Home build or buy more product?

[Mr Gus]

Cheers Joe.

It did make me think that seeing as we have the L/A battery still foisted on us for cars despite BEV & that solar trickle needs more drive in the public / car selling psyche as a helping hand towards avoiding airport drain (the oft mentioned loss) ..not an opportunity to flog a 5 watt panel for £250 mind.

[marshman]

Cheers Joe.

It did make me think that seeing as we have the L/A battery still foisted on us for cars despite BEV & that solar trickle needs more drive in the public / car selling psyche as a helping hand towards avoiding airport drain (the oft mentioned loss) ..not an opportunity to flog a 5 watt panel for £250 mind.

Not sure L/A batteries are foisted on us as such, and if they are I don't see it as a totally bad thing, they have been around for a long time and there is a really good infrastructure set up to get them recycled (one paper quotes up to 98% of the material in a FLA is recycled).

As a real helping hand towards the first world problem of "airport drain" simply don't use airports, i.e. give up flying, or use public transport to get there. (not an option for me - public transport, not not flying , nearest bus stop is a 2 mile walk and the train 20 miles and a 1:30 bus journey).

And or get a simpler car (or refuse to buy the over complicated, tech boated leviathans currently on offer) that isn't loaded with alarms, sensors and general gizomos etc, so doesn't drain the battery in such a short time.

Both the above suggestions would go a long way to helping save the planet

In my opinion sticking a solar panel on every car to trickle charge the battery, which would be nearly useless if parked in a covered carpark or multistory, just for a tiny percentage of times/people may find it useful would be another unnecessary addition and waste of materials. No objection to manufactures fitting an easily accessible socket to connect an "accessory" one to should the user/owner wish.

[Mr Gus]

In decades of flying we have only ever parked in a multi storey once, & that was for a one off, generally our cars are parked in the open whilst away thus solar could have been useful 9/10 of the time parked.

It wasn't a reference to me it was because that is how it is typically reported therefore route by familial experience.

I never wanted a L/A on a BEV but they WERE foisted on us as a requirement rather than even a separate li battery for the 12v operations they maintain, if it had been offered as it comes with, but you can buy a li 12v for a bit more, guess what we would have gone with.

Yes they are recyclable so is L/A ..& it might have forced change (recycling) faster if the 12v li had been pushed through not hindered.

Depending on who & where, taking a car as small as the smart 450 for us has been the norm, charging for EV's has been sh1te for years at airport hubs, in part slowing uptake as another reason not to buy BEV.

& these days of touchscreens & connectibility, keeping the perception of a vehicle as more robust & reliable by enabling a solar hook up or similar could / should be simpler than splicing cables & fiddling with fuses given technology, with or without an OBD to switch it.

Imho, a little thing that could go a long way to upping reliability of vehicles in general.

[Mr Gus]

If anyone has thought "I could do with one of those" the seller got back to me this morning to state that the blocking diode was within the panel (logic yes, but never underestimate chinese cent saving ruining a product & its purpose (sadly)

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3251638 ... IYPJp&mp=1

Color: 18V 7.5W

(if you do, then topcashback has 4% back, & there are also a few discount codes for this seller)

And the reason for asking is that there has been contradiction stating that it's in the cigarette charger, so yo ask to be sure, or at least have some ali express cover for when it all go's T---s up

Actually don't use that seller, they suck! (no idea about the product, which i've found elsewhere, same brand same-ish price, uk warehouse "allegedly"

Try this one..
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3280235 ... 80746553.5

[Mr Gus]

AND SO THE PROBLEMS START...

This morning the message popped into my account "please contact ali express, since brexit we do not send to the uk from our spanish warehouse" ...SO, I go look at the listing which could be locked off to a "we don't deliver to that area" (but wasn't) ..so I delved further & saw (not uncommonly) the same listing but more expensive & they still ship to the uk.

So draw your own conclusions

I await their silence rather than a solution.


Ffffffffffff, Sakes!

[Mr Gus]

Are ctek connectors deemed "anderson" connectors & does anyone know what other bits fit?

(Smart already has a ctek connector to the battery inside the cabin, which it makes sense to utilise because it really wasn't made for moving the carpet, sound damping, polystyrene etc ..so a match up for this is preferable without having to butcher genuine ctek accessories if humanly possible, it would also be useful for the recovered (48hours out of the leaf where it was on a charge that didn't seem to tickle things back into life until properly disconnected, so I now have a spare that requires a dedicated float charge thus intermittent use of kit with the same fitting would be very useful)

[Mr Gus]

Having ordered the same kit twice, paid twice across two different sellers..

1 doesn't despatch from spain (but also does according to the same listing page)
& the other one has made a "mistake" with stock advertised as being located in the uk (advertising some 63 units available)

And complaining to ali express about false prices, false promises & a turd filled shopping bag experience all too often, took several hours across 5 CS agents to merely tread water.

I did however push the original seller to actually offer customer service & worked it up to (slowly) 3 of these with aligator clips ...what do you think? not what I wanted but...

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3271758 ... 21im%21%21

[Mr Gus]

Whilst poncing about with Tank-enstein this afternoon door raps loudly, slim heavy package!? ..looks about right for solar x4 that I have yet to agree to & was offered 3, ..in part dithering due to size (bigger, not dissimilar to my 4 pre-existing panels) & no sunshade fitting nor window suckers!

& yes, low & behold 4, which im not sure I want even now, as set up is an entirely different animal, (& that's what it's about, good set up for max conversion right?

..But also a fool to turn them down, the kit is pretty well loaded with a decent amount of connectors, the wire & alligator clips are of good enough quality etc
so I'm in a quandry.

(its.the one linked a.post or so back)


in 2 minds.