mberding
New Member
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2019
- Messages
- 73
I'm building a tiny LiFePO4 battery bank with some 12v outlets, USB outlets, and a voltmeter. Basically an over-sized USB battery bank.
To charge the batteries, I found a nifty buck/boost converter that would take anything from 8v to 40v (dc) and convert it to 13.8v DC. This will almost fully charge my battery, and for my purposes, that's close enough. It's supposed to be limited to 10 amps going to the battery. That's a nice slow charge on my 100ah bank, so we're all good there.
I got everything assembled today, and started testing. And that's where the problems started.
Since the output of this buck/boost converter is 10amps (to the battery) and a variable voltage input, I figured it would work great for charging from other DC sources, like a car's cigarette lighter output. To that end, I purchased a 12v male cigarette to 12v male cigarette cable. After having it hooked up to RV charger I had laying around for a few minutes, the internal fuse burned up inside the cable. I was able to put an amp meter around the wire before it blew, and I saw it was pushing 17 amps. 17 amps?!? I thought this thing was supposed to be limited to 10?
I was using some less-than-stellar wiring for my socket-to-socket connection, so I upgraded the wiring and replaced the fuse. Tried it again. Once again, 17 amps, fuse blown, and this time it took one end of the 12v male plug with it.
Here's a link to the product that's over-performing and causing the issues: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WFMG11F
I figured that since it was limited to 10 amps, (138 watts maximum), then I could use standard 15-amp cigarette plugs, and it'd all work great. That's not happening.
Does anyone know why it's going well over its rated 10 amps? Any suggestions for a replacement product?
What I'd really like is something that can take a (12v-nominal) solar panel, or another battery, or a car's cig outlet as a source, convert it to something reasonable for LiFePO4, and not have any buttons/settings/adjustments that could get screwed up.
I've attached a photo or two of my little build to help show what I'm talking about.
Thanks.
To charge the batteries, I found a nifty buck/boost converter that would take anything from 8v to 40v (dc) and convert it to 13.8v DC. This will almost fully charge my battery, and for my purposes, that's close enough. It's supposed to be limited to 10 amps going to the battery. That's a nice slow charge on my 100ah bank, so we're all good there.
I got everything assembled today, and started testing. And that's where the problems started.
Since the output of this buck/boost converter is 10amps (to the battery) and a variable voltage input, I figured it would work great for charging from other DC sources, like a car's cigarette lighter output. To that end, I purchased a 12v male cigarette to 12v male cigarette cable. After having it hooked up to RV charger I had laying around for a few minutes, the internal fuse burned up inside the cable. I was able to put an amp meter around the wire before it blew, and I saw it was pushing 17 amps. 17 amps?!? I thought this thing was supposed to be limited to 10?
I was using some less-than-stellar wiring for my socket-to-socket connection, so I upgraded the wiring and replaced the fuse. Tried it again. Once again, 17 amps, fuse blown, and this time it took one end of the 12v male plug with it.
Here's a link to the product that's over-performing and causing the issues: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WFMG11F
I figured that since it was limited to 10 amps, (138 watts maximum), then I could use standard 15-amp cigarette plugs, and it'd all work great. That's not happening.
Does anyone know why it's going well over its rated 10 amps? Any suggestions for a replacement product?
What I'd really like is something that can take a (12v-nominal) solar panel, or another battery, or a car's cig outlet as a source, convert it to something reasonable for LiFePO4, and not have any buttons/settings/adjustments that could get screwed up.
I've attached a photo or two of my little build to help show what I'm talking about.
Thanks.
