Portable solar charger

[boardwhore]

Good afternoon
I was wondering if someone might know or have tried :| to use some type of portable solar charger to charge the I3 through it cig lighter while the vehicle is parked? :| :?:

 

[jadnashuanh]

It wouldn't work! Keep in mind that the actual charger is IN the car, and it is designed for either 120vac, 240vac, or 400vdc (not sure exactly on the DC voltage, but it's over 360vdc, as that's the fully charged voltage level of the batteries).

I suppose if you ran it through an inverter, built a circuit board with the required logic to make the car recognize you'd plugged something into it's charging port, it might work, but you'd need probably at least about 8A output at 120vac. ANd, the silly plug by itself isn't cheap!

 

[boardwhore]

Thanks
i was just thinking of some way to charge or even trickle charge while I'm parked not at a charge post.

 

[Ardie]

Due to the flak about some of the ActiveE's 12v batteries having charging problems (and now a couple of i3's), I have a 12v solar charger on the back deck's privacy panel, with the cord snaking down to the rear 12v "cigarette lighter" outlet. The solar charger is about the size of a license plate, so we aren't talking about much juice here.

So it is recharging the 12v system thru the outlet -- *IF* the circuit is still live when the car is shut off. I haven't ever checked...

It probably isn't doing anything helpful, but then again, I figured it couldn't hurt.
At least I've never had any 12v battery problems.

-- Ardie

 

[jadnashuanh]

There are two battery 'systems' in the i3: the main propulsion/system operating set, and a second, 12vdc (small) battery that (probably) does things like maintain the status of things in memory when the car is off. I haven't checked the 12vdc outlets, but if they are powered when the car is off, they may be used as a source to maintain that battery, but I doubt it would do anything to the main battery set. It is fairly inefficient to get 12vdc from a 360vdc battery set, so getting it directly when things are 'off' makes sense. Now, how it really works, I do not know.