After I was done not only completing my functional block diagram but also my wiring diagram for this project, I started building by removing the connectors from my batteries. The reason was that I wanted the batteries as close to one another as possible and that meant I had to drill a new hole in the connectors, which was more or less easily done with my drill press. Afterwards I reassembled the battery pack, added some duct tape and mounted some proper heavy duty power wires to its plus and minus terminals along with a suitable fuse. It is noteworthy though that I later had to reposition the fuse since it was getting in the way of the BMS system.

And speaking of BMS system, I firstly had to enlarge all of its PCB mounting holes inorder to even use it. But afterwards all you have to do to use it is to simply hook one of those boards up to one battery cell through the plus and minus terminals and then daisy chain the boards together through an additional data wire. And don't worry if you are confused now because the manual for the BMS does an excellent job of telling you all the important details.

Now after the BMS worked like anticipated it was time to not only wire up the SmartRelay but also pretty much the rest of the components and oh boy while this wiring job looked easy on paper, it took me around 4 hours to create all the power wires with fitting ring connectors and use them in order to wire up all of the components. And let's not forget creating this big minus pole point as well as including the current transformers/sensors. But all of that was worth it because I successfully created this mess which after doing some testing by activating the load and charge side with the push buttons, seems to work just fine with different loads as well as with the charging while also displaying the correct current values.

So it was time to partly rip this construction apart and bring in the first plywood sheets for the enclosure. Those two have a thickness of 1 cm and dimensions of 40 by 70 cm. I used them as a base and top piece which means that for the base I had to cut lots of roof laths and secure them to one another to basically create this wood construction that will hold the side pieces as well as the top with a distance of 25cm to the base.

And as soon as I was happy with this assembly, I used a thinner 3mm thick plywood sheet inorder to cut out the 4 required pieces for all of the sides. Back in my apartment I then firstly used screws to secure the wood construction to the base piece and while I was at it I also added 4 small wheels in order to make the whole system movable.

As soon as that was done, I lifted the battery pack with everything attached to it in its place and continued by adding a wooden barrier next to it. Afterwards I secured one long and one short side piece to the enclosure and used that inorder to give the SmartRelay a permanent position. Then I added the remaining long side piece and moved on to the inverter whose outlets I had to rip out and extend its wires in order to later mount it on the outside of the enclosure.

And while I was at it I also found out what wires are responsible for turning the inverter on so that I can also extend them out. And with that out of the way I marked the spots for all of the required control components on the remaining short side piece, created all of the cutouts with a drill and a jigsaw and just because I can also used my laser engraver to give it all some nice labels.

Next I pushed the LCD in place and secured the DC input jack to the panel before screwing it to the enclosure. And all that was now left to do was to add the remaining components, wire them all up, drill holes for the inverter in the top plywood sheet, secure it there through nuts and bolts, wire it up as well and let it fall into position.

And just like that you can make a portable power station. It charges without a problem and outputs more than enough power for pretty much everything and like already mentioned it shows you exactly what is going on on the input and output side, I love it.

And believe it or not but while this DIY version was certainly overall more expensive than the commercial version, it offers more energy per euro in comparison which does make it cheaper just in another way. And since creating such a system is really just lots of wiring and is pretty safe if you are careful, I have to declare that DIY is this time the winner.

And with that being said, thanks for watching. As always don't forget to like, share, subscribe and hit the notification bell. Stay creative and I will see you next time.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHi there, I have to say that I do enjoy campingand yes that is the only picture of me whilecamping which I had lying around so bear withme.Now even though the point of camping is toget a bit away from modern technology, I haveto admit that having electrical power aroundcan be really handy to for example chargeup your phone or use your jig saw for an emergencywood cut.The only problem is that not all campsitesoffer electrical outlets which just recentlygot me interested in such portable power stationproducts.As you would expect they come with a beefyinternal battery and electrical outlets whichmakes them perfect for camping.But the price can be rather expensive whichgot me thinking whether I could finally usemy big LiFePo4 batteries in a meaningful project.And in case you do not know, I got those hugebattery cells initially for my DIY power wallvideo and then I tried using them again inorder to power an electric long board.So in this episode of DIY or Buy let's firstlyhave a closer look at a commercial portablepower station and find out what makes it tickand afterwards let's create a DIY attemptin order to find out whether it makes senseto DIY such a product or whether we shouldstick to the commercial solution instead.Let's get started!This video is sponsored by JLCPCB and EasyEDA.As you might know I have been using the EasyEDAschematic and PCB design software for yearsand now I am happy to announce that when youare finished with your PCB design that includesan SMT assembly service, you can like alwaysdirectly order your PCBs through JLCPCB butnow you get a 10$ coupon while doing so. Sofeel free to join the EasyEDA and JLCPCB usergroup today.First off I have to confess that I had tobuy a commercial portable power station becauseI wanted to identify its features and whatnotbefore creating my DIY version.So after turning it on, I used the includedcharger in order to obviously charge it up.And I have to say that I really like thatyou can see the input power as well as laterthe output power on the DC and AC ports.But anyway, after around 2 hours the batterywas full enough for me which means it wastime to activate the DC and AC outputs andget to the testing.First off though I have to note that I donot really care about the cigarette lighterconnector or the 12V output connectors.But it was great to see that the 5V USB outputports were able to deliver plenty of currentfor lots of fast charging applications.And the electrical outlets also seemed towork just fine with a phone charger as wellas with my jigsaw.And they also used a pure sine wave inverterfor the outlets which was a big plus.But I was a bit skeptical that the 300W maxpower would be enough for my jigsaw whilecutting.Then you also get a few more gimmicks likean inductive charging station as well as alight but I do not really care about thoseeither.So let's rather skin the power stations rubbershell and somehow open it up in order to revealits insides.As you can see we got one big promising lookingcustom PCB underneath which the battery packwas located.At this point I had a closer at the circuitboard in order to determine its building blocks.And as you would have guessed; It all startswith the battery pack voltage which like expectedis protected by a BMS aka battery managementsystem.I actually did a video about such deviceswhich you should definitely check out in orderto grasp the importance of a BMS.But basically put it protects the batterypack from overvoltage, undervoltage, overcurrentand short circuit current and it balancesthe cells voltages so that none gets overcharged.If you are working with a battery pack energyof 500Wh or later with 1280Wh then such aBMS is definitely mandatory.With that being said we can follow the batteryvoltage to all the functional blocks likesome kind of switching regulator that is usedto convert the variable input voltage intoa voltage and current that is suitable forcharging the battery pack.Then the voltage also connects to the inverter,USB output board, Dc output board and cigarettelighter and all of this is controlled by themain control board that turns each functionalblock on and off.So all in all such a portable power stationis pretty straightforward which is why I putthe commercial power station back togetherand started gathering the main componentsfor my own DIY version according to what Iprioritized from the commercial version.To start off I got myself such a a Smart BMSwith two current sensors in combination witha Smart Relay.The BMS comes with all the protections featureswe need as well as a fitting Smartphone appwhich I will talk about later.The relay is used to either connect or disconnectthe load or the charging voltage dependingon for example whether the battery is aboutto get over discharged or overcharged.The relay can handle up to 120A at 12V whichis crucial because the inverter I got forthis build can do a continuous 1000W whichequals around 83A.It also comes with a sinusoidal output voltagewhich you should always go for.Then I also got myself an additional converterwith 2 USB ports for phone charging.And last but not least I bought such a crudevariable lab bench power supply which I willuse to convert a 24V DC input voltage intoa suitable charging voltage for the batteries.Of course I also got some thick wiring, switches,connectors and much more for this build butif you want those juicy details then you willhave to take a look in the video description.But anyway, after I was done not only completingmy functional block diagram but also my wiringdiagram for this project, I started this buildby removing the connectors from my batteries.The reason was that I wanted the batteriesas close to one another as possible and thatmeant I had to drill a new hole in the connectors,which was more or less easily done with mydrill press.Afterwards I reassembled the battery pack,added some duct tape and mounted some properheavy duty power wires to its plus and minusterminal along with a suitable fuse.It is noteworthy though that I later had toreposition the fuse since it was getting inthe way of the BMS system.And speaking of BMS system, I firstly hadto enlarge all of its PCB mounting holes inorder to even use it.But afterwards all you have to do to use itis to simply hook one of those boards up toone battery cell through the plus and minusterminal and then daisy chain the boards togetherthrough an additional data wire.And don't worry if you are confused now becausethe manual for the BMS does an excellent jobof telling you all the important details.Now after the BMS worked like anticipatedit was time to not only wire up the SmartRelaybut also pretty much the rest of the componentsand oh boy while this wiring job looked easyon paper, it took me around 4 hours to createall the power wires with fitting ring connectorsand use them in order to wire up all of thecomponents.And let's not forget creating this big minuspole point as well as including the currenttransformers/sensors.But all of that was worth it because I successfullycreated this mess which after doing some testingby activating the load and charge side withthe push buttons, seems to work just finewith different loads as well as with the chargingwhile also displaying the correct currentvalues.So it was time to partly rip this constructionapart and bring in the first plywood sheetsfor the enclosure.Those two have a thickness of 1 cm and dimensionsof 40 by 70 cm.I used them as a base and top piece whichmeans that for the base I had to cut lotsof roof laths and secure them to one anotherto basically create this wood constructionthat will hold the side pieces as well asthe top with a distance of 25cm to the base.And as soon as I was happy with this assembly,I used a thinner 3mm thick plywood sheet inorder to cut out the 4 required pieces forall of the sides.Back in my apartment I then firstly used screwsto secure the wood construction to the basepiece and while I was at it I also added 4small wheels in order to make the whole systemmovable.As soon as that was done, I lifted the batterypack with everything attached to it in itsplace and continued by adding a wood barriernext to it.Afterwards I secured one long and one shortside piece to the enclosure and used thatin order to give the SmartRelay a permanentposition.Then I added the remaining long side pieceand moved on to the inverter whose outletsI had to rip out and extend its wires in orderto later mount it on the outside of the enclosure.And while I was at it I also found out whatwires are responsible for turning the inverteron so that I can also extend them out.And with that out of the way I marked thespots for all of the required control componentson the remaining short side piece, createdall of the cutouts with a drill and a jigsawand just because I can also used my laserengraver to give it all some nice labels.Next I pushed the LCD in place and securedthe DC input jack to the panel before screwingit to the enclosure.And all that was now left to do was to addthe remaining components, wire them all up,drill holes for the inverter in the top plywoodsheet, secure it there through nuts and bolts,wire it up as well and let it fall into positionand just like that you can make a portablepower station.It charges without a problem and outputs morethan enough power for pretty much everythingand like already mentioned it shows you exactlywhat is going on on the input and output side,I love it.And believe it or not but while this DIY versionwas certainly overall more expensive thanthe commercial version, it offers more energyper euro in comparison which does make itcheaper, just in another way.And since creating such a system is reallyjust lots of wiring and is pretty safe ifyou are careful, I have to declare that DIYis this time the winner.And with that being said, thanks for watching.As always don't forget to like, share, subscribeand hit the notification bell.Stay creative and I will see you next time.