Hi all,
I’m only getting 62W into my AC180 when charging from the vehicle’s 12 volt cigarette port while driving. My ignition is at a bit over 14 volts while driving. I was expecting closer to 100W into the AC180 while driving. Any idea why not getting 100W?
Thanks!
Almost fully charged? Poor connection between the plug and the socket? Using an extension cord? Are you measuring the 14 volts while the AC180 is connected and under load or without load. Its possible the wiring going to your socket is not sufficient to carry the full current. With this scenario you will measure full voltage with no load, but once loaded the voltage will drop to a point where you will not be receiving the full 100 watts. I would suggest as an experiment connecting to another 12 volt source in a different vehicle (or sogen) and see if the results are better. If so, the issue is with the source socket or wiring.
This was happening at states of charge ranging from 50% to 99%. I am using a 10 foot 14AWG extension cable with 8mm plugs on both ends, so maybe this could be the problem. I have a new heavier duty cable coming today and will try again with that.
Somewhat related topic: Could I capture more power at the AC180 if I ran (thick) cables from both of my 12volt ports (one in front of vehicle and one in back of vehicle on separate fuses) connected in parallel? This provides two paraellel current sources, but would the AC180 still only draw the same current based on still seeing the same 12volts?
I would suspect your voltage is dropping over the length of the run and with the charging load. A good way to test this is to use a different socket in another vehicle and see if you obtain better results. The more current you can supply the better, but the AC180 will still perform better with higher voltages.
One easy work around is to obtain a 12 to 24 volt step up converter from amazon (20 amp capacity) and your voltage and charge rate will be increased to around 200 watts. You would need 8 or 10 ga wire connected fairly close to the battery. The wires (24 volt) coming from the step up converter could be 10 ga and you should do the longer run with them.