Connecting Solar battery Maintainer

Since our '88 240 has a switched lighter socket, what's
the best place on the fuse box to attach the leads from one of
these things?
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http://www.albany.net/~mjc1/index.html

 

Just find one of the fuses that's live all the time, and connect it to
that. The fuse for the clock springs to mind.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

The clock has its own fuse? That sounds perfect. Thanks.



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http://www.albany.net/~mjc1/index.html

 

Mike;

I live near Ottawa Ontario Canada (ie c-c-c-c-old winters), leave my
240 parked outside and only drive it once a week or less, so a solar
battery charger is useful for me.

I went to Canadian Tire and bought an auxiliary lighter socket kit
(around $5-10 and includes an in-line fuse) and ran the wire directly
to the battery. (Replaced the bolts on the battery terminal clamps with
longer bolts and some extra nuts and washers)

I inserted a two-pronged plug and socket into the wire so that I could
disconnect the lighter socket assembly from the wire (from the cabin
interior) in part to avoid the possibility of inquistive fingers poking
around a live socket and in another part, to get it out of the way,
when not in use.

The auxiliary lighter socket is located just to the right of the
radio/heater control console.

I made a couple of wire hooks and attached them to the backside of the
PV unit with some nylon mason's line so that the PV unit can be hung
from the sun visor clips such that the PV unit is held against the
uppermost portion of the windscreen by the rear-view mirror assembly so
the PV unit stays in place all of the time, out of the way.

With this set-up, I've never ever experienced a dead battery.

 

I thought about something similar, but I don't think I could find a
non-chinese auxilliary socket in the US, and I try not to buy from
China.

Oh, and the used unit I got on Ebay is DOA. It seems to be the panel,
which was tiny anyway, so I may find a larger panel and connect it to
this
controller box. I don't really need it before next Winter anyway.

Thanks for the post!
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http://www.albany.net/~mjc1/index.html

 

I'm now sitting with a wire diagram book for 1987 240. (Probably not
too different from your '88.)
The clock doesn't have its own fuse, it shares #8 with the following
lights: interior, glove box, hood and trunk, in addition to the power
locks, radio memory and power antenna.

Other fuses always live: #6 - fuel pump, #7 - brake lights, #9 - 4 way
flashers and gear shift indicator, #10 - power windows. If you don't
have power windows, #10 sound like the one to use.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

Maybe if you bought it from China it would have worked

There is absolutely nothing wrong with China. The people there are hard
working people. The Chinese way is to make products for the rest of the
world, hoping that someday its people will be able to buy these same
products. The American Way today is to send manufacturing abroad. I
know; I was a Bell Labs physicist at a Western Electric factory. The
factory went from AT&T to Lucent to Agere. Now it is agone.
see: http://home.earthlink.net/~scouters2/rdgworks.html
Agere is eliminating all manufacturing and is buying all its parts from
abroad. It still employs many people, but it is an import-export
business now rather than manufacturing.

By the way, Volvos are made abroad also, in Belgium. The Swedes have
outsourced their manufacturing also.

 

China used to make a lot of low quality products, like Japan did in the
'50s. A show I saw on the History Channel described how political changes
have brought more aggressive entrepreneurship to China, and with it comes
the quest for quality. The last couple heavy duty automotive specialty tools
I have bought were made in China, and they seem quite capable - even if they
aren't chromed.

Mike

 

Catching up a bit...

#10 it is, then. Thanks Mike.

What's wrong with buying from China? It isn't the people,
or any inherent inferior quality. It's because China uses
prison labor, unpaid (effectively slave) labor, and many
plants pay starvation wages. In addition, the environmental
standards are virtually nonexistent, to the point where even
the Chinese government is beginning to admit that they are
destroying their own environment. Oh, and it's a police state.

Taiwan, Japan, South Kora, Thailand - all of these countries
are much better, more ethical sources of Asian products. That's
assuming that you care about treating workers like human beings,
and not turning the earth to toxic dust. It takes a lot to make
the Bush administration look Green, but China does that job well. ;(


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http://www.albany.net/~mjc1/index.html

 

So does the Federal Prison System in the good ol' USA. Also, most if
not all state governments. They pay about $.25 per hour for prison
labor, just enough to buy some cigarettes. One product I have seen them
make is office furniture for government offices. They also make the
cubicle partitions for government offices.

The air in China was cleaner than in many other countries and some US
cities. There is no air pollution problem yet in Shanghai like there is
in many US cities. The worst air pollution I have ever experienced was
in Bangkok. It is a beautiful place, but bring a gas mask.

China has come a long way, despite such uninformed attitudes. I guess
you haven't met anyone who was trying to get into the US. Our own
police state (USA) is keeping out many tourists, sports teams, academic
speakers, etc. Because the police state is so strong but so undermanned
that they can't process visas. You can walk across from Mexico but you
can't come in legally. I am going to a horticultural convention where
the keynote speaker can't get a visa from India to come into the USA. I
guess we will have to move the convention to another country like China
where they have enough people to enforce the rules they make.

 

OTOH, so is Japan.

My opinion is that enterprise is the only way China can continue to move
forward. I agree with Steve - the policies and conditions you cite are
rapidly being eroded by market forces and the central government's grudging
recognition that successful entrepreneurs are bringing large amounts of
outside cash into China. That such a thing is happening at all in a country
where the official doctrine declares the superiority of communism is
remarkable.

I do feel that there is a lot of darkness left in China, but I also feel
that including their products in our markets is the best way to shine some
light there. And they do make some nice products.

Mike

 

I have never said that there aren't sweatshops in the US, or that
prison labor isn't used. The difference is that here they are
exceptions, while in China they are the rule. Trying to change the
Chinese government for the better via 'consructive engagement' (the
same policy that failed in South Africa before boycotts, protests
and international pariah status finally succeeded) has not worked,
because "Free Traders" kept the pressure off early on in the name
of corporate profits and trickle-down economics, and now China has
the economic muscle to simply ignore such attempts.

I don't expect to convince anyone who believes that market
forces will make China free and clean (although I'd ask you to
look at what they are doing in the US) that there is an alternative;
this is for the people who have doubts.

If Japan is a police state, then so are the US and Britain.
You have to look at degree. Thailand also currently has a somewhat
repressive government, but they also have real unions.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled Volvo-related stuff.
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