5.2.7. Portable Battery Pack

I have a need for a portable 12V power supply to run my radio equipment while out portable. Using a car battery and distribution panel works, but the batteries are heavy and it’s not really easily portable. I wanted something self contained, I found a few using converted battery boxes, but again bigger than I would have liked.

I ended up building my own.

5.2.7.1. Batteries

The first question must be around the batteries to use. At the time I wanted a battery which would provide a high power rate but not be too heavy. I ended up buying three Miady 12v 7.2Ah batteries.

Wiring these up in parallel gives me 21Ah of power.

5.2.7.2. Case

Now I know the space I need for the batteries, I can add a little for wiring and connectors. I bought a sheet of aluminum 2mm thick (500x300mm). Using a workmate bench made it very simple to bend into shape.

5.2.7.3. Ends

Now that I’ve bent the metal I can design the ends. One end is very simple just needs to surround the metal and provide a space for the battery to sit in nice a tidy.

The front is a little more complex, as we need space for the power display, switch and Anderson powerpole connectors. I made a little mistake on my first print and rather than print again (it took a while to print), I ended up printing a front surround which holds the aluminum frame together and a panel which has all the connectors.

In the front panel I installed a nice little power display which uses a shunt, so I had to make space for that as well.

5.2.7.4. Wiring up