charging your iPhone in a 6 volt car

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If I am touring in my Pierce, or Packard or any car of the vintage which has a 6 volt battery system, is there a way that I can keep my iPhone charged? Will a charger for my modern 12 volt car work on 6 volts input voltage? Or do I need a different step-down voltage charger?

Thanks

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The Pacific Northwest Packard Club offers a 6 to 12 converter that

plugs into a auto cigarette lighter.

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Hi Scott, what you need is a step UP power converter.

Search for 6volt to 12volt power converter. You will find several choices.

Greg Long

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Instead of going to all that trouble, why not just buy a compact charging system? I have one of the attached, it will charge up your phone for days, and if it’s fully charged will start a dead battery 12V car with no problem..never tried it on a 6V!

http://www.amazon.com/Winplus-Jump-Start-Portable-Power/dp/B01LXDIO79

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Scott,

Follow Greg’s suggestion and after installing it, go to an Auto Parts store and purchase a generic cigarette lighter / power port socket and install it under the dash or somewhere out of sight.

I did so on my Series 80 and it is great, but the purchase and rigging will cost $75 to $150 (for a good one) and a few hours of labor.

As an alternative, you could always buy a 10000-mAh or 20100-mAh Power Bank Battery for between $25.00 & $40.00 and that will keep your iPhone charged for three days to five days (7-recharges of an iPhone with the 20100-mAh size, 3-with the 10,000-mAh).

I attach the link for your review.

Peter

http://www.amazon.com/Anker-20100mAh-Portable-Charger-PowerCore/dp/B00X5RV14Y/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1519839074&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=Anker+PowerCore&psc=1

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Scott,

Here is the smaller one.

This option is less expensive than both suggested by Greg or David.

Peter

http://www.amazon.com/Anker-PowerCore-Ultra-Compact-High-speed-Technology/dp/B0194WDVHI/ref=sr_1_3?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1519839509&sr=1-3&keywords=Anker+PowerCore

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David,

I like that thing!

What a great idea for jumpstarting.

It looks a lot smaller than a 12v jump pack.

Peter

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David,

Here is an even less expensive version of that WinPlus.

Peter

http://www.amazon.com/Winplus-1234-Lithium-Starter-Portable/dp/B077KGJ7TG/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1519839764&sr=1-3&keywords=Car+Jump+Start+%26+Portable+Power+Bank

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Wow, didn’t know I was starting a price war! I just went to the first site that showed the type of thing I was talking about….but you guys are quick!

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Scott,

Are you going to camp in your car? Why not just charge the phone in the motel room? How about the small solar charger from China Outlet (harbor freight)

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I use the snap on miniature jump pack, works great, and it’s very small for the show field.

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Scott,

Do you use your iPhone for GPS?

Is that why it dies quickly?

Those GPS Apps suck power like no tomorrow.

Thy can kill a fully charged iPhone battery in two or three-hours.

Peter

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Guys —

Thanks very much for your comments and advice. Wow! I never realized that some of this stuff even existed ! The small jump starter blows my mind. Ain’t technology grand.

I’ll fess up — this isn’t really for me (I still use paper maps) but for a friend who had the problem of using his GPS in a Franklin. As Peter surmised, yes, he said his GPS sucks down the juice incredibly fast so he wanted a way to charge on the road.

This friend decided on building a step-down circuit, 6 volts to 5 volts, and sent me his plans. I couldn’t figure out what was doing. He probably had a few errors in the circuit diagram. That’s when I wondered what other options there were and asked here . . . . because you guys are amazingly smart and resourceful.

I’ll share your good suggestions with him and other friends.

Any more ideas along these lines, please post.

Thanks again.

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For you engineers, like Greg,

If you wanted to build a charger, could you just use a diode to step the voltage from 6 to 5 volts? I recall that silicon diodes have bias voltages or about 0.7 and germanium diodes have about 0.3. So why not put the two in series to your 6 volt supply and get something close to 5 volts out?

I know your battery isn’t exactly 6 volts (6.3 max?) so what is the tolerance on what a smart device/iphone/GPS can tolerate for charging? A little under 5 to a little over 5? How little?

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Scott,

If you have to ask those questions, just buy one and save yourself the pain and possible damage to your car / battery / cell phone / whatever.

Electronics go bad REAL FAST! ZIP!

Peter

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This can be done theoretically with a very simple circuit using a single zener diode and one resistor. It would output constant 5 volts from an unregulated supply of more than 6 volts. The circuit must be sized for more than the maximum current draw the device will use and it will draw that current constantly as long as it is getting voltage from the car battery regardless of what the draw is from the device. If you made a circuit that doesn’t work, the first question is making sure it is wired for positive ground instead of negative.

Although less elegant, an inexpensive 6-12V volt step-up converter connected to a standard 12v to USB 5V stepdown is quicker and cheaper. A bit like FedEx packages flying from San Francisco to Los Angeles via Memphis.

I have a 6-12v step up converter to run a hidden 12V stereo that is considerably more sophisticated and efficient (You can have an authentic radio or authentic music, but not both). The step-up converter draws miniscule current when the radio is off and still delivers the tiny voltage to keep the presets in the radio. As long as I drive the car maybe once a month it doesn’t drain enough from the battery to prevent starting. I bought it on Amazon for $29 and it has 10 amp max output, can be connected to positive or negative ground ( Although anything like the negative ground radio has to be isolated from the positive ground car to keep from shorting).

Jim

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