Powering devices without flattening car battery
Discussion
Hi folks,
I generally run a dashcam and a GPS tracker on my cars, both run from a permanent live cig lighter.
I have found that the permanent parasitic draw is ruining the car batteries. They are constantly going flat when I don't use them for a couple of days. The dashcam has a parking mode but it s
ts off after 6 hours so as not to toast the battery. I had assumed that a tiny GPS tracker with a battery in wouldn't pull much.
Anyway, before I buy a new battery I was wondering if anybody has any bright ideas. I am thinking of some kind of charging system with a secondary battery. Would using some mobile phone powerbank do the job, wired to charge only from switched ignition. I don't know if they are designed to charge rather than run things?
Would rather not pay too much as inevitably I'll want to fit the same solution to 3 cars!
I generally run a dashcam and a GPS tracker on my cars, both run from a permanent live cig lighter.
I have found that the permanent parasitic draw is ruining the car batteries. They are constantly going flat when I don't use them for a couple of days. The dashcam has a parking mode but it s
ts off after 6 hours so as not to toast the battery. I had assumed that a tiny GPS tracker with a battery in wouldn't pull much.Anyway, before I buy a new battery I was wondering if anybody has any bright ideas. I am thinking of some kind of charging system with a secondary battery. Would using some mobile phone powerbank do the job, wired to charge only from switched ignition. I don't know if they are designed to charge rather than run things?
Would rather not pay too much as inevitably I'll want to fit the same solution to 3 cars!
There's this type of device, but it isn't cheap (£170)
http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2016/5/27/dashcam-bat...
http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2016/5/27/dashcam-bat...
Thanks, yes I'd seen that but more than I want to spend.
Interesting looking at the solar chargers on Amazon - I wonder whether one of those paired with some kind of overcharge protection like this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anself-Controller-Regulat...
might do the job?
Ideally I want to fit and forget, I suppose a small solar panel that I could sucker to the rear window or something would be ideal, but don't want anything very obvious...
Interesting looking at the solar chargers on Amazon - I wonder whether one of those paired with some kind of overcharge protection like this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anself-Controller-Regulat...
might do the job?
Ideally I want to fit and forget, I suppose a small solar panel that I could sucker to the rear window or something would be ideal, but don't want anything very obvious...
RizzoTheRat said:
Solar trickle charger on the dash or parcel shelf?
The simple maths say this won't work, if the drain enough to flatten the battery in a few days that's got to be drawing anywhere from say 300mA to 1A (to reach a point where it would struggle to start the car)Your typical solar charger is rated for 4W to 8W at 12v, which at 8W is just under 700mA at absolute maximum during peak sunlight, not counting the losses in UV light (the most important spectrum for solar panels) through the window glass, which has UV filtering.
In all honesty you won't even get half the rated power from a solar panel in that situation.
Edited by lyonspride on Friday 1st September 09:27
My dash cam is wired in permanently live, and I had the issue that the car would be harder to start if not driven every day, then got to the point that it needed to be jumped if it had been left overnight.
New battery sorted it out, had no issues since. It's probably as cheap and less effort than other options
New battery sorted it out, had no issues since. It's probably as cheap and less effort than other options
phil y said:
My dash cam is wired in permanently live, and I had the issue that the car would be harder to start if not driven every day, then got to the point that it needed to be jumped if it had been left overnight.
New battery sorted it out, had no issues since. It's probably as cheap and less effort than other options
True, I find there's a reluctance to change a dying car battery, people would rather keep jumping it and charging it until winter comes and it leaves them stranded one day OR they try to start it after charging all night and the thing explodes (happen to me when I was young and naive).New battery sorted it out, had no issues since. It's probably as cheap and less effort than other options
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