diy solar

diy solar

560ah 12v Battery with Clean, Modern Case

With a 3000 watt inverter on there, I would get a second 120A BMS, and split up the cells to 2 banks… you are limited to about 1500W with that BMS…
Wire feeding the inverter needs to be 4/0 copper, for 250A reliable draw.
 
Supervstech said:
With a 3000 watt inverter on there, I would get a second 120A BMS, and split up the cells to 2 banks… you are limited to about 1500W with that BMS…
Wire feeding the inverter needs to be 4/0 copper, for 250A reliable draw.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if there's some phrasing in Carson's post that would indicate a single BMS in contradiction of the pictures, but all the pictures that show the top of the pack clearly have two 120A BMS's.
 
Blackhat said:
Love the build. Very clean! Inspiration for sure as I'm considering a build to fit under the seats of my 4-Runner. The hacked up plastic cutting board is a great material source.

I think it's a shame the space savings of a DIY battery isn't discussed more. It's probably because most are using the low cost of the cells to build huge stationary banks that sit in a shed or utility room where space isn't critical. If that's your situation then buying a tote from Home Depot and throwing the cells in there works fine. But if you're handy with wood, metal or plastic you can use non-typical layouts that fit a huge amount of energy in a much smaller or oddly shaped space, and that can be a game changer in a vehicle build.
Click to expand...

Totally agree, most areas I see used for battery storage are larger than my vans ? the density of these layouts and being able to customize the setup for your own need is really the largest benefit, especially for those of us where every cubic foot counts!
 
Supervstech said:
With a 3000 watt inverter on there, I would get a second 120A BMS, and split up the cells to 2 banks… you are limited to about 1500W with that BMS…
Wire feeding the inverter needs to be 4/0 copper, for 250A reliable draw.
Click to expand...

I have 2 120a overkill solar BMSs for this exact reason ? I use all 4/0 cable to/from battery to Lynx distributor and to/from inverter from Lynx and just did a crimp test yesterday that held over 200 pounds (ran out of weights to test further). Milspec is ~400 I believe, so we should be good on both cables and crimps.
 
There is an ebay seller with 300A Class T Mersen A3T300 fuses and a fuse holder for $30 at the moment that shows hundreds have been sold, I bought one last month, it was a overall good, no box and perhaps some shelf wear, single stud on each side fuse holders, but I can't complain for the price. As a 300A class T fuse without holder sells for more than that from most online sources. The only flaw I saw on mine was the safety cover label was installed with the writing upside down. Shipping was a little slow, took nearly a week after payment before box was shipped from somewhere in California, return address suggests seller is in the Solar business..
 
Really like this. Just waiting for my cells to build.

I was going to use half in cabinet ply, but the 'starboard' material is really nice. We have a plastics outlet nearby that has that stuff in surplus, or cut sheets. It's all the rage for boats in lieu of plywood since it is impervious to everything water. Milling it is just like wood too. The aluminum angle is a given. Very nice setup.

I have to turn my cells on their side for the space they're going into, and I have just four for a 230A. I think the compression rods can go front and back and get me pretty close to the same place.

Instead of an acrylic cover, I was not going to mount anything to it and have it slide in or out for access, which for me would be the side instead of the top. And polycarbonate instead of acrylic.

Like. (y)
 
Isaac-1 said:
There is an ebay seller with 300A Class T Mersen A3T300 fuses and a fuse holder for $30 at the moment that shows hundreds have been sold, I bought one last month, it was a overall good, no box and perhaps some shelf wear, single stud on each side fuse holders, but I can't complain for the price. As a 300A class T fuse without holder sells for more than that from most online sources. The only flaw I saw on mine was the safety cover label was installed with the writing upside down. Shipping was a little slow, took nearly a week after payment before box was shipped from somewhere in California, return address suggests seller is in the Solar business..
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll take a look
 
Browneye said:
Really like this. Just waiting for my cells to build.

I was going to use half in cabinet ply, but the 'starboard' material is really nice. We have a plastics outlet nearby that has that stuff in surplus, or cut sheets. It's all the rage for boats in lieu of plywood since it is impervious to everything water. Milling it is just like wood too. The aluminum angle is a given. Very nice setup.

I have to turn my cells on their side for the space they're going into, and I have just four for a 230A. I think the compression rods can go front and back and get me pretty close to the same place.

Instead of an acrylic cover, I was not going to mount anything to it and have it slide in or out for access, which for me would be the side instead of the top. And polycarbonate instead of acrylic.

Like. (y)
Click to expand...

I really like the HDPE, the only problem is that bonding is far more difficult than wood. I used heavy duty picture, sanded both sides, and inserted screws, but am a bit curious to know if the epoxy really did anything (not sure I really want to stress rest this and
 
Browneye said:
Really like this. Just waiting for my cells to build.

I was going to use half in cabinet ply, but the 'starboard' material is really nice. We have a plastics outlet nearby that has that stuff in surplus, or cut sheets. It's all the rage for boats in lieu of plywood since it is impervious to everything water. Milling it is just like wood too. The aluminum angle is a given. Very nice setup.

I have to turn my cells on their side for the space they're going into, and I have just four for a 230A. I think the compression rods can go front and back and get me pretty close to the same place.

Instead of an acrylic cover, I was not going to mount anything to it and have it slide in or out for access, which for me would be the side instead of the top. And polycarbonate instead of acrylic.

Like. (y)
Click to expand...

Yeah, I wanted to use plywood too since it's so much easier to work with, but ended up going with HDPE for a few reasons. Only drawback is that joining them isn't as easy as wood, but the high strength loctite and screws seem to be holding up well.

I do think poly is better than acrylic for the case, so I like that for sure!
 
I would skip the glue - I don't think even epoxy sticks to that stuff. Mechanical fastening is fine, and you have your compression rods holding the sides together so the bottom isn't going anywhere and doesn't have stress unless you pick it up. I'm thinking the sides should fasten to the ends of the bottoms instead of the sides attaching to the tops of the bottom plate. Fasteners are much stronger in sheer. 1-1/2 #8 countersunk wood screws would work fine.

That starboard comes in other colors as well, there's even black. The white like you have, translucent white, ivory, and maybe gray and brown.
The white with the matching rod tubes and the blue cells looks fantastic. (y) I might do black just for variety.

It's common to mount a block of that board to the transom of a boat and then screw your transducers and speedo pickups and such to that. Easy to reposition or change that way, and you don't have a bunch of holes drilled thru your gelcoat. Bed in 3M 4200/5200 and a couple of counter sunk screws.

My current boat model used to be built with plywood bulkheads, now everything has Starboard. No dry rot! And it stays looking great.

I think you may have started a new trend! ?

EDIT: A quick search says the adhesive for hdpe board is Cyanoacrylate - super glue.

EDIT 2: I take that back - elsewhere it says the only adhesive that works with polypropylene based material is to weld it with heat. So mechanical fastening is the way to go for this application.
 
Browneye said:
I would skip the glue - I don't think even epoxy sticks to that stuff. Mechanical fastening is fine, and you have your compression rods holding the sides together so the bottom isn't going anywhere and doesn't have stress unless you pick it up. I'm thinking the sides should fasten to the ends of the bottoms instead of the sides attaching to the tops of the bottom plate. Fasteners are much stronger in sheer. 1-1/2 #8 countersunk wood screws would work fine.

That starboard comes in other colors as well, there's even black. The white like you have, translucent white, ivory, and maybe gray and brown.
The white with the matching rod tubes and the blue cells looks fantastic. (y) I might do black just for variety.

It's common to mount a block of that board to the transom of a boat and then screw your transducers and speedo pickups and such to that. Easy to reposition or change that way, and you don't have a bunch of holes drilled thru your gelcoat. Bed in 3M 4200/5200 and a couple of counter sunk screws.

My current boat model used to be built with plywood bulkheads, now everything has Starboard. No dry rot! And it stays looking great.

I think you may have started a new trend! ?

EDIT: A quick search says the adhesive for hdpe board is Cyanoacrylate - super glue.

EDIT 2: I take that back - elsewhere it says the only adhesive that works with polypropylene based material is to weld it with heat. So mechanical fastening is the way to go for this application.
Click to expand...
Yeah, my loctite contact said it should work, but not sure it really will. I used #8 wood screws like your recommend and actually, to your point, I was able to mostly pick it up without a base because of the compression so the mechanical screws will be more than enough.

I love the Battleborn blue/white and the eve cells were already blue, so figured id stick with the white ? definitely like how vibrant the HDPE is and the waterproof material is a big plus for me as campervans are high moisture, even more so in the PNW.
 
Blackhat said:
Could you elaborate on those "few reasons"?
Click to expand...

Mostly the look and the fact that it's waterproof. There may be some benefit in the fact that it's not completely rigid (so you don't overcompress), but saying that definitively would be me thinking I know more than I actually do.

I'm in the PNW and my vans definitely get humid. I do a lot to mitigate humidity (dry heater and 2 fans for ventilation), but still see quite a bit of expansion/contraction in the wet Winters and dry summers.
 
Carson - Vanlife Rentals said:
? I'll add a fuse to my positive terminal and it will be enclosed in a cabinet. I'll post a picture of the installed system, likely this weekend.

Do you have any recommendations for fuses?

I used a blue sea systems block fuse in one of my systems and it failed. It created so much resistance that it started to melt and cause a large voltage drop, tripping the inverter any time you used >1800w of power. I swapped to a Mega fuse, but it's further from the battery terminal than I'd like (~12 inches). Does the distance really matter?
Click to expand...
Any rule indicates 7 inches or less from the positive battery terminal. Any electrical engineer I have met says only use Class T fuses on lithium battery banks. https://www.bluesea.com/products/category/16/73/Fuse_Blocks/Class_T_Fuse_Blocks
Most online marine supply and also Amazon has lots of Blue Sea at most lower cost than MSRP.
 
As I commented up-thread, this is a super nice way to construct a DIY pack. I took design cues and adapted it for my project.
I have a low space where the pack installs - 10 1/4" clearance and my pack is 10" tall. So instead of the bms on top it's on the front. For the compression rod covers I used 1/2" acrylic tube, and the clear cover and bms mount are 3/16 lexan. It's much harder to work with lexan compared to acrylic, but it's way more durable and doesn't crack when you put screws through it to mount it.

Elsewhere on the forum someone commented that they didn't like the bms on the top clear panel and that it would sag. Oh well, I still like it and I'm sure it works great. OP was going to post the final installation. I also ran the sides down and fastened into the bottom panel instead of on top of it. With the compression rods cinched up it's rock solid.

Here's my iteration, did a 12-hour building project yesterday. Very pleased with how the materials went together and it works just killer:







Installed and working:

 
Browneye said:
As I commented up-thread, this is a super nice way to construct a DIY pack. I took design cues and adapted it for my project.
I have a low space where the pack installs - 10 1/4" clearance and my pack is 10" tall. So instead of the bms on top it's on the front. For the compression rod covers I used 1/2" acrylic tube, and the clear cover and bms mount are 3/16 lexan. It's much harder to work with lexan compared to acrylic, but it's way more durable and doesn't crack when you put screws through it to mount it.

Elsewhere on the forum someone commented that they didn't like the bms on the top clear panel and that it would sag. Oh well, I still like it and I'm sure it works great. OP was going to post the final installation. I also ran the sides down and fastened into the bottom panel instead of on top of it. With the compression rods cinched up it's rock solid.

Here's my iteration, did a 12-hour building project yesterday. Very pleased with how the materials went together and it works just killer:







Installed and working:

Click to expand...

I love this build. The BMS on the front is a great idea and it looks really clean!

I'm still waiting on my T Block fuse before posting the final setup, but it's great to see the design is working for you!
 
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