Universal DIY car charger

BluPenguin · January 10, 2020, 4:51am

Shit post so yall know this thing exists:

Boost converter that can take 12v car power and push it to whatever s your battery is. CV/CC, set your voltage and charge current and off you go.

Screw terminals on the unit, grab a cigarette plug off amazon and whatever charge plug your shit uses, solder some wires or nah.

I’ve been using it for about a year now, can push about 3-4 amps to 10s 42v and 2-3a to 12s 50.4.

Top off your board on the way to a group ride or shock your nipples in the car, very useful.

*Can draw max 15A from the input side so shouldn’t pop any fuses but I’m not responsible if it does.

**PM for the STL for that 3D print enclosure or make your own, its square.

Fosterqc · January 10, 2020, 5:03am

ayy my BST-900W got here a couple days ago!

$26.96 on ebay after tax with 4 day shipping.

I’m very excited to see all the things I can do with it.

DEEIF · January 10, 2020, 5:30am

Hey Edward @eicarumba is this sorta like what you’ve got in your garage/workshop? Also, we should ride soon

Kellag · January 10, 2020, 5:40am

@kevingraehl

KfromtheBay · January 10, 2020, 5:44am

I just plug my AC/DC charger into an inverter but this looks like a neat option

mynamesmatt · January 10, 2020, 5:44am

How hot does it get? i boosted to 42v 5a from a 5s lipo once and my boost unit got so hot it melted itself… or I had a dud idk

ShutterShock · January 10, 2020, 5:49am

Hm that’s interesting. However I question if it would just be easier to buy a small inverter, that’s what some of my friends do

BluPenguin · January 10, 2020, 5:51am

You get more power from this because less conversion = more efficient. And compact.

mynamesmatt · January 10, 2020, 5:51am

i think people do it straight with a boost so that you’re not converting to 110/240v and then back down to 42v. the losses there are quite big
edit: there ya go ^

ShutterShock · January 10, 2020, 5:52am

I guess that makes sense, but why does it matter if your car is turned on, the battery gets charged from the alternator anyway

BluPenguin · January 10, 2020, 5:52am

It has a built in fan, I’ve pushed it until it couldn’t sustain the voltage I set it to. It gets really warm but never shut down or even affected my PLA enclosure. Screams like a banshee though when its at full power.

mynamesmatt · January 10, 2020, 5:52am

who knows honestly lol. either way will work

KfromtheBay · January 10, 2020, 5:53am

I should have mentioned I use the on-board inverter that has an outlet in my truck bed. Efficiency is not really a concern for me since the alternator is running anyhow. So that is the downside, truck has to be running

Fosterqc · January 10, 2020, 5:53am

I hear these do get quite warm.

This is the model, same amazon seller in fact that all the Onewheelers I know get for charge and ride.

They put it in a small plastic case but have to cut a vent hole for the fan or it will overheat. I leaned this the other day when we were talking about waterproofing one of these for use in the rain.

BluPenguin · January 10, 2020, 5:54am

Fuses n crap. Most 12v ports are fused to 15, if the inverter is wired directly to battery then you can draw more, but that’s a hardwire solution, where as this thing pulls the maximum 12v 15A from any cigarette jack with minimum loss.

agentdev · January 11, 2020, 10:12pm

I just got mine today. So far it works great with my 10-14.5V shop power supply and a 19V 6.5 A laptop power supply.

I am going to test with high input voltages to see what kind of output I can achieve. In the spring I plan to hold some eskate events with our local eskate shop this year - we are building a massive stock battery for field charging and these would make great output modules.