12v socket not working

Runhater
Runhater Forum Participant Posts: 8
edited July 2016 in Caravan & Motorhome Chat #1

Hi, 

We have just wired up a solar panel but didn't think to get a control unit with USB sockets so we could charge phones from them.

Didn't think this would be a problem as we have the 12v cigarette lighter socket, but it doesn't appear to work from the 12v supply, only the mains.  

Anyone have any idea why?  I've tried different appliances plugged into the 2 pin but none of them work on 12v.

 

Comments

  • TonyBurton
    TonyBurton Forum Participant Posts: 269
    edited July 2016 #2

    It sounds like the 12v your getting is coming from the batt charger and your battery is disconnected. Have you blown a fuse in the battery supply when you fitted the solar panel?

  • jennyc
    jennyc Forum Participant Posts: 957
    500 Comments
    edited July 2016 #3

    Your chargers, mains or solar will generate in excess of 13v, at which level any normal USB/ 12v charger will work. But they often perform poorly at under 13v. The better quality DC chargers tend to be less fussy about input voltage.. Answer, buy better quality/ pay more where possible.

  • dennisps
    dennisps Forum Participant Posts: 51
    edited July 2016 #4

    Might need a bit more info about how you have wired up your charge controller! Typically, there are 6 terminals, arranged in 3 pairs, each pair being positive and negative. One all the charge controllers I have come across, there is one pair that connects
    to the solar panel, another pair that connects to the battery, and then a 3rd pair that is normally labeled as "load" or something similar. The idea being that you connect any 12v appliances etc to the "load" connections. This output is usually switchable
    as well, with some control on the charge controller.

    When I wired my solar panel into the caravan, I only used 2 of the pairs, basically connecting the solar panel to the charge controller, and then the battery to the battery input... All the rest of the wiring in the caravan remained unmodified. This means
    that when on EHU, the onboard battery charger is connected to the battery as before. If you have moved a load of stuff over to the "load" side of the charge controller, you might find that the caravan battery charger is on the "load" side of the charge controller,
    which means it won't be able to charge the battery, but it could still provide power to 12v stuff in the caravan.

     

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