr old. It has 1 battery for the engine and 2 leisure batteries which have their own solar panel. I might just go up there every couple of weeks and take it for a drive

I seem to remember hearing that the cigar lighter didn't work for something similar in the past. Does anyone know whether the OBD route would work?

Here is a link to the AA one on Amazon that shows how this works
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AA-Solar-Powere...54MVT0X180N#Ask

I had one of these for a while a few years back to keep a slow battery drain at bay until I was able to discover the cause of it. Got mine form maplin and it had the option of direct to the battery or in the cigarette lighter.
I forget the exact reason, but they don't work on cigarette lighters in all cars due to something in the circuit of such cars.

They will only work on the cig lighter if the lighter works when the ignition is turned off...

Thanks Barnacle. I will check mine later!

I have to leave the light on in the garage to make mine work - I wouldn't recommend

Can't resist - shouldn't the car be outside?

I will pop a photo on the fccuk Facebook page tomorrow of mine in action.

No just the solar panel.

I did a how to and I suspect the pictures are now on my old dead web server. However my little panel was not man enough for my alarm's power draw.
I'm using a 1M tall 15 Watt panel now!
That keeps her happy

As for connections I added a fused connector to the battery and ran the cable in via the usual passenger side ports with the neutral as a taped to the chassis in the passenger foot well. Its worth noting that not all panels behave nicely so i use a solar charge regulator to make sure its one way and I can use it to monitor the voltage and not over vol;t the battery on a sunny day.

In other news I've dug the foundation pit for where my flue tank will go outside so I can get the coupe inside.

Thanks for the info Jef - just saw this.

She is stood up ATM so the panel is run through the drivers door which faces south. I have a charge regulator that is in the passenger foot well. I get better charge in winter due to trees and periodical take out the battery and give it a full charge.

If you want any photos post and I'll add them.