Trying to figure out which cable I need for portable solar panel/extension

[Sozo]

Hello all,

I have just purchased a OOTouch 100w solar panel and Jackery 500 powerstation, the issue I am facing is that the solar panel came with a DC 5521 cable, male to male with a bunch of adapters. which is great. The correct adapter is with it but this DC5521 cable is only 3 feet long so the powerstation always has to be right there with the panel.
That is not great, it's just too short so i need a 30 foot extension cord but am having a hard time finding one.
It seems a straight male to male cable longer than 3ft doesnt exist for some reason, so I am just trying to figure it.
The Jackery 500 has an 8mm connector, the panel a DC 2.1mm but I cant seem to find a long one of those either.
Does anyone have any pointers?
Thank you,
Sozo

 

[Tomthumb62]

Are you comfortable cutting and splicing wire? Very easy to do with minimal tools. That way you can just buy some pure copper 12 AWG wire, cut the existing cord in half, splice in the wire extension and you're in business.

Got a photo of the DC 5521 cable?

 

[Sozo]

Hi Tomthumb62,

Thank you, I got it figured.
New to solar, little experience with electrical to boot
I found the cable on Amazon, t's just a little confusing to a newcomer with the adapter sizings and nomenclature. As well my panel is on the cheaper end of the spectrum with only DC out and port charging outlets for small electronics.
A straight DC male to male 5521 longer than 3 ft though, try and find that if you want an exercise in futility, or learn to crimp and cut as you suggest
Thanks!
Sozo

 

[Tomthumb62]

I just finished version 2.0 of our small solar system in our small camp trailer. 400W solar + 2500Wh of battery, to power a mid-size apartment fridge and a few smaller things. What I learned was a LOT about crimping and cutting wire. It became really fun. I particularly enjoyed crimping on non-insulated butt splices and heat-shrinking over them. Anyways, it just created this sense of freedom of connecting wires all over the place. But in your situation, yeah, if I found the exact cable I needed online and it wasn't stupid expensive, I'd probably just rather buy it pre-made than anything.

Last thing on crimping. We added two more 100W solar panels to our camper roof and after solar system 1.0, I wanted some tidier cable management on the roof. I looked at buying pre-made MC4 cables but 1) they were all too long or too short and 2) I did the maths and it was actually cheaper to buy the cheapo MC4 crimp tool, some 10AWG PV cable and some MC4 connectors than to buy cables that would be too long anyways. The $15 crimp tool (the 'genuine' tool is over $350USD) worked just fine and after watching a video on how to make them, even the very first crimp came out perfect. And the perfect-length cables look really nice on the roof, even though the only people who will see it are truck drivers or people walking across an overpass, lol.