How quickly a week slips by!
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How quickly a week slips by! Once again it's #FreeCADFriday show us what you're working on with #FreeCAD!
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@FreeCAD I'm exploring possibilities for laying out a portable solar / battery distribution box, trying to see whether I can come up with a reasonable layout to contain a solar input, a solar charge controller, two battery busses, and two device busses that can each be switched individually between the two battery busses, without being unwieldy.
This arrangement is clearly unwieldy, so I've learned that I need to come up with something different. ☺
Back to the thinking board, I guess!
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@FreeCAD I've modeled XT60 male and female panel-mount connectors, plus the panel-mounted guarded fuse blocks I plan to use.
While I'm one of those rare hams who use the generally-superior XT60 connector, most hams use PowerPole 15/35/45A connectors, so my idea is to have some of those too, just in case. That's the next modeling problem. Though maybe I'll just block those out roughly, just making the mounting correct instead of modeling with this level of fidelity.
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G gustavinobevilacqua@mastodon.cisti.org shared this topic on
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I came up with a layout for my solar charge controller power distribution box that I think will work.
This is ridiculously over-complicated. Two battery busses, two appliance busses (each with two XT60 and one PowerPole) that can be switched between the battery busses, the solar controller can be switched between battery busses, and even a USB-C PD adapter that will boost the 12V nominal batteries up to 20V at 65W to power a laptop, and can also be switched between battery busses. There's room in here for filters, too; I plan common-mode chokes on both sets of connections to the solar charge controller, though I haven't modeled them.
I'm still trying to decide whether to use the caps on the fuse sockets. Probably not, since this isn't weatherproof anyway due to the opening for the charge controller, and if I don't put caps on the fuses, I think I can mount them so they don't stick as far out of the box, and the fuses will be easier to change. So right now I'm only partway through modeling cutouts in the box.
I'm still not 100% certain I really should make this, but... I've already purchased basically all the parts I need, so sunk cost fallacy here I come!
Hmm, there's room on the far side to add more XT60 connectors, but I might be running out of fuse sockets!
