I've got my system pretty much done (for now) but theres one thing i'd still like to do up - My battery.
It seems to handle all the power just fine, but sometimes i like to just park the car and listen. With the altinator out of action (car being off) the battery won't be gaining any power. I'd rather not idle the car and waste petrol for an hour just to listen to music. Is there another way to keep power running through the battery? Or atleast have a gadge fitted so i can see when i need to turn the car on?

I believe there are devices that can supply power to a battery, but i think it's only a tiny amount and designed to be used when your battery goes flat to jump start it. Not sure if there's a meter you can buy that tells you how much battery you actually have left.

12 v battery charger... pretty cheap... I plug mine in all the time when I work on it...

Wont supply enough to power the system when cranking, but will stop your battery going flat...

do you recommend a certain battery charger tim?
like a certain amperage?

Yeah i didnt think there'd be a way to magicly repower the battery without depleating something else. Goes against the laws of physics.

I'd like to know more about the battery gadge though.

Any car battery charger will be fine, you arent trying to run your system off it (the system will drain from the battery) you just want enough to keep a little bit of zap left in the battery so you can crank it over. If you leave it for a few hours this will eventually charge the battery fully.

Unless you want to actually crank your car for extended periods of time, then you might want to look to something beafy, but the price really starts to creep up on you then.

Mine is a light duty charger puts out around 2.2 amps.

edit: Also helps having a volt gauge, once your voltage gets around 11 volts you wont be able to crank the car over.

its called a multimeter isnt it >??

12 v battery charger... pretty cheap... I plug mine in all the time when I work on it...

Wont supply enough to power the system when cranking, but will stop your battery going flat...
I was thinking more along the lines of when you don't have a power point to plug a charger into nearby.

its called a multimeter isnt it >??
Nope multimeter is just a meter to read voltage (same as a voltgauge)

Charger is plugged into the mains (240v) and puts out >12v to charge the battery

I was thinking more along the lines of when you don't have a power point to plug a charger into nearby.
Ah ok then

Well your best bet is a battery with more amp hours. (optima yellow top)

Or a dual battery setup wired up so you can run one battery totally flat (the audio battery)

or cheap solution = a volt meter...

A volt meter sounds like the go for me, for now.
Can you pick up volt meters for cars? Ones that you can mount nicely somewhere?

Tim there are recharger packs like the charger your talking about that run off a battery instead of AC power, but i think are designed to only give just enough power to get the car started.

A volt meter sounds like the go for me, for now.
Can you pick up volt meters for cars? Ones that you can mount nicely somewhere?
Yes most places that sell car audio will hook you up with one.

heres another solution

to see how much batter power you have left

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=KA1683&CATID=&keywords=ka%2D1683&SPECIAL=&form=KEYWORD&ProdCodeOnly=&Keyword1=&Keyword2=&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID=

only $16

yeh same deal, that will just read voltage too...

yes you can get jumper kits, but this will mean you are running your battery flat constantly (lose your settings and very bad news for normal car batteries which arent made to be run flat)

Im putting a voltgauge into my next install. A drift crystal gauge (~$90 from autobarn) But may as well go the $16 option as they will all do the same function.

heh i think the Jaycar one is a little crap. I'd rather have digital gadge giving me the numbers.
Where do you usally mount these?

This one sounds pretty cool: http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=XC0118&CATID=24&keywords=&SPECIAL=&form=CAT&ProdCodeOnly=&Keyword1=&Keyword2=&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID=669

i prefer the first one. u could hella easy flush mount it into your dash or somewhere and it would be really un noticible

bah 11 volts. i had an operation and couldnt drive the car forgot to unhook the battery the multimeter read 3.84 volts :shock: .had to wait 4 minutes with another car putting power into the battery before it would turnover

I was thinking more along the lines of when you don't have a power point to plug a charger into nearby.

I've got an old excercise bike you could hook up with a belt to the alternator.... :bowrofl:

easy solution is to carry around one of those jump start paks you can get from supacheap for between 30-50 bucks, which have jumper leads attached and a voltmeter for itself. if you run your car too flat to start, connect it up start and off you go!

btw, using a biggass deep cycle marine battery(light truck/4x4) battery lasts for ages without worrying too much. only ran it flat once when the boot light didnt turn off and was running for a few days, stupid pressure switch.

having a battery charger at home is well worth the money too, i put my battery on charge if im going to be running the stereo for a few hours, if im working out the back.

i usually carry one of those supercheap jump packs in my car with me just in case ... thing works like a treat

but i'd like to install a decent volt meter in the car to see how the battery is doing though

Tim : you got a link or something to the 1 you mentioned ?