I know you are listed as being in Far East, so I cannot say with experience if your car’s actual voltage output is the same as cars here in the USA, but ours put out well over 12 volts actual. Normal car stereo electronics are rated to accept up to 14.4 volts with most listing 13.8-14.4.
This charger can and will accept voltages higher than 12 volts without a problem until you get crazy off the minimum voltage. It would be interesting to see how much Below 12v it could go and stay in regulation.
The alternators need to put out more than 12 volts to keep the battery charged up. If you were to read only 12 volts that would mean your charging system was not doing it’s job anymore.
Have you measured your cars output and is so what is the actual voltage when running and/or when off?
Just curious.
Thanks
Keith
My only concern is when I start my car, (a diesel pick-up truck for that matter), even the car stereo display goes momentarily goes blank. I haven’t actually tried using the Opus and charge/discharge a cell but perhaps if it does happen to my car stereo, same thing will happen to the charger as power is interrupted.
Tatasal, the radio off when you start the engine is with all cars, at least the ones I’ve driven. It’s a precautionary measure to protect the car battery at startup when it is the most strained. I’ve noticed that not only the radio cuts off, but also the AC and any other electronics.
Precisely that’s my point in the original concern of Minimoke in post # 89, to quote:
Looking forward to HKJ review. BTW, has anyone try , is it Ok charging using the car cigarette lighter with ignition on? Thanks.
My take about Minimoke’s concern is not the input voltage of 12 to 14VDC, (in which the Opus could handle) but the possible loss of data if the car is started while the charger is powered by the car’s cigarette lighter power facility WHILE the charger is already charging or discharging, and because of this momentary loss of power, the charger might re-start.
Dose there exist a capacitor large enough to sustain the wattage draw of the Opus during the couple seconds the engine is cranking?
I imagine that the ‘start’ position on the ignition tumbler has a cutoff that prevents power going to the auxiliary power distribution block, hence the absence in anything else working. As an alternative, if one is unafraid of going into the harness, one could take a wire off the battery, run it through the firewall grommet, fuse it under the dash, and directly wire it into the cigarette lighter, or even install a dedicated 12v outlet. A healthy battery should only drop to about 10-11V IIRC when starting, I wonder if that would pose a problem.
