Renogy 200w Solar Suitcase $500, DIY 200w $200

[Music] all right here's my single hqst panel i'll take a little bit of look at what we're doing what we're starting with before i uh put these together so first thing i did was make a stand and then we'll take a look at a little better at this as i build the second one but uh basically it's just some pvc um i have uh across the top here this uh piece is just a half inch so it fits inside of of these things so as i tilt that up and this thing will will swivel and tilt on there um i have it cut so it's a uh pretty much a press fit between the the rails of this panel but then also just put a screw in to kind of hold it in place and then the the rest of this pvc is three quarter inch so two t's and then two elbows and then just the uh a vertical and a horizontal piece and it's a uh a very simple stand holds it up well make another one for the second one so again we'll take a little bit better look at how that is going to work but but to uh to fold this thing up see if i can do this if i just lean this forward all right and then wires you slide them under there slide this one under there and of course this other one came out oops there we go so each wire is just been slid underneath the uh this frame and then i'll lay this down make it a little bit easier maybe and then this frame i also designed as a tight fit so once you're ready to pack it up you just push in press fit so now it's kind of pressed and held into place and then when you pick up the panel to carry it the wires are contained and the uh the frame is contained so everything is easy to pick up and transport all right this is the panel i'm using an hqst all kinds of uh videos on youtube where people have suspected these come out of the same factory as the renigi because there's so many uh absolute definitive similarities between them so i don't have any direct knowledge about that but but uh seen enough of it to think that's probably the case so it is 100 watt panel i've got two of them as we uh we'll see and uh there are the specs and we're going to test uh some of that open circuit voltage and uh in the amperage here so show you how to do that with your panels make sure that uh they are what they are and uh see uh how good a quality you end up getting if you don't end up getting these okay pbc is awesome to work with it makes a nice frame it is strong it is cheap real real cheap easy to cut but who wants it to look like pvc when you get it back together the frame we just looked at of course you didn't see any writing so the best thing to do with that is nail polish remover otherwise known as acetone now i've built a lot of pvc stuff in my life for some reason this stuff here is the best at getting the writing off of the pvc so it's uh onyx uh professional i guess got it at walmart like i said for some reason it just seems to work better than uh all the rest but to get this stuff off just get an old rag a little bit of acetone and then let me see if i can get in frame here and then you just start wiping it off now you can see this first pass just kind of leaves some pink residue that's okay so then once it's down to some pink then let's find a cleaner spot on the rag some more acetone and then just keep wiping and that'll eventually come off the black seems to come off better than the and the pink here that off that all off so that's how you make pvc to where it doesn't look like pvc anymore so we'll give that a bit of a wipe and then we'll keep going to the next all right here's how we put together the stand all right so i'm going to start this is that half inch piece that we're using i've already cut it and then cut sizes should have already been placed in the video but uh we're going to take the um the t fittings they're three-quarter tees and so they fit on here and then they're loose and they can slide around move around so we're going to put those t fittings on first and then up here where this the wiring connections are that's what i'm used for the top of the panel keep this up off the ground and out of the mud and the wet what have you so this piece uh was cut so it's gonna be a bit of a press fit it's gonna be tight going in [Music] and to set it what i did and seems to work well is i'm going to start with it about one foot from the top edge of the panel to the the top of this bar just so i can get them kind of evenly spaced to get a starting point so again my theory was this panel is about uh about three feet long from top to bottom um so we're about two thirds of the way up for our support all right so we've got that in we're not going to screw this down yet we'll see why in a minute and then it's just a simple to put together uh legs so one elbow on a leg and then one elbow on a leg and then put the cross brace in and we'll turn that a little bit the pretty side is out if it never matters okay so we've got that together um i am going to maybe kind of go off camera a bit but i'm going to use the concrete to kind of press these things in and together as tight as possible all right so that's the press fit i i probably won't hook or screw these things together or uh glue them or anything i've found that it's not really necessary but if you want to do that you can so then measure these things two inches just to get them kind of centered and then we're gonna just poke the legs into the tee and get them in tight all right and then this uh bottom in the frame a little better but on this bottom then we want this bottom to press fit tight and that is this one must be ever so slightly longer than the first one i built because where i'm off more than i was my first one so this is why we don't screw it down pull this up too much just so this bottom catches probably can't see on the uh on the camera but there is a little bit of uh writing on the bottom of this these things and that makes the perfect catch for a friction fit so you want it to pop in like that so it's going to hold it in place and then still be able to pop out to come loose so that's about where we want to be and let me get some measurements just so we're even so we're off a bit see if i can [Music] [Applause] all right so we are even across the top and we still got a good press fit and come back out again so that's what we want all right good so now i'm going to drill the top of this in alright now we've got everything situated the way we want it we're just going to drill a little spot for a sheet metal screw into this top bar as soon as you feel it pop through stop because to the back side of the underside of the pvc will protect the panel i'll just put just and then the other side that's really all there is to it for the stand it is done easy as far all right find a pretty neat app to aim your solar panels there we go it's called optimum tilt so open it up it's going to show the the tilt for your location and you set the location on the map i've already done that before and you just open it up and then um you've got a map there if you click on the map and it works just like a google map kind of thing so it finds your location so if you're traveling around just reset your location and then it's going to find your tilt for you so oops if we go back to now if we go monthly tilt it's going to show for my current location by the month there's uh your optimum tilt so you see in june and july this thing should be laying flat on the ground other months a little bit of tilt and then summer months the other several months a little bit of tilt winter months uh some big tilt so but then it also shows me for march 4th that is today that the tilt should be 38 degrees and then if we okay there we go then if we go to this inclemometer so now as it's laying on the table it says it's at a two degree tilt so then all i have to do is lay this on the panel and tilt it up until it says 38 degrees and that's the angle i should set the panel at for today so we're going to go do that now so there we are set up slipped a little bit maybe but let's see get some shading see so it's at 36 degrees after i put this stake in of course it timed out there we go about 37 36 degrees so we're close enough but there it is there's two panels propped up and uh a little stake at the back to help hold them so now we'll do uh some output tests all right so here we are at the back of the panel we're going to do an open circuit open circuit voltage test and a open current test of the panels make sure they're operating as they should so we've got this set on voltage i got it set on 200 dc and the thing can put out up to 21 volts so it goes that would be over the 20 that's available so then we just get the uh the red banded lead and get a the red end in it and the black lead and get the black in it and then so that we've got about 18 or 19 volts so these things have been sitting out the sun for about 30 minutes now so they've heated up a bit so they they don't drop their uh their max output a bit so there we are so we're working good so the next little test we want to do is for our meter we've got to switch the red lead over to the 10 amp side and then we'll switch this over to amps on the dial and just do the same thing again so here we go the red banded lead in the in the red and then the black lead now when you put the put the second one in it's gonna spark a tiny bit that's okay that's what it does so we're getting about 4.65 amps i think 565 is max voltage so winter day not the greatest sun so there's uh there's our test the panels are functioning as it should okay here's my setup got both panels connected and uh propped up on their new pvc mounts everything's working great i've got the panels wired in series which means i've got the positive from this panel coming over connected to the negative from that panel and then the negative lead coming out of this panel and the positive lead coming out of that panel and we're coming back here to my kayak battery for i got some partial shading going in my backyard so i moved the panels out to the driveway so looking getting 182 watts out of them 32 volts almost 6 amps out of the panels into the battery 12.8 amps so uh and then there's the uh kayak monitor 173 watts 183 watts so in relatively close 13 amps 12.8 amps timeout 12.8 amps so in charging well some panels in the driveway where they got some full sun so i seem to be doing doing very well okay now to add some hinges it's gonna be the fun part so this is what i've done i've got the two panels kind of facing towards each other i'm going to put them together facing to help protect the glass of the solar panels so i've got them clamped together got the uh both the bottom feet down the same side and uh i just found some had some scrap pieces of uh plastic i think it's from an old cutting board but just to kind of space it and some clamps to hold it together and then my uh hinges i've got laying on here so that they are going to fold i can grab it up like this once uh and those two all come together once i screw them in so that the panels will fold out and then lay flat um as far as spacing what i've done here is i've just kind of figured about nine inches there to the uh to the center punch move that little bit so about nine inches to the center hole again this whole thing was about 36 just under 36 inches long so i figured that gives them a good uh spacing between the length of the panel and should hold them good so now it's time to drill some holes [Applause] [Applause] [Music] so [Applause] thank you all righty it's together so it's a folder officially officially a folding suitcase now all i need to do is make a handle i'll put some bumpers on it to kind of help protect it here do that the bumpers next i think okay then for bumpers i'm using uh these uh little 3m bumpers anything 3m usually sticks pretty good so i've got a and then the next one all right we got it on and then when i fold [Music] you see that in the camera keeps the two pieces separated a little gap here uh to protect the glass just my hinges on the other side uh also create a gap so we should be good to go okay to make some clasps for our suitcase to keep it shut we're going to use a little short piece of that half inch pvc that we used to make the the cross brace on that so this is about two and a quarter inches and we're going to heat it and flatten it to start off with so got it uh set on top of a little bit of a aluminum foil there got a my harbor freight special uh heat gun uh they're only 20 bucks be surprised how many times you use it once you figure out how cool it is to make things with it so first we're gonna heat it and then we're going to put it uh in this vise here with a cut a couple little boards to make the uh the bits wider here and we're going to flatten it so uh here goes heat it up first wear some gloves so we just kind of roll it around with the heat gun get it heated on all sides all right it's starting to get a little soft not quite there yet all right it's getting pretty uh squishy we're gonna get it here in our vice and give it a big squeeze all right that's in there can't see it but we're going to let it set for a a few minutes and cool okay here's what we just made a flat piece of pvc rocket science and even real pretty but uh i've made better but it doesn't really matter it's going to be our clasp for our solo suitcase and then how we're going to do that with uh this stuff now this is 3m scotch brand um i call it dual lock because that's what's on the back sticky side of this thing is 3m dual lock but basically it's um like velcro on steroids both sides are the stiff side there is no soft side to this so it's the same piece you just cut it and put it together so i've cut a cut a piece to match this and uh cut a couple pieces that are going to go on our uh our suitcase so let's go uh take a look at that see if i can move over a little bit here maybe okay so this one is one i've already made you see it's sitting sitting there um pretty strong we flip it off so two pieces of that super velcro there one piece there you just snap it on to hold it together when you want to take it apart you just uh or open it up you just stick it on that way but this stuff is uh strong as can be pops in almost like a snap and then that thing's gonna hold closed so now we're gonna put one on the other end down here and uh first thing i'm gonna do is just get an alcohol swab or you got a bottle of alcohol and a rag and wipe it real good and then spacing wise i'm going to put them directly opposite of where the hinges are the hinges are straight straight down there so i'm going to wipe it with the alcohol swab get any oil or residue that might be on this thing off and then this dual lock you just pick off the backing and this is like that 3m vhb stuff if you ever use that it sticks to anything and everything uh permanently unless you want to get it off and then it'll come off so kind of line it up with the hinge um set that about right there put it on and press hold it for a few seconds all right my other piece just put it on and press and then we'll do the same with our pvc clean it up a bit the swamp they're a larger piece and uh just off the camera here but stick that on and then i'm gonna i'm off camera but i'm gonna press that in and then we just come over here and lock snaps in now that thing is not going anywhere pick it up by by uh one side hold it upside down shake it it's staying closed it's not going anywhere until you want it to okay next for some cable storage this is something used to hold electrical cords i guess called a cable raptor so if you can see in the background there i've already got one tied just some paracord i'm going to tie another one on and that is going to hold our extension cables and here is the finished product for cable storage here so let's see it's just held in by those two clips paracord purple's not required but it does make it faster better stronger go tigers okay now for a carry handle all right i've already made one side and with one side i can pick this thing up and uh of course with my fantastical latches it doesn't fall apart but we'll take a look at how how i made this and then i'm gonna make another one but this is one inch uh webbing get this here just a roll of this one-inch webbing i probably bought this a few years ago um big old roll we use it for lots of other things as you can see i'm going to talk about some best practices for cutting and using this kind of stuff but i did a little bit of experimenting and this gap from um from screw to screw is about six inches and then right right here on this uh panel there's a a ground spot right in the center so it's three inches from a dead center on the panel and six inches total span and i've already drilled the holes uh for the uh the second side and then now we're going to take a look at how i made the strap a few uh little uh tricks i picked up over the years for something like this so here comes the making strap okay i've cut this strap to 11 inches did a little bit of experimenting with the other one so to span that six inch distance plus some room for a hand and some room for uh one more little thing it'll be a surprise at the end so six inches of strap and then the next thing uh that you need to do is just kind of cinch the ends so it doesn't unravel uh i ever work with paracord same concept sends the ends get some wind going [Applause] all right so my ends are singed [Music] all right next thing i'm going to do is completely on camera but you don't have to see is find about the the inch mark and bend that back so it's doubled over and then just give this a good squeeze it puts a nice crease in it so it's doubled over so we got a double thickness on the end and then now we're going to make our bolt hole so if c in the background here is my trusty uh heat gun i talked about a minute ago you never believe how many times you use it once you use it so we're gonna turn it on and then we're gonna heat up a phillips screwdriver just something pointy that doesn't have to be a screwdriver but something about the size of the bolt and uh pointy and that you can get hot so we're going to heat this up and this takes a good minute or two or three maybe [Laughter] like we just burnt the end of that above the end of the webbing this will melt as it goes through so we're going to give a test all right so i'm going to put this down and it's going to be kind of straddling my slot here and then we're gonna see if we can punch it through all right it went through so melt it through flip it over kind of give it a punch on the back side and that is fairly hot and burned through so one more time all right and it's not a perfect hole which you can see through terribly well but it's a hole now so now we're just going to punch a uh a screw through right now i've got a quarter inch screw and a washer it's an inch long and uh it's tight which is good so uh just gonna basically uh just kind of screw this thing into the strap there and then now we're going to do the other side so i won't do that on camera you've seen one you've seen them all so we're going to do one more and then we'll be back okay we are done well i got both straps on here both handles now you could pick this up pretty comfortable you can carry this wherever you need to set it but to make good great we're not going to stop there i'm not going to stop there with just two straps i've got a uh this is a thing it made for a luggage strap you can get these on amazon too and the cool thing about this one is it's got a little inner sleeve so if we put this in and put the inner sleeve onto one of the straps now when we want to take it loose and uh open it up we can it doesn't it's not going to go anywhere it's going to stay with the panel but then when we want to carry it we just wrap this around both and then that becomes super comfy so there it is the super comfy carrying strap our solar suitcase is now complete put your setup you can do our handle cushioning pop our latches loose [Music] and we're done pretty awesome so one look at the uh at the final setup here we go in the front there's our handles and our super dual lock velcro for the latches here's our hinges installed the rest of our latches in storage mode one more handle with uh the super comfy grip and then as we look in the back there's our stands all we need to do is just uncoil our our charge leads stretch them out to the charge controller and our battery and we are ready to charge with our solar suitcase

Channel: Mike Jordan

Views: 6,881

Rating: 4.9253731 out of 5

Keywords: Renogy, solar suit case, DIY, solar charging, RV, Travel trailer, motor home, camper, MPPT, PWM, MC4 connectors, charge cable

Id: fqzshLzMEmE

Length: 41min 12sec (2472 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 17 2021