Hi guys, Thanks for having a look at this thread, I am hoping you can provide me with some useful insight.
I’ve moved my bike from a garage with electricity to one with none. I used to keep the battery topped up using an optimate 3 but now I have no way of charging the battery and I am concerned about the alarm draining the battery if I don’t ride the bike for a week or so.
Obviously I am riding the bike as much as possible these days whilst the sun is shining but when I don’t ride I want to know that the battery isn’t taking the toll. The other option is to take the battery out and keep it on charge indoors but I don’t want the hassle of putting the battery in each time I fancy a go on the bike. I don’t think the alarm will like me taking the battery in/out so I don’t want to down this route.
My initial thoughts were to get a solar powered battery top up kit but I’m not sure how good they are and if they overcharge your battery or have a built in protection system.
I went travelling for 6 months last year and left my bike in the garage with a solar ‘maintainer’ connected. My main concern was to keep the alarm operation for insurance purposes - and it worked. Having said that, the battery did not have enough juice to start the engine after 6 months but once charged with a traditional, mains, charger started immediately.
i use these on my bikes and they are ok (i have the small ones from maplin,they are on offer at the moment at £7.99) anyway they do work but if you leave them for a long time they poss wont be able to keep the battery fully charged but they should stop it from going flat and getting fooked,maybe the bigger one would have more chance ,they dont need sunshine just light they even work with flourescent lighting so it doesnt matter even if its raining they still functionpart no below if it helps,you get two connectors with them one withcroc clips and one for a cigar lighter part no below if it helps,
I was thinking the same thing as I too have a garage with no power how or where would you put the solar power panel.do the not sell one you could just plug your optimate into
you can put them behind a window or skylight if you have one or on the roof / wall if its somewhere that it wont be tampered with they just need to be in natural light- if you havent got anywhere to put it your fooked
you can cut the crocodile clips off the extenion lead as this is about a foot long and connect it straight to your battery if poss put an inline fuse in
you could not run an optimate froma solar panel as the primery voltage would need to be 240v ac and the solar panel works on 12v dc which is why you can connect it straight to your battery cos its the same as what the optimate puts out
