Hey all, I have a Max Transit and I had the thought that I want to transfer it from my house, to the RV, to the truck and back again without it turning off.
My idea is that I need a battery pack that outputs 12v and can be charged various ways (at least AC) and has a decent amount of life.
Has this been asked / answered before? I couldn’t find another topic on it. Would something like this work?
Sure – it’ll work. You’ll find a number of discussions here on the forum about that. You feed it V within the routers’ acceptable range and it will be happy.
One minor note: The item you cite is being advertised as a 38,400mAh battery. That’s 38.4 Ah. If you buy one – do a load test and let us know what you find. ;<) [Translation: “no way.” It’ll probably work just fine – but there is no 38Ah battery in that little box.]
You can also get a small/cheap apc ups if you dont mind powering it via AC.
@blaczero not only is Amazon not held responsible for selling knock offs from vendors, but they’ve had a troubling safety record with their Amazon-branded products overall involving electrical safety, including with lithium-ion batteries (highly explosively flammable & dangerous unless well engineered and well manufactured with intelligent safety circuitry.
For what it’s worth, you might want to consider getting something you UL listed or similar… there’s a reason(s) stuff like that on Amazon is a little cheaper… something in the quality, sourcing, and regulatory chain had to give a little bit to bring down the price…
Since you’re taking it out to your truck and RV, you might want to consider finding a battery that can deal with humidity and not that one, o/w that’ll definitely increase the likelihood of a safety issue… lithium ion batteries are already relatively unstable by nature…
- Do not use the 12V lithium battery pack in places with high humidity or where it may be exposed to wet.
Yup. Points I should have raised as well.
Thanks, where do they sell higher quality ones that are more “reliable”?
Hi @blaczero. It’s not so much that such a device IS a risk is that it MAY be because the manufacturer/quality/etc is unknown. There’s some good stuff out there and some that is, well, horrible. I think that’s what @Datahead was suggesting.
When we need such an item we make our own and typically use sealed gel cels. I showed one in another thread with a 7Ah battery but it could have just as well have been a commonly available 4Ah version — such as commonly used in alarm panels. The charger we’ve used most recently is this one and one similar to it. We’ve watched it’s use with bench instruments and have found no issues with it other than Vc never reaches optimum “cycle level” – which is not necessarily bad. But, YMMV.
You could also do as @mystery suggested and use a UPS. The down-side with that is they’re not efficient from a conversion perspective. The up-side is they’re commonly available & are likely UL/etc approved.
@MartinLangmaid (Slingshot 6 in UK) and his firm have made many of them as well, as well has @mldowling (Rising Connection in AU.) And, I’m betting other Partners and users have as well. Maybe others would care to comment.
Possibly some confusion. The UPS would work, however it would need to output DC (like this https://www.amazon.com/TalentCell-Uninterrupted-27000mAh-Wireless-Smartphone/dp/B07WLD32RP )
I won’t need what you linked to. I don’t need a device that will charge a battery or keep one topped up, I need the battery.
Any other good solutions besides a UPS that outputs DC?
OK. Sorry for bothering you with my response. I can only tell you what we do – a battery and a charger – real simple.
What do you use for the battery?
All depends on how much capacity is needed. Last time we bought something like this. And, I also see we bought some 4.5Ah products. (We get such items from our regular distributors, not Amazon, but you get the idea.)
Interesting, would I need to get a controller separately?
What about something like this? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X3WC9GC
Hello @blaczero, (& thanks @Rick-DC)
An option we have used is an integrated Solar Regulator.
This major consumer supplier in Australia has lots of options.
If we take the MP3750 as an example, 12/24V 10A Solar Charge Controller with USB | Jaycar Electronics, then you connect your source(s) into the Solar Panel input, put your required battery capacity onto the battery connection and your load (your router) on the power out.
The choices of Solar Regulator out there are huge, we stick to the higher quality Victron Energy whenever possible with remote monitoring functions, though you can also get a good quality unit without all the bells and whistles as shown from Jaycar.
Additionally, some of the Solar Regulators will allow power from the battery back towards the solar input source, if this is the case you will need to add a Power Diode to prevent the battery from discharging into the vehicle.
Happy to Help,
Marcus 
That looks like good stuff, @mldowling. Thanks for the lead on that!
I might mention … here’s a product we have used a few times – overkill for Peplink routers because of their low current demand but really useful in higher power applications e.g., with HF/VHF/UHF radio equipment which are networked. Products such as these are a long way from the sketchy ChiCom stuff sold on Amazon.
All of this in the replies you guys are giving will be very useful. I do plan to get solar going at some point and the ideas here help a lot. I am a n00b but watching videos and learning here helps a lot.
Bottom line for now though, is I want to take the pepwave from home to rv to truck without it losing power. What is the best device for that situation? Later I’ll add solar to my RV, etc.
Hi,
The Transit Duo has to 2x Micro-USB B power inputs. So just add two normal 2x Micro-USB B battery blocks with power through as you use them for phones. That should cover you for the small power disconnect when moving them from location to location. And the battery packs you can charge with any adapter you use for your phone charges …
Thanks for all the feedback. I decided I wanted longer battery life and more flexibility in a UPS type of unit. I went with
https://www.amazon.com/Jackery-Portable-Power-Station-Generator/dp/B07D29QNMJ
Since I can charge it via solar at some point and it seems to run the Max Transit for ~ 24hrs on one charge.
As a side note, for USB chargers (the cheap battery bank ones) I found that not all can output and input at the same time. Meaning if you want to bring it for a long trip in the car, you’d need to get one that you can charge while its powering something, which seems to be a feature most do not have.
Thanks again