Dave in AZ
Solar Enthusiast
I have a Pecron e1500LFP power station, that I was going to use in the bed of my 2021 Toyota Tacoma as my popup camper power solution.
Tacoma has an inverter that powers a truck bed 120vac 400w plug. It works, have tested with work tools and multimeter. Instead of running a 30A dc to dc charger off my alternator and big cables from engine to tailgate, I thought I had a sweetly elegant solution-- just plug the power station into that 400w 120vac port, and get a free dcdc setup! Already isolated from start battery, already wires run, already set for 400w or 30A 12v, super easy.
Unfortunately, I just walked in from testing the Pecron e1500LFP using the AC 120v power in bed of my truck. NO GO!! I've been assuming I could just plug it in and charge, but NO. Pecron just clicks, doesn't accept any power. Keeps clicking every 5 sec or so as it resets and tries but denies the truck AC. Some guy posted same results at TacomaWorld, I thought I better go test it. The Tacoma inverter must be cheap, maybe not true sine wave, whatever, but it is too malformed apparently for Pecron to accept. I then plugged Pecron into wall, yep 1600w charging instantly.
So... before I end up doing a standard alternator dcdc 30A smart charger and big cables, I am wondering what other options I might have to somehow make use of this crappy 120v back there?
Pecron power station has a 32v-95vdc 700w solar input to its built-in SCC.
I was thinking I need something dumb that will accept the 120v, so maybe getting battery charger that is dumb and accepts 120v malformed wave, and converts it to 48v or something, and feed that into the Pecron solar input maybe? Will a standard 120vac to 48vdc battery charger put out a dc output that would be accepted by the mppt SCC that is in the power station? I assumed any dc signal in 32-95v range would work, but now I'm gun shy! Thanks for your opinions or ideas!
Otherwise I will have to bite the bullet and buy a dcdc charger from my alternator, and run big cables. Such a huge waste though with 400w 120vac already sitting there in truck bed...
Tacoma has an inverter that powers a truck bed 120vac 400w plug. It works, have tested with work tools and multimeter. Instead of running a 30A dc to dc charger off my alternator and big cables from engine to tailgate, I thought I had a sweetly elegant solution-- just plug the power station into that 400w 120vac port, and get a free dcdc setup! Already isolated from start battery, already wires run, already set for 400w or 30A 12v, super easy.
Unfortunately, I just walked in from testing the Pecron e1500LFP using the AC 120v power in bed of my truck. NO GO!! I've been assuming I could just plug it in and charge, but NO. Pecron just clicks, doesn't accept any power. Keeps clicking every 5 sec or so as it resets and tries but denies the truck AC. Some guy posted same results at TacomaWorld, I thought I better go test it. The Tacoma inverter must be cheap, maybe not true sine wave, whatever, but it is too malformed apparently for Pecron to accept. I then plugged Pecron into wall, yep 1600w charging instantly.
So... before I end up doing a standard alternator dcdc 30A smart charger and big cables, I am wondering what other options I might have to somehow make use of this crappy 120v back there?
Pecron power station has a 32v-95vdc 700w solar input to its built-in SCC.
I was thinking I need something dumb that will accept the 120v, so maybe getting battery charger that is dumb and accepts 120v malformed wave, and converts it to 48v or something, and feed that into the Pecron solar input maybe? Will a standard 120vac to 48vdc battery charger put out a dc output that would be accepted by the mppt SCC that is in the power station? I assumed any dc signal in 32-95v range would work, but now I'm gun shy! Thanks for your opinions or ideas!
Otherwise I will have to bite the bullet and buy a dcdc charger from my alternator, and run big cables. Such a huge waste though with 400w 120vac already sitting there in truck bed...