Powerpack

After taking a few weeks off, I'm back on this project.

On my return, I found a great battery solution for a micro-solar system. The Xantrex XPower PowerPack 600HD is both a 28 amp hour battery and a 600 watt inverter. With a little modification, you can connect any solar panel under 30 watts directly to the unit. This negates the need for a charge controller or inverter. At $182.98, the Xantrex battery is a great value and will help keep my overall costs down.

The catch...I needed to solder a Size L Coaxial DC Power Plug to the end of my panel's cables. The plug connects the panel to the battery pack via the AC charger input socket. Normally, you would plug in AC adapter and charge up the battery pack via a wall socket. Instead, I'll plug in my solar panel and let it charge the pack during the week.

"Solder" is a scary word. Before today I didn't know anything about soldering. But this link to the EPE "Basic Soldering Guide" was a big help.

I used a wire stripper to expose the positive and negative leads.

One problem, the hole in the casing for the plug is too narrow to accept both wires. I had to widen it slightly using a drill.

Once I slid the casing on the wires, I used a multi-clamp to position the wires against the plug's contacts. The center contact is positive and takes the red wire. The outer contact is negative and takes the black contact.

If you don't have three hands, using a multi-clamp is important. You'll drive yourself crazy without one.

After the solder cooled, I slip the casing on and plugged it in the AC charger input socket.

Placing the panel in the sun caused the "Charging Status" light to glow green. The battery was collecting my first bits of solar energy. 

The next thing to do is hook up my computer system to the fully charged battery and test how long I can keep things running.