NL Portable Power Pack and Solar

[ThomD]

I'm putting together a system to run my fridge, et al, while out and about. I have a National Luna PPP and a folding solar panel. The normal recommendation for the solar -> Battery connection is to go through a solar controller.

Do I still need this with the electronics built into the PPP (esentially the National Luna Dual battery contoller kit)?

I see my options as:

Solar directly to the PPP. The solar is a female cigarette connector (I think), so I'd need a way to contect that to the PPP's heavy duty (anderson?) connector.

Solar to the controller then controller to the PPP. Same as above with one extra item inline.

Solar to the controller and then to battery inside the PPP directly. This by passes the National Luna circuitry and lets the solar controller do the work.

Does anyone have any thoughts solution is better?

 

[elcoyote]

I too have a NL PP and use solar. You will need a controller and have the controller feed directly to the battery. If you have any questions, give us a call at the shop.

 

[ThomD]

Thanks Mario. That's the direction I was leaning. I was thinking that the NL built in controller might be too smart for its own good to deal with the solar. As a bonus, this way I don't have to figure out where to get a second plug for the power-in on the PPP.

 

[Hudson]

Glad I found this post, I had the exact same question. Mario or Thom, did you drill into the PPP's case to run the solar cables to the battery terminals?

Related 2 questions:

1. I am installing the PPP into an aluminum dry box, so I can store this in my trailer. Inside the dry box, I am hoping to mount a NOCO genious 10amp charger (with a West Marine 3 prong pass-through), for use when I have electric hookups or when storing the trailer. Should I connect the Noco directly to the battery? Or can I crimp an Anderson red connector and hook up to the PPP's power input? If the former, when I am using the 10amp charger, do I need to disconnect the PPP from the battery terminals? Or just switch it off?

2. I'd like to mount on the outside of the dry box a 3 port, 12v "cigerette style" ports, to hook up 12v appliances. But how to wire to the PPP? I am thinking this probably has to go from the battery terminals to a fuseblock, and then to the 12v ports, bypassing the PPP's electronics, right?

 

[ThomD]

I did drill a hole in the NPP side to pass through the charger feed. I used a surface mount SAE connect from Aerostitch.



Yes, the charger connects to the battery directly through this connector. This way I can run the solar charger through the connection, or when the NPP is in the garage I can use a Battery Tender to keep it healthy. Both use the same SAE connector. The solar and Battery Tender units have some logic in them (especially the BT), so trying to run that through the NPP's own smart controller would confuse both controllers.

If you use the 12v port on the NPP, the NPP switch will shut that off. If you want to by pass that switch, then you would need to go straight to the battery.

If you are putting this in a dry box, you could probably save some money with the National Luna DIY kit I think.

 

[Hudson]

Thanks Thom. I had a shop install the wires from my battery to the hitch, as well as a direct connection to the Hella plug for the NL fridge. The hitch has a 120 Anderson plug. Tonight, I drilled through the trailer and ran the long 4g cables from the dry box to the front of the trailer hitch.

I'll install the solar connector as Thom mentioned above. For the input power cable into the NL PPP, I'll rig up some type of hinged access door on the dry box. For the battery charger, I am going to mount the charger inside the dry box, chop the Noco's plug and run the wires into a Marinco 15 amp charger inlet.



To access the Hella plug and the 12v mount on the NL PPP, I'll install a 12v mount on the box.

 

[Butch1979]

What does it really do?

Can somebody explain what the power pack really does? Why do I need to pay $600 for a case and then need to insert my own battery? What am I missing here? Seems like I can just build off a deep cycle battery and have the same capability with $600 still my pocket...

I'm looking for this capability in an expo trailer, so maybe it's purpose is for a different clientele???

 

[goodtimes]

Can somebody explain what the power pack really does? Why do I need to pay $600 for a case and then need to insert my own battery? What am I missing here? Seems like I can just build off a deep cycle battery and have the same capability with $600 still my pocket...

I'm looking for this capability in an expo trailer, so maybe it's purpose is for a different clientele???

What does it do? It's a self contained dual battery system - complete with everything except the battery. It has the split-charge controller, a circuit breaker, two fused power outlets (one cigar lighter socket and one hella-style socket), a built in voltage monitor, all the cable, connectors, and battery terminals, the battery box & battery hold-down, all put together in one neat little package. All you have to do is find a spot to put it, and run the included cables to your existing battery.

If you want a simpler system - sure, you can put it together yourself and save a few bucks, but the cost of the components in that system (the PPP) aren't cheap.

The bonus with the PPP is that you get a nicely packaged system that is already assembled and easy to move between vehicles. That last bit is key to many people (including me). I have the PPP set up in my camper - but if I'm heading out for a day of fishing or kayaking, I can just move the PPP to the bed of my truck, or the back of my girlfriends jeep, and we have a power source for the fridge.

Chances are, you're going to spend a couple hundred bucks on components for a DIY solution (cable, wire, connectors, charge controller of some sort, etc), so the convenience of having a pre-packages solution is often worth an extra hundred bucks (or two - or what ever it works out to, relative to what ever DIY solution you decide on). It's certainly not for everyone, but what is?