preVent GmbH portable solar panels

[No_heroes]

I met a fella at the car wash with a lovely G4 expedition Land Rover discovery.

He showed me a foldout solar panel that supposedly just plugs into the 12v supply and charges the batteries. Anyone have any experience with this? Looks simple and easy... I quite fancy one, but google hasn’t come up with anything interesting.

Ian

 

[No_heroes]

And the car!

 

[ArunAlec]

I like the idea but would want to be comfortable that pushing 12v "the wrong way" into the cigarette socket won't cause the Cali electronics to get upset.
Modern vehicle electrics are too complex!

 

[No_heroes]

Ok- I think he may have had a 12v cigarette lighter style connector connected direct to the battery and mounted on the front bumper bar. So that would feed directly into the driving battery. Is the Cali setup too complex for this type of hack?

 

[Loz]

No it’s fine. I have a similar home made setup

 

[marchugo]

The MPPT solar charge controller from Lumiax that came with my PreVent folding solar panel of 120 Watt delivers a max current of 10 ampere. The cigarette lighter connectors are protected with a fuse for max 15 ampere (in my Cali T5.1, be sure to check your Cali manual for your model), so you’re on the safe side. In practice the folding panel gives you 6 to 8 ampere at best in our northern European hemisphere.
The nice thing about this panel is, you get a bunch of cables and connectors with it, that allow you to top up the household battery via the cigarette lighter connectors in the living area, as well as topping up the starter battery via the cigarette lighter on the dash. And there’s an extra cable that can be connected directly to the household batteries, if you want to play it safe. I tried all options, and it works.

Regards from Amsterdam,

Marc.

 

[Ting Tong]

I met a fella at the car wash with a lovely G4 expedition Land Rover discovery.

He showed me a foldout solar panel that supposedly just plugs into the 12v supply and charges the batteries. Anyone have any experience with this? Looks simple and easy... I quite fancy one, but google hasn’t come up with anything

This?

https://prevent-germany.com/solarmodul-faltbar-als-solartasche-120w-mit-mppt-laderegler-pv-3x40-sp-36-mit-viel-zubehoer

 

[MattBW]

I have a Dokio fold out one 120w, it mostly great, a bit delicate perhaps and arrived cracked. They basically ignored requests to resolve. So although it is a nice design, avoid Dokio like the plague is my advice.

 

[MattBW]

I even reviewed it on Amazon but they responded by removing the listing from sale so the review was no longer visible. Ill have mine with me at Slimbridge if anyone wants to see

 

[marchugo]

Here you are:

Faltbares Solarmodul mit 120W und MPPT-Regler

Das faltbare Solarmodul mit 120W kommt mit kompletten Zubehör, um eine 12V-Batterie aufzuladen. Im Set ist sogar ein MPPT-Solarladeregler mit hohem Wirkungsgrad dabei. Im Modul sind monokristalline Sunpowerzellen mit einem Wirkungsgrad...

www.wattgeizer.com

They charge decent transport costs from Germany to European countries.

BTW Just a reminder, connect the mppt charge controller to the battery or cigarette lighter first, and after that connect the solar panel to the controller. In this way, the controller checks what kind of battery it is connected to, and thus chooses the right charging volume.

Regards from Amsterdam,

Marc.

 

[No_heroes]

The MPPT solar charge controller from Lumiax that came with my PreVent folding solar panel of 120 Watt delivers a max current of 10 ampere. The cigarette lighter connectors are protected with a fuse for max 15 ampere (in my Cali T5.1, be sure to check your Cali manual for your model), so you’re on the safe side. In practice the folding panel gives you 6 to 8 ampere at best in our northern European hemisphere.
The nice thing about this panel is, you get a bunch of cables and connectors with it, that allow you to top up the household battery via the cigarette lighter connectors in the living area, as well as topping up the starter battery via the cigarette lighter on the dash. And there’s an extra cable that can be connected directly to the household batteries, if you want to play it safe. I tried all options, and it works.

Regards from Amsterdam,

Marc.

I really like this idea as a backup- and also not thought of the flexibility to charge both batteries... if I can negotiate the German website I will order 1!

Thank you!

 

[Loz]

Not cheap though..
You could purchase a 100w flexible panel and a vitron mmpt charger for half that and make your own. Just store the panel on the mattress in the boot and velcro it on the screen cover to use?

 

[Andy]

Not cheap though..
You could purchase a 100w flexible panel and a vitron mmpt charger for half that and make your own. Just store the panel on the mattress in the boot and velcro it on the screen cover to use?

I wouldn't want to keep putting one of the flexible panels up there. They have very thin trace wires that connect the cells that are prone to breaking. I have had two panels fail at these traces. They were fixed to angle brackets on roof tracks.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Loz]

I'll see how I get on with mine.

 

[Loz]

Here you go, put this together this morning.

 

[MattBW]

You will lose a lot of the power behind glass, worth trying it outside. I had a cheap 20w panel but barely made 7w sat outside the glass but behind glass it struggled to get above 3w.

 

[Loz]

You will lose a lot of the power behind glass, worth trying it outside. I had a cheap 20w panel but barely made 7w sat outside the glass but behind glass it struggled to get above 3w.

My plan is to velcro it to the comfortz screen cover.

 

[Loz]

You will lose a lot of the power behind glass, worth trying it outside. I had a cheap 20w panel but barely made 7w sat outside the glass but behind glass it struggled to get above 3w.

Getting 31w inside and 55w outside.

 

[MattBW]

That's quite a big difference, 2.2a vs 3.8a, its interesting to see the actual difference.

 

[Jolberg]

Here you go, put this together this morning.


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Hi. Was just wondering how this setup was working for you? And was the wiring straightforward (panel cables into charger unit then out of charger unit to 12v cigarette lighter plug?)? What do you use to make any wire joints weather proof? Sorry for the basic questions. I’m no electrician! Thanks. Jol