That's awesome, one of the cleanest pack out battery banks I've seen. The only overthinking concern I could come up with is being careful not to expose the packout to prolonged direct sunlight. The clear packout tops act like a green house, letting the heat in but not out. We use packout as electricians and have had plastic components and devices melt on us. Other then that top notch build!
Super clean build. It's awesome, all the different things you can do with power tool batteries, aside from the commercial stuff they sell. I bought a base for a Ryobi pack and connect that to a buck converter so I can power the aerator on my minnow bucket for a full 24 hours, with a 4AH battery.
As a Milwaukee fan, you caught my eye. As a controls and automation designer, I have a few observations. One is that your heat sink is enclosed, so when the cover is closed, it really is a battery heater. Note that you have wiring resting on the heater. Second, Batteries in Parallel cannot be successfully charged simultaneously, with a single charger. Third, since these are lithium batteries, a fire is a realistic possibility but I see no Individual Isolating Diodes on each battery. Thus, a voltage reduction, in any cell, will result in that fault drawing on the good batteries, potentially at a sufficiently high current, to cause a lithium cell fire, which would turn the entire device into an incendiary problem. It's a valid concept with a marginal circuit design which makes the odds of a fire a non zero number.
Great work!!!! You might want to add a fuse in the system somewhere, the Joolca cigarette plug has a fuse in it. Being used around water It would be very easy to get a short. You could also add some other plug types like USB, USB C or SAE to make the box more versatile for charging or powering other items around the camp site.
totally agree, and the links for the buyable versions of these plugs have in line fuses at the battery level. I like your idea of adding more options for plug types! My next battery that I am working on will have an arsenal of plugs haha that video should be done in the coming weeks. Thanks for checking my video out by the way :)
Thanks of that. I’m on the joolca page and seen this. I have a bunch of ryobi tools in Australia and my son is a electrical whizz so he’s going to help me using ryobi batteries. I like the waterproof plug idea. My only thoughts to yours is a light to show on or off with the little button switch. Well done, cheers for sharing.
awesome! Yeah and I agree, they make switches that have halo rings in them. I chose not to have a light so that I wasnt pulling any electrical draw if I were to leave it down by the water
Nice works mate! I've built a couple similar power station variations. Something to look out for is the 24v to 12v converter you are using. This has a high guage wire (14 AWG?). So if you have multiple devices plugged in, e.g. a camping fridge and some lights. It will drop below 12v as the wire can't handle the current. This will be more noticeable when you use the long extension cable. if you want a consistent 12v you will need to modify the converter with a lower guage wire. Also, is if you have multiple batteries in parallel. It's best to use some Schottky diode to stop reverse current flowing from one battery to another. If all batteries are fully charged. This step will save your batteries.
this is cool. I bought an inverter hat is designed to work on three Milwaukee OR DeWalt batteries , made by miller tech. so it allows you to use 120 v things off of your batteries which is nice especially if you are like me and do not have many 12v camping things. when I go camping I take just regular stuff with me that plugs into a wall outlet. of course the amount of juice these batteries hold is not enough to handle really big stuff but I tested it out with my shop vac and it ran it on high for about 20 minutes which is actually pretty impressive considering its a full size shop vac. I wouldn't use it for that of course but for running lights or a fan, charging stuff ect it works pretty well. it was $300 bucks though
I built the same type of battery box using a pelican case to power the fish finder in my kayak using the tool batteries saves a ton of weight and space compared to using the typical marine battery and it will run my fish finder for a full day of fishing easily
I think if you add diodes to the battery parallel wiring will be very beneficial so the batteries do not charge each other, in case one the batteries voltage gets lower than the others. Thanks.
If the batteries are wired in parallel, they should all drain at the same rate. It would be wise to fill the three battery cradles with batteries with the same Amp/Hour rating. Mixing 4 amp/hr batteries with 1 amp/hr batteries, for example, could be an issue.
i came here wondering the same thing, i just saw another video and it a guy tested multiple milwaukee batteries some did and some did not have low voltage cutoff and could kill the batteries, im wondering in this guys situation would you have to run a little LVC for each battery?
Definitely a sweet setup! Planning to get your heater kit soon, and was planning to run it on an m18 battery. But after seeing this, I think I’ll keep it with the plug and build one of these as well. Sxs can have a wire wired in or I can use this with a wire to the heater to power it…. Dual usage!
You should really add diodes to the wiring so the batteries aren't back feeding each other. It will function the same, but if one battery loses capacity, the other batteries will be trying to charge into the diminishing one. A diode on each battery would prevent that.
Nice clean build. Only have a couple comments. One I have is from watching some Power Wheel to M18 conversions is that the intelligent low voltage cutoff is inside the M18 tools and not the batteries so without a Low Voltage Cutoff the batteries will drain down so far that could kill the batteries, might be able to jump them but they might be trash. Not sure how that would work in a series, if would need one for each battery? Second comment is that it would be nice to have some indicator if it’s on or off after you’ve disconnected the pump. Maybe that switch has a different feel off and on, if not then maybe a momentary light indicator or small LED? Thanks for the video.
Hey Eric, thank you for checking it out and commenting. Some tools have the low voltage cutoff onboard the battery and some have it inside the tool. Milwaukee m18 is one that has it inside the tool. I have since added one plus a fust inside the case. I have cutoff voltage at 16.5v for the M18. This seems to give us most of the working voltage range. With regards to your question on how I have my batteries wired together, Since they are in parralel, the voltage between the batteries keep each one at the same level. I can monitor the voltage drop the same regardless of how many batteries I have in there.
oh and since the under voltage protection board has a screen on it. That will help with understanding if the battery is turned on and what current voltage is at a glance. Draw on the battery is 1.5w so in theory it would take over 250 hours for the screen to actually drop the battery down. It is worth noting that all voltage protection boards continue to draw energy so dont leave them plugged in. They mostly protect against over usage in the moment.
I think this sort of innovation is starting to take off in a way that’ll have Milwaukee do the same as your OneWheel, and make the batteries impossible to use with anything but Milwaukee tools.
I thought about doing this myself but the cost of batteries, a 12 ah M18 is 250 dollars so 3 of them would be 750 dollars for only 36 ah, you can get a 200 ah battery for about 600
Companies like Jackery already sell batteries with camping specifically in mind. This is cool thing to do if you already have a bunch of batteries, otherwise there are better solutions for this particular problem
Nice, but why does everyone ignore the #1 question about the over discharge protection. I guess it’ll take ruining a battery and spending $200-300 replacement batteries. Boards are 10-15 bucks.
Tool batteries have built in electronic discharge protection. People typically run their tools, such as a drill or driver until it stops before swapping to a new battery.
After running why water pump on high for an entire battery pack, I saw no significant rise in temperature. I am only pulling around 5-7 amps and this is rated for 20a.
Batteries draining too low are not an issue for Lithium-Ion tool batteries, as they are often run on cordless tools until they are exhausted. The tool battery packs have electronic battery protection built in. Adding an LED readout battery health monitor to the case would be a simple addition and tell you the health of the battery pack at a glance.
Batteries draining too low are not an issue for Lithium-Ion tool batteries, as they are often run on cordless tools until they are exhausted. The tool battery packs have electronic battery protection built in. Adding an LED readout battery health monitor to the case would be a simple addition and tell you the health of the battery pack at a glance.
Really, really bad advice. Battery protection is SOMETIMES built into the battery and sometimes into the tool (like the Milwaukee batteries). Running Lithium batteries too low and you just destroyed some pretty expensive batteries. If you don't know what your talking about don't post!
Where did you get the plugs ? I’m going to make one of these setups using makita 18v . As that’s what I have . Found everything else but the 12v plug . I love my joolca as well !
Hey! So the 12v plug is the one from the kit just snipped the cig lighter tip off and soldered the ends of the water proof plugs on from the video. Note that I’ve got a step down converter in there taking the 18v down to 12v.
Kit? I didn’t find a kit . I did find the step down converter you have . Like I said haven’t located the 12v plug waterproof plug you changed to from the cigarette adapter .
@@geoffreysweetser3084 everything used is in the video description above. If you are on a mobile device you click the little drop down arrow to the right (just under the video) but here is the link for ease - amzn.to/3PWL4kp
It's not a 20 amp circuit. The batteries are 18/20 Volt DC, not 20 amp. It looks like the "on/off" switch is on the 12 Vdc side of the circuit. Regardless, the circuit should be fused for protection. The amperage draw will depend on the load powered by the power box.
since the m18 does not have an onboard BMS you could attempt to use some sort of MPPT charge controller but you would need to make sure you can select the proper cut off voltage when full. This may prove to be difficult but could work.
![โอ้เธอช่าง... - บี้เดอะสกา ft. ต๋อง เทวัญ (Prod. by ป๋าเพชร) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zbWhiLFmVL0/mqdefault.jpg)
![[ENGSUB] UNPRODUCTIVE DAY ใช้ชีวิต (เปื่อยๆ) ด้วยกัน 1 วัน! | OUROAD CLOSEFRiEND SS2 EP.9](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pyYKZ3kra9w/mqdefault.jpg)
That's awesome, one of the cleanest pack out battery banks I've seen. The only overthinking concern I could come up with is being careful not to expose the packout to prolonged direct sunlight. The clear packout tops act like a green house, letting the heat in but not out. We use packout as electricians and have had plastic components and devices melt on us. Other then that top notch build!
Super clean build. It's awesome, all the different things you can do with power tool batteries, aside from the commercial stuff they sell. I bought a base for a Ryobi pack and connect that to a buck converter so I can power the aerator on my minnow bucket for a full 24 hours, with a 4AH battery.
As a Milwaukee fan, you caught my eye. As a controls and automation designer, I have a few observations. One is that your heat sink is enclosed, so when the cover is closed, it really is a battery heater. Note that you have wiring resting on the heater. Second, Batteries in Parallel cannot be successfully charged simultaneously, with a single charger. Third, since these are lithium batteries, a fire is a realistic possibility but I see no Individual Isolating Diodes on each battery. Thus, a voltage reduction, in any cell, will result in that fault drawing on the good batteries, potentially at a sufficiently high current, to cause a lithium cell fire, which would turn the entire device into an incendiary problem. It's a valid concept with a marginal circuit design which makes the odds of a fire a non zero number.
Those are some great points. I will certainly have to keep them in mind if I make a project similar. Though not for a camp shower.
Great work!!!! You might want to add a fuse in the system somewhere, the Joolca cigarette plug has a fuse in it. Being used around water It would be very easy to get a short. You could also add some other plug types like USB, USB C or SAE to make the box more versatile for charging or powering other items around the camp site.
totally agree, and the links for the buyable versions of these plugs have in line fuses at the battery level. I like your idea of adding more options for plug types! My next battery that I am working on will have an arsenal of plugs haha that video should be done in the coming weeks. Thanks for checking my video out by the way :)
@@keeganbuilds just subbed your channel for future vids.
Thanks of that. I’m on the joolca page and seen this. I have a bunch of ryobi tools in Australia and my son is a electrical whizz so he’s going to help me using ryobi batteries. I like the waterproof plug idea. My only thoughts to yours is a light to show on or off with the little button switch. Well done, cheers for sharing.
awesome! Yeah and I agree, they make switches that have halo rings in them. I chose not to have a light so that I wasnt pulling any electrical draw if I were to leave it down by the water
@@keeganbuilds yeah fair enough, that makes sense. Is it a switch that sticks out more when it’s on or off?
Nice works mate!
I've built a couple similar power station variations.
Something to look out for is the 24v to 12v converter you are using. This has a high guage wire (14 AWG?).
So if you have multiple devices plugged in, e.g. a camping fridge and some lights.
It will drop below 12v as the wire can't handle the current.
This will be more noticeable when you use the long extension cable.
if you want a consistent 12v you will need to modify the converter with a lower guage wire.
Also, is if you have multiple batteries in parallel.
It's best to use some Schottky diode to stop reverse current flowing from one battery to another. If all batteries are fully charged. This step will save your batteries.
Thank you for sharing the build!
this is cool. I bought an inverter hat is designed to work on three Milwaukee OR DeWalt batteries , made by miller tech. so it allows you to use 120 v things off of your batteries which is nice especially if you are like me and do not have many 12v camping things. when I go camping I take just regular stuff with me that plugs into a wall outlet. of course the amount of juice these batteries hold is not enough to handle really big stuff but I tested it out with my shop vac and it ran it on high for about 20 minutes which is actually pretty impressive considering its a full size shop vac. I wouldn't use it for that of course but for running lights or a fan, charging stuff ect it works pretty well. it was $300 bucks though
I built the same type of battery box using a pelican case to power the fish finder in my kayak using the tool batteries saves a ton of weight and space compared to using the typical marine battery and it will run my fish finder for a full day of fishing easily
Anderson Power Poles with the cover sleeves!
I think if you add diodes to the battery parallel wiring will be very beneficial so the batteries do not charge each other, in case one the batteries voltage gets lower than the others. Thanks.
If the batteries are wired in parallel, they should all drain at the same rate. It would be wise to fill the three battery cradles with batteries with the same Amp/Hour rating. Mixing 4 amp/hr batteries with 1 amp/hr batteries, for example, could be an issue.
Yupe a simple in-line diode. Then he can mixed different capacity battery
Planning to build a similar thing. Is a diode on the + wire enough? Could you name a type perhaps?
Do the Milwaukee batteries have built in voltage protection? If not, a low voltage chip is about 15 bucks and that will protect them from over drain
i came here wondering the same thing, i just saw another video and it a guy tested multiple milwaukee batteries some did and some did not have low voltage cutoff and could kill the batteries, im wondering in this guys situation would you have to run a little LVC for each battery?
That is amazing build, I think I’m going to use your idea to put a small amount of power I my inclosed trailer! Thanks again
Definitely a sweet setup! Planning to get your heater kit soon, and was planning to run it on an m18 battery. But after seeing this, I think I’ll keep it with the plug and build one of these as well. Sxs can have a wire wired in or I can use this with a wire to the heater to power it…. Dual usage!
You should really add diodes to the wiring so the batteries aren't back feeding each other. It will function the same, but if one battery loses capacity, the other batteries will be trying to charge into the diminishing one. A diode on each battery would prevent that.
Nice clean build. Only have a couple comments.
One I have is from watching some Power Wheel to M18 conversions is that the intelligent low voltage cutoff is inside the M18 tools and not the batteries so without a Low Voltage Cutoff the batteries will drain down so far that could kill the batteries, might be able to jump them but they might be trash.
Not sure how that would work in a series, if would need one for each battery?
Second comment is that it would be nice to have some indicator if it’s on or off after you’ve disconnected the pump. Maybe that switch has a different feel off and on, if not then maybe a momentary light indicator or small LED?
Thanks for the video.
Hey Eric, thank you for checking it out and commenting. Some tools have the low voltage cutoff onboard the battery and some have it inside the tool. Milwaukee m18 is one that has it inside the tool. I have since added one plus a fust inside the case. I have cutoff voltage at 16.5v for the M18. This seems to give us most of the working voltage range. With regards to your question on how I have my batteries wired together, Since they are in parralel, the voltage between the batteries keep each one at the same level. I can monitor the voltage drop the same regardless of how many batteries I have in there.
oh and since the under voltage protection board has a screen on it. That will help with understanding if the battery is turned on and what current voltage is at a glance. Draw on the battery is 1.5w so in theory it would take over 250 hours for the screen to actually drop the battery down. It is worth noting that all voltage protection boards continue to draw energy so dont leave them plugged in. They mostly protect against over usage in the moment.
@@keeganbuilds great build!! Do you have a link for the low voltage board? Thanks
The step down buck converters also have built in low voltage cut-off too!!!
I think this sort of innovation is starting to take off in a way that’ll have Milwaukee do the same as your OneWheel, and make the batteries impossible to use with anything but Milwaukee tools.
Great idea mr they is so much anyone can adapt for their own use l will be looking at your idea thanks 😊 👍 l have packouts my self great kit
*Great ideal . I really like the ideal. This can be used for tons of things. i really like ideal like this . keep them coming !!!*
Can you power your diesel heater with this battery pack? If so what sort of run time do you get?
Great idea!
Very nice. Thanks for doing us this.
Nice job man.
Outstanding!
You have 56v ego batteries in the background, it's what I run with a 60v buck converter
I thought about doing this myself but the cost of batteries, a 12 ah M18 is 250 dollars so 3 of them would be 750 dollars for only 36 ah, you can get a 200 ah battery for about 600
The beauty about this is using your tool batteries…
Companies like Jackery already sell batteries with camping specifically in mind. This is cool thing to do if you already have a bunch of batteries, otherwise there are better solutions for this particular problem
You're a f***ing genius!
Nice, but why does everyone ignore the #1 question about the over discharge protection. I guess it’ll take ruining a battery and spending $200-300 replacement batteries. Boards are 10-15 bucks.
Tool batteries have built in electronic discharge protection. People typically run their tools, such as a drill or driver until it stops before swapping to a new battery.
Do you know where I can find a battery adapter for rigid?
Great work. I have one concern, regarding the battery next to the converter. This batttery will be hotter then the others and may fail prematurely.
After running why water pump on high for an entire battery pack, I saw no significant rise in temperature. I am only pulling around 5-7 amps and this is rated for 20a.
Lol go consult elsewhere.
How do you keep the batteries from draining to too low of a voltage level?
Batteries draining too low are not an issue for Lithium-Ion tool batteries, as they are often run on cordless tools until they are exhausted. The tool battery packs have electronic battery protection built in. Adding an LED readout battery health monitor to the case would be a simple addition and tell you the health of the battery pack at a glance.
Batteries draining too low are not an issue for Lithium-Ion tool batteries, as they are often run on cordless tools until they are exhausted. The tool battery packs have electronic battery protection built in. Adding an LED readout battery health monitor to the case would be a simple addition and tell you the health of the battery pack at a glance.
Really, really bad advice. Battery protection is SOMETIMES built into the battery and sometimes into the tool (like the Milwaukee batteries). Running Lithium batteries too low and you just destroyed some pretty expensive batteries. If you don't know what your talking about don't post!
Where did you get the plugs ? I’m going to make one of these setups using makita 18v . As that’s what I have . Found everything else but the 12v plug . I love my joolca as well !
Hey! So the 12v plug is the one from the kit just snipped the cig lighter tip off and soldered the ends of the water proof plugs on from the video. Note that I’ve got a step down converter in there taking the 18v down to 12v.
Kit? I didn’t find a kit . I did find the step down converter you have . Like I said haven’t located the 12v plug waterproof plug you changed to from the cigarette adapter .
@@geoffreysweetser3084 everything used is in the video description above. If you are on a mobile device you click the little drop down arrow to the right (just under the video) but here is the link for ease - amzn.to/3PWL4kp
Thank you so much for your help . New to the TH-cam video watch and link . Thanks again
Can you also charge through this?
I would’ve just got a bootleg m12 battery from Amazon and cut out the step down converter
flip converter sideways to help it cooldown
Concerns about your 20a circuit running through a 5a switch?
It's not a 20 amp circuit. The batteries are 18/20 Volt DC, not 20 amp. It looks like the "on/off" switch is on the 12 Vdc side of the circuit. Regardless, the circuit should be fused for protection. The amperage draw will depend on the load powered by the power box.
Can we add on solar on this setup
since the m18 does not have an onboard BMS you could attempt to use some sort of MPPT charge controller but you would need to make sure you can select the proper cut off voltage when full. This may prove to be difficult but could work.
So much wring with this. No fuse protection, no battery protection. This is a cool idea but not nearly good enough to post on youtube in my opinion.
The box and the m18 bracket cost too much. M18 battery are expensive. (Dont want to ruin them) Better choice to just buy a ecoflow, anker or jackery.
Looks like a pain to remove batteries btw
Cool setup. Check out my setup if you want, I spent time designing a full diy build. 👍🏼