Charging an EV for $0 (Anker 757 PowerHouse)

Energy prices are skyrocketing and I don't want to pay this so I combined the The Anker power pack wit my small solar panels to recharge my electric car for free. It's automated now without voiding the warranty to cycle charge it bit by bit.
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0:00 Intro
1:00 Charging from grid tie
3:05 Battery to EV
3:55 Solar to battery
5:48 The plan
7:14 Making a microcontroller
8:18 LDR display detection and actuators
9:35 Prototype success
10:37 Review: Testing all my tools
11:56 Uninterruptable Power supply mode
12:50 Final test: Solar to Battery to EV cycle
13:43 kthxbye
#electronics #maker #PowerStation, #AnkerPowerHouse

[@renemitb]

The Döner Grill was my Favorite Part of the Video 😂

[@johboh]

Nice! Automating things that are not intended to be automated is such a satisfying feeling 😊

[@vencdee]

But it's strange that such multi-function powerbank has no USB or Ethernet control port, or at least BLE Bluetooth control...

[@TecSanento]

You miss understand something: the 600 W Limit counts only for what you insert into the grid, not the amount you directly use inside your home :))

[@norgtube]

30V max on the MPPT is really, really limiting.

[@nyeleskettes]

And this is what you get for 1800eur :D

[@aaron41]

It's not like they're gonna sell a consumer product where people can put their fingers next to a 400v string 😬. I'm not too mad at these types of products offering weak solar inputs because realistically the alternative is no solar input, or a non-portable installation.

[@TecSanento]

@@aaron41 yeah, but 50V will support most of the regular panels and won't kill you either

[@Smooj]

That mini hot plate soldering station blew my mind!😮

[@pete3897]

Have you not seen Julian Ilett's home built Arduino EVSE project? The spec allows you to dial down the current quite low by changing resistors on the pilot signal line. You should watch his videos - maybe your car can be requested to go down to 2A after all :)

[@BRUXXUS]

Oh wow. I love the automation workaround! It’s extremely BitLuni style!

[@mancostation]

now i want a link for the "dinner grill" for camping

[@Miata822]

Very clever solution to a problem I have pondered. Thanks for posting.

[@electronics.unmessed]

Good and mind provoking ideas to think more about sustainable energy use.

[@LeoDDJ]

Haha, I always love the chaotic energy in your videos :D Also: Great project, I like the idea ^^

[@ch94086]

Seems like you want to limit the charge state to 70-30% or even 60-40 so you don't use up the cycle life of the battery. If it's LFP chemistry, maybe you have more cycles .

[@CamFlyerCH]

Good to see that this PowerBank is very good as an UPS. This could be a nice Dual-Use Case (while not using in as a portable unit).

[@fkiesel9442]

Since the power ist converted to DC to charge the battery and then converted back to AC, the efficiency is probably pretty bad for this uses case.

[@CamFlyerCH]

@@fkiesel9442 I did not think at that, but you are probably right. I can imagine that some UPS do that too instead of a bypass via relay.

[@vencdee]

​@@fkiesel9442 Using normal MPPT solar panel regulator with AC output, in conjunction with stronger Lead battery pack would give better results for much less money... and no workaround would be needed. Today's MPPTs units have usually both ETH/BLE(or IOT) control available, so remote automation is much easier ;-)

[@typxxilps]

Be carefull with all these units cause they mostly have a simple issue: a questionable warranty and repair shop plus no specs nor details about the manufacturer of the cells in side, I mean brand and modelnumber of the cells. The make profits by cutting costs using cheap, non branded or even used cells inside where you can not get behind. Bluetti, Poweroak and Ecoflow are all the same, some even still LiIon, which can burn, not LFP as many assumed. We had Bluetti and Poweroak with a lot of issues till they died after 1 year and a nightmare of troubles during corona and only Amazon solved the issue to force the seller to take it back. Without we would have been screwed, fully. The one we could not return has to be sold on ebay for 10% of the value cause there was no battery replacement available nor BMS back then. It is useless as an emergency charges cause germany offers every where a lot faster and cheaper chargers along the road are available. Good experiment but pretty expensive if you do the math cycles of the cells x capacity which might end up in a fortune. This one is a LFP cell with 3000 cycles claimed x 1,2 kWh = 3600 kWh without losses. This means that for 1700€ you pay 0,50 € for each kWh without the solar panels needed. For comparison: you get a 8 kWh LFP battery for 1400€ and for 250€ a dedicaded off grid invervter that beats this one if you build it on your own and for your needs like the whole USB whatever dilemma. 8 kWh would mean for the e-Up a 50 km range, if you really wanna carry such system with you , I mean the Anker weight is about 25 kg and quite a big chunk of 46 cm x 30 x c 25 cm. I would get such only if you have usecase like charing over day the battery and charge the car over night. Not so efficient but you get a quite powerfull charging hub at home for about 2000€ that can charge your car with 8 kWh each evening if you have a 2 kWp solarpanel for about 2 / 3 days of the year where 2 kWp panels are about 800 - 1.000€. Remember 8 kWh are roughly 40 to 60 km range per day for free, so 250 to 350 km range per week. I would think that you can charge your car with such 8 kWh offgrid charger and also run during daylight your fridge and router from the 2 kWp which usually brings 2000 kWh a year and 14 kWh per day peak, but only very few days. Such a DIY 8 kWh offgird mobile solar charger also useable for other devices at home with 2 kWp on the roof or garage or in the garden would make much more sense than just a mobile charger for 1700€ - but that depends on your living situation. 2 kWp is a lot for a car and the home, so in total 2500€ if you have a bit of luck. We paid for the EA sun about 300€. So i hope you might just design such project on paper what would be needed as a full alternative to make people think that it is possible to get such solution without any bureaucracy especially in germany , a diy solar power charging station - but do not forget that this design delivers 15 kWh in long summer days but about just 1 or 2 kWh on short winter days, but from february onwards mood raises and solar power harvest too. So December and January will require additional chargers than this.

[@alexcrisara4902]

So envious of euro plugs - much better than what we have in America! Always cool to see a slick automation setup! Have you considered load-balancing 2-3 of these to ensure you're capturing as much energy from the sun as possible at peak hours?

[@rwiersema]

OMG a personal doner grill. I didn't know I needed one until just now

[@ChunkySteveo]

Brilliant Bitluni!!! 👏🏻 portable donner grill too!!

[@IngoHerges]

You can limit the charge rate in the car app to 5A! On my VW E Up it's in the Maps and more app on your phone

[@HandFromCoffin]

When ever they make me go back into the office I'm gonna get one of these and chart it at work and take it home at night :) But I don't think you'd ever break even with battery degrading..

[@bastian433]

€1,10 per KWh for new contracts here, and €0,39 per kwh of gas (3,81 / m³) completely insane. €1700 for just 1,23 kwh power storage is also not that great, but hey it was sponsored I guess. on the other hand: 1,23 kwh is far better then possibly nothing at all this winter. power rarely fails here as well, but this winter I won't be surprised if we will get those. If I had a place to put solar panels etc. I would be building probably something "Off-Grid Garage" style. I do like the automation of the buttons 🙂

[@TecSanento]

We bought ourself a whole house capable battery that even supports island mode :D should get us 3 days of independence :D

[@bradrickrobinson7452]

Thanks for sharing!!!💥

[@larcomj]

I think this video helps you understand how big car batteries are...... Can run a house multiple days with your car

[@arduinozone6034]

We are using solar in the Sri lanka too because our government interrupt the power 1-3hours per day. At 4months before they cut the power 8-13hours per day 😅

[@prob17]

Thanks for the interesting article. Can you share the design of the printed actuators?

[@internet155]

You can get some grid tie inverters that measure the current going out to the grid. If you load up one of those with solar you should be able to power the whole house and car without exporting any power to keep you within the 600w limit.

[@basiljackson3829]

I too wanted to use more panels to charge my similar power bank. Same problem, two panels in series is too high of a voltage. Put the panels in parallel and the voltage is too low during non-peak sun. My solution was to attach the panels to a Victron MPPT which has a separate load output. I also attached a couple AGM batteries. The panels keep the AGM carge, even when the car isn't attached. The Victron will cut the load off to prevent deep discharge of the batteries. The load of the Victron is connected to the input of the power bank (instead of connecting the panels directly). Results: I can run more panels without overpowering the power bank, the power bank has additional reserve power because of the AGM, and the entire system is more effivient because it stores more energy and works during both peak sun as well as low sun. Couldn't be happier. Now, I'll build your circuit to charge my E-Vehicle too!

[@getyerspn]

Love this project , if you don't use you're car every day it can give useful range... excellent.

[@maicod]

enjoyed watching !

[@ESCcrasci]

Infinite loop of device charging and discharging with the esp has been achieved by powering the mcu with the device its helping to charge. Sweet.

[@codebeat4192]

Not the most efficient way of doing this but hey it works! I love the automation feature. I will try this LDR solution with LED displays. Cool.

[@H3wastooshort]

To fix the 36V issue, how about a 30-ish volt power zener diode? The MPPT controller would probably pull the panel voltage down enough

[@aaron41]

At 10A, that diode would have to dissapate about 60w. A switching converter can be much more efficient.

[@eDoc2020]

@@aaron41 The diode will only dissipate power when the MPPT is not charging. When it turns on it will quickly see that it can extract more power when the output is pulled a bit below the zener voltage.

[@wavesnowaves]

Great video! Does this mean that the outlets on the Anker are grounded ? I've seen other videos of trying to charge EV's from a Jackery for example, and a grounding plug was needed in a socket to actually get it to start charging.

[@Klaus-macht-Bilder_de]

For the car charging you should have a look at the efficiency - with such low power it needs long anmd the car has a cerain be-awake-consumption. BTW- with this car you would be able to go down to 5A with all garnny chargers because Amp-Limit can be set in the car to 5, 10, 13 or 16 A.

[@yurievi4]

Awesome as usual! Can you please share what liquid do you use for ultrasonic cleaning?

[@aaron41]

It should depend on the flux used in soldering. There should be a manufacturer recommended solvent usually. In my experience, usually 200 proof ethanol or isopropyl alcohol.

[@wotzefakiu]

Seltsam, dass die Hersteller dieser Powerpacks nicht von Hause aus eine Schnittstelle für solche Automatisierungen vorssehen. Dafür würde ich auch nochmal 100 € extra hinlegen. Sehr guter Beitrag, sehr interessanter Kanal!

[@DobermannJeff]

Sind die dc dc Konverter eigentlich zuverlässig? Ich wollte mir ein 24v system bauen und statt 400w ins Netz lieber in die Batterie stecken und konstant die grundlast von 100-120w abgeben.

[@apruszko]

This ups has not any control bus to read the status and powering on/off - nowadays it seams little wired, or this control bus is hidden (or not present outside the case) for customers?

[@dr.projectx5142]

This is neat I like the version you have thats for 220v would be great for the US use for like charging up the Chevy bolt ev. Very awesome video.

[@ddeml]

How did you measure the sine wave at the oscilloscope? Did you just directly measure the voltage with the regular probes? Or used some special probe (i.e. isolated/differential)?

[@bitlunislab]

direct measurement 😬

[@blenderbuch]

Gefahrensucher 🙈

[@jyvben1520]

so the Anker screen side needs some mounting holes (m3/m4) or contacts for external relay switching

[@dr.projectx5142]

Would be nice if it can be combined to have a hire wattage capable would b a neat feature then you would be able to have on the ac side 3000w by using 2 units that would be very neat.

[@kgsws]

These things should have some kind of communication / control bus. They already have some kind of MCU inside ... With open spec protocol of course.

[@keshavraina8829]

Can you please add a command to clean display in your esp32 VGA out library. As it will be very useful for displaying moving data on screen.

[@m1geo]

I'd use a big Zener diode across the big panel output to clamp it to 30V for initial testing. The MPPT will drag the 36V down a bit once it gets started! 😁

[@timonix2]

That's one hot zener diod

[@m1geo]

@@timonix2 the diode/FET combo only has to hold it at 30V till MPPT starts running, less than 1 minute to ramp up. Not that much energy for a 10mm diode to dissipate. The MPPT will pull the open circuit voltage down.

[@Schwuuuuup]

Yeay the one thousandst review of an battery... Anker, the Raid shadow legends of Tech Channels

[@Tarbard]

It's hard to find a video review of this where they bought their own, every one I saw was given a free unit.

[@Schwuuuuup]

@@Tarbard to be fair, they cost a lot, and you can't expect every KZbinr to buy one just for fun... Only when they genuinely need one. But that's the point... Although such a battery seems nice to have only a few people really need such a thing for such a price... But simply I just get annoyed when i see ads too many times

[@spacemanbowkonami]

Maybe it could be interesting to have a look at the Bluetti ac200p or ac200 max? At 1799/2199 they are more expensive than the Anker, but you also get 2kWh of LiFePo4, resp 700W and 900W solar input. The first does require 35V minimum, the latter already starts at 10V. Both top out at about 150V. Output is about 2kW... the 200 max also features a Bluetooth connection and app... I really like Anker, they have several excellent products and sub-brands but on the battery front the Bluetti on paper looks more interesting.

[@darrenlomax1283]

Hi Bituni, if anyones going to be able to answer this itll be you. My van has 2 x 12v (10 amp (20 amp fuse), so could i use 2 car chargers plugged into the provided solar cable xt60 for double quid charging? The charge from 1 socket reads 120w, so would 2 chargers be 240w? Which is below the 300w from the solar panels. Would it be too much amperage?

[@adrianschuh2040]

Sehr cool. Was kostet der Anker Spaß? Das wäre eine gute Lösung für den Camper den ich momentan ausbaue

[@SetitesTechAdventures]

I still need to watch the video but just from the 15 second intro you saved me. I have a neeed to charge an electric mower with an AC200P and I need to figure out a way to turn the AC back on when it drains since the battery is half the size of the mower battery. I see you have some 3d printed button pressers so I look forward to figuring out how to make those.

[@Hessijames79]

Do you have to send the device back or why didn't you connect the ESP internally?

[@jeepncj7]

I like the workaround for charging, pretty creative. Couldn't you just get a wifi switch in between the charger and the Anker, and then just set a schedule or get really creative with setting up home automation tools to include weather etc as a factor in the schedule? Some like the Kasa have energy consumption measuring which could be a cool way to set automation once you know the normal output etc.

[@andreaspagkos1214]

Hi nice video, could you please share the 3d file that makes the SG90 to a finger press? thank you !

[@ssupertutorial]

you sure that for non grid-tie system the 600w limit still apply?

[@secondengineer9814]

It'd be really, really, really cool if products had gpio pins that could activate button presses. I had a washer whose buttons started dying a while ago, and being able to either wire in new buttons or automate the button presses would be so cool.

[@indian.techsupport]

Just open it?

[@multiplysixbynine]

Cute. This setup will likely kill the lithium ion cells in just a few months of cycling though. It’d make more sense to build a power bank from more robust discrete components for this application.

[@HuMaNiTaRiAn1]

these lithium cells lasts 3k+ cycles before you see deg. few years should be easy.

[@aaron41]

Hopefully this pack uses Lifepo4 chemistry. Can anyone confirm? Limiting the output between 20-80% should help a lot as well.

[@userou-ig1ze]

is there really no way to access internal data of the battery using some less documented serial ports on some PCB or even the USB plugs?!

[@ecard0]

Wow!!!! Here in Quebec/Canada the cost per Kw/h is less than 0.07

[@grabasandwich]

I recently saw a graph or chart on Reddit (?) and I think QC & MB were the lowest. I assume it's cuz the population here in MB is quite low and we have a bunch of huge stations. I wonder if he'd be better off buying a gas generator 😆

[@Jehty_]

@@grabasandwich nope, gas sits currently at around 2€ per liter in Germany.

[@grabasandwich]

@Dominic Cerisano Pretty sure we do too, but probably not as big as PQ 😁

[@G-ManReviews]

The anker 757 I have won’t charge my MG ZS, I don’t know why , it just starts then shuts off after about 10 seconds of charging. Any ideas? The charger is rated for 10a ask I don’t know if I need a smaller one or if I can charge at 6amp or not??

[@filipsimurda5236]

Which chemical do you use in the ultrasonic cleaner? 8:04

[@vencdee]

Usual big solar panels have 30-40 V power output. This could be problem when connecting to this powerbank MPPT input...

[@vencdee]

... and using DC-DC will very badly affect MPPT features, moreover for bigger pannels especially in parallel circuit it must be a huge converter (consider 600W power). Maybe it would be better to use power DIODES cascade to get under 30V or some kind of floating voltage divider (either triggered by relay, or better using MOSFETs).

[@steven44799]

could you just put in more than 600w of solar but leave it completely disconnected from the grid/house power? put the inverter output directly to the car charger.

[@brchat]

Isn't there a way to go straight from the solar to the car?

[@msx80]

They could have added some sort of connectivity to the thing tho. For the price it costs at least a Bluetooth or WiFi adapter was expected. Other than that great unit 👍

[@shrine010]

It looks fun! Still, standard 2 (car) batteries in series and some 24V hybrid inverter + PV is much better solution

[@frozenfritz]

Is it possible to use 6A 110V ev charger and thereby use less than 800W?

[@Falcon256]

I wanna do something like this with my ecoFlow delta mini and my Tesla M3

[@bnk28zfp]

do you know esp32 if i can make volt wats meeter? what parts do i need? is there any tutorial?

[@nickpelov]

Btw that will be few charges a day of the power bank. it'll probably die in an year. is it worth to destroy a power bank for charging one year

[@pqrstzxerty1296]

I live in the dark side of Norway, could I use solar panels to charge my EV ?

[@rklauco]

What I've missed is - what prevents you from adding more solar to the Anker? If this is fully off-grid, you might use as much power as they allow for the MPPT, right? Or even switch the Anker's input to off-grid inverter and power it with like 2kW array and use it the same way as you used it with your PC - as in-line UPS :)

[@H3wastooshort]

Probably the 30V*10A=300W max input

[@rklauco]

@@H3wastooshort Oh, right, I did not realized that... Thanks.

[@aaron41]

Unfortunately the 30v is really not designed for high power solar panels. Most power banks include solar in order to sell their own pannels which are much lower voltage than the kind you'd put on the roof. Going over generally 50v (a conventional cutoff between "low voltage" and "high voltage") in a consumer product is a huge liability. The AC mains output is "high voltage", but consumers are more familiar with it, and AC has some safety benefits over DC.

[@silverismoney]

@@aaron41 why would it be a liability when it outputs 110/230v anyway? Seems more likely its so they can sell you their own panels instead of regular ones.

[@Jkauppa]

try making a rgbw-display from discrete leds (or led strips)

[@Jkauppa]

put a ton more solar panels on that

[@trushantankushpatil]

Hi, i would like to ask for help reguarding one of you project of gesture controlled robotic arm. I tried making it with the exact same parts and code but i am not getting anything, the code is up and running but when i use GY-521, GY-511 and Linear hall effect sensor i am not getting any out put means none of my servos are working please i need help regarding mu issue. Thank You!

[@Nono-hk3is]

I thought the ESP-S3 did *not* have built -in USB, rather the -S2 did.

[@Tobi-ln2cj]

Cool Video :) 😀

[@platinpalladium]

When using the DC/DC converter, you are losing your MPPT 😉

[@nickpelov]

you can just hack the PWM signal to tell the car to pull less amps

[@hoggif]

8km for 2 hours of charging. I'd say that it charges at solid walking speed (4km/hour). :D

[@piconano]

BLUETTI AC200P beats this puppy to the curb. And it's been on the market long enough to iron out all the bugs. With a maximum solar voltage input of 150V (compared to the 30V of this unit), users can string a few solar panels together in series and let the MPPT take care of them and any partial shadings. This area of the market has been cornered by the big boys that eat newcomers for breakfast.

[@carstenjones847]

Super Video. Aber man braucht schon viel Zeit. Aber coole Idee. Günstig Auto fahren. TOP

[@Djay0Epizode]

Now wait for anker to implement a new firmware with auto power on, when charging and auto cut off at a dsired voltage :)

[@reddcube]

Those electricity prices are ridiculous. Your 5x the cost that I consider expensive.

[@ziozzot]

i try something similar with a ecoflow delta max

[@Giblet535]

That's too much conversion, with too many inefficiencies at each step. You're getting, what, 5 or 6% efficiency, sunlight to driving? I'd make a custom buck-boost circuit to directly adapt a variety of solar panels' output to the car's charge circuit, and implement MPPT (and data logging) with an ESP32 which also happens to provide BLE and WiFi. If you use large LiFePo4 cells to store excess panel output, you can use that (boost mode) to charge the car at night. Bonus: fewer operator manuals and warranty cards.

[@mxm-ok]

plz come back and make videos

[@steffen1182]

Alle großen Powerbanks sollten Schnittestellen haben um sowas ohne Zusätzliche Hardware zu Realisieren.

[@tomblewomble3369]

You didnt have to trick your ev into thinking there was ground? I want to buy a power station to charge my electric motorcycle but i cant get a clear answer if it would work.

[@grabasandwich]

Were you scared the first time you started charging it? I'd hate to damage a new (or nearly new?) vehicle and void the warranty 😳

[@chaosflori25]

The cost for a kWh with a ENBW Vielladertarif is less than the normal prices at home: 0,35€ for 1 kWh

[@MrKevin920]

What city you from? I just moved here

[@Damicske]

Next up dual Ecoflow :D

[@jemand8962]

Anker should integrate this feature in their power banks and call it "Bitlumi mode"

[@herantd]

Just buy an Easee charger, the best charging robot on the market + they have announced smart charging with solar (or any other self produced) energy in the near future

[@zacharymorris9917]

Thinking that electric cars are fossil fuel free is like thinking that drinking tea keeps you from using water.

[@febrianadji5758]

Umm Solar panel on car? Sure it's only to trickle charge the battery But eh, it's charging whenever there's enough light into the panel

[@DobermannJeff]

Die Drillinge sind klasse für den Nahverkehr, aber ich hoffe du musst damit nicht auf die Autobahn! Das mögen die kleinen gar nicht ^^ mutig einen aliexpress lader zu benutzen 🤣 bin mal gespannt, denn das habe ich mich auch mal gefragt, da ich selbst maximal 1-1,5kw aufstellen könnte und die meisten Ladegeräte haben minimal 6a welche natürlich nur unter optimalen Bedingungen von den panels kommen.

[@DobermannJeff]

OK ich sehe gerade du lädst mit 6a :D dann hat sich das auch erledigt :D

[@djlorenz11]

Next time maybe a powerbank that has Bluetooth/wifi and an API to get the battery status? :)

[@jeroenrnl]

5 years of warranty, or 5 minutes if your name's Bitluni 😋

[@blenderbuch]

I mean some companies offer a API to control their devices. Aber einem geschenkten Gaul schaut man nicht ins Maul. And I can tell people next time on maker faires that I am not alone using blender as cad for my projects 😊

[@ripper121]

What do you use in the Ultrasonic cleaning bath as cleaning solution?

[@sholmesbrown]

Great work! You're a smart guy. However... Watching this struggle to charge 8km range at a time taking hours and hours makes me not want an electric car. Nope nope nope.