LET'S TEST IT! DIY Milwaukee PACKOUT Portable Power Inverter Project / Packout Power Ep. 3 - Testing

[@viku1893]

By far one of the coolest packout mods I have seen! Great job. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

[@TalkingHandsTools]

Thank you very much it was a really fun project to work on.

[@deegobooster]

Just stumbled upon your channel. Really cool project here!

[@TalkingHandsTools]

Thank you very much, we are hoping to get into a few more like it as time allows.

[@briangrove597]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

[@TalkingHandsTools]

Glad you enjoyed it was a fun project. It's been working good as well.

[@rman176]

This is very awesome! Nice work. I want to make something like this but have it run on multiple Milwaukee batteries. Thanks for sharing.

[@TalkingHandsTools]

That would be doable and to be honest it was my first thought on how to do this project. The Battery Management System was where I kinda fell short. You really gotta watch the voltage on your batteries or they will no longer charge. A lot of times the low voltage cut off is designed into the tools and the batteries themselves have no protection built in. The other main issue was getting enough batteries to be able to run the inverter for any reasonable amount of time. I was a little concerned with making sure the batteries would be properly isolated and things wouldn't get back fed and hot as batteries discharged. Once I found these LifePo4 batteries it seemed a bit more simple to try and test the idea out. Im not trying to discourage you it is still something Id love to see and or play with myself one day. An inverter powered by M18 batteries would be sweet, let me know if you build one I'd love to hear about it.

[@dannydivine7699]

Ok here's a question that may or may not be of interest to you, but since you're obviously an electrical engineer (I'm guessing based on working with one in the past), how hard would it be to implement an expansion battery box into something like this for additional capacity on an as needed basis? What considerations need to be made for hot plugging LiPo4 batteries that may or may not be at the same state of charge level? And lastly are there any considerations that need to be made for "Self Heated" LiPo4 batteries connected either or in series or parallel, which will be a requirement of my box as it will be powering equipment in an unattended remote location year round? Great Looking Build!! Bravo!

[@TalkingHandsTools]

I think if I were to have an auxiliary battery box, I would build a charger into that box and try to make sure both boxes were at full charge when I connected them together. As far as protections on this circuit I would consider what the amperage draw might be and size my interconnect cables a size or two over what I anticipate and put either a fuse or a breaker inline with the interconnect to protect it. Batteries have a large amount of current available, so the overcurrent device sized for your interconnect wire will prevent you from melting the wire. Also, make sure all the connections are rated for the desired current of the interconnect wiring. I do not have experience with the self heated batteries, but I've read they can draw the batteries down pretty well. I guess I would want to know how many watts the integral heat consumes and try to be at 125% to 150% or so of that draw with my charging supply. Considering cloudy days for solar, etc. I am designing a slightly larger version of this project that will incorporate auxiliary boxes. It's a project with slow progress, and one of the battery boxes will likely be seen on this channel first. Hopefully I was of some help to you. Your project sounds interesting. Let me know if you have any further questions, and I'll gladly help to the best of my abilities.

[@dannydivine7699]

@@TalkingHandsTools I had also wondered about an appropriately LARGE capacity MPPT charger that could take the input of the Aux battery and supply it to the main box as an apparent solar source, just so it was of a capacity to completely carry the load of a VERY modest inverter and still have the capacity to charge the Main box's battery.

[@TalkingHandsTools]

@dannydivine7699 That is an interesting idea, I would probably experiment with that on a smaller scale before doing the actual build. I've not gotten into solar arrays yet in my own projects. This project was the small-scale test of concept for my bigger version. I would check any capacity number very carefully and put breakers or fuses on everything as an insurance policy just in case something goes wrong. I will be really interested to see what you find out trying this. It's a really neat concept if it works.

[@skyeako8703]

Hey.. so cool. Would love to had a clearer view of yr diagram to model mine around. Nice fit for all components.

[@TalkingHandsTools]

Check out my community posts. I have a Jpg of thee schematic there.

[@reneeccrn]

I am making a battery box. Im using lipo batteries (spuh08hp) from busses. High high current. 200amp comfortable discharge, continuous. Im using 48 packs. 12v 4s. How do i connect my lights and switches without burning them up with that current? Can i use resistors?

[@TalkingHandsTools]

For something like this, I think you would want to use fuses or breakers. That being said, you will need to size everything correctly so it is protected. Everything would include your wire size. This would need a fuse or breaker sized properly to protect it. There are tables online that tell you how many amps you can safely put through a given wire size. An example of this would be #10 AWG wire should be fused around 30 Amps. Keep in mind 30 Amps would be where your overcurrent protection will trip, and you can't use all 30 amps continuously. The normal rule of thumb is to load your circuits to 80%. This would get you 24-25 amps of usable continuous current on the 30A breaker or fuse. Depending on your load size, it will change your wire size and overcurrent protection, respectively. I am casually designing a larger version of the project seen in this video, and I think I will go with breakers on the new project. The project in this video I went with fuses. Both work and are perfectly fine. Just make sure your main breaker or fuse panel has an adequate overall current rating to handle your overall cumulative current draw for everything you plan to run. The higher the current, the more you'll be spending on overcurrent protection. I'm sure some people would say to do things differently, but I would strongly suggest sizing everything properly so things don't have a chance to vaporize. A 30 amp device on the size batteries you describe would catastrophically fail if something within it shorted out and that could seriously injure someone or create a fire damaging property. That brings up my last thought. When it comes to chinesium products, aside from overcurrent protection values and wire sizes, I double their rated current to be safe. An example would be if I was turning on and off our 30 amp load with a relay. I would buy a 60 amp rated relay. This is just me being cautious. I work in the trades with industrial grade gear on a daily basis. There is definitely a difference when you buy the chinesium. That is, in some cases, 1/5 the price or less. I'm not saying don't use it. I would just say use it cautiously. Oversize it, and if you can buy stuff with a UL rating. Underwriters Laboratory is the North American inspection agency on devices. If what you're buying is something that has a rating from them, it should have had a bit more quality control. I'm not trying to scare you. There's just a fair amount to consider, and if you do your homework, your project will be both reliable and safe, giving you years of service. Batteries have an enormous amount of stored energy and can be very dangerous, so be careful and know what you are working with. Feel free to ask any questions. I'll gladly help where I can.

[@reneeccrn]

@@TalkingHandsTools wow! Thank you so much!

[@65klassen]

Have are the batteries holding up?

[@TalkingHandsTools]

Not bad at all. I don't use it daily so the batteries don't have a ton of cycles through them. But so far I don't notice any issues with capacity loss.

[@WilliamBeckerreikiman]

is it possible to get you to post links to the parts used where to buy?

[@TalkingHandsTools]

Most everything was sourced on Ebay or normal suppliers like McMaster. I'll try and work up some sort of list for a guide. A few other people have asked so it's in the works.

[@TalkingHandsTools]

I've posted the schematic for this project as a community post. All of the components are on the schematic aside from fasteners. I do not have part numbers or links to order from but you should be able to get a list together from the schematic and find products that'll work for your purpose.

[@joshgomez3457]

Would this be something someone can pay you to do? I would love to have one like this!

[@TalkingHandsTools]

I'm thrilled you liked the project but I try and shy away from doing work for other people. I don't have consistent time to dedicate towards projects and between material costs and what labor would be this would be a pretty expensive piece of kit to try and sell. Thank you for watching, maybe one day I'll be set up to do this sort of thing.

[@craftymulligar]

Watch your video again just wanted to know whats the real main purpose of the relays other than just turn the thing on or i know the remote is nice. Had something like that for a infra-red remote to turn a lamp on. Maybe something like it could turn things off when battery is low or use a timed off timer. Nothing is really explained for the main purpose. Just saying all of it should work without the relays. Maybe you may of said its because to keep the switches from burning out. Usually the inverter has a switch maybe you could of open the inverter and soldered a remote bypass switch then you would not of needed a turn on inverter relay. If you wanted to use the remote module could of tried to put a opto coupler on it or small reed relay. Did something like that to control a calculator turned it into a count down timer for a model rocket.

[@TalkingHandsTools]

The relays are mainly for the remote control. I want to be able to turn this on and off between fairly large intervals of time, and I did not want the parasitic draw of the inverter running all the time when it's not in use. Like with any project, there are many ways to go about doing things. This project was built around a specific use, and it does that very well. It may not be the most practical for other people's usage in its current configuration, but hopefully, seeing how simple a project like this can be might inspire other people to try and make their own.

[@ronygonzalez9753]

That makes two of us

[@barntt]

Covered All the Basics!....COST?

[@TalkingHandsTools]

All in it was around $400. I had some materials on hand already, so your costs may vary. The batteries were the most expensive part. Depending how big you go, an inverter could add quite a bit also.

[@vancepalache7716]

Is it for purchase??

[@TalkingHandsTools]

Unfortunately, no, it's not. I would love to be set up to male things like this to sell one day, but I'm not at that point just yet.

[@almonn5253]

How much for this

[@TalkingHandsTools]

I'd say I have around 500 or so in it. If I were to guess I'd say figure on around a dollar per inverted watt to get you in the ballpark for your project.(This project uses a 500w inverter) That dollar a watt is at loosely a two hour full load capacity. You can always do longer capacity but that would skew your number each watt costs. Thank you for the interest in this project it was a really fun one to make.