VW Solar Panels
By randy727, Section Homebrewed Electricity Posted on Fri Mar 26, 2004 at 05:55:27 PM MST
Back feeding VW PVC solar panels?

I bought one of those VW solar panels off eBay recently.  It plugs into the cigarette lighter to charge the car battery while the new car is in transit to the dealer.  It has a warning sticker on it that says it must be unplugged prior to starting the car or it will be damaged.  My question is why would this damage it?  I thought PVCs could be shorted or even take a back charge without damage.  Has anyone take one of these VW panels apart yet to see how they work?

VW Solar Panels | 4 comments (4 topical)

Re: VW Solar Panels (none / 0) (#1) by Homebrewed12vdc on Fri Mar 26, 2004 at 09:00:45 PM MST

Have no fear, they have a blocking diode in the cigerette plug, I think the warning is basically so some idiot doesn,t drive down the road with it stuck on the windshield. I use these same panels all the time, I even have them stuck in my house windows wired back to my battery bank, there not a bad deal when you consider that they are 3.2 watt. Thats not a lot of power, but price towo of them versus a 5 watt panel, the VW panels are a big savings.

Re: VW Solar Panels (none / 0) (#2) by pwmvsi on Tue Mar 30, 2004 at 10:30:36 AM MST

Go to your friendly VW mechanic and MAKE SURE that there is a blocking diode in the cigerette lighter.  A diode to be put in the manufacturing process cost over a dollar for sure which, believe it or not, digs really deep into the profit margin of a factory.  To get the he heat in the cigerrette lighter, the juice maybe coming straight from the altenator.   Check with your mechanic. WEMPEC Slave

Re: VW Solar Panels (none / 0) (#3) by Homebrewed12vdc on Thu Apr 01, 2004 at 10:25:19 AM MST

The blocking diode is in the wire from the panel inside the plug end that plugs into your cigerette lighter in your car, I wish people that had no clue would leave there fingers of the key board, cant you see my pic and reliaze that I must know what I am talking about sence I am using some of the same panel. [ Parent ]

Re: VW Solar Panels (3.00 / 0) (#4) by altpwr on Sat Jul 31, 2004 at 03:45:03 PM MST

Hi Homebrewed, I recently purchased several 12v, 1.4Ah drill batteries and planned to wire them for a 12v system using a few vw polar panels to feed them.  The reason drill batteries tickled me is that I was looking to charge them in a regular ac charger prior to bringing them up to where I need the power. I really have 2 questions..  Is the battery idea feasable in your opinion?  Being that the blocking diode is in the vw panel wire, I would like to keep that all as one unit.  Do you know of anyone who makes multiple female ends of a cig lighter, that ties into one wire which would go into my battery bank?  Is this something I should home make?? Thanks in advance, Altpwr [ Parent ]

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