NormalMisha
DIY
Good moaning all,
I want to install a solar charger because my MK1 1997 Clio 1.8 RSi seemingly has a parasitic draw and counteracting it is probably better than trying to find and fix it given the car's age. If anyone wants to buy it in September let me know!
The problem is that the cigarette socket is not live when the ignition is off (presumably by design) and I don't want to try and safely run cables direct from the battery into the cabin (unless you think that's simple). Is it electrically possible to charge a battery via a fuse slot in the cabin's fuse box (I think yes)? I was planning to use an add-a-fuse device connected to a female cigarette socket adapter, because most solar panel chargers already come with a male cig. socket connector. What confuses me due to a lack of electrical knowledge is that add-a-fuse connectors don't come with a negative connector. Therefore what would I do? Would I have to connect the negative terminal of the female cigarette socket to a random piece of grounded car body? It just seems unnecessarily messy, physically difficult (contortionist/removing panels) and maybe dangerous for amateurs when surely the add-a-fuse device could quite easily provide a neat return line for about 1p extra. The fuse box slots generally have a return connection (I do see one spare fuse slot with only a positive connection, next to an image of a caravan), so not using it just seems a bit insane.
Could I use the existing female cigarette lighter socket for my ground if I connect the negatives of the two female cig. sockets together? This would still be pretty messy.
I have a silly question which shows my ignorance: when charging, does the charger-generated current flow in the same direction as the current being drawn by the car's peripherals? In general, do we still connect the positive terminal of current-generating devices to the positive terminal of the battery, as we do with current-drawing devices?
Finally, does this idea seem reasonable?
Thanks for your time,
Misha
P.S. In case you're interested, the parasitic draw measured 100mA with my cheapo multimeter in series. It actually seemed to be regularly alternating between 0 and 100, but maybe that was just due to a bad connection to the battery leads/terminal. This multimeter only has a 5A fuse, but presumably that is plenty unless your battery is going completely flat in 10 hours. Mine drops between 0.1 and 0.2V per 24 hours. Out of interest, is there a way to determine charge loss based on voltage loss, and therefore using the passed time calculate parasitic draw amperage without measuring the current directly?
I want to install a solar charger because my MK1 1997 Clio 1.8 RSi seemingly has a parasitic draw and counteracting it is probably better than trying to find and fix it given the car's age. If anyone wants to buy it in September let me know!
The problem is that the cigarette socket is not live when the ignition is off (presumably by design) and I don't want to try and safely run cables direct from the battery into the cabin (unless you think that's simple). Is it electrically possible to charge a battery via a fuse slot in the cabin's fuse box (I think yes)? I was planning to use an add-a-fuse device connected to a female cigarette socket adapter, because most solar panel chargers already come with a male cig. socket connector. What confuses me due to a lack of electrical knowledge is that add-a-fuse connectors don't come with a negative connector. Therefore what would I do? Would I have to connect the negative terminal of the female cigarette socket to a random piece of grounded car body? It just seems unnecessarily messy, physically difficult (contortionist/removing panels) and maybe dangerous for amateurs when surely the add-a-fuse device could quite easily provide a neat return line for about 1p extra. The fuse box slots generally have a return connection (I do see one spare fuse slot with only a positive connection, next to an image of a caravan), so not using it just seems a bit insane.
Could I use the existing female cigarette lighter socket for my ground if I connect the negatives of the two female cig. sockets together? This would still be pretty messy.
I have a silly question which shows my ignorance: when charging, does the charger-generated current flow in the same direction as the current being drawn by the car's peripherals? In general, do we still connect the positive terminal of current-generating devices to the positive terminal of the battery, as we do with current-drawing devices?
Finally, does this idea seem reasonable?
Thanks for your time,
Misha
P.S. In case you're interested, the parasitic draw measured 100mA with my cheapo multimeter in series. It actually seemed to be regularly alternating between 0 and 100, but maybe that was just due to a bad connection to the battery leads/terminal. This multimeter only has a 5A fuse, but presumably that is plenty unless your battery is going completely flat in 10 hours. Mine drops between 0.1 and 0.2V per 24 hours. Out of interest, is there a way to determine charge loss based on voltage loss, and therefore using the passed time calculate parasitic draw amperage without measuring the current directly?
- TL;DR
- If I connect a solar charger to an "always on" fuse slot using an add-a-fuse device, where does the negative lead connect (add-a-fuse devices only have a pos. lead)?
