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Why go through all that bother? Look on ebay for a solar panel. There
are a ton on small units that VW uses to keep the batteries topped off
while the cars are in transit. They are small 5-10 Watt units. Usually
go for about $10. Lay one on the dash and park the vehicle so the
windshield is facing south. The unit has a cigarette lighter adapter
and you just plug it in.
Scott
Robert Green wrote:
> Anyone have ideas or sources for remotely monitoring an infrequently used
> car's 12V battery to make sure it didn't go dead from simple attrition?
>
> Ideally, I want some sort of contact closure when voltage drops below a
> certain point. I want to sent that information wirelessly to a base unit
> inside the house that would flash, beep, and then call my cellphone and say
> "Dad's wheelchair van needs recharging."
>
> What I'd like to do is hijack a wireless thermometer - the thermistor
> probe should be able to read voltage with a few modifications to the probe
> end. The thermometer base station has an "alarm on temperature" feature
> that could, with a little recalibration, serve to monitor dropping voltage
> and to beep when it dropped below a threshold I'd set. With any luck,
> I could get it to read 100 degrees when the battery was fully charged and 0
> degrees when depleted. Not sure there would be linearity along the scale,
> though! <g>
>
> Another thought would be some sort of docking cradle on the front bumper
> that allowed feeding a charging current to the car without the need for
> connecting charging cables or a charger that can be dragged down the street
> for several blocks until the car manages to run over it (the reason why I
> just do not leave the sucker plugged in all the time for him!).
>
> --
> Bobby G.
>
>
>
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Re: Remote Car Battery Voltage Monitoring 
