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Everybody has the Chinese hydraulic crimp tools with changable dies for around $60. Color me skeptical, but I wonder how well these actually work. I was reseaching crimpers and found this Temco crimp tool. No dies, you dial in the desired amount of crimp to suit your particular crimp lug and...

I had a Sharp Microwave when they first became a thing. Had a rotary knob like an egg timer and a sliding lever to set the power level. That thing lasted forever.

Agreed. Victron seems to have a lot of unnecessary features. At least they seem unnecessary until you actually start implementing the system and realize the truth is that lower cost vendors leave out important features that you really wish they supported. How many threads have we seen from...

Update: One of the reasons why I am particularly interested in using Belleville Disc Springs is it makes it easy to create a progressive spring (lighter compression in the first part the of the travel, heavier further in). Next step was to try to do so. Same 12 larger springs combined with 6...

After months of pontificating, I have finally pulled together the electrical design for my RV conversion. Let me know what you think. This is my first version and I would much rather fix as many problems at the pixels on a screen stage as I can.

Definitely not safe to lick. Ask me how I know???

And that is why it can make sense to just buy drop in batteries if you don't have the technical expertise to deal with something like using a Tesla battery. Buying equipment when you don't know if it will work is an expensive way to get an education.

In my opinion, Victron does a fantastic job of specifying their products. They rate things in both watts and VA and shows proper temperature derating data for their equipment. Every electronic device has a temperature derating curve. To simply ignore that this when specifying max power rating of...

If you are shopping price to the point you are looking at modified sine inverters, then don't worry about it. Whatever you end up buying will be very unlikely to be able to start the AC compressor motor in the first place. A soft-start circuit for your air conditioner will cost ~$300. I...

The Xantrex Freedom X (Inverter) or XC (Inverter/Charger) is one I was looking at very hard before I decided to go with a Victron Multiplus. The low voltage disconnect on these is programmable (0.1V granularity) which lets you set this to the appropriate voltage for LiFePO4 batteries). Cheaper...

Love the description of that noise filter. That is precisely what I want to do. Eliminate the car inside the car and keep my water ripple from being interfered with. Item description "12V Car Vehicle Stereo Radio Audio Power Wire Engine Noise Filter Suppressor. Eliminate the car inside the car...

Replace it with a 10A or bigger diode and add a heat sink. 5A with 0.5 V drop is 2W of heat. You want a big enough diode to dissipate that heat. I never operate a diode above 50% of its current rating. And more thermal headroom is often desirable.

I am an EE also, that doesn't mean I understood the concerns initially either. Low Frequence vs High Frequency inverters refers to if the inverter uses a 60 HZ power transformer or not. What it really is, is a short hand way of distinguishing between products designed to meet a price point and...

That is why companies like Eco Flow and Goal Zero are thriving. Don't sweat it, we are doing this ourselves because we want to. If all you want is a solar powered AC outlet then buy an all in one and hook it up to a few solar panels.

Sorry, I noticed that after I made my post (and I corrected this in an edit). Your modified image is correct. To make things more explicit, the DC system is not supposed to be isolated from chassis ground, but the negative to ground connection is only supposed to happen at a single point. What...

Deliberately using the chassis for high current? That reminds me of the guy from "Down Periscope." I prefer to use a separate conductor to carry return current. I am not responsible for what Ford did in the engine compartment, but in my RV's house DC wiring, the negative bus only connects to...

No idea. I don't have one. Just saw it and thought wow I know some cheapskates who would love to know about it. This place reminds me of my riding buddies. Half of them doing DIY luggage on their KLR650. And the other half mounting a set of Touratech panniers on their adventure bikes...

To be fair surge should only need to last long enough to get a motor moving. If you are in surge for more than a minute you are doing something wrong.

Typically you wear a conductive mesh suit, while hanging out the side of a helicopter to boot. The voltage is not the hazard these guys face.

You make excellent points. Seems pretty misguided to spend $$$$ on batteries then balk at spending $$$ on the rest of the system. That couple of hundred you save buying a marginal inverter/charger could end up costing you thousands due to premature battery failure. Seems like a bad place to try...

Just started the first charging cycle on the first cell using the Mean Well HRPG-150-3.3. Resting cell voltage was at 3.3V (so no idea what SOC these cells were when shipped to me). Voltage adjust topped out at 4.05V so plenty of range (spec is max = 3.8V). I am using a 30A current shunt...

I hate cigarette lighter plugs with a passion. Useless connect with almost no retention force.

A cursory examination of the 3 phase waveforms shows that when any phase is at max voltage, the other two phases are at 50% of max voltage. This indicates to me that the correct answer is that 3 phase power is capable of delivering double the max power of any single phase. Going to take calculus...

Not going to get a lot of use. The power efficiency and reduced surge requirements are what attracted me to the Panasonic.

P.S. In my opinion, Victron's pricing is very competitive for equipment I am actually be willing to use. Forget what the cheap crap costs. That is like comparing a harbor freight table saw with an old Rockwell or a SawStop. You really do get what you pay for and you don't get what you don't pay...

I hope Will is socking away as much as he can. It could all go away in a moment. Meanwhile the unemployement rate for people who do what I do has been zero for 50 years. I make my living with my brain and getting my EE has the best investment I have ever made in my life. But beyond the job...

"Fire Sale"?

Possible is not the same thing as wise. Based on Dzl's chart, -20 Degree C charging should be limited to 0.1C rates. You are off the scale (0.0C) at anything -30 and below. With my 120AH battery pack I plan on a max of 0.5C charge rate. If I use the 280 AH battery pack, the max charge rate...

Turns out there are HF inverters that aren't lying. They just start at $700. I have about decided to get one of these. Xantrex 24V, 2000W inverter. 4000 W surge rated for 2 seconds (not 40 mS like the crap inverters). Fully configurable low voltage cutoff voltage and recovery so it won't hurt...

Considering how unlikely these cheap 280 AH cells are to be matched, I am using an 8S Deligreen 5A Active balancer in addition to my BMS. Hopefully this will maintain the cells in a fairly top balanced condition. I am curious to see how the capacity changes over time and if the change is...