12V Solar Pelican Case Power Pack / Generator

[lysol]

You have a battery tender connected to the battery to charge your power pack using AC. You maybe able to connect a simple 12v AC power adaptor to the solar panel input on your MorningStar Sunsaver 10L. This way the MorningStar Sunsaver 10L control manages the charging of your battery. You could also plug the solar panel input to your cars cigarette adaptor 12v port to charge the power pack as well.

You have some very interesting ideas... hmmm...

 

[SGTCap]

How is this project coming along?

 

[lysol]

I have been able to test my battery/solar charger enough times now I believe. I have confidence in everything now. I should be buying the 1400 Pelican case soon and will be dropping all of the components in. I'm going to be going more for rainproof instead of waterproof as I will be drilling a few holes in the case. Here is the battery powering my Goal Zero Light-A-Life lights (2) this past weekend. I probably ran them for a total of about 2-3 hours and only dropped the battery from 13.2 volts to 12.8 volts. I didn't bring the solar panels with me this trip as it was only a 1-nighter. I have dropped the ball on this project with work/school and whatnot, but I really can't wait to get started back on it.

The battery and solar charger are in the bag. I'm just running the battery to a 10A fuse to the solar charger. Then I'm powering the lights off of the LVD (Low Voltage Disconnect) on the solar charger.

 

[DanValdez]

I've been working on building a Pelican Case power pack for small 12V items such as charging phones, running 12V DC LED lights, charge my Garmin watch, etc... I had researched everything for over a month starting back in April. I've always been fascinated with energy since I was a little kid. I have a thing for electricity and needed a good project so Here is what I've been working on.

Case - Pelican Case - 1400 Yellow
I chose yellow for electricity and to distinguish it from anything else in the vehicle. The 1400 model is due to endless measurements to fit the battery.

Battery - Odyssey PC680
I chose this because it'll give me around 15Ah(Amp hour) of current from 100% to 0%. With only taking it down to around 50%, I'll have about 7-8Ah (84-96Wh(Watt hour) at 12V(Volt)) of power to use. While it's not a true deep cycle battery, because it's a motorcycle battery, there were a lot of mounts available due to it's popularity. I found a company in Washington who makes a cool aluminum mount specifically for it that will fit inside the Pelican 1400 case (JUST to clarify, it's not designed for the pelican case, but it will work). Under the battery, I'm using a 1/4" rubber mat for vibration and shock dampening. This will also help waterproof the battery case holes. I'm still not 100% on the type of bolts I will be using for the battery case, but it will pretty much be a bolt, outside metal washer, outside rubber washer. The bolt will go through the case, through the rubber mat, through the battery case, and then a nut with a metal and rubber washer. I'll seal them somehow for water proofing but to allow somewhat easy removal for battery replacement in the future.

Solar Charger - MorningStar Sunsaver 10L
I chose this because it'll give me a decent 10A(Amp) setup. The solar panel can bring in up to 10A, the charger can charge the battery at up to 10A, and the LVD(Low Voltage Disconnect) interface can supply up to 10A for external power. The LVD will turn off the power if the battery's voltage drops below 11.5 volts and turn back on once the battery gets over 12.6 volts. By wiring all electronics/ports to this instead of straight to the battery, it offers a safety net to keep from draining the battery dangerously low.

Solar Panel - TBD
I'm currently using a Instapark 20W(Watts) Monocrystalline panel along with 3 other smaller panels. Total, I have about 25W all connected in parallel. This is just for testing still however. With a 10A limit through the solar charger, I will be able to push up to about 170W worth of solar panels before I get close. I got 170W from the following equation: (W=A x V). A typical panel will operate at around 17V. We know the amps is 10, so now we have enough to solve the equation. W=10 x 17. However, realistically I'll be able to go higher as no panel really puts out 100% of it's rating.

My end goal comes down to being able to replace the power I've used the night before and then some to have a cushion. If I used 7-8Ah bringing my battery down to around 50%, I would have to be able to replace that the next day. The rule of thumb is to be able to get that in 4 hours. Let's say 8Ah for a nice looking number. To get that in 4 hours, I would need to constantly generate 2A for 4 hours. That would require at minimum a 34W (2A x 17V) panel. So if a 34W panel gave me 100% of it's rating, I'd be able to replace 8 Amp hours of 12 volt power in 4 hours of sunlight. But we don't live in a perfect world do we? I like to think panels generally get around 75% of their rating in full sunlight I'm just going to ballpark this that I will need at least 50W worth of solar panels to get the results I want.

Here's the thing though, I actually want to be able to make more power so that while the battery is charging, I have some extra power coming in to charge my phone and/or other small devices without keeping my battery from reaching 100% in 4 hours time. My phone will need about 1A draw. So 2 phones charging would take around 2A. It would take lets say 3 hours to charge so there's another 6Ah I need to come up with. I'm already close to the power I needed in the last paragraph so with maybe charging my GPS watch and a few other things, I'm pretty close. I said earlier I would need around 50W for the 10A before. Let's just double that and I'm up to 100W worth of needed solar panel(s).

Now, to most, this 100W is overkill and who is to say I'll use 10A worth of power every night. When I do need the power though, I'll have it.

100W is my end goal for solar panel input. Also, on a side note, I have 2 Goal Zero 3W Light-A-Life camping lanterns that pull about .25A each. Both running would use .5A. If I run them both for 5 hours straight, I'll use around 2.5Ah from the battery. They put out a lot of light for what they are so running them for 5 hours and only using 2.5Ah is amazing. So from my personal 8Ah limit on my battery, I'll still have around 5.5Ah left to use before the battery reaches 50%.

Now on to wires. I am planning on using 16/2 SJOOW Neoprene-Jacketed cable for the main cable for the solar panel input. This will be the cable that connects the solar panels to the power pack. I chose this type of cable because it comes with 2 16 gauge wire strands in 1 larger insulated cable. I will also wrap it with a wire sleeve for more durability as it will be on the ground. I was wanting around SOOW 0.37"OD(Outer Diameter, a.k.a. thickness) but I don't think it would fit in my Harwin plug so I'm going to settle for a little bit thinner at SJOOW 0.31"OD. Both have (2) 16 gauge internal red/black wires but the difference is the outter insulation thickness. I'm sure once I sleeve it, it will be durable enough.

I will also be using 16 gauge from the solar panel input plug to the solar charger. I won't need anything larger as I will only be using up to 10A and the connector I've chosen and bought for the solar panel input to the power pack has 16 gauge buckets for me to solder the wires into. I will then be wiring a 10A inline fuse directly on the inside of the power pack coming in from the solar input. After that, I will have a Watts Up meter from RC Electronics USA to record my solar harvesting because I like to know what I got for the day at the end of the day. It has a reset feature and can be powered by the main battery itself. The meter shows Amps, Volts, Watts, Amp hours, Amp peak, Watt hours, Watt peak, and Volt minimums. Pretty handy for such a small meter. Then from there, more 16 gauge wire to the solar charger input. The solar charger has 3 sets of inputs; solar power input, battery input, and the LVD output. From the battery input on the solar charger, I will be running 14 gauge wire to an inline 10A fuse and then to the battery. I am running a little higher gauge wire here because it is the main battery wire. It is the only wire going to and from the battery. The last solar charger output is the LVD output. I will be running 14 gauge wire from there to yet another inline 10A fuse to a second Watts Up Meter to measure power usage and then to the accessory ports.

For accessory ports, I'll be installing 2 waterproof cigarette lighter sockets because they are still a common connection. I was thinking about wiring in a dedicated USB socket as well, but I'm not sure if I will. I can just pop in a dual USB socket in one of the cigarette lighter sockets and call it a day. The cool thing about Goal Zero's Light-A-Life camping lights is that they can daisy-chain off each other. That means 1 cigarette lighter plug can power up to 8 lights (at 3W each, that would pull about 2 Amps all combined and with my 8Ah battery limit, I could power 8 of those bad boys for up to 4 hours).

For the solar input plug/socket, I decided to use the Mil Spec 5015 style. They are pricey though. If you Google "5015 mil spec", you'll see why. For the socket, plug, and end caps, it was around $50. I really liked Harwin's plugs, so I went with them. Amphenol also makes great quality plugs. Both companies are used by the military so you can't go wrong with either. I didn't want to go cheap here because this is a very important part of the case that will be exposed and needs to be durable. Plus, it's a cool factor as well.

For the solar panel connectors, I'm using 2-pin Weather Pack terminals. They are somewhat waterproof and I'll make them universal across all of my solar panels. They are around $3 a pair(male/female). I've bought a few sets already, but I need the weather pack die for my wire ratchet crimpers. I'll be putting a female Weather Pack connector on the other end of the solar panel cable (at the other end of the mil-spec connector). I'm also making a Y-Cable with Weather Pack connectors (1-Male / 4-Female). This will allow me to connect up to 4 solar panels instead of just 1.

To end the project, it's cool and all to be able to charge the case via the Sun, but what about when you want to charge it at home or anywhere with a wall outlet? I will be putting in a small (about the size of a computer mouse) waterproof battery tender that will put out about .8A. It will be inside the case and I'll have an outlet on the other side just for this. I'm thinking of using a common computer cable for the outside wire. They are very common so I won't have to make that cable at all.

All holes will be sealed with Marine Goop.

There are a few other small details. I already have a small rectangular volt meter that will be installed on the outside of the case in the handle recessed area. Next to it will be a Plasma Glow momentary On button to get a quick check of the voltage at any time. This will be wired directly to the battery and only used to check voltage. I really like the Plasma Glow switches. I am wiring this directly to the battery instead of going through the LVD because if the LVD is activated, it won't have power and I would want to see the voltage periodically as it rises and gets close to the cut-on thresh-hold.

All connections will be soldered and heat shrinked. I don't think I'll be using the crush-style insulated crimp connectors. I like the clean look of non-insulated connectors with a little heat shrink.

Stuff I have:
Battery ($120)
Battery Mount ($40)
Solar Charge Controller ($60)
20W Solar Panel ($65)
Watts Up Meter ($50)
2 Goal Zero Light-A-Life lanterns ($80)
Marine Goop ($5)
12V gauge ($10)

I still have more to go though. I still need:

Pelican Case 1400 ($80)
battery tender ($30)
1/4" rubber mat roll ($30)
bolts/nuts/washers for battery case ($TBD)
16/2 cable ($90) (The shortest amount of this cable I've been able to find is 250' from a company out of FL)
second Watts Up Meter ($50)
Weather Pack Crimpers ($80)
Plasma Glow Button Momentary On ($30)

I know it's a lot of reading, but I'm mainly typing this up to help keep track of what I've done and what I still need to do. I'll post pics up of what I got so far in my testing setup soon. I live in an apartment though so with my 20W panel, I was only able to produce 0.400Ah all day today... not great, but the panel is sitting behind a window with a metal screen and it's not angled properly nor does it get much sunlight all day. I'm going to be testing this at the wife's parents house this weekend so I should be getting really good test results under the sun outside. I'm hoping to harvest between 3 and 4Ah from the 20W panel all day on Saturday. We will see...

Thanks for sharing such a wonderful and detailed information. I am working on one such solar panel and generator project and the information will really help me lot.

 

[lysol]

Just ordered my Yellow Pelican 1400 case and some 1/8" neoprene material (this will lay between the battery and the case). I opted for 1/8" as I think 1/4" would have been thicker than I need. This is just to help with any shock from tossing the case around. They should be here on Tuesday so I'll take pics of everything I have then. I should have almost everything I need to get at least half of this project done. I still need a few more small items though.

 

[lysol]

My plan this week is to mount the battery in the case. I don't think I'm ready to mount all the connector sockets on the side of the case yet. The wife and I are going camping 2-nights this coming up weekend so I'll just test out how the portability of the case is. I'll have to just open the lid to run the solar panel wire in and my 12 source out. I like to take things slow as I'm sure I'll just stare at the case for an hour before I drill out the sockets... lol. I like to be thorough.

Once I get the battery mounted, I'll start drawing out how I will run the wires throughout the case. I'll have about 2" of free space on the left and right side of the battery when it's mounted so I should have enough space for sockets, wires, and whatnot. I still really want to mount an AC tender to act as an AC charger on the other side of the battery. I am planning on putting all of the DC input and output sockets on one side and the AC socket on the other side. The solar charger and (2) meters will sit on top of the battery. Not sure where I'm going to flushmount the Volt meter yet. I was thinking under the handle to protect it from getting smashed when it's packed in the Jeep and around camp. The momentary switch will go next to it too.

 

[lysol]

Also, since I will have at least 3 fuses in the box, I'm going to be using a small 4-way "lateral" fuse box. This will give me 4 separate input/outputs with 4 separate fuses. This should help clean up the inside as well as give me a central location for the fuses. I should probably put a fuse on the volt meter gauge as well so that would utilize the "4th" spot on the fuse box.

 

[lysol]

My Pelican case just came in today. I played around with the fitment of the battery. I think I chose the right case for this battery. The walls are thicker than I had expected. Not a bad thing at all... Just means that I'll have to pay more attention when I cut/drill.

Also, don't mind the crude wiring. These wires are temporary. I configured this with simple/short wires since the battery has lived inside a bag (I know...) for the past couple months.

Enjoy:

Might mount the solar charger to the lid. Not sure yet.

 

[lysol]

I'm not very impressed with the weatherproof choices for 12v cigarrete lighter sockets so I think I'm going to change up my plan a little. I really like Harwin's Mil-Spec circular plugs and sockets so I think I'm going to do some "2-pin female" sockets for my outgoing power needs. Then I'll make accessory wires with the 2-pin male plugs. **For incoming solar power, I already have a "2-pin female" plug that plugs into a "2-pin male" socket.**

This will open up more options as well in that I could bypass the Pelican case all-together. I could plug the "2-pin female" plug coming from the solar panel cable into one of the "2-pin male" accessory plugs.

I will have to make a few accessory cables that have a "2-pin male" plug on one end (that would plug into the Pelican Case). I could even make a "1-Does-It-All" cable that has a few female sockets like cigarrete lighter, USB, etc...

This will end up making my project a little proprietary as in requires a specific type of connector instead of easily plugging in whatever, but the quality will be greater (and with the screw on dust caps, they won't get dirt in them when not in use). Technically, it won't be as proprietary because of the adapter cables I will make. Also, I won't have to cut HUGE holes in the side of the case as my Harwin 16 AWG (16 gauge) connectors/plugs are relatively small. I think I'm going to start off with (2) "2-pin female" sockets on the side of the case. This will allow me to add more if I need to, but I don't plan on powering a whole lot off this. I'll mount them so as there is enough space to add more sockets later if I choose to.

***On a side note, I think I'm going to use the "3-pin female" plug and "3-pin male" socket for the incoming AC power to the battery maintainer. This will separate the DC incoming and AC incoming from each other.

 

[lysol]

Another piece of thought I put into this is the type of socket used on the side of the case so there is a reduced risk of "electric shock":

The socket for the incoming solar power is a male type. This means the metal prongs are showing. I figure that the solar charger will disconnect that socket if there isn't any incoming power for X-amount (I forget) of seconds. You could touch those metal prongs all day and wouldn't get shocked. The cable that plugs into this socket is a female type. This means the metal pins are under the surface making it impossible to touch them (I would like to note that this plug is Always Hot when a solar panel is hooked up to the other end of the cable).

The other sockets for outgoing power are female type. This means the metal pins are under the surface making it impossible to touch them. Because these are pretty much directly connected to the battery, I don't want it to be easy to brush a finger over the socket and get shocked. The cable that plugs into this socket is a male type. This one isn't really dangerous as there is no power coming from this end.

 

[lysol]

I think I will be ditching the voltmeter flush-mounted to the outside of the case. I want to keep this as simple as possible so I think I'll be limiting myself to making round holes in the case (a.k.a. allowing me to only use a drill). This will help keep the waterproofing up. As of now, I plan to drill out (2) holes for incoming power ((1) for 120v AC and (1) for 12v DC) and (2) holes for outgoing power.

Another hole will be for a round switch (push for "on" and push again for "off"). This switch will be the disconnect between the battery and the solar charger which will essentially cut off the entire system. Because the battery tender will be directly wired to the battery, it won't require the switch to be on. I don't plan on putting a switch inline with the battery tender as I will still have a fuse for that line.

***I need to update my wiring diagram/schematic***

 

[lysol]

Tested out everything this past weekend. Went camping with the wife. Being the winter time, in the wooded area we setup at, I was only able to gather about 1.5Ah in 3 hours. This was fine however as it replenished the battery from last time bringing it back over 13 volts. The meter in the picture doesn't show the proper amps/volts because the battery is currently topped off and the solar panel is disconnected from the battery. The meter is showing the power from the panel and because current isn't flowing into the battery, the Amps/Watts is not accurate (Also, I forgot to plug in the external power J-plug into the side of the meter before the charge controller disconnected the panel from the battery. When I messed around and temporarily unplugged the solar panel cable, the meter lost power..). I was gathering around 1 amp before I took this picture which is about 90% of the panel's limit. If I can get 50-60 watts of panels in the future, I believe that will be more than enough for this small kit. Anyway, here are the pics:

 

[SiliconTi]

Very slick! I like this idea a lot.

 

[java]

oooh i like.... I have an extra 1200 case laying around.

 

[lysol]

Thanks. I can't wait until it's rugged enough to throw around a little and not have to be so delicate with it.