Took me long enough, but I'm finally (almost) finished with this battery box. It's a little simpler than the ones Powerwerx sells, but I wanted fewer features, and to wire it a little differently too.
Some things to keep in mind (which I have learned, and hope to not forget):
- Be aware of the thickness of the material. The switch I ordered was designed for a thin metal panel mount, and I didn't consider this, so had to do some creative plastic sculpting. Also, the 5.5mm power jack you see isn't fastened on, again, because the box wall is too thick.
- The Miady battery spec sheet identified a F2 Faston terminal. These are the ubiquitous 1/4" tabs you see on all manner of things, such as UPS batteries. The battery actually has F1 terminals, which are 3/16"
- The switch I ordered also has F1 terminals, and I admit I didn't even look at the specs, if there were any for that.
- The switch I ordered was billed as a 10A switch, but came with 18ga pigtails.
- I hadn't though much about this, especially considering what I see in vehicle wiring, but the current capacity of stranded wire is apparently lower than solid:
I still have a few things to finish.
- Some foam pieces or something to secure the battery physically
- Some way to secure the 5.5mm charging port - probably drill the hole larger, and make a metal plate to screw on for the jack to mount to
But, initial testing shows all good. Haven't yet put a load on it, or charged it with solar, but that's for another time. Need to run some things a bit to discharge the battery so I can test the solar. Also, you can't see it, but the V/A meter has a USB port, QC3.0 spec - it's fused at 3A. The whole box is protected by a 10A circuit breaker. The box itself is an Apache 1800 from Harbor Freight. I wish that size came in colors other than black.
The wire connectors you see are Wago levernuts. Nifty product.
