back to LiFePO4 combiner

1 construction:




Time to break out the plastic carving tools and make a new solar combiner box. Same drill as with the other
combiners - measure and apply masking tape, pre-drill holes for the meter, start the powerpole ports with the
hole punch, and carve it all out with an X-acto knife. I can't use my standard combiner that places four
panels in series, because that would exceed the voltage rating on my lithium solar charge controller.

I decided to go with #16 stranded wire internally. I might have gotten better performance with something
heavier, but these are very short runs and this is pure OFC not CCA, so I think it'll do the job. It only has
to handle at most 10 amps, though it'll typically see significantly less than that. This will be a series-
parallel combiner that doubles the panel voltage and doubles the current, keeping the voltage just below the
controller's 50v panel limit. This will keep the current as low as possible, to minimize transmission line
loss running to the controller that's going to be beside (or physically mounted ONTO) the lithium battery.

I decided to remove the back and even trim down the housing on the power meter since it was going to be a
tight fit with the additional wire and fuse holder. This about cut the meter depth in half, leaving me with
plenty of room inside. I think I'll be doing this more in the future, as there are no real drawbacks to it.
I considered removing the green connector block as well, but that would complicate connecting the wires
during assembly, and also had a good chance of messing with the meter's calibration on current measurement.



multifunction LCD power meters (in meters)


pinfox small project box (in project boxes)

01 prepping for meter	02 holes drilled for meter	03 meter knocked out	04 meter hole carved	05 meter fit test (top)	06 meter fit test (bottom)
07 bottom cover removed and shell trimmed	08 meter tape removed	09 ports taped	10 ports punched and carved	11 port fit test	12 ports supported for gluing
13 ports ready to glue (closeup)	14 ports glued (closeup, cooling)	15 port gluing completed	16 gathering harness materials	17 contacts soldered	18 splices bound
19 splices soldered	20 splices heat shrink wrapped	21 harness attached to meter	22 installing meter	23 construction complete	24 construction complete

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