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Stardate: 20210527.1715 | |
Location: xiled rumination concentrator | |
Input Device: Fujitsu Lifebook P1610 running antiX 19.3 | |
Audio: Louis Armstrong - Louis Armstrong Sings | |
Visual: antiX default desktop, xrc interior | |
Emotional: mildly hyper from coffee and donut snack | |
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I have been rebuilding this portable battery charger/solar system | |
that I first built several years ago. It is pretty simple and this | |
is on the 5th version of the charger. I keep wanting to change it. | |
This round, I decided to make it smaller and keep the batteries | |
separate. Previous versions were bigger, heavier, and bulkier. The | |
4th version was built inside a medium-sized plastic ammo case. The | |
case for this version is an Apache case from Harbor Freight, similar | |
to a Pelican case, but much cheaper. I was not fond of the last | |
one I put together. It was functional, but messy. | |
The guts from version 4 was basically put in the new case, along | |
with a repurposed food constainer that I used to mount the | |
components. I was going to use a spare piece of acrylic sheeting I | |
had in my scrap pile, but decided to go with the food container. | |
The acrylic sheet would have been more involved. | |
Since I am keeping the batteries separate, this version is much | |
lighter and portable. The charger has 2 analog panel meters for | |
measuring volts and amperes. There is a 12 volt cigarette lighter | |
socket for the load, an ON/OFF switch also for the load, +/- banana | |
jacks for the battery and +/- jacks for the solar panels. Here is | |
a crude diagram: | |
_______________________________ | |
| ___________ ___________ | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | \\|// | | \\|// | | | |
| | * | | * | | | |
| | Volts | | Amps | | | |
| |_________| |_________| | | |
| _ | | |
| / \ ON O + O | | |
| 12V Load || O - O | | |
| \_/ OFF Batt. Panel| | |
|_____________________________| | |
Separating the controller from the batteries will allow me to keep the | |
charger more modular and charge other 12 volt batteries without | |
configuration changes. The DC charge controller I'm using is a | |
Velleman SOL4UCN2, which I've used since version 1. | |
I charge quite a number of things at home. Yeah, I'm a gadget freak. | |
My family also has their own rechargables and we try to use the | |
energy that has been harvested from the sun for these devices. We | |
do not currently have an installed solar system at home, only the ones | |
that I cobbled together, which are pretty small. We have one in the | |
guest room and this portable one that charges the larger batteries, | |
which I use to charge the smaller power banks and devices. There is | |
also the charging cart [1] that I phosted about awhile back that has | |
been added to the battery rotation. The cart is used for the legacy | |
devices and is using solar power where applicable. I try to stick | |
to DC power and not use inverters since it is not so efficient. | |
Eventually, I'd like to add solar power to the xiled rumination | |
concentrator, but it might be challenging with the $15 TV from | |
Goodwill. I think it is rated at 100 watts. I'll have to run some | |
tests. I do have a UPS and a car jumpstarter battery attached to | |
the devices in the xrc, but they are tethered to the grid. It will | |
be a good exercise in power distribution and conservation from a | |
smaller scale. | |
Here are some pictures since my crude diagram probably didn't do any | |
justice in visualizing the project and my words are so limited: | |
Version 4 of charger in plastic ammo container. | |
Most of these parts will be migrated over to the new case. | |
Parts from old charger and parts for new case. | |
Apache case is from Harbor Freight or "Horror Fright" (as tob | |
likes to call it.) | |
Cutting food container down to size with rotary tool. | |
Using RC car body reamer for banana jack holes. | |
Soldered wires to banana jack. | |
Melted gash on wall of food container was from me not paying | |
attention to what my soldering iron was resting against. | |
Food container-mounted banana jacks attached to charge controller | |
Inside of charge controller | |
Added external switch to charge controller. | |
Switch is to turn ON/OFF the load. I kept the original switch | |
on the controller. A green LED illuminated on the controller | |
when the power switch is on. The LED can be seen through the | |
food container. | |
Assembled charging box. Ain't purdy but good enuff. | |
Devices added to charging box to test load. | |
5 devices attached to 12V to 5V USB power strip. Devices are | |
neck fan, bluetooth speaker, Sharp Zaurus C3100, Treo 680, and | |
Gemini PDA. | |
Analog panel meters showing load testing. | |
Volt meter is at 12.5 volts and ammmeter is at 1.6 amperes. | |
I cracked the plastic when I mounted the power switch so I put | |
tape behind the cracks. | |
12 volt 5Ah test battery. | |
One of my final purchases from Radio Shack's fire sale. | |
I grabbed a few of these SLA batteries of different capacities | |
for cheap. So far, only one has died. | |
Testing solar system charging. | |
Attached are 2x ICP Solarflex 5 watt flexible solar panels and | |
1x ICP Solarflex 20 watt flexible solar panel. Analog voltage | |
panel meter shows a little over 12 volts of power from the | |
attached 12v 5Ah battery. | |
Charger with labels and decals. | |
Alternate view of charger with labels and decals. | |
[1] 20190113_charging - Ghetto Charging Cart | |
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