Maybe I missed it, but I haven't seen a thread covering this specific topic, which seems pretty unlikely.
I bought a 70 Mai, Tera 1000, portable power station. It checked most of the boxes for my specific use case and should be delivered in the next month or so, if all goes well. It supports pass-through charging, as long as you're not using the "fast charge" AC option. You can use the AC inverter while charging with solar. (I also have a smaller Energizer 240 PPS, for charging small electronic devices.)
My question stems from the way I have seen a lot of guys, including Will, test the solar input on these types of devices. They will frequently plug a variable power supply or the output of another unit into the "solar" input, verifying the charging specifications. My guess is testing is done this way for convenience sake and to remove the variability of cloudy days when using actual solar panels. The solar input is rated at 200w, using MC4 to Anderson connections. It also supports 12v charging through an 8mm plug.
I would like to use an external battery, plugged into either the solar or 12v input, to extend the capacity of the unit. Is there any trick to doing this? The external battery is a 12v, 60ah, LiFePO4. It has its own BMS and the output is an XT60, which I know is overkill for this application, but it's what I had on-hand. Can I just connect a cable from the XT60 to either the Anderson or 8mm port? My thinking is the unit will process this as "solar" power, either passing it through or charging up the internal battery, if it's low. Does this make sense or am I missing something?
I keep seeing more commercial products with expandable battery systems, but they seem to be pretty expensive. The 60ah battery I built is from repurposed E-bike batteries and was a lot of fun to build. I'd just like to put it to use and I'm hoping this is a safe way to do it.
I bought a 70 Mai, Tera 1000, portable power station. It checked most of the boxes for my specific use case and should be delivered in the next month or so, if all goes well. It supports pass-through charging, as long as you're not using the "fast charge" AC option. You can use the AC inverter while charging with solar. (I also have a smaller Energizer 240 PPS, for charging small electronic devices.)
My question stems from the way I have seen a lot of guys, including Will, test the solar input on these types of devices. They will frequently plug a variable power supply or the output of another unit into the "solar" input, verifying the charging specifications. My guess is testing is done this way for convenience sake and to remove the variability of cloudy days when using actual solar panels. The solar input is rated at 200w, using MC4 to Anderson connections. It also supports 12v charging through an 8mm plug.
I would like to use an external battery, plugged into either the solar or 12v input, to extend the capacity of the unit. Is there any trick to doing this? The external battery is a 12v, 60ah, LiFePO4. It has its own BMS and the output is an XT60, which I know is overkill for this application, but it's what I had on-hand. Can I just connect a cable from the XT60 to either the Anderson or 8mm port? My thinking is the unit will process this as "solar" power, either passing it through or charging up the internal battery, if it's low. Does this make sense or am I missing something?
I keep seeing more commercial products with expandable battery systems, but they seem to be pretty expensive. The 60ah battery I built is from repurposed E-bike batteries and was a lot of fun to build. I'd just like to put it to use and I'm hoping this is a safe way to do it.
