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Yes, I get that. A heated battery in that case will keep from charging a too-cold battery because the heat is provided by the charge current. But my worry is if you’re camping and it’s well below freezing that the low temp cutoff would trigger on the discharge side. And that doesn’t seem to be...

I guess I thought that the charge and discharge temps were the same. Thanks. That got me to look at the SOK site and they say both charging and discharging to -4F. Seems like there’s not a lot of value even to the heated battery either. As you suggested, he’s not interested in camping in...

This is not really a lithium DIY question, but I’m looking at putting together a heater and thermocouple for a lithium battery so it’s kinda DIY. Anyway, I’m looking at the SOK 100ah battery for a friend who wants to cold weather boondock camp. My understanding of the SOK is that it draws the...

Thanks!

I used the 400w blueprint on Will’s site for my own camper (I'm having a hard time inserting links without them all going to the beginning of my post). Based on this, I'm basically following it on my friend's camper. However, he has a smaller camper, a Lance truck camper, and the space fits 2...

I've mentioned in another thread that I'm helping a friend set up a Lance camper for a long term trip. For a number of reasons, we'd like to go with Lithium batteries. One of the things he'd like to do is run a microwave off of an inverter. The catch is that it seems like most 100ah batteries...

Sorry, but could you explain that further?

I've put a 400w solar system on my Class C RV broadly following the Will's blueprint for that setup. I have a small inverter that powers "external" devices. I'm also helping a friend put solar on his Lance slide-in truck camper. In both cases, we want to be able to use the microwave off of...

Is there a resource here that explains how to diy that? Or could you?

So you are saying that on a cold night, you just turn on the heat and leave it on?

Ok, but how do I check for function? I bought myself new panels because I was in a time crunch and couldn’t spend the time learning. But here I’m looking at minimum spend. Is it just lay it in the sun and look for volts and amps at some percentage of rated? Is there a ratio of each? How do I...

Yeah that would be nice, but he doesn’t have that info. I asked him what voltage he had and he didn’t know. I asked if he had a controller and his reply was “the little box? Yes.” He inherited the place from his grandfather who pieced it together over years, I’m guessing. It probably looked a...

I took my camper with my new 400 watt solar system on the road for the last week. It worked great and I’m mostly pleased (an issue for another day). However, I found out that the guy who owns the property where I surf in very rural Mexico was robbed of his solar panels and other things. He...

I had a similar question and response from SOK. In my case, their take on upgrading my charger was “why bother?”

The trickle charger got confused so I put the transformer on it while I went and got my multimeter. Looks like it did the trick. Thanks. And by the way, I opened it up and saw no obvious fuses. Just FYI

Yeah, it was his video on the SOK that convinced me to get it. What charger would wake the BMS out of a protect shut down? I'm happy to buy one if it's available locally. The ones I have on hand are: old-school transformer 12v chargers some Battery Tender brand trickle chargers The...

I was just wrapping up my solar install and my brother got careless with a wire and it sparked short and killed my new SOK 206ah LiFePO4 battery. It was installed and powering a CD player through a fuse block and inverter (thanks Will, for the wiring diagram!). When the wire hit the aluminum...

I ended up not going with strut channel. It was going to require a lot more holes in my roof. I decided to fabricate a full-span rack from 1” 16-ga square steel tubing. Having said that, I bought all the hardware from McMaster-Carr.

Wow. $600 is a bit pricey. As I reread the response from tech support, I see that he was not really suggesting I buy the wizard but instead suggesting that I buy the module that charges at a constant 14.6v. I’m still a little uncomfortable with understanding standing how these things operate...

I received an email response from their tech support line. Before I call them, I guess I need a bit more of a primer on the specifics of what charge profile is required for LiFeSO4 batteries. If you don’t feel like typing, pointing me to a good resource would be appreciated. But the net net...

That’s good to know, thanks. Have any specific brands or models you would recommend?

Absolutely! I’d planned on getting a new charger but thought I could buy the wizard instead. So I’m back to getting a charger. An inverter is also on my list, but farther down. I don’t have a lot of inverter needs so I’d probably just buy one that will power my microwave for occasional use...

I asked about the wizard compatibility with my charger and they didn’t answer that question but said this instead: “ Hello, You can add the PD9105 for charging lithium batteries. You will just have to remember to press the button each time you want to charge the lithium batteries. Each time...

It’s “secondary” in the sense that it’s not my majority use case. But that’s because my camper trips are really bifurcated into two really different types of trips. On the one hand, I go to Baja where I camp for a week or 10 days (sigh, the days of 2+ weeks are behind me) in remote places. No...

Great, thanks! I’ll look into the wizard. In any case, nothing needs to be done for the trip I have coming up. AC (generator or shore power) isn’t likely to be a big part of my power mix so it can just give me a few Ah if it’s cloudy.

Took me a while to get to it, but the charger is an Intellipower 9140A. Opinions on whether this is compatible with LiFeSO4?

I’ll go to the camper tomorrow so I’ll have a chance to see the model number then. To clarify: I’m not saying it has a 35 amp charger, I’m saying it has 30 amp shore power service. If the chargers were described by the input power, then it made no sense to spend an extra $100 for a 55 amp...

30 amps is the 110 service. But if it’s the output amps, then 55amps is no issue at all since 55 amps at 12v converts to 6 amps at 110.

I’m looking at AC to DC chargers to replace the one that’s in my ‘99 RV and I have a question about how they are labeled. Does a “35 amp” charger have 35 amps on the input (110) side or the output (12v) side? I ask because my camper has 30a service so it would make sense to save a few bucks by...

My last camper had a 64-watt panel wired through a $20 controller and feeding a 12v 80ah FLA battery through the fridge wiring. Our family of four including two small children did fine with that for a week in Baja only running the generator fir about a half hour in the middle to use the hand...

That’s fantastic. I was trying to remember the name of the product and couldn’t remember “strut channel.” I found it at McMaster-Carr in several thicknesses. It looks like I can get low profile (13/16”) up to high profile (3-1/4”) which should allow me to make them nearly level without buying...

That’s very interesting, thanks. You chose more holes but lower profile, it seems. Maybe I’ll reconsider my approach. Where did you get the strut channel and tilt brackets? Here are some snaps I took of the roof a few days back when I was trying to visualize the space. They aren’t very good...

My Jamboree Class C I’m working on to add solar has a crowned roof (about 4.5”) at the center with a flat section about 3” wide at each edge. After looking at various track systems with Yakima towers, I decided I’d be fiddling so much I might as well start from scratch and build crossbars that...

I was just writing up that I was reconsidering using that controller, thanks. It's only about $40 cheaper than buying two separate controllers, and as you say, it's kind of limiting. If I use a separate charge controller, I can run panels in series, raising my voltage, and probably saving that...

Thank you. If I need to buy a different controller because of alternator charging requirements, I’ll get a solar controller that can handle the volts. The Reonogy controller in the blueprint is limited on input volts. It’s a class c, so there’s a lot of room on the roof.