William Middleton
on August 29, 2022
21 views
Now, we have a battery able to be charged 2 different ways, a container to hold it all in were closing in to the build. We now will discuss how we can power up or charge our things using this stored power. After this we will look at what consumables we will use for this project and what tools to have on hand. We know the battery is rated for 12 volts x 28 ah - 336 watt hours. In simple and very basic terms this says you can run 1 watt for 1 hour or 336 watts for 1 hour.
Our usual needs should be for this small generator to charge our laptops, run anything under 200 or 300 watts using electricity. We will have a 12 volt car socket a usb C and a USB quick charge connection with some bright lights.
My inverter here is one I had in my SUV for what seems forever so I will use it here but its so old they dont even sell it. The first milk crate project I built I used a 300 watt pure sine wave inverter. There are 2 kinds, maybe more, but we will discuss 2 kinds readily available. There is the modified sine wave which can prove not to be useful since some electronics do not like this manufactured digital sine wave but is very reasonable. The second, a bit more expensive has a pure sine wave safe for most electronics. The battery can give a total of 336 watts for one hour. So, if I may suggest to go just a wee bit lower than what the max watts are and look for a 300 or 200. Do they same calculation with a bigger or smaller battery. Also, the battery itself here what we will be using for this project can only offer 20 amp continuous so 300 watts / 12 volts = 25 amps. Though I have yet to see a laptop take a full 300 watts, maybe 60 or so watts so it is safe and the 200 watt inverters I have not seen anymore worthy of use.
The 300 watt inverter I used in the first project is: https://amzn.to/3M38Dpk
pretty reasonable for a pure sine wave.
Then we will have a fuse box to connect everything to from the battery. This will have both a positive with fuse bus bar and a ground bus bar for 6 connections. This is to isolate the components and to protect the wiring and other components in case of a short.
The fuse box we will use here is: https://amzn.to/3ywBQVY
This fuse block uses the standard blade fuse like your car uses. You may have a kit already, if not here you can get a small kit: https://amzn.to/3weIuwY and don't worry, you can use them in your vehicle too.
The most common use of connections are USB. So something that has USB C and Fast Charging 3.0 USB would be awesome to have a choice. We will have 2 sets of these incase more than one person wants to charge their phome or tablet or headphones or anything that uses usb cable to charge.
USB Kit: https://amzn.to/3MncNJ3
What is nice is this kit also includes a car socket (Cigarette Lighter) connection. If you have a laptop or a CPAP machine, most likely it comes with a AC plug in, great for the inverter but loss of energy. The AC plug in for your laptop or machine usually will take the AC current and turn it into DC current. This conversion will have an energy loss. So, if you can find a car charger for your laptop then you can hook it up with the car connection and use a straight DC power and not have the conversion loss. This is the lit I found that will work nicely with the milk crate and easy to use. What we will do is splice the 2 sets together using a 20 amp fuse, theoretically if you have 2 items plugged into the car sockets each can use 10 amps a piece.
The usb/car socket on/off kit: https://amzn.to/3MncNJ3
Something as simple as a volt meter is quite handy to use to know how much battery you have left with a quick glance. The one I chose to use might not be the cheapest but it seems to be widely used and dependable with a temp gauge on it as well. Knowing the temp in cold weather is quite important using a lifepo4 battery. No charging if 32 degrees or below. You can do unrepairable harm and damage to the battery cells.
Volt/Temp Meter: https://amzn.to/3M9q4Vo
Not only is it dependable but very easy to set up and use.
Last thing, we will use for this project are led lights. This project we will have a top and bottom lights powered separately.
Light One: https://amzn.to/3kYAfQG
Light two: https://amzn.to/3MaXH96
We will actually take and splice both lights into a 10 amp fuse. The second light we will use a different on/off switch and have it spliced directly wired with the other light instead of using the USB connector.
Well that does it, you can add more or less to the project as you want, that's what is one benefit of creating our own besides for learning.
The next subject are consumables. Things you will need to put the project together.
Since the highest wattage that will travel through our cables is 20 amps the gauge of wire we will use throughout our project is 12awg or 10awg.
10 Gauge: https://amzn.to/3M6sFzq
12 Gauge: https://amzn.to/3kYFwI1
We will be learning what connectors we need and how to crimp the connectors to the wire to make a solid connection as well as using a heat gun or a lighter to shrink the heat wrap to make a nice connection.
Wire Connector Kit: https://amzn.to/3N4DQZm
Varies Wire Connectors/splitters https://amzn.to/3L9XIcd
On/Off switches. One for the top light as well as a master on/off switch to turn everything on or off.
Master on/off switch: https://amzn.to/3w2ttj9
LED Light on/off switch: https://amzn.to/3l4Y6Os
For safety reasons, we will want a pair of battery post booties to protect the main battery connectors.
Post protectors: https://amzn.to/3L4Igy8
To have a easy and safe way to connect your solar panel we will be installing a quick connect that can easily handle the amperage and voltage of your solar panel.
Connector: https://amzn.to/3ssWYs6
Then from the milk crate to the solar panel this will be the cable to get in most instances.
https://amzn.to/3ssWYs6
Double sided tape to adhere some of the components.
Double Sided Tape: https://amzn.to/3l25c6t
Zip Ties: https://amzn.to/3FzUldv
Asst Nuts and Bolts
Some Styrofoam as well.
Finally, we need some tools to help us put this all together. Many of these tools you may find you already have laying around your house, some -- maybe not so for those I will give a suggestion links for your comparison and consideration.
Screw Driver, both standard and Phillips
Adjustable wrench
Battery or Electric Drill
Wire Cutter
Wire cutter/stripper/Crimper https://amzn.to/37CpHnf
Better crimper: https://amzn.to/37CRJPn
Better wire stripper/cutter https://amzn.to/3l50RiM
Voltage Meter: https://amzn.to/3yqwMSS
Mini Heat Gun for shrink wrap connections https://amzn.to/3l8IZ6B
Asst Drill Bits/hole drill bits
If you can help, we would truly appreciate and need it -- Thank you https://gofund.me/5b4a16c6 Any little bit helps and we truly are grateful.
Now, this leads us to the Build. See ya soon. Hope you have everything ready.
Dimension: 600 x 451
File Size: 61.96 Kb
Be the first person to like this.