So I’d like a definitive answer........

[Jonttt]

I purchased a solar charger for my boxster to hopefully save me having to occasionally recharge the battery on a conditioner.....the car is parked in full sun when not in winter storage so I thought worth having a go......the panel just sits on the dash and has a cigarette lighter attachment.........there are two places that it can plug in on a 987.2 ie the ashtray centre console or the passenger footwell.......

I’ve read on the internet that the centre console one is switched with the ignition and the passenger footwell is permanent live ?........the solar panel needs a permant live to work ie so its can recharge the battery without an ignition triggered relay blocking it.........No problem I’ll just use the passenger footwell......that seems to do the trick ...........but I also tried it in the centre console and that also seemed to work ie was not blocked by the ignition being off..........

So just out of curiosity I’d like to know:

- is the centre console ignition dependant 

- if it is should that stop the solar panel from working ie block it from recharging the battery ?

I guess it could even be that a previous owner has rewired the centre console to be permanent live feed ?

[Menoporsche]

My 987.1 is ignition dependent BUT if used within X minutes/hours after power off it stays live. My solar panel seems to work that way. 
Have you tried reading the manual?

[Jonttt]

Everything says that the console one is ignition dependant and therefore the solar panels does not work......I had read various statements that it stays live for varying lengths of time but the solar panel seemed to work by it for a number of hours before I moved it to the passenger footwell ie this was using the historical Bluetooth battery monitor which had shown a constant charge the whole time it was plugged into the centre console........I wondered therefore if in practice there was a difference to the manual or even if somehow it allowed a charge but not a draw with ignition off ? Hence my query as my real world experience yesturday did not seem consistent with what I had read but that is with regard to a charge and not a draw ?

[DaveEFI]

I'd say it's either live with the ignition off or not. Doubt it would be clever enough to allow a charger to work regardless. Unless headed up for this in the handbook.

[Menoporsche]

Fully admit (and have said several times) that my solar panel has no lights on it so I have no clue if it's working or not! But the car hasn't failed to start after up to 6 weeks being left alone and the last Halfords battery lasted 7-8 years I think. So I'm assuming it's working. If anyone has a monitor it would be great.

I don't have any fancy tools.  Plug in a map-reading light and see how long it takes for it to go out?

[Ninesomething]

Or turn it off, wait a few hours and push the fag lighter in see if it works?

[Paul P]

I use a Ctek through the armrest ciggy lighter.  My belief is the socket (as described by others) will power down after the first 20 min “shallow sleep” cycle unless there is something “feeding” it (or potentially draining it) so I hook up immediately after parking up when I am going to use it.  
 

Have done this with previous and current cars (both 987.2). 
 

First one had little use over winter remained happy on the Ctek.  Current one has spent longer periods connected because of lockdown. Ctek always gets got the “maintain” point  

Reinforces my understanding of how the sockets work re “keep alive” 

 

[Menoporsche]

1 hour ago, JonSta said:

Or turn it off, wait a few hours and push the fag lighter in see if it works?

Who still has a fag lighter??

[Paul P]

Think mine is in the glove box. 
 

with my now that’s what I call music cds. 

[McDonald]

1 hour ago, Menoporsche said:

Who still has a fag lighter??

Mine is still present & correct. No one has ever smoked in this car & no one ever will.

[Jonttt]

3 hours ago, Paul P said:

I use a Ctek through the armrest ciggy lighter.  My belief is the socket (as described by others) will power down after the first 20 min “shallow sleep” cycle unless there is something “feeding” it (or potentially draining it) so I hook up immediately after parking up when I am going to use it.  
 

Have done this with previous and current cars (both 987.2). 
 

First one had little use over winter remained happy on the Ctek.  Current one has spent longer periods connected because of lockdown. Ctek always gets got the “maintain” point  

Reinforces my understanding of how the sockets work re “keep alive” 

 

Thats makes sense.........if people use the centre console one for a CTEK charger it confirms why the solar panel is charging the car

[red rocket]

2 hours ago, Paul P said:

Think mine is in the glove box. 
 

with my now that’s what I call music cds. 

Which of course are there so you can use the second CD player in the glove box! Or, have they done away with that on the 987.2 ?

[red rocket]

6 hours ago, Menoporsche said:

My 987.1 is ignition dependent BUT if used within X minutes/hours after power off it stays live.

That's interesting and something I hadn't twigged previously. I used my CTEK intermittently over the winter (via cig lighter socket) and had some issues with it throwing a red error light. So I thought maybe I had a fault/bad connection after removing and  refurbing the console last summer. But no problem when connecting direct to battery. Now I wonder if maybe the system had 'powered down' before I connected the CTEK. Will have to investigate further. I used the same socket to power my tyre pump the other day, no problem.

[Paul P]

8 minutes ago, red rocket said:

Which of course are there so you can use the second CD player in the glove box! Or, have they done away with that on the 987.2 ?

No. Still there. The 4 cd autochanger under the cup holders is on the 987.2.  Along with the cigar holder.  
 

 

[red rocket]

16 minutes ago, Paul P said:

No. Still there. The 4 cd autochanger under the cup holders is on the 987.2.  Along with the cigar holder.  
 

 

👍 Good to know. I was worries there might have been some cost cutting.

[DaveEFI]

18 hours ago, red rocket said:

👍 Good to know. I was worries there might have been some cost cutting.

My 987.2 has the sat nav. So only a single CD player. But does have the USB socket in the box behind the gear lever which takes a memory stick. And have over 100 CDs (in MP3) on it - they appear same as CDs on the screen

[paulchamby]

In my 987.1 the c-tek is permanently plugged into the centre console and charges with ignition off and car locked

[Paul P]

5 hours ago, DaveEFI said:

My 987.2 has the sat nav. So only a single CD player. But does have the USB socket in the box behind the gear lever which takes a memory stick. And have over 100 CDs (in MP3) on it - they appear same as CDs on the screen

Dave.  Tongue in cheek reference to CD storage slots that are in the glove box (there are 4 holders for cd’s out of their cases)

There have been references in the past to people thinking they were cd auto changers ( likely at this stage an apocryphal story ). 
 

the universal audio interface with the usb slot is a hidden gem.  great for having 100s on tunes available. 
 

And with the right cable (y cable about 30 quid from Porsche ) and a Bluetooth adapter (like this   Airdual Bluetooth Adapter for 2011 Year or Earlier Mercedes 30 pin iPod iPhone cable https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07RR3RPMP/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glc_fabc_BWKACBF42EG6S0PVTXDM ) you can get Bluetooth audio streaming from your phone (if iPhone you get all the track info and searching etc - car thinks it has an iPod connected. ). 
 

 

 

 

 

[Menoporsche]

53 minutes ago, Paul P said:

Tongue in cheek reference to CD storage slots that are in the glove box (there are 4 holders for cd’s out of their cases)

I got the ref and it’s a true story, for a 987.1  

[Jonttt]

I have been monitoring the solar charging via the Bluetooth battery monitor and swapping connection via the passenger footwell socket and centre console socket........its not a like for like comparison as its dependant on sun levels and its not been as sunny the last couple of days on the basis my car comes into sun at c10.30am (its in the shadow of the house before then) then both seem to charge the battery.........the centre console one is not dependant on timeframe from ignition off eg I arrived home yesturday evening in the car and plugged the solar charger into the centre console .......it went dark soon after and obviously no charge overnight.....the morning despite it being overcast I can see a spike from c10.30am when it comes out of the house shadow, less pronounced than previous days but its no where near as sunny, the very fact it is charging the battery means that its not blocked by a relay. I’m not sure if that means its a permanently live socket but it certainly seems to accept a charge at any time......which supports why people can use a CTEK via the centre console .....presumably at any time and not within a set timeframe of ignition off........I’ll keep swapping connection point and monitoring over the next few days.........bottom line is the solar charger is very easy to use and simply place on the dashboard which is in full sun from 10.30 to c6pm for me.....its keeping the battery at 100% and hopefully that would be the case even if the car is not used for a week or longer  

[Menoporsche]

On 4/4/2021 at 10:01 AM, Menoporsche said:

My 987.1 is ignition dependent BUT if used within X minutes/hours after power off it stays live. My solar panel seems to work that way. 
Have you tried reading the manual?

I have a PDF of a 2006 manual and it doesn't say anything about this  

[½cwt]

@Jonttt so how's that definitive answer coming along?  Any chance of a final summary?

[Jonttt]

I’m working on it 🤣.......as I’m now convinced that although the centre console allows a charge it is not as large / spike of a charge as the passenger footwell......if only the bloody sun would stay out as the charge rate does vary massively by the level of sunlight.........🙄

[Jonttt]

Definitive answer...you can plug into either passenger footwell or centre console to charge .....makes no difference....

...

Below is screenshot of my Bluetooth battery monitor with the solar charger plugged into centre console and car not touched for 2 days.....you can see no charge added until Sun hits the solar charger around 10.30am....then full charge from it to around 13v which is same as I get in full sun via passenger Footwell socket....

So far I'm very impressed with the solar charger, its keeping the car at 100% resting charge every day 

[Gramps]

Hi. Sorry to post this here as it's not relevant to this topic but I was trying to message Jonttt for some advice but he is not receiving messages. It maybe because too many others have tried doing the same and his message box is full, or maybe he turned it off as he had too many people like me after his knowledge 😉, hopefully it's the 1st option. Jonttt if you see this I'd be grateful for some advise. Cheers...Rob (Gramps)