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I need help with trying to figure out how to charge our phones. My cigarette lighter thing in my car doesnt work so there lies a problem. What can i hook up to my battery so that I can charge stuff but not drain my battery.
AFAIK and im not 100% sure the car battery delivers 12volts DC, which happens to be the same as the cigarette lighter port. If u run a wire such as these:
(you can buy these at I think even walmart, Pepboys, or Advanced Auto just couldnt find a link there)
SAFELY you should be ok. I say safely cause years ago my bro ran wire for a subwoofer that never ended up getting connected, the live wire connected with metal in the trunk and damn near burnt itself into a fire.
The one end obv goes on the corresponding battery terminals and the other end looks like a cigarette lighter.
I need help with trying to figure out how to charge our phones. My cigarette lighter thing in my car doesnt work so there lies a problem. What can i hook up to my battery so that I can charge stuff but not drain my battery.
we use our battery with a inverter hooked to it and stuff plugs in like you're at home, no problems, just crank your car every now and then. you can pick them up at Wally world, k-mart $30.00
Post by SouthGA_Festival Machine on Jun 4, 2010 10:15:13 GMT -5
I use a deep cycle battery from Walmart. I've been through several regular batteries in my truck as well as the "battery in a box". Every time you run an inverter off a regular car battery, you're shortening its life. And the "power stations" & "jumper boxes" don't seem to hold up very well in my experience. I've spent hundreds of hours running laptops and other things off inverters in the last four years, and it's worth the investment if you want your battery to last as long as it's supposed to. Otherwise, just let it die and trade it in before the warranty expires.
Post by somethingawesome on Jun 4, 2010 10:22:29 GMT -5
If you can hook the inverter directly to the car battery it will work fine, you should be able to get an easy 1-2 hours without having to start the car, if the car is running you aren't doing any damage to the battery despite what people above say. An inverter of this size draws very little electricity compared to other systems in the car.
Remember though if you kill a battery and have to get a jump you ARE doing damage to it, car batteries get damaged when they are drained very low (to the point where it cant crank the car).
If you can hook the inverter directly to the car battery it will work fine, you should be able to get an easy 1-2 hours without having to start the car, if the car is running you aren't doing any damage to the battery despite what people above say. An inverter of this size draws very little electricity compared to other systems in the car.
Remember though if you kill a battery and have to get a jump you ARE doing damage to it, car batteries get damaged when they are drained very low (to the point where it cant crank the car).
I just wanted to point out that these batteries can be reconditioned. Lead acid batteries can be run through a conditioner and used long after they have been totally drained, even multiple times. There are way to many of these in landfills.
OK, science nerd time (sorry, can't help it) Almost all (excepting hybrids and really old cars) run 12VDC (volts direct current) throughout the car. It's 12VDC off of the battery terminals, 12VDC from the cig lighter, 12VDC from MOST of the internal wiring (please don't randomly tap into a wire w/o knowing what you're doing). An inverter (whether a cheapo cig lighter version or a pro installed inline one) pulls the 12VDC and converts it to 120VAC (volts alternating current, what you get from a wall socket). If you want to charge a cell phone, using an inverter is wasteful, you're converting 12VDC --> 120VAC --> ~5VDC. There's an unavoidable loss in each step. Most (not all) phones and small devices can charge directly from 12VDC, the best idea if your cig lighter isn't working is to go to a "12 volt shop" (car audio store, NOT BestBuy or the like but a local place) and have them splice a 12VDC line back into your cig lighter. It should be a 30 min job. Or if you know someone who's handy w/ a roll of electrical tape, buy him/her a 6 pack and have them do it. If you avoid using an inverter (and honestly even if you do use one), the draw from a cell phone is going to be small compared to the reserves in a healthy car battery. Using a bit of your car battery's power will not shorten it's life providing you don't run it down to near empty. This causes sulfonation, which will decrease your battery's ability to take and hold a charge. If you don't run your battery down (and charging a cell phone shouldn't) you won't appreciably lessen it's life.
As far as lead acid batteries being "reconditioned", nice idea, doesn't really work in practice. If it did, battery manufacturers would recondition the dead batteries they take in instead of recycling them for the raw materials. You can restore a small percentage of a dying battery's capacity by giving it high voltage pulses, but that's about it. Not that companies won't charge an extra $35 for a charger that has an extra special "desulfonation" setting.
Post by fearthestupid on Jun 6, 2010 22:36:32 GMT -5
i found a solar 12volt charger at northern tool for 29.99 clearance my plan is to use that with my inverter to run my campsite fans, tiki lights, margarita blender, maybe a foreman grill- just the essentials, you know?
i found a solar 12volt charger at northern tool for 29.99 clearance my plan is to use that with my inverter to run my campsite fans, tiki lights, margarita blender, maybe a foreman grill- just the essentials, you know?
You won't be able to power any of that with the exception of MAYBE the tiki lights, those small solar cells produce a tiny amount of juice, nothing anywhere near whats required to run a grill or a blender.
Also, unless the inverter is 1,000+ watts it also won't power a grill, maybe a blender though.
OK, science nerd time (sorry, can't help it) Almost all (excepting hybrids and really old cars) run 12VDC (volts direct current) throughout the car. It's 12VDC off of the battery terminals, 12VDC from the cig lighter, 12VDC from MOST of the internal wiring (please don't randomly tap into a wire w/o knowing what you're doing). An inverter (whether a cheapo cig lighter version or a pro installed inline one) pulls the 12VDC and converts it to 120VAC (volts alternating current, what you get from a wall socket). If you want to charge a cell phone, using an inverter is wasteful, you're converting 12VDC --> 120VAC --> ~5VDC. There's an unavoidable loss in each step. Most (not all) phones and small devices can charge directly from 12VDC, the best idea if your cig lighter isn't working is to go to a "12 volt shop" (car audio store, NOT BestBuy or the like but a local place) and have them splice a 12VDC line back into your cig lighter. It should be a 30 min job. Or if you know someone who's handy w/ a roll of electrical tape, buy him/her a 6 pack and have them do it. If you avoid using an inverter (and honestly even if you do use one), the draw from a cell phone is going to be small compared to the reserves in a healthy car battery. Using a bit of your car battery's power will not shorten it's life providing you don't run it down to near empty. This causes sulfonation, which will decrease your battery's ability to take and hold a charge. If you don't run your battery down (and charging a cell phone shouldn't) you won't appreciably lessen it's life.
As far as lead acid batteries being "reconditioned", nice idea, doesn't really work in practice. If it did, battery manufacturers would recondition the dead batteries they take in instead of recycling them for the raw materials. You can restore a small percentage of a dying battery's capacity by giving it high voltage pulses, but that's about it. Not that companies won't charge an extra $35 for a charger that has an extra special "desulfonation" setting.
Actually desulfonators do work relatively well. Amplitude Modulated Pulses (AMP) at the resonance frequency of the crystals will shatter the covalent bonds that hold it together the lead sulfate crystals and increase the surface area of raw materials needed to carry out the chemical reaction necessary for generating power; lead, lead dioxide and water.
I totally agree about the inverter, complete waste of power unless you are converting LV to 110. They also make cheap cell phone chargers that run off of AA batteries, they work in a pinch. There are also lots of outlets throughout Centeroo that you can plug into.
Post by astrostrat89 on Jun 6, 2010 23:06:55 GMT -5
May be too late but there is an Ozark Trail Fan at walmart that has an 8 D-cell battery pack with a cigarette lighter port on it. I had to get a splitter but it charges my phone and runs the fan
Post by countdown2roo on Jun 6, 2010 23:14:48 GMT -5
or you previous roo's should have kept a keen out n open and you would have realized that all the lights at night in the campgrounds have 2 outlets to plug in regular appliances with. every night i charged my phone for like a half hour and sat at one of those lights and drank a couple beers. i watched a chick straighten her hair at one of those lights one of those nights!!
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Actually desulfonators do work relatively well. Amplitude Modulated Pulses (AMP) at the resonance frequency of the crystals will shatter the covalent bonds that hold it together the lead sulfate crystals and increase the surface area of raw materials needed to carry out the chemical reaction necessary for generating power; lead, lead dioxide and water.
You're right, my bad, hadn't done recent research. Turns out some of them work pretty well; live and learn.
