Elegant way to pre-charge between 2 Anderson connectors?

[kolek]

I was planning on not having a switch on my battery, and just unplugging it using an Anderson connector when I need to disconnect it.

But I still need a precharging circuit.

Someone should sell a pre-charge connector for Anderson connectors, but since they don't, what's an elegant way to handle it, or do I just need to build a switch with a pre-charge circuit?

 

[hwy17]

How about a tiny parallel anderson connector that connects through a light bulb or resistor, and you connect the tiny anderson before the big one.

 

[kolek]

How about a tiny parallel anderson connector that connects through a light bulb or resistor, and you connect the tiny anderson before the big one.

Interesting idea but I'm having trouble visualizing that.

 

[wpns]

Interesting idea but I'm having trouble visualizing that.

One Anderson with a resistor in parallel with another without a resistor. Plug the first one in, wait a second, plug the second one in.

 

[kolek]

One Anderson with a resistor in parallel with another without a resistor. Plug the first one in, wait a second, plug the second one in.

You lost me at "One Anderson with a resistor"
How?
I understand I need to put a resistor in between the 2 connectors first, I'm looking for an elegant way of doing it.

 

[wpns]

Two Anderson connectors in parallel on each side.
One has a resistor in series with the positive lead.
Plug that one in first.
Once the recharge time has elapsed, plug in the other one.

 

[Mattb4]

Since you do not want to plug or unplug under load you really need a circuit disconnect on one side or the other. This disconnect/breaker can have a pre-charge setup. I built a simple momentary toggle switch with a 48vDC forklift bulb for my system.

 

[hwy17]

Adorable little precharge andersons.

 

[sunsurfer]

I usually just use a test light to charge the caps slowly when making the second connection. Test light is nice cause you can see the caps filling up as the light goes dim. The anderson does pose a small problem when hooking both up at once. I would just add a jumper to one then us the test light to charge the caps on the other terminal.

 

[kolek]

What I don't get is why nobody sells plug & play pre-charge things that can just be thrown inline and they work.

I got enough headaches with this DIY battery nightmare without having yet another circuit to worry about. Every additional hurdle like this costs me a freakin' week because I have to go and search out and then order parts online, and I'm in Japan so half the time I can't find what I want easily, even though it seems like everything is readily available on amazon dot com in the U.S.

I'm really just not qualified to be doing this nonsense in the first place.

 

[kolek]

View attachment 206037
Adorable little precharge andersons.

Are these really specifically for pre-charging?
Almost for sure they're not available in Japan, seems like virtually nobody doing DIY solar here.

 

[Will Prowse]

What I don't get is why nobody sells plug & play pre-charge things that can just be thrown inline and they work.

I got enough headaches with this DIY battery nightmare without having yet another circuit to worry about. Every additional hurdle like this costs me a freakin' week because I have to go and search out and then order parts online, and I'm in Japan so half the time I can't find what I want easily, even though it seems like everything is readily available on amazon dot com in the U.S.

I'm really just not qualified to be doing this nonsense in the first place.

Just buy a $1 resistor and skip this Anderson thing and disconnect the main battery cable, plug in Anderson and then use resistor between the main cable and battery terminals. Takes about twenty seconds and $1.

 

[Will Prowse]

Like this:

 

[JoeHam]

This is what I made years ago for Anderson SB50’s.

One side is a resistor, the other is just a piece of wire appropriately spaced and secured to a piece of scrap wood.

Just hold the APP connectors on each side for a bit and then plug them together.

Aint pretty but it works .

 

[JoeHam]

I’ve got a half dozen of these things laying round so one is always handy and I’m out about $15 total amongst all of them.

Here is the resistor I used :

Amazon.com: YiePhiot 2PCS 50W 25 Ohm Resistor Aluminum Case Wirewound Chassis Mounted Compatible with Ring Doorbell, Nest Hello Doorbell, SkyBell Doorbell Etc : Industrial & Scientific

Amazon.com: YiePhiot 2PCS 50W 25 Ohm Resistor Aluminum Case Wirewound Chassis Mounted Compatible with Ring Doorbell, Nest Hello Doorbell, SkyBell Doorbell Etc : Industrial & Scientific

www.amazon.com

It’s a low DIY hurdle to clear

 

[bolhuijo]

You don't need to source a tiny Anderson connector for the precharge part, a much smaller DC connector stolen from any RC car/drone battery would do the trick too.

 

[740GLE]

What are the Anderson’s connected to? Can you do precharging at some other terminal?

 

[hwy17]

You don't need to source a tiny Anderson connector for the precharge part, a much smaller DC connector stolen from any RC car/drone battery would do the trick too.

Ah, but remember OP specified elegant. The tiny Anderson is an elegantly appropriate helper to the big Anderson.

 

[time2roll]

Put alligator clips on a resistor to initially connect the power. After 10 seconds remove the resistor and connect the Andersons direct.

Put everything on a board if you want elegant.

 

[740GLE]

Do people notice continued power consumption with the inverter off?

When powering up my MPII with a bench top supply, with the MPII off it had zero watts consumption.

Do other larger inverters do the same? Or do AIO always have some sort of minor load due to MPPT or bits and pieces?