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Thursday, July 30, 2015

 

lithium battery pack

so I got my fancy lithium battery assembled
here is what it looks like all done
did that to make it easy to carry

I got 8 LiPO4 10AH pouch cells 
the manufacturing website http://www.bestgopower.com/battery-overview/pouch-cell.html
shipping cost almost $100 and took almost 2 months to get, so it is about $200 total 
put them into a 4 cell pack that ends up 20AH at about 13V
I put power pole connectors on each set of 2 parallel cells,
made 2 matching connector sets, one puts them all in parallel in order to balance the voltage of the cells, I did not have to put an external connector on that one, but it will get me a 3.2V battery at 80AH and I do have a few things that will run on that low of voltage
I will likely need to use that connector at least every 6 charge cycles for cell balancing, but so far they are all at the same voltage with no drifting
the other connector puts them in series to get the 13V at 20AH to run most of my hardware and to charge them.

seems to work quite well

I charge them with solar (it limits the current by its nature) and use a DC to DC switcher to limit the charge voltage
http://www.amazon.com/DROK-Converter-1-2-32V-Laptop-Regulator/dp/B00C9UUFHC
have it set to float charge at 13.3V
the current solar is a 100W, but have a 20W one for portable use

so far I have been watching the voltage closely so I don't over discharge them,
over discharging these batteries will kill them forever almost instantly
but will soon will build a low voltage alarm so I don't mess them up
will set it to 12.9V with a delay to deal with transmit current on the radio dropping the battery voltage

as far as the physical mounting of them,
I left the clear plastic on the cells so that the cases are insulated (will help them not corrode)
I used 2 sided sticky foam tape to give them some space to expand if they need to

then I taped the outside so they can't go anywhere and lined the inside of the metal box I keep them in with tape as well

I took a circuit board and cut slots in it for the cells tabs to go through 
you can see the poor solder joints through the tape I put to insulate connections (60W is not enough power to solder that large of wires to the cells )
going to redo the solder joints soon now that I have a way higher power soldering iron
I would likely never build this setup again,
quite hard to solder them and was worried about melting the plastic in them
and when I charge them I get radio interference, sounds like a loose connection,
so maybe I have a cold solder joint... or could just be the nature of the batteries

if I did it again, would get batteries that I can just bolt connections to, like these
http://www.electriccarpartscompany.com/-NEW-ENERGY-br-4000-CHARGE-CYCLES--20-AH_c_138.html
also don't have to worry about potential cell expansion with time like you have to with the pouch batteries


but maybe I should have just got something off this pace
http://www.electriccarpartscompany.com/-CUSTOM-12-VOLT-PACKS_c_182.html

overall I am happy with what I did,

the max continuous discharge is 60A with  peak of 75A
that will more than double power my radio setup that I plan on running with it
will be adding an external box with fuses so the battery does not get hurt if I mess up,
but have not built it yet as it works now and I have been short on time

some motivations for wanting the lithium batteries is the potential life they have,
all my lead acid batteries are getting old, the lead acid batteries don't last that long anyway...
and the lithium are very light weight my setup is only 5 pounds 
picked the LiPO4 over the Lithium ion because the voltage of the LiPO4 matches the radio hardware voltage requirements better than the lithium ion, and they likely have longer life, and tend not to light on fire randomly

my setup is lighter than premade options that I could have gone with
the other advantage i have is that I get perfect cell balancing.(with connecting them in parallel )
it is the least loss system for cell balancing I could find, and works even if I only charge to 80% (or whatever I prefer to charge to), most setups requite you charge to 100% for the cells to balance (because they shunt the extra voltage), and I kind of want the longer life of never charging past 90% (but still want the ability to go to 100% if I need to)



Wednesday, March 11, 2015

 

HF backpack radio

so I built an HF backpack setup

it is on an aluminum frame with an aluminum plate pinned on the back
I have a 20W solar panel on the back covering the hardware,
the radio hardware is
Yaesu FT-817
Tokyo Hy-Power  HL45B
LDG Z-11pro
Mirage B-34-B
I have a super antenna mount mounted on the side of the pack
have the rest of the super antenna to use, but not sure if I will just use the hamsticks...
also have a 12AH 12V VRLA battery, and solar charge controller

this gets me all modes
45W on HF and
34W on VHF and
5W on UHF
all for 33 pounds, not so bad on a frame backpack

but I wanted more,
so I added my pelican case with my VX-7R and a few accessories like a lighter socket output that has a power pole connector so I can charge my mobile phone from the system, a few other small antennas, and that is about it.
I wanted the case on the back for 2 big reasons,
the setup stands up on it's own with the case attached,
and if it starts to get wet, I can put the radios, amps, tuner, and charge controller in the waterproof case (this is where I use to store them)
but it brings the total weight to 43 pounds, and that is a bit much for me to carry

I walked outside with it, found a few people talking on 40M, and called CQ for about 10 min. and got no reply, but it did appear to be working, it was a radio blackout time due to a solar flair (found that out later)
so band conditions were less than ideal, I will try again in a few days

the weight issue is a big deal
I am thinking I need to use the pelican case for something else at this point
and might remove the 2M amplifier, not that it is that heavy, but also not sure it is that safe to transmit 34W that close to me anyway, but mostly want it for SSB work, so it is not like it is constant output, but that may not matter, I just don't know



now it is picture time.

here is about what I started with, an old aluminum backpack frame and my radio hardware in a
pelican case
here is the bent aluminum attached to the frame
the back side with the straps attached on the back
placing the hardware to see what fits where
added some bracing for the shelf (braces are aircraft aluminum, not the bendy kind the rest is made of)
here is the top holder for the solar, not fantastic, but it works (made of 3 CB radio mounting brackets)
here are the mounting points for the radio hardware,
I wanted them to be easy to remove and not stick up high enough to hurt any of the hardware
and the back side of them (that little plate is aircraft aluminum again)
then I tested the hardware fit, and all seemed well
here it is almost all done, antenna mounted on the left side
and with the solar
maybe a better view of the antenna mount
I can fit quite a bit on the small shelf, the antenna stores on each side sticking up through the mounting ropes
I added cleats to tie the pelican case and the bottom of the solar panel to keep it from shifting
here is about the best view I have of it all done, all wired up, but without the solar on it
top view
that is all





Tuesday, April 29, 2014

 

water vapor

I wanted to see the color of water vapor, it had been so long that I could not remember it,
and it is not like I don't have the things to set it up,
so I put a dash of water in a canning jar, then vacuumed out all the air and some of the water (the water was boiling for a bit when I turned off the pump,
the lid to the jar self seals,
and I electrified it !

look for the arc inside the jar.

the vacuum pump is from harbor freight tools, they are used to fix air conditioners in cars,
the adapter to the canning jar is made by "food savers"
and the hand held tesla coil is Violux (and is very old and I could not find a thing about it on the internet )


Monday, May 20, 2013

 

new blog for farming activities

so I started a new blog for all the farm things I am doing
http://coarsegoldsurvivalgarden.blogspot.com/
I hope everyone likes it,
my goal is daily updates till I run out of topics,
and I thought of enough to keep it going for at least the summer in the first 15 min.
so it should be running all summer (unless something else happens)
to get the theme set, this is a kitty out the door , 
and here is the corn in the garden



Thursday, April 11, 2013

 

web forums

here are other places to find me on the web


my spiritual forum
http://spiritincontainer.proboards.com/

my yahoo group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Apocalypse_zombie_survival/

a spiritual forum I like
http://www.ishtarsgate.com/forum/forum.php

reincarnation forum
http://www.childpastlives.org/vBulletin/index.php

homesteading forum
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/

conspiracy theory forum (I find it fun, but don't judge me for it)
http://tinfoilpalace.eamped.com/

gardening forum
http://forums.seedsavers.org/index.php

and I have a few others, but I am not so active on them

Friday, March 22, 2013

 

cure the common cold

I was told long ago that you would be rich if you found the cure to the common cold,
I find that funny now as I have found out about an easy cure that has no noticeable side effects,
it works very very well, and not many people even care, even ones that see it work perfect on other people they live with,
all it is is to put a very small amount of electricity through your body,
skin resistance goes up quick with time, so all you have to do is pulse the electricity,
I have been using 9KHz, but others use 1KHz to 30KHz and it seems not to matter much,
you want the voltage to change from 9V (from a battery) and down to 1 volt (diode drop (I use a red LED)) at the least, and you want the changes quick ( square wave ) and then put that through a limiting resistor 1K ohms
just connect that to some short sections of copper pipe that are easy to hold onto, and leave it on for 7 min. while you hold it with damp hands (or at least not totally dry)
it is easy to do and works well, you get the feeling of the cold, and you can make it go away fast,

I guess it just amazes me that so many people think about this like it is some sort of magic from another dimension and that it is just so far out of what they think is possible that they just ignore it is there even if they have used it before and had it work great.

so just to let everyone know, if you have the cure to the common cold, most everyone will not care at all.


Tuesday, November 20, 2012

 

farm input/output (trade balance)

one of the things I have run into is how people deal with inputs and output ratios, 
if you look at your farm just like a country and look at the trade deficit issue it all seems to show the answer well,
this seems to work with most areas: calories, money, fertilizer...
so my new goal is to optimize things flowing to my farm and not out of it,
even if I can buy something for a low price, it will likely be better if I can figure out how to grow it or get it out of the ground even if it is more work.

if we look at the Amish, they seem to already be doing this very well,
they make real things from the land that they can replace with no external inputs, then sell some of it, they take no loans, they just collect the money, and expand form there,
so seems to me they collect wealth by having that trade balance in the correct direction,
there are so many forces in place in the modern world to make sure that trade balance goes the other direction, the biggest one if the irs (along with the rest of the banking system), consumerism is one of the other big ones, but I guess rent (or a loan for something you "own") is another big one for most people
one of the main reasons the USA sells very cheep food to the rest of the world is to keep them from establishing a strong agricultural base, and it works very well,
the only way out of this is to ignore the cheep food because you are not making it and never do things like take loans and other things that are not that possible in our world

anyone else think about this trade balance issue ?


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