I fly drones for commercial work. I need to charge batteries from the cigarette port. Is this possible or do I have to leave the car on to charge the drone batteries? In other words, is there "ACC/ACCESSORY position"? Thanks in advance.
Is there a way to use the cigarette lighter port without turning on the car?
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But being "on" is no biggie, as long as you're not running the HVAC. You just won't be able to light your cigarette while using the 12V outlet to charge your drone. Of course, a cigarette lighter doesn't come with the car anyway.
The power port will stay alive for 10 minutes after shutdown if you don't open the driver's door during that time. If you need to use it more than that, you have to leave the car turned on. The car will shut down after 100 minutes which should be long enough to charge flight batteries. Or there are ways to bypass the auto shut down.
You can still lock the car from the outside for security and take the key with you. You can turn off all exterior lights, and the engine won't be running assuming you have HV battery charge. It will not be very obvious to passers by that it is on.The only flag will be the dash lights, which can be turned down or covered with a towel. Without battery charge, the engine will cycle on/off a little, or you can charge up with mountain mode.
The good news is that this will protect your 12V battery. No worries about running it down and being unable to start the car. This is really a better situation than you get with an ICE car where your only options are to idle the engine or drain the 12V battery and risk a no-start condition.
If you don't want to leave the car on, my recommendation would be to get a portable jump starter device with an internal battery to power your UAV charger. With this you can also charge more safely away from the car in case of a thermal runaway problem with the UAV equipment. I think it is unwise to tap the 12V battery directly since a no-start on a Volt can be a major hassle. It is not always just a simple jump start like in many other cars.
You can still lock the car from the outside for security and take the key with you. You can turn off all exterior lights, and the engine won't be running assuming you have HV battery charge. It will not be very obvious to passers by that it is on.The only flag will be the dash lights, which can be turned down or covered with a towel. Without battery charge, the engine will cycle on/off a little, or you can charge up with mountain mode.
The good news is that this will protect your 12V battery. No worries about running it down and being unable to start the car. This is really a better situation than you get with an ICE car where your only options are to idle the engine or drain the 12V battery and risk a no-start condition.
If you don't want to leave the car on, my recommendation would be to get a portable jump starter device with an internal battery to power your UAV charger. With this you can also charge more safely away from the car in case of a thermal runaway problem with the UAV equipment. I think it is unwise to tap the 12V battery directly since a no-start on a Volt can be a major hassle. It is not always just a simple jump start like in many other cars.
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The lighter port inside the center console is always powered, even when the car is off. The one in the front cubby near the USB ports is not: that one is only powered on when the car is powered on.
Mike
Mike
Really? What model year is your Volt?
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Use this to connect directly to the 12v battery as it will do an autoshut off based on time or voltage.
https://www.blackvue.com/power-magic-pro/
I haven't tried this but can you charge the car with it "on". If so you could charge the device while the car is being charged with out any worry that the 12V battery would be "drained" for next start. After car Is charge (1.5 to 2 hours in my typical case) you could disconnect device while you're there to unplug car and turn it off. (I never leave car plugged in because I don't need battery heating or cooling once it's charged).
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I hard wired a 12v port in the hatch to power my 110v inverter to charge my P4 batteries.
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Double post
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Sorry. That's a FAIL. I was remembering the port in my Challenger: the one in the center compartment was always powered. Shows you how often I open that in my Volt.
Mike
Nice to meet a fellow remote pilot here! I fly the DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 with 4 batteries. Cheers!
There is an ACCESSORY position on Gen 2. Sitting in the car, hold the blue button down with foot off brake. After about 15 seconds, the ACC will power up, including both lighter sockets and parking lights at night. It would not power up when I stood outside the car with fob in pocket.
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I’ve since sold most of my equipment as I drive 18 wheeler and didn’t have the time anymore.
If you didn’t know, State Farm will insure your equipment for 60 bucks a year.
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