solar trickle charger

[Eddie]

Got one from maplins today and got a bargin.

Been looking at the 1.5w solar chargers at £15 went to get one today and see that Maplins have a special offer on £20 for a 4.8w solar charger, reduced form £50.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=115194&C=Maplin&U=SearchTop&T=solar%20charger&doy=15m4



Think the offer is still on if anyone else is near a maplins.

Thought I would share.


cheers

[smarts]

Great find!

Random question on them for anyone who might know - it comes with croc clips to you can connect it directly to the battery, and with blocking diode so it won\'t drain the battery - does this mean it can be left connected permanently? Essentially I\'ve got my battery in the boot and so thinking about building a charger into the parcel shelf to help offset the \'parasitic drain\' of the alarm / immob - thoughts??

Si.

[logicalChimp]

According to the FAQs on the maplin page, yes you can leave it permanently connected.

I\'m not 100% sure whether this charger will be sufficiently powerful to keep the battery topped up, but it should at least offset some of the drain (i need to get my car back, to check what battery i have in it

However, on one of the higher-power solar chargers, in the FAQs they said it had to be mounted externally, in response to a question about whether it could be left on the parcel-shelf (iirc).  don\'t know if that was for max-charge, or for another reason.

Still - i\'m definitely going to be getting one for myself - the parasitic drain (love that phrase - not seen it before ) on my car is quite high, because i also need a full-time GPS tracker for my pay-as-you-drive insurance.  This looks like the ideal device to counter that effect (at least during summer)