Lipo charging from cigarette lighter in car!

[tdi250]

Has anyone got any experience with charging their lipo's from their cigarette lighter in their car?

I have a Core UAC 50 charger which has a 12V input option or a 230V option. I'm considering getting one of these http://www.maplin.co.uk/75w-mini-inv...-socket-398481

I assume this will be ok for the 230V input as it's rated at 60W continuous use and the Core max output is 50W

I'm racing outdoors tomorrow and it's likely to be raining so didn't really want to have the bonnet open and messing about connecting it direct to the battery.

ANy help is greatly appreciated.

Wes

[Dazzieboy]

That looks useful, I have an estate car with cigarette lighter socket in the boot so was hoping to use this and work out of the boot of the car. I'd be interested to know if it would work as well

[RudolfXC]

Why not just use the 12V from the socket?

[Dazzieboy]

Well I did think that too but it still involves having to buy a lead or making one up as my charger only comes with crocodile clips. Just thought this might be a good alternative

[sosidge]

It depends on the power limit of your car's cigarette socket.

I made up a lead for my old Honda to do the same thing and it wouldn't work at anything above really low charge rates. Check your cars user manual before splashing the cash!

[sldmodels]

I wouldn't do it, you'd end up running down your car's battery unless you have the engine running for the entire day. Invest in a decent leisure battery and you should be fine.

[Dombrasky]

Hi
Ive used the ciggerette socket in my car for a few years now
when its rainy,but not with an inverter
i just bought the plug from halfords,fitted two bolts on a strip of
plastic for the wires,then croc clips to the bolts
i only charge at 5 amps,but have never had any car battery issues
and its only a small citreon C1
normally if its sunny i croc clip under the bonnet

[Dazzieboy]

Originally Posted by Dombrasky

Hi
Ive used the ciggerette socket in my car for a few years now
when its rainy,but not with an inverter
i just bought the plug from halfords,fitted two bolts on a strip of
plastic for the wires,then croc clips to the bolts
i only charge at 5 amps,but have never had any car battery issues
and its only a small citreon C1
normally if its sunny i croc clip under the bonnet

Might look at doing this, I too have a core uac50 so can only chage at 5 amps max myself. The car sockets are protected by a 15 amp fuse and it's a mondeo diesel so has a fairly sizeable battery.

[sldmodels]

Well I did have (lets refer to him as an idiot) run his soldering iron of the car battery all day long as he'd soldered the speedo connections directly to his batteries (nimhs at the time) all day long. The car wouldn't start at the end of the day, but thankfully there were people there who helped me start the car.

[tdi250]

I decided to go for the 12v option via the cigarette lighter and bought a plug in thingy from maplin and soldered some wires on for my crock clips to get hold of, i've made the cables different lengths and taped them together so the crock clips can't touch together!

I originally thought about the inverter as i could use it for my laptop and other things.

I've not had chance to try it yet but if it doesn't work tomorrow i'll have to resort to getting under the bonnet.

[MattW]

Just keep an eye on the cigarette lighter connector that you've made up. Many of the plugs you can buy don't have great current carrying capability and will get a bit warm and ultimately melt! I did a couple when I used to run a cool box from mine. Then I found one that was ok, and ran it perfectly.

[mark christopher]

have you checked its live all the time and not live with ignition?

[deepdale11]

Its a bit late now as you have brought something but this is a good idea I think,

http://www.modelsport.co.uk/ko-propo...roducts/360232

[tdi250]

I tried the 12V socket that I bought and the charger just came up with a warning "voltage input error" or something like that and wouldn't work.

Which is odd because it's supposed to be 12V? Anyway, so i ended up charging under the bonnet directly onto the battery terminals, got soaking wet in the process and then the meeting got cancelled so i went home! Lol.

[Steve-O]

Buy a BMW

Battery is in the boot, problem solved

[MrHavana]

I had a couple of these from different sources (1 from HobbyKing, there other I don't remember). Both of them melted in use.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...idproduct=8819

I haven't bothered getting another one, but if I did I'd look to getting something slightly better quality.