Trickle Charge Through Cigarette Lighter?

[swaltner]

Two questions from a new owner here as I get ready to most likely park the Brammo-built Atom 2 for a couple months if this Winter is anything like last Winter....

Is the cigarette lighter power outlet that Brammo installed powered at all times? Also, is there a diode in there that would keep a trickle charger from charging the battery through the lighter outlet? A friend at work gave me a trickle charger for the Atom that he used to use on his Porsche. The charger has two clamps on it for attaching directly to the battery terminals. If possible, I'd like to cut those off and put a cigarette lighter plug on it for easy connecting to the Atom. If that won't work, I'll wire up some other kind of direct plug to the battery with a quick-connect plug tied off somewhere that is accessible without needing to take off the front hood.

Steve

[silver]

if he got you a battery tender....then there's another part you are able to install on the battery, then attach the other side to the clip on the tender...works like a champ.

perhaps that extra part is missing and you can get replacements from ebay or manufacturer.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Battery- ... 0171274865

if it's not a battery tender...sorry this post is probably mostly unhelpful.

[swaltner]

It's not a Battery Tender model, so it didn't come with this part. I've got a Battery Tender Jr. for the Big Dog motorcycle, so I know what you are talking about and that disconnect is convenient, especially since it has a protective cap on it to keep the terminals nice and clean.

If providing power through the cigarette lighter won't work, the other option would be to just buy a pair of pigtails like the auction listing you referenced. One would go on the car and the other with get soldered onto the charger. That may actually be the cleanest and possibly cheapest way to do it since two of them would cost less than $12 total shipped to my house.

[Heywood-Yablowme]

I trickle charge through the "cigarette lighter" aka power outlet all the time on my Atoms. The Jr. will work perfectly.   You can buy plug and play ends for power outlet feeding that fit the Tenders off Ebay,or make your own quite easily. 

[swaltner]

[quote="MadMaxAtom and company"]
I trickle charge through the "cigarette lighter" aka power outlet all the time on my Atoms. The Jr. will work perfectly.   You can buy plug and play ends for power outlet feeding that fit the Tenders off Ebay,or make your own quite easily. 
[/quote]

OK. I'll go that route. For the Winter, I've got the Atom parked in my Grandma's garage about 20 miles away, so it would have been a hassle to hook up a voltmeter to test it out. I'll rig up the trickle charger with the proper connector to plug into the cigarette lighter/power outlet and take it down there next time I visit her (or the Atom  ).

Thanks for the quick response.

Steve

[silver]

added bonus....not maintaining your battery will put you at about 1 battery per year...I'm on my 3rd battery because I didn't pay enough attention to this.....and batteries that fit this car are EXPENSIVE.

[atomathics]

Silver -

Do you not have the master disconnect switch?

I'd think that if you used that when the car was parked, you shouldn't have lost that many batteries unless something else was wrong.

[Terry Kennedy]

[quote="swaltner"]I know what you are talking about and that disconnect is convenient, especially since it has a protective cap on it to keep the terminals nice and clean.[/quote]

I  have that set-up, with the connector end of the cable tied to one of the frame tubes:



If you're the forgetful type (like me!), you can get these at any aviation supply place:



And rig things up like this:



At least on the early Brammo Atom I have, the lighter socket isn't of the best quality, both in its innards and the way it is connected to the wiring harness (on my drive home from the factory, my notebook PC's car adapter burned up from arcing in the lighter socket). Thinking you have a good connection and coming back month(s) later to find your battery dead gets expensive fast.

[benyeats]

[quote="silver"]
added bonus....not maintaining your battery will put you at about 1 battery per year...I'm on my 3rd battery because I didn't pay enough attention to this.....and batteries that fit this car are EXPENSIVE.
[/quote]

Interestingly the battery in my Atom 1 was never paid any attention and frequently allowed to run flat through lack of use and always took a charge and was fine again afterwards, this was over a 5 year period.

I am not just posting this to gloat but as far as I remember it was a different brand to that which is supplied with new Atoms.  I will try to research which as it might be a better bet.

Ben

[silver]

[quote="atomathics"]
Silver -

Do you not have the master disconnect switch?

I'd think that if you used that when the car was parked, you shouldn't have lost that many batteries unless something else was wrong.
[/quote]

I don't have that switch, if I.did I wouldn't use it because it resets the ready monitors on the ecu which makes you fail the annual inspection in Tx. Probably doesn't matter in other states

[FourFather]

My 2006 Atom II power port/cigarette lighter is hot/active/energized full-time unless the battery disconnect switch is in disconnect mode.

My new Atom 3 power port is out of the circuit unless the ignition switch is on.

So you can trickle charge the Atom II through the power port, but not the Atom 3.