WheelchairDriver

So I have seen that I along with many others suffer with battery drain issues with our adaptive vehicles. I read some where on this site about adding a 5 watt solar charger to help offset the typical drainage. I had the unfortunate experience of jump starting from another vehicle one time that fried my vans ramp Computer (according to what I was told) so this topic makes me cautious . I like the idea of solar but want to make sure I don't fry the computer.....I was researching and almost bought one then I saw a video where a guy tested the voltage coming out and it would peak above 12v so he added a controller to reduce it to around 6v peak.......I guess I don't know if the voltage would fry the computer....it was a standard car charger.

Jump starting cannot fry the ramp computer unless the guy was a retard and connected it in reverse.

A 5 watt solar panel will do nothing to keep a battery charged for a bunch of reasons.
And a permanantly connected maintainance charger usually has a too high 13.8V output.


I have a 50watt panel on the roof. That can keep up in spring, summer, and autum. It fails in winter, not enough sun.
At least until I learned something important in the link below...

But its also important that you have a charge controller with a solar panel. And that solar panel needs to be a lot bigger than 5 watts!

And that MUST allow you to set max charge voltage at around 13.4V. Or you may cook the battery in summer. Set it to 13.8 in winter. As less sunshine hours, and batteries need higher stand by voltage as temp drops.

Also read this link VERY slowly.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10001

So what type of controler and panel........I honestly liked the idea of charging through a cigarette lighter (I have a always active one)

I might add, that since adding a simple switch to the BCM fuse, the 50 watt solar panel is keeping the battery fully charged JUST in december the 10th. So looks like a full fix even in winter.

Image, Solar panel on roof, (charge controller in rear behind a side panel. Connected to the computer in the rear as its got a permanant 12V power supply.

interesting find on the BCM fuse.....so a lithium jump pack should be safe (change of subject)

Sort of. The lithium polymer inside those things certainly isnt! They go like very powerful fireworks. So dont leave it in your house, or overcharge it... Or put it into a cold car when fully charged unless you like fireworks.

The thing is every time your battery goes flat you are destroying it. They do not like deep discharge. It will just get worse and worse. Jump starting isnt the solution.

does your van have two batteries? by the way thank you for sharing your knowledge

No. just one. And it sits at the perfect 100% fully charged state during the day. And with the BCM mod, stays at 99% over night.

MPPT charge controller was built in to the solar car charger that I was looking at (its available in 20watt too) but your talking about a different controller right

Theres many mppt charge controllers. You want one that allows you to set a fixed output voltage of your choice. There are many cheap ones that are garbage. And many that are worse than that and are not even mppt at all in spite of claims. You are interested in one that is, and that allows you to manually set output voltage accurately.

do you have any suggestions for a quality controller .....I still would like to run it through cigarette lighter for simplicity

Cigarette lighter?

Many of those sleep when the vehicle key is removed.
Also you will need the solar panel to be outside of the car. You lose 40 to 60 percent of the power through glass. And as much again if it isnt facing the sun.
And a 50 watt panel is too big for inside.

To find a good one I used ebay, bought half a dozen and watched/measured what they did.
You dont want a 3 stage charger one. You want one that just goes to 13.4 or 13.8 in winter, as you choose, and sits there when the sun hits the panels...

I will see if I can see a link to a similar one.

Mine looks exactly like this. It does what I wanted. I threw at least half a dozen away that didnt... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MPPT-10A-20A ... Swy0JZ5az2

But it depends on firmware and any programming changes thay make so no garantees.
If you dont want to mess about you need a 50 watt solar panel on roof. Stuck with clear silicone rubber. And set the correct voltage. And connect permanantly in the rear of the van.