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Can solar charging overheat the 1040?

djwalker1260
over 3 years ago

Following the suggestion in many reviews, I put my 1040, which was turned off, in the sun on my patio to charge.  I live in Arizona and my patio was at 103F.  After 15 minutes I checked on the 1040 and it was really hot.  SO, I got my infrared, non-contact, thermometer and measured the temperatures.  The face of the display was at 145F and the back of the unit was 124F.  So, I took it inside.  Is it possible to damage/destroy the 104 by setting it in the sun to charge?  What is the maximum ambient temperature recommended?  I do ride in this sort of heat (rarely) and have never had a problem but the bike was moving most of the time.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    The solar charger will disable the harvesting if the battery gets too hot 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to aweatherall

    Mine hasn't used solar at all the last 2 rides. It looks more like an issue in 12.15 firmware. This wasn't the case for me at 12.11.

    Can you help me find firmware 12.11? So I can roll back and use solar again?

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    You really shouldn’t be try to charge the unit this way.  The reason the unit stops charging if the battery gets too hot is to prevent damaging it.  If your leave it out in exposed sun to those temperatures you will shorten battery life, if not destroy it.  The solar charging I would say is intended to be when out riding when the airflow will easily offset any heating effects caused by the low power charging it can do.  

    They do say 50ºC or 122ºF is the maximum to store most battery chemistries (note store not charge where the temperature is a lot lower).

    Really if at home a wall charger will be way faster and safer than leaving out in direct sunlight.