Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

Well, my C5 has a gauge showing battery charge (well, it has the battery symbol), so maybe Citroen have a hankering for times gone by?
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by demag »

I think its only a matter of time before the fuel gauge disappears. You will have 2 LEDs, full and FILL UP NOW! :-)

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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

I know of somebody who made a modification to the fuel gauge system. His wife was always running out of fuel, and didn't seem to learn from her mistakes. After the modification she only ran out of fuel once.

What the mod did was to TELL people that the fuel was running out. When the gauge read 1/4 a voice said "You are beginning to run low on fuel". When it got into the red the voice said "You are running low on fuel". At the same time the warning light came on the voice said "You are going to run out of fuel". When the engine cut out the voice then said "I TOLD you that you were running low on fuel".
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by myglaren »

My R11TXE Electronic used to do that and more. Insane :)
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by electronmirror »

James (Hellrazor), if you are still looking for one of Lidl's battery chargers try their Wokingham branch on Molly Millars Lane. I bought one this evening, they had approx 30 of them on the shelf.

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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

Great, thanks for letting me know.
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by demag »

I looked in our local store tonight but couldn't see any.

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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by Mandrake »

CitroJim wrote:Cars should still have ammeters in my opinion... One of the more useful gauges...
Or in the case of a GS - a voltmeter instead of an ammeter.

Which in some ways is a more useful indication of the state of a battery. An ammeter will tell you if a battery is charging - but how do you know if it needs charging ? It might already be fully topped up ?

I remember the GS's voltmeter gauge well - not labelled in volts but with colour coded ranges...
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by CitroJim »

Mandrake wrote:Which in some ways is a more useful indication of the state of a battery. An ammeter will tell you if a battery is charging - but how do you know if it needs charging ? It might already be fully topped up ?
That's very true Simon and in fact you can see when charging is good as you see the volts rising... Perfection would be an ammeter and a voltmeter!
Mandrake wrote:I remember the GS's voltmeter gauge well - not labelled in volts but with colour coded ranges...
A lot of up-market Brits back in the 60s and 70s had voltmeters and they had the coloured ranges but with vooltages marked on them too...

Smiths made the well-known and most popular classic one and it's still available today...

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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by RichardW »

I imagine the C5 one is a volt meter. Ammeters were on cars with Dynamos where current useage could easily exceed production - if it was in -ve territory for a long time you would know to give it some revs to get back into +ve territory.

I'm going to pop in our local one later - I'm hoping they've got some more of their screenwash additive in - I broke into my last bottle at the weekend.
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by Stickyfinger »

Just to clear things up in my mind.....

What is a good pattern of charge on a flat (but good) battery.

Low-med-high-float
or
High-med-low-float
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by white exec »

Many cars with alternators got ammeters too - eg Rover - but, having said that, the output from some of the early Lucas alternators wasn't a lot higher than their better dynamos. Service life was also pretty appalling, with a good trade in replacement internal voltage regulators. Big advantage of alternators was decent output at fairly low engine revs, something dynamos had difficulty providing.

Anyone remember Lucas RB340 current-voltage regulators, and the small chuck-like keys used to adjust them?

Image


You're right about getting the most useful info from an ammeter: discharge was what to look out for!

Always did like the voltmeters with a "partial" scale (like Jim's 11-15 jobbie above). Did once construct one of those around a normal moving coil meter, for use in a caravan...

Image
Last edited by white exec on 20 Jan 2017, 12:06, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by Mandrake »

Stickyfinger wrote:Just to clear things up in my mind.....

What is a good pattern of charge on a flat (but good) battery.

Low-med-high-float
or
High-med-low-float
Depends how low it is to begin with.

The Lidl charger does pulse charging (rejuvenation) at a lower current if the voltage is very low, then goes to 3.8 amps constant then to 3 amps then to a 100mA float, each at a certain threshold voltage.

I don't have the book in front of me to see what the thresholds are but maybe someone else that has one can post that little graph from the book.
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by Stickyfinger »

Well that confirms the output pattern I have seen on the charger.

another question.

When attaching such a charger, should the battery be disconnected or does it not matter. (On a car with an ECU)
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Re: Lidl and Aldi Car accessories

Post by CitroJim »

white exec wrote:Anyone remember Lucas RB340 current-voltage regulators, and the small chuck-like keys used to adjust them?

Image
Oh yes, many happy memories :) And happier ones still of the simple regulator installed on dynamo equipped Renault 4s. I had one weld its regulator contacts shut once and it led to a massive over-charge of the battery. I was only aware when I could smell acid!!! The battery was seething and the dynamo very hot indeed. The dynamo survived but not the battery which failed a few days after I managed to fix the regulator... I got home by disconnecting the dynamo and luckily the battery just lasted out. It happened near to where Stickyfinger now lives in 1978...
white exec wrote:Always did like the voltmeters with a "partial" scale (like Jim's 11-15 jobbie above). Did once construct one of those around a normal moving coil meter, for use in a caravan...

Image
That's a very neat looking panel Chris. That really appeals to me...

I used to use my float charger in our caravan when mains was available... It now lives in my workshop...
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