Posted: 9/6/2018 11:08:25 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Paul][Edited]
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Celebrating the Second Amendment One Fine Firearm at a Time
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Not to pimp my own thread, but I had one about a year ago where I showed how to wire up a 120v generator to run both legs of your panel through the panel generator input. This is highly useful for both those folks who only have a 120v "RV Ready" generator and those who want to save fuel and hours on the big unit when there are no large loads for a while. It also has how to turn a 240v standard electric hot water heater to 120v and 1/4 the current requirement.
LINK to the archived topic |
My Patented self-resetting AR15 dry-fire trigger: http://www.dsotactical.com/
Search "Simu-Trigger" on the EE!
Search "Simu-Trigger" on the EE!
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Originally Posted By Rat_Patrol:
Not to pimp my own thread If there are more I'll add them to the first post and we'll build links to the old material. |
Celebrating the Second Amendment One Fine Firearm at a Time
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I hand a copy of this image out to any one I have in a ham radio class.
Also have one posted in the shop. I find it a handy reference.. Excellent thread topic Chief! 
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The 12 year old you take shooting today will VOTE in 6 years.
So will the one that doesn't shoot so do the right thing
So will the one that doesn't shoot so do the right thing
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Ok. I will be the guinea pig. Question on portable power and solar charging. Two questions about the Yeti 400. I installed a Renogy 100 watt panel on my shop roof to charge my Yeti 24/7. Started with the Yeti fully charged and over night the bar gauge dropped to the first bar (80%) and a "Low Voltage" warning on the input wattage. Once the sun came up it went back to a full charge. All ports were turned off. Am I hurting my battery by keeping it attached to solar and not into a wall socket? Second question. To chain an additional battery all I need is a equal sized (34 AH/12 VDC) and the appropriate cable to plug into the Anderson PP connectors/battery terminals? |
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Originally Posted By fastswift:
Ok. I will be the guinea pig. Question on portable power and solar charging. Two questions about the Yeti 400. I installed a Renogy 100 watt panel on my shop roof to charge my Yeti 24/7. Started with the Yeti fully charged and over night the bar gauge dropped to the first bar (80%) and a "Low Voltage" warning on the input wattage. Once the sun came up it went back to a full charge. All ports were turned off. Am I hurting my battery by keeping it attached to solar and not into a wall socket? Second question. To chain an additional battery all I need is a equal sized (34 AH/12 VDC) and the appropriate cable to plug into the Anderson PP connectors/battery terminals? The Yeti 400 is a 400 watt/hour power station. 400 Wh means that it has the ability to deliver enough current to drive a 400 W load for one hour. But its inverter (the thing making AC out of the DC battery) is rated to drive a 300 Watt load so that means the total run time would be 400 Wh/300 W (the watts cancel each other leaving only the hours) or 1 hour and 20 minutes. Your solar panel is 100 Watts. Depending on how long the cable you'll get a bit less at the Yeti but let's call it 100% to make the math easy. Let's say you live by me in Southern California as an example. Looking on-line you can get the average number of solar hours per day you're expected to get. For me I'm blessed with 6.5 hours average - that's longer in the summer, shorter in the winter, very low when it's raining but a 6.5 hour per day average across the year. That means you're solar panel will gather 650 W worth of energy across the day. It will fill your Yeti 400 with ease. The Goal Zero uses AGM batteries - brilliant choice in my opinion. They don't spill, don't vent enough gas to bother (they're approved for aircraft use), and electrically they discharge very well and have a low self-discharge rate compared to normal lead batteries like in a car. On the web site they say that you can leave it plugged in or recharge it every 3-6 months. From the intended use, I would think it's designed to be plugged into a power source and will charge and then trickle charge automatically adjusting it's charge voltage when it "feels" the battery push back when full. Second question - yes. The Goal Zero Yeti* series is designed to add more depth to the power by daisy chaining additional AGM batteries - this is important. You can't ... strike that ... you shouldn't mix together different battery chemistry types together if you can avoid it. Modern charging circuits are far more kind on the batteries than they were 20 or more years ago. The charger is either set, or detects, the battery chemistry and adapts it's charge profile (how fast it pours power back into the battery) and trickle (keeping the battery topped off) currents. You'll know an AGM battery because it's twice as expensive like the Optima line. Remember you're going to be limited by the 300 watt inverter (600 Watt surges) if the power bank so adding more battery won't give you more instant output watts but more time (watts * time). As an example a 100 watt light bulb would last 8 hours with a second battery pack vice just 4 hours with the one. I'm a bit of a solar geek and I have 200 watts worth on my pop-up RV and 5000 watts on the roof of my house. 
The Goal Zero Yeti 400 power bank - about $450. *I'm assuming you're using the $450 AGM model and not the $750 Lithium battery model. |
Celebrating the Second Amendment One Fine Firearm at a Time
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Originally Posted By Paul:
*I'm assuming you're using the $450 AGM model and not the $750 Lithium battery model.  And I will carefully read your post after dinner @Paul Dinners over and your post was full of good information. Today was the first full day of "sun charging" that it has seen so I will check tomorrow and see what it says. I just like the idea of using solar to keep it topped off. The primary use of the 400 will be to power a Dometic fridge while tent camping at San Clemente a few times a year and maybe run some 12 volt camp lights. I have run some endurance testing and the Yeti has no problem going 12 hours without the power level dropping under 60% with the fridge plugged in and running. When plugged into the 100-Watt panel and the fridge, it stayed on full. I have a spare panel that I will take camping. I will not use the invertor much at all, but it will be nice to have. Brings me to another question. Any reason not to put a USB adapter in the 12 volt socket and double my USB ports? I made a cable for the fridge that plugs straight into the 12 volt 6mm port and see no reason to leave that socket open. Camping is also the reason I asked about chaining batteries. Being at a stationary campsite for 4 to 5 days it would remove the worry about running out of overnight power for the fridge. Just looked and seems to be quite a few AGM 34 Ah batteries available on Amazon. I will pick one up and try it out. Making the cable should not be a problem. I am sure I have all the parts in my kit. Thanks. |
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I dry camp out between Barstow and Victorville and used to have to bring 75 pounds of ice to keep 10 pounds of food (and beer) cold over a three day weekend. I bought an Engle swing-motor 12 VDC freezer and can now make my own ice on the trail! I no longer have to keep the drinks cold, I just put warm drinks into the freezer and wait until they get cold. It runs on about 35 watts worth of power so a 50 Watt panel does a good job of running it and providing a bit of a charge to the storage battery. With my 200 watts worth of panels - 100 watts mounted to the roof and two 50 watt panels that deploy and (manually!) track the sun I have more than enough battery storage on my pop-up to keep the freezer running the whole (much cooler) night. |
Celebrating the Second Amendment One Fine Firearm at a Time
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Originally Posted By Paul:
The Yeti is a bucket of a certain size that you can pour power into and then later pull it out. The Goal Zero Yeti 400 power bank - about $450. *I'm assuming you're using the $450 AGM model and not the $750 Lithium battery model. Originally Posted By Paul:
The Yeti is a bucket of a certain size that you can pour power into and then later pull it out. The Goal Zero Yeti 400 power bank - about $450. *I'm assuming you're using the $450 AGM model and not the $750 Lithium battery model. Reading a little about them, I would just build a battery box with inverter and solar recharging. As a matter of fact, I already have built one. It has multiple Powerpole outputs, 12v inverter, Cigarette lighter outlet. Built for much less that the $450.00 on their website. Originally Posted By fastswift:
Actually I am using the $170 one I got off craigslist that came with a bunch of extras.
Thanks. Good deal fastswift! I only needed to buy a deep cycle battery, everything else was laying around the garage. Bill |
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Originally Posted By bill3rail: Wow! I have never heard of the Yeti. Reading a little about them, I would just build a battery box with inverter and solar recharging. As a matter of fact, I already have built one. It has multiple Powerpole outputs, 12v inverter, Cigarette lighter outlet. Built for much less that the $450.00 on their website. Now $170.00 is worth the price. What I built would have cost about that much if you had to buy new components. Good deal fastswift! I only needed to buy a deep cycle battery, everything else was laying around the garage. Bill  I felt the battery was going soft so I replaced it with a new one and used the old battery in a "chain" to increase my run time. Big difference in run time.When hooked to a 100 panel with both batteries, Dometic CF 35 refrigerator plugged into the 12V output and fully charged it is a wash. Meter does not drop over night says 100% but able to take a charge when the sun comes up. Guessing it pulls less than 20 % of available power. Within an hour it is fully charged up again. 
My spare portable panel. Cables are tucked into the back 
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Experience:
1. Nuke Electrician's Mate 2. Process Control Specialist Honeywell 3. Offshore drilling Chief ET/Electrician 4. DCS/PLC/Safety Systems SME for a major petroleum company offshore. IM me anytime. You'll get what you paid for. 
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"Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary from holding it back, and I could not." Jeremiah 20:9