Rednecktek
Solar Wizard
So the party speaker here on the ship has had a little too much fresh salt air and 40 degree rolls and finally died. I've got a cheesy backup speaker that works OK but it has a couple problems and I was thinking about upgrading it a bit. Having never worked with 18650's before, I figure I should double check my thoughts before I start trying to ship stuff to Guam.
The speaker has a pair of 18650's in parallel inside that power everything. They last almost 20 minutes... My thought was to get a half dozen 3Ah or so cells and spot weld them together in parallel and strap that pack into the existing wiring. I think I have an old Milwakee battery that's got a busted housing I can salvage the cells from in the shop... As I understand it as long as I'm going parallel I could have a zillion cells without needing a BMS of any kind. Some nickel strip and a little spot welder should be all I need, right?
Second question; the USB charging port on this thing is borked. You have to hold the cable draped just the right way with your tongue sideways and facing widdershins to the wind to get it to charge. Even if I got that stable, charging the larger battery pack via USB would take weeks. I was thinking of getting a converter to go from the ship's 220v AC to the charging voltage of the 18650's, but 1: I have no idea what I'm looking for and 2: I have no idea what voltage I should set it for. Any suggestions? I'm looking for something cheap as it's going to die a salty death before too long I'm sure. Amazon links preferred as they will send stuff to Guam.
Thoughts? Tips? Am I smoking crack?
The speaker has a pair of 18650's in parallel inside that power everything. They last almost 20 minutes... My thought was to get a half dozen 3Ah or so cells and spot weld them together in parallel and strap that pack into the existing wiring. I think I have an old Milwakee battery that's got a busted housing I can salvage the cells from in the shop... As I understand it as long as I'm going parallel I could have a zillion cells without needing a BMS of any kind. Some nickel strip and a little spot welder should be all I need, right?
Second question; the USB charging port on this thing is borked. You have to hold the cable draped just the right way with your tongue sideways and facing widdershins to the wind to get it to charge. Even if I got that stable, charging the larger battery pack via USB would take weeks. I was thinking of getting a converter to go from the ship's 220v AC to the charging voltage of the 18650's, but 1: I have no idea what I'm looking for and 2: I have no idea what voltage I should set it for. Any suggestions? I'm looking for something cheap as it's going to die a salty death before too long I'm sure. Amazon links preferred as they will send stuff to Guam.
Thoughts? Tips? Am I smoking crack?
