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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.

Nice job! I need to get some of those Wago lever nuts. I am building a very similar box, if I would have known I would showed you my progress when you were here. I was planning on using some inline fuses I already have, but that circuit breaker is pretty slick.

I am starting with a sealed lead acid 10A (it was free and works), but have plans to go to a Lifepo4 10A of the same dimensions if it works as I expect it will. I made sure my charge controller will work with a Lifepo4. I am using a HF ammo can and I think I got the same wimpy switches you did. I was shocked to see 10A rate switches with those pathetic little wires on them. I 3d printed the panel itself as well as the PowerPole panel mounts. I also 3d printed some LED sockets for area lighting and have a small inverter that I can plug into the PowerPole outlets if needed. I have a ton of foam of various thicknesses if you need some.

Thanks for the offer on the foam - I have a collection myself. :)

I got a grab bag of Wagos from Amazon; much better than buying 10-packs from Home Depot. I can drop the bag by some time, and if you're not there, just leave it on the porch. Maybe on my way back from Mark's. Take what you want, and I'll get it back from you some time.

I sure want a 3D printer. No place here where I can put one, without moving a bunch of stuff around. Another friend has a Prusa, so he'll print stuff for me, but I'd rather do it myself. Same friend has offered me the loan of a Matterhacker unit - his old one he's no longer using. Again, no spot for it here. Sigh!

I got the circuit breaker from Mouser.

The Powerwerx boxes use a 15A breaker / switch combo, which I have the PN for somewhere. I salvaged one out of a busted power strip, but decided that circular holes were going to be so much easier to make. Hmm, maybe it ain't the same switch. But I think in this case, AC vs. DC doesn't matter. Maybe the illuminated part matters though.

Boy, did I mess up! It should've been obvious to me from seeing only 2 terminals on the V/A meter w/ USB port, that it couldn't be measuring the current draw for the whole system. I was just thinking about how convenient it'd be to have that 5V power source. And, I should've read the review too. Well, I suppose at some point I'll have to add the V/A/A-hr inline monitor. But that'll just have to wait. In the mean time, I'll measure and note the current draw on the FT-100D and find a max wattage I can use. Sheesh! Cumulative A-hr, is a better thing to know anyway. (Always look on the bright side of life!)

A solar charge controller may provide the info you are looking for, if not, these things provide a TON of info in battery boxes like the ones we have built. Watch K8MRD's YouTube video on all the things this meter can do and it's fairly cheap. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FN3VXH4/?coliid=I92AEN13XPMMS&colid=2S8ZYONFHTX5W&psc=1&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Awesome projects guys. I'd like to build a similar one myself; i've got pretty much everything I need other than the nifty circuit breaker / display / etc.?

Speaking of solar charge controllers, I had a bad experience with one that I bought. It was a cheap PWM unit that cost around $25 on Amazon. While it worked fine, the amount of noise that it generated made it impossible to use my radio at the same time that it was running...even 20 feet away. I wound up selling it as I realized that since my LiFePo4 battery has a charge controller built in, it can take the output from my solar panel directly. My panel is a small 50-watt unit that folds up in a 10"x8"x2.5" pack and outputs 19/14.4 and 5 VDC.??

I also picked up an Anker "Powerhouse II" solar generator that has a 100Ah LiFePo4 battery built in. It outputs 12VDC, has several USB outputs (including USB-C), and also has a 300W 120VAC inverter. It can also take the 19VDC output from my solar panel directly. This is my go-to unit for field day.?

73,

Mark

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Mark Ehr | K0EHR

VP, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club
Littleton, Colorado

k0ehr@...
Check out my ham radio blog:

Corey, thanks for the Spartan suggestion. I'll check out Mike's review - I watch a lot of his stuff. I'm a little put off by their inclusion of at best 18ga wire with the "100A" unit, so I wonder what the terminals are capable of. At least the Powerwerx "small" unit comes with 12ga wire, and you don't have to wire up the shunt yourself. Still, I'll look at it.

Mark, I don't think the Miady batteries come with a solar charge controller. Jeremiah - N0KMO told me this as well, but there's nothing in the spec sheets indicating that such is the case. I'm sure it has a battery management board inside the case, but with a specified charge voltage of 14.6VDC, I wouldn't hook direct to a solar panel output. If your portable panel has regulated 14.4V out, that's cool. Yeah, I think it'd be very difficult to get a PWM unit to be radio quiet - just the nature of the beast. I suppose it's be possible to manage the pulse frequency to keep it away from the ham bands, but even there, a square wave, harmonically, is a combination of a bunch of sine waves of different frequencies, so, that's a tough job. With a good PWM controller, running off the "LOAD" terminals and not hooked to the battery, with good shielding and filtering, that's got a better chance.

I have the Powerwerx https://powerwerx.com/mppt-150w-solar-charge-controller charge controller. It's MPPT, so I'm expecting it to be quiet. Guess I'll find out. So, it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a more expensive unit.

Hmm, looking again, I see I need to be careful when using that solar charge controller, and not plug it into the barrel jack, but rather into the 2nd Powerpole connector, since that barrel jack can't take 10A for sure. I sized that based on the AC LifePo4 charger I got for home charging.