Dashboard Solar charger

One more query on the ‘black magic’ spectrum for my ongoing search of knowledge on how things 12 volt function.

I have a habit of making assumptions of how these things work but as usual I am stumped and don’t want to destroy any gear in my experiments and seek the wisdom of EO as usual.

I have been given a small ‘dashboard solar charging panel’ complete with packaging but lacking ‘specifications’. This can probably be imagined by the name of the gadget: SMART - Solar Battery Charger - the ‘Smart’ being the producer. Yes, made in China.

I have set it up and clipped it to a couple of 12 volt batteries and metered the charge directly to the battery around 17 & 18 volts, depending on the solar energy available. Not bad for a small unit which I estimate is around 4 watts compared with my Jaycar 80 watt panel. It too produces about the same voltage.

My concern is that I know I need a regulator on the 80 watt panel when connecting to batteries because of the high voltage. The dashboard charger is designed to hook into a cigarette lighter to power up a flat starter battery using the vehicle cig lighter. So my questions is, although this is quite small, would the unregulated 17/18 v charge fry any equipment in a vehicle?

As far as I can determine I don’t believe it has destroyed the Breakaway battery or the old starter battery I have used for trialing, but that is an assumption. My estimate of 4 watts is based on the size = 5% camparison with the 80w panel

I hope I never have to rely on this to get me out of a serious situation, but am curious to know how effective it might be and whether it is worthy of ‘chucking it in just in case’ .

We live in hope of relief of our present travel restrictions. We are in the largest state, but we are limited to our home ‘zones’.

I might add that I have been plagued in the past with batteries letting me down purely from lack of equipment to maintain them, but now have adequate resources I believe. 300+ w solar on the van with two 100+ ah batteries and BC/DC charger off the vehicle generator. And the Ute has a BC/DC charger to the 2nd battery in the rear of the ute, which I can top up with the 80w solar panel when parked for a while.

Bit long winded but better you know the full circumstances rather than wonder.


In Edit I am unable to post the pic I meant to include. The thread just freezes each time I try.

Can post if needed.


Cheers - Phil