Charging with solar panel and cigarette lighter

[Captain Quick]

That's intriguing. Possibly the feed may have been moved by the converter, the two family members who have Californias are forever worried about plugging the fridge into the wrong socket despite it being very useful for the sort of charging you mention.

The converter says they’ve not modified the base vehicle’s factory set up and only connected their electrics system to the leisure battery. I’ve also spoken to another recent buyer, who’s also taken delivery of a new camper but from another converter, who‘s noticed the same thing, so I’m not sure.

 

[T6surfer]

Thank you for the clarification @Dellmassive!

 

[T6surfer]

@Dellmassive thanks for the info, I will definitely move that negative connection to the chassis when I get home.

The panel was working fine before I left, I know at 20W it’s never going to charge a battery from flat but keeping it trickle charged is what I was hoping for. The controller states 8A (that would require 96W at 12V) I think that is the max it can control with differing sizes of panels.

Now after reading various comments i wonder if the issue is being on EHU. Once I get home I will see if it starts working again and measure cig outlets whilst not on hook-up
I may need to make a direct connection between battery Pos and chassis,to use while on EHU - or what do you think?

 

[Dellmassive]

It would appear not. I’ve just taken delivery of a new campervan based on a LWB 204PS 4Motion Highline PV built on 29 March this year, with a factory fitted second battery installed under the passenger seat. Having measured the voltage at both these sockets at 13.6V when on EHU, whilst the starter battery reads 12.5V, it appears BOTH 12V sockets in the cab are powered by the second battery.

I was hoping to keep the starter battery topped up by connecting a CTEK battery conditioner to the lower socket and fed from the internal mains socket and leave the van hooked up to the mains via the EHU. Unfortunately, in my case this doesn’t look like it’ll work as neither of the 12V sockets appear to be fed from the starter battery and I’ll have to find another feed from the starter battery (probably from under the passenger seat). It seems that VW has changed things.

Check the OEM fuse locations.

There will be a fuse under the seat near the LB for the upper 12v outlet.

And a seperate fuse in the SC fuse box for the lower dash socket.

On my 2018 with OEM second battery.

Of course VW may have changed things.

But it's normal for them to do it that way.

Also using voltage to check can be misleading as chargers or relays can connect Both batteries, showing the same voltage.

So it's best to test off charge, without the engine running. Then plug in an item and start pulling the fuse to see when you loose power.... Or even try disconnecting one battery, or the 0ther.

 

[Captain Quick]

Check the OEM fuse locations.

There will be a fuse under the seat near the LB for the upper 12v outlet.

And a seperate fuse in the SC fuse box for the lower dash socket.

On my 2018 with OEM second battery.

Of course VW may have changed things.

But it's normal for them to do it that way.

Also using voltage to check can be misleading as chargers or relays can connect Both batteries, showing the same voltage.

So it's best to test off charge, without the engine running. Then plug in an item and start pulling the fuse to see when you loose power.... Or even try disconnecting one battery, or the 0ther.

Very many thanks for the helpful insight. Just to clarify, I made two voltage measurements, the first with engine off and EHU connected, and a second with the engine off and EHU disconnected. I’d assumed that when the engine was stopped with the ignition switched off, there would be no signal from the Onboard Supply Control Unit (J519) to keep the Battery Isolation Relay (J7) under the passenger seat energised and would therefore disconnect the starter battery circuit (from Fuse 9 in Fuse Holder H) from the leisure battery. I understood this was to prevent the habitation circuit drawing current from the starter battery. Have I misunderstood the function of this?

Having had a look at the T6.1 circuit diagram for the 12V sockets, I was expecting to find both sockets (U1 and U5) connected through Fuse 6 in Fuse Holder H but clearly that’s not the case with my van or others’ from what I can gather. As you suggest, I’ll investigate further in particular to determine the location of the fuses for these 12V sockets. And there was me thinking it would be a five minute job to hook up a battery conditioner to keep the starter battery topped up.

 

[T6surfer]

So I ended up trying a connection direct at the engine battery with my solar panel and controller . The positive I terminated on one of the battery post nuts and the negative on a nearby chassis bolt. It works perfectly in keeping the battery charged up.

My challenge is how I can run the cables in permanently in a tidy and secure manner. At present I have them in very temporary under the bonnet and through the door to the Solar Panel and Controler inside my windscree.

So my question is, what is the best route for running a cable from the engine compartment to the cabin. Is it possible to gain access to the route behind the battery, without actually disconnecting and removing the battery. Would a flexible cable rod, for example , achieve this. Any advice would be appreciated

 

[Drive Wayne]

I bought one of those smaller Powoxi solar panels which seemed to suck power from my starter battery, fortunately the Amazon refunded me.. To save further grief I bought a new starter battery, a Bosch S5 A13 and coded it with Carista. A wonderful birthday present from my wife this week was an Ablemail 12-2 trickle charger which keeps the starter battery topped up from the leisure battery. Once I have that wired in I should have no more battery issues for a number of years! Please....

 

[Pete C]

So I ended up trying a connection direct at the engine battery with my solar panel and controller . The positive I terminated on one of the battery post nuts and the negative on a nearby chassis bolt. It works perfectly in keeping the battery charged up.

My challenge is how I can run the cables in permanently in a tidy and secure manner. At present I have them in very temporary under the bonnet and through the door to the Solar Panel and Controler inside my windscree.

So my question is, what is the best route for running a cable from the engine compartment to the cabin. Is it possible to gain access to the route behind the battery, without actually disconnecting and removing the battery. Would a flexible cable rod, for example , achieve this. Any advice would be appreciated

There is a grommet through the bulkhead behind the battery, which you can access without removing the battery. Inside the vehicle it is high up above the passengers feet.
Have a search on the forum for info.

Pete

 

[T6surfer]

I was looking at similar solutions, I presume you are using this to keep your main battery topped via the leisure battery using this device.
However my 20W solar panel is working perfectly for me. I just need find a way to run the cables neatly and securely

 

[T6surfer]

There is a grommet through the bulkhead behind the battery, which you can access without removing the battery. Inside the vehicle it is high up above the passengers feet.
Have a search on the forum for info.

Pete

Thank you Pete I will have a look

 

[Dellmassive]

So I ended up trying a connection direct at the engine battery with my solar panel and controller . The positive I terminated on one of the battery post nuts and the negative on a nearby chassis bolt. It works perfectly in keeping the battery charged up.

My challenge is how I can run the cables in permanently in a tidy and secure manner. At present I have them in very temporary under the bonnet and through the door to the Solar Panel and Controler inside my windscree.

So my question is, what is the best route for running a cable from the engine compartment to the cabin. Is it possible to gain access to the route behind the battery, without actually disconnecting and removing the battery. Would a flexible cable rod, for example , achieve this. Any advice would be appreciated

more info here:

Tpi 2046279, T6 Repair Instructions For Voltage Supply Of 2nd Battery

TPI: 2046279, T6: repair instructions for voltage supply of 2nd battery Tool and components: - Cable for 2nd battery 16mm² (7E0.971.044) - Corrugated tube (N.107.326.01) - Cable tie (N.106.622.01 or similar) - Grommet (2D0.906.376.S) - Butyl (AKL.450.005.05) - Wrapping tape - Holder of...

www.t6forum.com

.

 

[EAN]

@Dellmassive & @Captain Quick
Started stripping down my OEM second battery install today (2023 model) and after disconnecting I have buzzed through from the SH fuse box under the passenger seat through to both dash sockets. On mine both sockets are wired to fuse SH7 (20A) which is definitely fed via the secondary battery as fuses SH1 through to SH8 are all fed via Fuse SG2 (60A) on top of the secondary battery.
Opened up the cover under the fuse box and wiring is OEM red/blue and it doesn’t look to be modified by the converter (in this location anyway).
It matches the 2019 wiring diagram in the VIP download area for a 6.1 except that it’s using fuse SH7 as the feed rather than SH6.
My conclusion is from 2019 both the upper and lower dashboard sockets are / should be wired to the OEM secondary battery and therefore won‘t be connected to the main battery (when the engine isn’t running and charging the secondary battery - but that’s another can of OEM battery isolation relay worms)