Mega Power Bank

by TheSpodShed

399K1.8K117

Intro: Mega Power Bank

Here's a super-sized power bank, able to keep all your gadgets charged many times over. It offers both USB charging and a 12V accessory socket - with a suitable inverter you can even power small mains devices. It also features a digital voltmeter, to allow the state of charge to be judged.

The design here includes a rugged, waterproof case, with a storage compartment for leads and accessories. It's ideal for a camping trip, particularly when paired with a solar panel for recharging.

STEP 1: Collect the Components

The main components for the build are:

  • An (empty!) ammunition box. The one I used was a .30 (7.62mm) calibre ammo box, measuring 25 x 8 x 18cm approximately. These are readily available from Army Surplus stores or a number of eBay sellers.
  • A 12V sealed lead-acid (SLA) or valve-regulated lead acid (VRLA) battery. This needs to fit in your ammo box with plenty of height to spare. I used one measuring 15cm x 6.5cm x 9.5cm approx, which is a common sized replacement for UPS units. Typically these have a 7Ah or 9Ah capacity rating.
  • Panel-mounting 12V socket, USB charger, and DC voltmeter set. These can be found on Amazon searching for "12V three hole panel". The three sockets are attached to a plastic mounting plate, but can be removed if required. In this design they are attached directly to the front panel and the mounting plate is not needed.
  • A chunky toggle switch - this can be bought from many electronics suppliers, or a car or caravan accessory shop.

You'll also need:

  • Wood for the front panel - this should be a decent (10-12mm) thickness as it's a structural part of the whole design - and a number of other offcuts of thin sheet plywood or similar.
  • A short length of aluminium angle.
  • Wire, solder, and battery terminal connectors (these are often supplied with the panel socket set).
  • Thin foam for battery mounting - the stuff I used was saved packaging from a laptop case.
  • Nuts, bolts, wood screws, and double-sided adhesive tape.

STEP 2: Battery Mounting

The SLA battery will sit on the base of the ammo box, held in place on three sides by the walls of the box. I cut some thin foam sheet to size and stuck it with double-sided tape to the walls. The fourth side of the battery is held in place with a piece of aluminium angle, cut to fit the width of the box. Drill a 5mm hole in the centre of the angle, then fix another piece of foam to its other face. Put the battery in position, hold the angle up against it, and mark through its hole onto the base of the box.

Drilling the hole through the base of the box is fairly straightforward if you have a Dremel or similar small drill which will go in the box. If not, you may need to mark the position with a centre punch, then drill through from the other side. On my box the top lid was detachable, which made it easier to handle during assembly.

If all goes well you can attach the aluminium angle to the base with an M4 bolt and Nylok nut. Make sure it's good and tight as it has to restrain the heavy battery.

STEP 3: Front Panel Construction

The front panel is a piece of softwood cut to fit inside the ammo box. The sides of the box are slightly tapered, and the corners are rounded, so I found it easiest to cut out a template from cardboard first and trim it for the best fit, then draw round it on to the wood. I rough-cut it using a power saw then shaped it, first with a surform and finally a power sander.

The final width of the panel is a balance between keeping a comfortable spacing between the sockets, and leaving a good width for the storage compartment. On my box it came out as 175mm, as measured along the centre line.

Next, cut holes for the three 12V sockets and the switch. I used a 30mm hole saw and a 12mm wood bit, respectively. The spacing between each of the hole centres came out at 42mm. I also needed to chisel out a rebate on the reverse of the panel to allow the switch to poke through sufficiently.

When the wood is cut, it can be finished as you fancy. A medium wood dye and a couple of coats of glossy yacht varnish will give it a rather nice 'vintage car dashboard' look.

STEP 4: Front Panel Wiring

When the woodwork is ready, the power sockets can be mounted on the panel, then wired up. I decided to leave the 12V accessory socket unswitched (connected directly to the battery), and the USB charger and voltmeter connected via the switch. They have a small (40-50mA) power drain when on, so will discharge the battery gradually if not switched off.

When finished, the wiring looked as shown in the photo. I put heat-shrink sleeving on the finished joints to provide mechanical support and avoid exposing any 'live' conductors should any stray bits of metal find their way inside. You can briefly test the wiring by connecting up the battery, before further assembly,

STEP 5: Battery Top Mounting

The heavy battery needs to be held securely in place to prevent vertical movement. This is done with a wooden 'channel' which sits on the top of the battery and is held down by the front panel. The channel is made with a small piece of 6mm ply, cut to the width of the battery, and two wooden offcuts (25 x 12 x 150mm approx) for the sides. These sides need to be tall enough to allow clearance for the front panel sockets and their wiring.

The sides have a step cut in one end to leave a gap for the battery terminals. They are glued to the ply, and held in place with a couple of panel pins. (I made sure the heads of the pins were punched below the surface so they didn't scratch into the top of the battery).

When this is done, the channel piece can be placed on top of the battery, and the front panel is then put in place above it.

STEP 6: Final Assembly Steps

The front panel is held in place with four screws, two on each side. You'll need to drill holes in the ammo box at the right position to hold the front panel in place - I found this easiest to do by measuring the distance from the top edge to the face of the panel (see photo), then adding on half the thickness of the wood. Position the mounting holes so that the screws avoid the the DC sockets when fully inserted.

Finally, you need to cut a piece of thin ply to form the side of the storage compartment. It can be held on to the right-hand edge of the front panel with a couple of veneer pins. When this is done, the panel can be pushed into place and the mounting screws put in.

STEP 7: In Use

Lead-acid batteries are fairly forgiving (compared to other battery types) of electrical abuse, but their performance and lifetime will be improved if treated properly. I'm using a proper microprocessor-controlled charger to recharge the power bank - this has a multi-stage charging cycle, finishing with a 'float' stage which holds the battery fully-charged indefinitely without damaging it,

The voltmeter can be used to judge the state of charge of the battery. During discharge the voltage will drop from 12.5V or so to under 11V - it's not recommended to discharge below about 10.5V as a deep discharge can permanently damage the cells.

You can use a solar panel to recharge the battery, but note this will usually be a 'top-up' rather than a full charge - a 5W panel will charge at 0.3 amps or so in full sunshine, which will need 25 to 30 hours to deliver a full charge. Don't leave a solar panel permanently connected if the voltage is capable of exceeding 13.8V or so.

97 Comments

lapsmith 7 years ago

To be safe, I would make sure the ammo box is vented. I don't think SLA batteries are supposed to give off (much?) hydrogen when charged, but I wouldn't take a chance. One spark inside the sealed box, and it could go boom. Someone here at work died when a liquid electrolyte lead acid battery in a sealed box blew up as he was bending over it.

Glenn G 7 months ago

Gell cell batteries give off zero hydrogen gas. That is one beauty of using them.

neaton1 6 years ago

You seem a little confused by the type of battery used. A sealed lead acid battery is just that. Completely sealed.

That is however not the same with a liquid electrolyte battery such as found in a car or pick up truck. Those have vents for off-gassing any breakdown of the electrolyte causing hydrogen gas. And the amount of off-gassing from said battery is not enough to cause too much concern on a newer battery.

If the battery was, for the sake of the argument, 10 or more years old and had no maintenance done to insure the electrolyte was kept up, then the amount of off-gassing due to the battery not properly taking a charge can be a concern.

TheSpodShed 7 years ago

The battery datasheet does indeed say "on no account charge the battery in a sealed container", although in this design you can't connect anything (for charging or otherwise) when the lid is shut. On mine the wooden side panel is a loose enough fit that the battery compartment is nowhere near gas-tight, when the lid is open. You could drill a few small holes in it to make sure, I suppose.

oolon colluphid 7 years ago

Ooo! You could install a tube and collect the H2 gas in a balloon for fuel! KIDDING! Oh please nobody try that!

This is very cool and handy... I may have to try building a backpack version if I can find a more suitable (lighter) case of similar dimensions. Ideas?

RobPaige 6 years ago

Plastic ammo cans are lighter, but the real killer in terms of weight is going to be the battery.

kz1 6 years ago

Harbor Freight sells a plastic ammo box that might work??

bear toy 5 years ago

Hello I was wondering, cos I'm a complete showoff, if I could make it with even more USB ports? I'm fairly new to circuitry and somthing tells me that it might not work or the charge time might be impeded or something else that I haven't thought of yet so while I would be happy with Two USB ports I'd always prefer four or six... or eight

TheSpodShed 5 years ago

You could always add more USB charger adapters if you have space. Just wire them all up in parallel (like the voltmeter is wired "in parallel" with the USB adapter in step 4).

Do keep the switch, to turn the adapters off when not in use. They use a few milliamps of current even when nothing is connected, and this will eventually drain the battery completely while the unit is stored.

TSpechko 6 years ago

Please recommend a compatible Solar 12dc power generator.

theo67 6 years ago

Made similar power pack some years ago as a portable power source to run a guitar amplifier.

Made provisions for recharging on board battery when mains power available and use a motorcycle trickle charger either hard wired or via the 12volt cigarette lighter power plug.

Add a power inverter to plug in the mains chord of a guitar amplifier [or other light load mains powered device]. Power inverters often have a regulated USB plug power connection as well for USB powered devices

Connected the power inverter via the 12 volt plug. Guitar amp would run several hours in this configuration.

Final mod is to have a suitable chord to recharge charge internal battery from car 12v socket to Power Pack socket.

Better, if you are really clever, you can plug the power inverter in to your car socket, plug your mains powered battery charger into the inverter and the output of the battery charger into your power pack socket to charge the onboard battery!!!!

Ytprivilege 6 years ago

Add a small fan for outside usage. Will help charge the battery with or without solar.

jerry.ericsson2 6 years ago

I do like the idea, but to save weight, I think when I build mine I will go with recovered 18650's from old laptop battery's. I have about twenty five of them now saved up for such a project, and have several small power bricks that I built with plugs on them so they can be plugged into various devices. One has a step down converter so I can use it for most of my 5 volt projects, another with a step up for 12 volt and up projects, and the big boy I have is set at 32 volts to use with my 50 watt and 100 watt led lights.

bscgvrvr 6 years ago

How are you going to regular the voltage from 12.5 to 5 volts and amp from 7.5 to 500-900mA

leseagle 6 years ago

To secure the battery you only need to use a little Hot Glue...

VirginiaJ5 6 years ago

Looks like a great power source! It also looks very Steampunk! Great way of killing two birds with one stone!

barntt1 7 years ago

Safety FIRST.. You forgot the FUSE! Great way to burn down a house! Install the safety equipment (THE FUSE)

JohnnyVerhoeven 7 years ago

Good idea. I would use a small li-ion battery designed for motorcycles. They have all electronics on board to charge and protect it. I have one in my motorcycle. It was a simple swap with the lead battery. It works like a charm.

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