Time to finish the portable power box!

I finished up Part #2 showing how I built the basic box and wired it up. In this article I will show you how I finished wiring it and then added a great option. OK, I think it is a great option. And, I will include a really basic wiring diagram. No, I am no electrical engineer and the diagram won’t be some high-grade schematic, but it will clearly show you how I wired everything. And hey, remember…it all works…and works really well. A little secret…I made some changes to the wiring, but not to worry, I will explain the changes.

< Read Part #1 by clicking here >

< Read Part #2 by clicking here >

Here are some of the additional options I wanted to add to the power box-

• Distributing higher amperages,
• Distributing a “cluster” of outlets on an extension cord,
• Using a heavy duty battery charger to charge the internal battery, and
• “Daisy-chain” boxes together for more ampere hours.

As I was thinking through the additional options I wanted, I figured I needed heavier gauge wiring than just #10. And I also wanted really well protected wire outside of the box to protect against heavy-duty usage. So I naturally gravitated to my standard…Anderson Powerpoles…the PP75 option seemed as if it was made to order for my application.

Anderson Powerpoles
Powerwerx PP75

For my wire I followed my own advice…I went to Walmart and purchased a set of 12’ booster cables in 8 gauge wire. Cheaper than buying the equivalent wire and it comes with much heavier-duty protective insulation. I snipped off the clamps, installed the PP75 connectors and my “extension cord” was good to go.

Next came the wiring from the battery “through” the box itself. I wanted it to be a “through the chassis” connection vs. just laying out the extension cord. And it had to be fused since this was going directly to the battery vs. through the distribution block that I also installed since the last article. The extension cord would not be going through the PWRgate since it is designed to handle much higher amperages than the 40amps of the PWRgate. And I didn’t want to fry the PWRgate by sending voltage in a reverse direction through the PWRgate into the battery.

To make this connection I started with a fused connector from Powerwerx – MAXI Fuse Holders with Ring terminals and 75 Amp Powerpole Connectors.

Powerwerx RGH-08

It is a heavy duty 8 gauge fuse holder with 40 amp MAXI fuse – 75 amp Powerpole connectors on one end and gold plate 3/8 inch ring terminals on the other end. It is their item # RGH-08.

To make a solid “through the chassis” connection I went with the Powerwerx Powerpole Mounting Clamp, item # 1463G1. I wanted the connection in the vicinity of the other connections simply for convenience. So I located the right spot, measured the right opening size, and cut it out.

Powerwerx Powerpole Mounting Clamp, item # 1463G1

Note: don’t make the opening too large. You want it to be a tight fit to lock the connectors into the mounting clamp and firmly against the box material as well.

I secured the top plate first making sure that the fit was very tight to the box.

Then I drilled my holes and secured the lower plate. Make sure you have a solid fit! You must have a solid fit so the connector doesn’t come loose when plugging and unplugging the extension cord.

Bingo…done! I had my 75amp heavy duty connection made directly to the battery. I now had my options. First was simple attaching the extension cord to another box. I want to hook the batteries up in parallel to increase the “capacity” so the extension cord is already made correctly… positive to positive, negative to negative.

Power Box with 75amp extension cord.

I also wired up a couple of battery clamps to a set of PP75 connectors. Now, I can connect the box to another battery directly. Note: the Anderson Powerpoles make it virtually impossible to make revers connections damaging electrical components.

I also had a Powerwerx PS-75-45-4 in my parts box to connect to the end of my extension cord. Now I could run my extension cord 12’ add the PS-75-45-4 and connect four devices to the extension cord. Devices such as four radios, etc.

Power Box with 75amp extension cord plus the options of battery clamps and the Powerwerx PS-75/45-4 power distribution block.

Note: Be aware that the Powerwerx PS-75-45-4 is no longer being made but can still be found at suppliers such as GigaParts. Powerwerx has a replacement option called the “PD-75” which will accomplish the same thing.

Now my power box is ready to go to the field!

In my next article in this series I will share a few of my ideas on how to use the box. And for those of you that are wondering…yes, this could be considered a “solar generator” when connected with solar panels for charging. But, yes again…it is so much more than just a simple “solar generator” if you think through the possibilities.

Power Box wiring diagram.
click the image to enlarge

Download the wiring diagram in a PDF < AHTrimblePowerBoxWiringDiagram>

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After starting, stopping, starting again, stopping once more…then putting the project on hold it was time to get back on this project. Does that sound confusing enough?

Well, when I started building this power box project I had this grandiose idea of having all these levels of redundancy and just a heck of a sophisticated power box. Yeah, remember what the KISS principle is? Well, somewhere along the way I went brain dead.

< Read Part #1 by clicking here >

Now, in my defense, the original power box that I had built worked! It had three batteries, a PWM solar charger built in, a relay to cut-over to a second bank of batteries should the big 100Ah AGM battery drop too low. There was an auto-switch from AC to DC if the AC failed. And there was more, much more. But, when I was all done with it, it simply was way, way too much…too sophisticated.

So I sat there in my shop one evening and was looking over the power box monstrosity thinking I had developed the perfect Frankenstein Monster. But, perfect in regards to theory only. In the field it would be too heavy, too many electronic parts, too complex, and just the wrong thing for the job. So, what did I do about it? I went back to basics. I reviewed the original “mission” and then went over the “Requirements & Restrictions.” Then it became clear to me to stop trying to overkill it.

Once I made up my mind to go back to the basic use I thought I should jump on it. Yeah, life had other plans for me, I was buried in other projects and it was just too cold out in my shop so I put the whole thing on hold till it got reasonably warmer. That was last week.

Once I started back on the project it went quickly and easily. I just wanted a power box that could –

1. Provide reliable 12vDC to any of my radios.
2. Provide reliable 12vDC to any combination of two of my radios.
3. Provide a reliable means to charge at least 10 handheld radios at one time.
4. Provide 12vDC power to other electronics as necessary.

I also wanted the following capabilities –

1. Utilize 120vAC power if it was available but making sure there was auto-switch capability to DC power if the AC power was lost.
2. Make use of a wide variety of solar charging capabilities; small 7w options all the to my dual-panel 60w solar charging system.
3. Make use of a battery tender to keep the battery topped off.

Once I had that all clear in my head the “build” was pretty easy. Here is the list of components that I used –

Energizer 100Ah 12vDC AGM battery

MFJ 4230MV compact 25a power supply

Super PWRgate PG40S auto-switch

For more operational capability I added –

Powerwerx voltage meter

A cigarette power outlet

A dual 3A USB power outlet

Various Anderson Powerpole chassis mounted connections

What I ended up with was exactly what I wanted. Sure, it was a little less operational time due to lower ampere hour availability, but it still met my basic mission just fine. And, it was a whole lot lighter and less complicated.

So here are the steps for the “build” –

Step #1 –

I started with an empty Rigid toolbox with wheels (model #) and added some Velcro to the bottom of the box. There is corresponding Velcro secured on the bottom of the battery. The battery weighs a whole lot! So it really isn’t going to somehow fall out of the box. The Velcro is used to keep it from moving around inside the box.

I wanted to ensure that I could get the battery in and out of the box without moving any other component and I wanted to keep the components spread out to reduce heat build-up as much as possible. It made sense to put the battery to the back of the box located as close to the wheels as possible for ease of movement. The power supply and auto-switch made the most sense to mount on opposite sides of the box.

Originally I wanted the power supply on the inside-front of the box but the mounting bracket pretty much dictated where that unit was to be mounted. With the location and positioning of each component figured out moved on to the the actual installs.

Step #2 –

The MFJ power supply doesn’t come with a mounting bracket, and it is a little off when it comes to standard dimensions for mounting brackets. I don’t like reinventing the wheel if I don’thave to. I took one of my spare Yeasu radio mounting brackets and added spacers to make it work for the MFJ power supply. I wanted the meter to be easily read but I also wanted to maximize the airflow around and through the unit itself. Hence, mounting it on the left side of the box with the bottom facing away from the side of the box.

Step #3 –

Next came the PWRgate and its proper placement. I already had the left side used and the front of the box I had decided to use for my Powerpole connections, meter, and power supply points. By default that left the right side of the box for the PWRgate. It was simple to find a decent spot and secure it to the side of the box.

Then wired up the “power out” to the Powerwerx chassis mount.

Step #4 –

I wanted to complete one side of the power circuit so I went ahead and placed the battery in the box, wired the battery to the PWRgate, and connected the PWRgate to the Powerwerx chassis mount. All wiring is high quality 10g wire to prevent voltage/amperage loss.

Notice that I have connected the power outlet to the PWRgate with a single 10g wire. Then off of that wire I used a connecter to splice in another 10g wire. Those are connected to the chassis connection point. Doing so gives me two sets of Anderson Powerpoles to connection equipment (i.e. radios) to. The 10g wire is more than enough to carry the carry the amperage.

Step #5 –

At this point I tried to implement some logic…power to the battery. So I installed another Powerpole chassis connection point on the left side of the front panel. This would be my connection to charging devices. Those devices could be solar chargers, a battery tender, or even another power box.

Notice that I ran the power in lines directly to the battery for the lowest amperage loss. But, I did place a fuse inline to protect the battery from any surge coming into the box.

Step #6 –

I wanted to be able to monitor the battery and get a feel for usage rate, remaining operational time, etc. So in comes the Powerwerx voltage meter. It was a simple install direct to on the front of the box. I located it in between a couple of horizontal structural pieces of the box. I used a 1-3/16” hole saw then used the standard plastic ring to secure the voltage meter to the box.

Step #7 –

As I mentioned earlier I wanted to add both a USB power outlet and a cigarette power outlet. The later provides a connection point for a wide variety of existing power options for various electronic and electrical equipment.

I prefer Powerwerx power outlets, one reason is the same diameter as the Powerwerx voltage meter. I placed a power outlet on either side of the voltage meter simply for atheistic. What I had to do was work it so the protective caps on the power outlets would open and not interfere with or be impeded by, the lip of plastic on the box itself.

Step #8 –

I had original thought to hook each of the power points and the voltage meter directly to the battery. Then I started to figure out having to fuse each line, etc. That is when I fell back to a Powerwerx distribution unit. Fuse one line going in, attached the two power outlets and the voltage meter and I would be good to go.

Step #9 –

I put the multi-meter to everything and it all checked out fine. Checked the voltage meter against the multi-meter and it checked out fine. Now it was time to test it out.

I was working on reviewing a dedicated 12vDC battery charging cradle for Baofeng UV-5RA so I figured why not test them both…and I did. I plugged the charger into the USB power point…fine. Then I plugged it into the cigarette power point…fine. I left it in there for four hours and it charged the radio battery up with no problems…no smoke, no smell of burning wires, and didn’t even burn up the charger base. All is good!

Next test was plugging in my battery tender that I am also reviewing, and it went right to work analyzing the big 100Ah Energizer battery, then went to charging it. I let it go overnight and came back in the morning to see it had topped off the battery and the tender was doing its thing to keep the AGM fully charged and ready.

A couple days later came the solar panel testing. Once again, everything performed exactly as designed. One note to make would be that whatever solar charging system must have its own charge controller since one is not built into the power box.

Finally came the AC power test. I plugged in the MFJ power cord, turn it on, and up comes the MFJ power supply just as it is supposed to. I dialed in the right DC voltage (13.4) to the PWRgate and all was good…no blown fuses and power coming out just as designed.

Then came the “switch” test. I put a load on the power box made sure the AC was working just fine and that the battery was standing by. Then I turned off the AC power. The PWRgate auto-switched from the AC power over to the DC power from the battery without any interruption of power. I did notice the power dropped from 13.4v to 13.2v. But that is to be expected when running off of the battery.

Everything worked exactly as I had planned and hoped it would.

Next test will be draining the batteries from 10 Baofeng UV-5RA radios. Then I will use a variety of DC charge adapters hooked into the Baofeng charging bases to see how long it takes to charge up all 10 batteries and the draw-down on the 100Ah AGM battery.

Then I will draw-down the 100Ah AGM battery and hook up the AC power to see how long it takes the PWRgate to bring the AGM battery back online and back to full power. But in the meantime, I leave the MFJ power supply on and it will keep the 100Ah AGM battery fully charged and ready to go.

Stay tuned for more testing results and another idea or two!!!

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I built my “ham-in-the-box” radio kit that contains my Yaesu FT-8900R for use during emergencies, disasters and anytime there is a “grid-down” situation. And it works like a charm, I love it. Read more about it here < click here to read more >.And as long as there was normal 110 vAC utility power then I was all set because the unit has a MFJ Enterprises Inc. MFJ-4230MV AC power supply built into it. But what about when the power goes off? Yeah, of course I accounted for the possibility, and this article will address the “power out” situation.

One thing that is a true “unknown” when the power goes out in emergencies and disasters is, how long will the power stay off. I tried to get a good feel for it but just couldn’t come up with a valid time estimate. That being the case I just counted on it staying off…till it came back on. Yes, I am serious. So that led me to the easy answer for alternative power, solar.

I know that for some folks in some areas of the country that solar is a limited choice. And I can appreciate that so I tried to build into the system little redundancy that might help overcome the solar-challenges that people have in some parts of the country and world. Here in the southwest it is not a problem at all so it is a perfect solution for me.

So, as always, let’s define the mission for this alternative power source. The unit must be able to:

“Provide sufficient power to allow the use of the emergency radio kit for at least 40% of any given 24-hour period. During which transmission power usage will be approximately 20% of that time period.”

Requirements & Restrictions:

1. Had to be very reliable.
2. Had to come from readily replaceable parts.
3. Had to have at least levels of redundancy.
4. Had to be usable stand-alone or in conjunction with other equipment.
5. Should be transferable to other equipment as power source.
6. Should be able to charge other electronic components via cigarette lighter and USB ports.

In easier to understand terms: I want my radio to be operational for 6 hours per day, of which about 70 – 80 minutes will be time when I am actually transmitting. That is pretty aggressive for transmitting time. My Yaesu FT-8900R uses a maximum of 8.5A during transmission. So I figure a 60 AH (ampere hour) rated AGM battery should handle the load with a fairly decent margin of error. So I went with a 100 AH AGM deep cycle battery to allow myself plenty of wiggle room. But that isn’t all.

One of the problems are those times when usage exceeds what your expectations were. I really want to make sure that I have enough “reserve” power to handle the radio usage when the demand is at its peak, such as the early stages of a disaster or during an “incident within an incident” occurrence. I could have simply bought a higher rated AH battery. But that is putting all my eggs in one basket; if that battery takes a dump then all of my power is gone. Hence, the whole concept of redundancy, two separate battery banks; 1) the 100 AH battery, 2) the other is 36 AH of AGM battery power (two x 18 AH batteries). The two separate battery banks are not connected.

The large 100 AH battery is an MAX. And that bad boy is big and heavy. I recharge it using a portable, folding 60w solar panel set-up. The charger controller unit has a “low voltage disconnect” built in. That unit prevents the battery from becoming too discharged and thus damaging the batteries. But I use it to trigger a relay that trips when the batteries become too discharged. And when that relay trips it switches over to the other set of batteries (two 18 AH PowerSonic AGM batteries).

When that switchover is made the larger 100 AH battery can then recharge without any drain on the battery. Once it comes back up to a full charge then the relay kicks again bringing the 100 AH battery back online. That also means that the smaller battery bank goes off-line. And to keep those two 18 AH batteries charged up I have another dual 60w solar panel set-up.

But it doesn’t end there. Remember that the Ham-In-The-Box has a PWRgate built into it? Yup, that is the unit that switches between AC power and battery back-up. That makes it nice if the regular 120 vAC utility power goes out it switches automatically over to battery back-up. Sweet, eh? But there is a bonus to the PWRgate…it is also a battery charger when on AC power. So it will maintain the 100 AH main battery anytime AC power is available.

So let’s review the power options for the Ham-In-The-Box and Power-Box combination:

Option #1 – There is normal utility company 120 vAC power available. The Ham-In-The-Box runs off that power and keeps the 100 AH primary battery fully charged. If the AC power goes off the Ham-In-The-Box automatically switches over to the Power-Box.

Option #2 – I can hook up my Honda EU-2000i which then supplies AC power to the Ham-In-The-Box and keeps the 100 AH primary battery fully charged.. If the Honda shuts down the Ham-In-The-Box automatically switches over to the Power-Box.

Option #3 – The Ham-In-The-Box is running off of the primary 100 AH battery in the Power-Box. A dual panel 60w solar system is charging the 100 AH primary battery. Also, a dual panel 60w solar system is charging the two back-up 18 AH batteries. If the primary battery drops below an operational charge (goes dead for operational purposes) the system automatically switches over to the Power-Box back-up batteries.

Option #4 – The Ham-In-The-Box is running off of the Power-Box back-up batteries. A dual panel 60w solar system (or a single 30W panel) is charging those back-up batteries. Another dual panel 60w solar system is charging the 100 AH primary battery bringing it back up to full charge. Once it is up to full charge the Power-Box switches back over to using the primary 100 AH battery. And the Power-Box back-up batteries are then being charged back up to a full charge by the dual panel 60w or single 30W panel solar system.

Option #5 – I can use the Honda EU2000i with the Schumacher SC-10030A battery charger to recharge the 100 AH primary battery (approximately 2 – 3 hours) while the Power-Box back-up batteries are supplying power to the Ham-In-The-Box.

Option #6 – I can use the Honda EU2000i’s 12vDC outlet and plug a cord directly into either solar panel input port on the box and recharge the batteries directly.

I am sure there are more options that would work with this but these are the ones that make the most operational sense to me for an emergency, disaster and “grid-down” situation. But let’s now look at Power-Box and its design and components.

Let’s go over the actual box first. I chose the Rigid Professional Tool Storage System. This “system” is a group of very sturdy tool boxes designed to work together. The base unit is the Mobile Gear Cart. It is the box that all the other pieces ride on. It measures out at: 22” x 18” x 19”. That is plenty large enough for holding all three batteries. And as an added bonus, the storage box has wheels which are extremely important since the batteries are heavy. The storage box is also heavy plastic making it pretty much dirt and watertight.

Now that we have the actual storage box, I will list the batteries that I choose:

• Battery #1 – Energizer Max AGM. 100 Ampere Hour, measures 13” x 7” x 9.5” and weighs in at an impressive 60 – 65 lbs (+/-).
• Battery #2 & #3 – Powersonic Battery TY12-18. Each battery is an 18 Ampere Hour, measures 7” x 3” x 6.75” and each weighs 13 pounds.

The combined weight of the batteries alone comes in at 85 – 90 pounds. So far the storage box can handle the weight just fine. Yeah, you are going to have to have help lifting it into the truck or SUV. That’s what friends are for 😉

For recharging the primary 100 AH battery here is the list of components:

• Dual 30w solar panels set-up as a folding, portable kit. (Glowtech System)
• Morningstar SL-20L-12V charge controller.

I went with a system from Discount Solar. The price was $135 and that included shipping. The portable system comes with a charge controller but not the MorningStar SL-20L-12V. The relay disconnect is integral to the system I am building so I simply by-passed the charge controller that came with the system. I did leave the charge controller on the unit for flexibility. I switched over all the internal wire connections to Anderson PowerPoles to be compatible with everything else I have. I will give detailed steps a little later, for now I am just listing the parts.

For recharging the back-up 18 AH batteries here is the list of components:

• Two GoalZero Boulder30 30w solar panels (can be used individually or daisy chained together).
• GoalZero Guardian 12v charge controller.

This is a straight up system purchased from GoalZero a couple of years ago. The equipment is top-notch, high-quality stuff to be sure. Unfortunately you are paying for the GoalZero name. Don’t fall for it. At the end of this series I will do a Q&A (FAQ) section and provide a tested alternative system that is a whole lot less money. But for now I am going with what I have on-hand. And I did the same thing with this GoalZero set-up and the wiring connection, I switched them all over to Anderson PowerPoles to be compatible with everything else I have. I will give detailed steps a little later, for now I am just listing the parts.

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No reproduction or other use of this content 
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See Content Use Policy for more information.