trickle charge qwest!

[Tony Montoya]

Is there a charger that will work on its own power supply? My condo's garage does not have any electrical outlets.

What about just carrying in a spare battery of the same amps as the one in your NSX and hooking it up with jumper cables to the engine fuse terminals if your NSX won't start. That would seem to me the easiest way around your no electrical supply problem.

NSX is very good at sitting and with a fully charged battery it should be able to start after sitting for 3 weeks.

 

[Briank]

When you disconnect a battery can you just disconnect the negative post and leave the positive post on?

Yes

 

[D'Ecosse]

Is there a charger that will work on its own power supply? My condo's garage does not have any electrical outlets.

How about solar powered battery maintainer?
Lots to choose from - here, courtesy of your friend Google!

Also for emergency, there are also battery packs (like this one) that plug into your cig lighter & will give a quick boost to your battery in 10-15 mins.
(Remember however the NSX lighter socket isn't powered unless acc is on, so for applications that utilize that socket, either a mod to your wiring or to the adapter is required. )

 

[Briank]

How about solar powered battery maintainer?
QUOTE]

Thats a great idea but I still can't beleive there is no power in the garage do you have a garage door opener?

 

[D'Ecosse]

Is there a charger that will work on its own power supply? My condo's garage does not have any electrical outlets.

Thats a great idea but I still can't beleive there is no power in the garage do you have a garage door opener?

Sounds like a communal garage for condo complex, not a private garage, so seems reasonable.
I guess as far as the solar powered battery maintainers, the car would at least need to have acess to natural light.

 

[Brocz]

Is there any problem with just taking the battery out and putting it on a trickle charger in your basement, for instance?

My NSX is sitting in the garage now until probably March/April. I will not drive it at all. Last winter I kept the Schumacher on it all winter. I was thinking of just pulling the battery out and not messing with it in the car.

Thoughts? Problems?

 

[jalnjr]

Is there any problem with just taking the battery out and putting it on a trickle charger in your basement, for instance?

my back hurts just thinking of doing this...bring the charger to the car!

 

[Briank]

There is no problem with taking out the battery other then the amount of work involved.

 

[gfunk808]

Yes, it is a parking garage structure, no electrical outlets. The portable is interesting, I was thinking more like a unit that is rechargable? Something I could hookup to an A/C outlet in the apartment, charge up, and bring down to the garage to plug into the car. Probably asking too much here....

 

[D'Ecosse]

Yes, it is a parking garage structure, no electrical outlets. ....

Solar sounds like your best bet if you have access to daylight from your parking spot. Not going to do much for you overnight, but if you are driving daily that shouldn't be a concern anyway.

 

[nsx2tall]

For those of you with the Schumacher onboard charger..
Did you connect the negative wire to the negative battery post or did you ground it elsewhere?

Anyone,

Could I use the (+)positive terminal from the fuse box and the nearest nut holding the fuse box housing for (-)negative? I don't have a DVM to ohm out the nut so I'm not sure it is the same ground. See pic (if attached properly ).

Thanks
Randy

http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23619&stc=1&d=1136434357

 

[Briank]

Yes

 

[AU_NSX]

or just disconnect the battery to prevent it from becoming discharged.

That is what I do....

 

[D'Ecosse]

As a follow up to Malibu Rapper's idea of permanently installing the pigtail & extender for the Battery Tender:

Rather than have to split & splice wires for the extender, I came across these products by Powerlet with ready made SAE extender cables.
This makes the install even easier.

Get the 36" extender here
Pac223
or directly from Powerlet
Part # is the PAC-022-36.

 

[Malibu Rapper]

Rather than have to split & splice wires for the extender, I came across these products by Powerlet with ready made SAE extender cables.

Very nice, great find! Thanks.

 

[Andy Buzz]

Thats a fantastic plug idea. Just make sure you have a small weather resistant fuse in line otherwise if the wires get shorted.......

 

[D'Ecosse]

Thats a fantastic plug idea. Just make sure you have a small weather resistant fuse in line otherwise if the wires get shorted.......

My original BT connector that you see in the pic above (where the BT is connected) came with a cap; so when disconnected the cap just goes over the exposed plug. So someone doing this from scratch could transfer the cap over to the end of the extender.
& the original BT pigtail indeed comes already fused.

 

[Andy Buzz]

D'Ecosse,

Considering your high level for attention to detail, I assumed you had not forgotten the fuse. On the other hand, someone looking at the pig tail pictured ahead of my post, may forget the fuse as the PAC part they show does not show fuse.

The Battery Tender company offers a quick disconnect and charger package using their next size up trickle charger. It may be found in their accessory list.

Bear in mind, most of these chargers will not charge a dead Optima battery but will probably maintain one. I have found that gel batteries are very difficult to charge. There are some tenders that have a pulse that claims to work on Optima. AGM batteries seem to fool most tenders by staying high in voltage and the charger never actually turns on. Not sure what the deal is but Optimas on trickles seem to still stay dead.

 

[D'Ecosse]

..... On the other hand, someone looking at the pig tail pictured ahead of my post, may forget the fuse as the PAC part they show does not show fuse...

Certainly good advice to stress that as you did Andy (did not take it personally) - definitely disastrous consequences if the live terminal was to short to a ground point.


The original kit comes with the pigtail that is fused (see pic below - fused pigtial is on the lower left) - the only issue is that is a very short cable. What Malibu & I had done was to cut & splice in some twin core cable to extend the length to the front, to avoid having to open the hood. This extender in my earlier post # 64 (as you correctly observe) has no fuse, but that is already accomodated by the pigtail. This extender merely makes it plug n play to just connect onto the original short pigtail as opposed to having to split the cable and solder in a new section to extend it.

 

[Malibu Rapper]

There seem to be a lot of options for the SAE connectors (now that I finally know what it's called). The one thing that bothers me about this connector is that it doesn't have the weathercap which I guess you can transfer from the Battery Tender connector. But that will probably not allow you to keep it strapped near the connector as you have to cut it off. Or maybe a little more searching will find an option with a weathercap.

Bear in mind, most of these chargers will not charge a dead Optima battery but will probably maintain one. I have found that gel batteries are very difficult to charge. There are some tenders that have a pulse that claims to work on Optima. AGM batteries seem to fool most tenders by staying high in voltage and the charger never actually turns on. Not sure what the deal is but Optimas on trickles seem to still stay dead.

Optima batteries are not gel batteries, they are spiral cell sealed lead acid. There is absolutely no reason to use a gel battery in an NSX anyways. The Battery Tender Plus model that I use is 1.25 amp which actually did a great job for me in recharging a completely dead battery for my dad. It just takes longer than a fast charger, about 1 day for a battery that got drained from leaving the headlights on. Love them or hate them, Optima batteries are getting more recognition for high failure rates.

 

[Andy Buzz]

Not to digress too much off the subject, Odyssey seems to make a good battery. I have tried Excide Orbital, Optima and Deka in show vehicles that are rarely driven and use tenders and find that once the battery has been allowed to discharge, they dont seem to come back up and stay charged. They act similiar to the old ni-cads used in cell phones. Another battery that has worked well for me is the Interstate Megatron. The only disadvantage is that they are not maintenance free and outgas corrosive acids that require terminal cleaning. Megatron is almost half the price and seems to last longer than Optima.

 

[latzke]

With the spare tire out of the picture (in attic) I don't see the need to hard-wire anything in place for battery charging. It's not that difficult to pop the hood, reach through to the ground (so wire is coming from under car, not across bumper paint), grab 50-amp clamps on end of charger cable, and hook to battery terminals.

It might be twice the work...but we're talking 20 seconds vs. 10 seconds maybe a few times a year (when car is expected to sit a month or charger is moving between lawnmower and NSX).

 

[Malibu Rapper]

With the spare tire out of the picture (in attic) I don't see the need to hard-wire anything in place for battery charging.

Try to tell that to someone who has it hooked up this way. It would take me longer than 20 seconds as well. The less work you have to do, the less likely you are to be lazy. To each his own though, now that I do it this way, I wouldn't have it any other way. It's probably around 30 minutes worth of work to make life a lot easier IMO.

 

[ftuhy]

Yes!

Always disconnect the negative terminal first whenever you do anything with the battery & electrical system. Once the cable is disconnected from the negative terminal I put a plastic cap-plug over the battery terminal to prevent accidental contact. With only the positive terminal connected to the battery there is no way to draw current from the battery. Electrically, its just as good as it being 50 feet away from the car.

(Ok, for us precise engineers and physicists, dirt and dust might conduct a few pico-amperes that could discharge the battery in a few centuries. With the negative terminal electrically disconnected, you literally could put the positive terminal of the battery in your ear and stand in a grounded bucket of water and still not get a shock. )

Frank

 

[ftuhy]

Yes. Electrically, one terminal disconnected is as good as removing the battery from the car. But, its best to put a plastic cap over the negative battery terminal to avoid accidental contact.

Frank