Cigar Lighter Relay Location, 1998 v70

[MrAl]

If only Volvo had included an extra
connector for adding "Accessories"...

Hi,

Yes but then you need a mating connector also and i still dont know what wire gauge runs to that connector.
If you happen to have any information on the wire gauge (AWG or other standard) they use to that connector or to the OBDII connector (especially ground and pin 16) that would help a lot. Thanks for the reply.

[abscate]

You size wire to ampacity , not to the connector. For a solar charger you won’t ever get over 5 amps in the wire so it will easily fit in that plug

[wizechatmgr]

Hi Al, it is only important if you want to use a 2nd charging outlet you were mentioning you needed somewhere to run power to. That way if you used the rear one, you could use the front on for normal use. The wiring harness is simple under the center console and the rear connections are just a spur from the front, so easy enough to cut into and modify.

Neil.

Hi Neil,

Yes i was looking at that, but what it comes down to is i dont really need the cigar socket itself, just the wiring from the battery to inside the car. So i might just go with a heavy duty two pole terminal strip and wire from the battery to that inside the car, then i will have power for just about anything including charging the battery. The nice thing is i probably really only need #16 AWG wire that should handle my needs, the solar panel will put out just 1.1 amp max even with direct overhead sunlight with no clouds.

Does that panel have an integrated charge controller? You don't want to boil that battery. It won't happen initially, but it may as time goes on as it goes well past 100% state of charge.

[MrAl]

You size wire to ampacity , not to the connector. For a solar charger you won’t ever get over 5 amps in the wire so it will easily fit in that plug

Hi,

What i meant was that i dont know the existing wire size going to the connector. I doubt they would make it too small, but i like to know that stuff before i hook anything up to it. I'll always know what size wire i use for any mod but i dont know ANY wire sizes (AWG) for this car except those that i explicitly check for myself.

Now if i could get the OBDII connector out i could check that. Wonder how hard it is to unbolt or whatever.

[MrAl]

Hi Al, it is only important if you want to use a 2nd charging outlet you were mentioning you needed somewhere to run power to. That way if you used the rear one, you could use the front on for normal use. The wiring harness is simple under the center console and the rear connections are just a spur from the front, so easy enough to cut into and modify.

Neil.

Hi Neil,

Yes i was looking at that, but what it comes down to is i dont really need the cigar socket itself, just the wiring from the battery to inside the car. So i might just go with a heavy duty two pole terminal strip and wire from the battery to that inside the car, then i will have power for just about anything including charging the battery. The nice thing is i probably really only need #16 AWG wire that should handle my needs, the solar panel will put out just 1.1 amp max even with direct overhead sunlight with no clouds.

Does that panel have an integrated charge controller? You don't want to boil that battery. It won't happen initially, but it may as time goes on as it goes well past 100% state of charge.

Hi,

Yes it does, but i am not using it right now.
I am not worried about slow cooking the battery because i have my own telemetry set up where i can monitor the battery voltage 24 hours a day 7 days a week. If something goes too high i'll know right away.
So far the voltage has not gone up to more than about 13.3 volts or something like that, and it does stay there long because as the sun moves across the sky the voltage goes down again.

The average self discharge is about 1.2 AHrs for this battery. That means i'd have to put about 2AHrs back in just to keep up with the battery itself. Add a little more for parasitic drain. Im lucky if i ever get that the way it is set up.
The panel is not even set up to the ideal angle yet because the new bracket i got would not adjust that much even though the ad said it would. It's super strong, but not the right angle yet. I may leave it like that though if the average daily charge works out.

There's still a lot of testing to do and im still in that phase really. I have to see what happens when we get two or three days of clouds and no bright sun. With bright sun i get good results.