One for the Electricians - 3000w Bi directional Buck boost 12 - 48 - 12

[Alex Raptor]

As some of you will know I have a small addiction to toys, as such I have started seeing a potential issue with power consumption in my raptor, I have been researching options and looking at ways of improving the Raptorpresso™ experience. I have upgraded the alternator to 292A with 220A at idle, but with the winch drawing 348A at 10,000lb pull, it still needs to be intermittent usage, then on top of that the lights, the power draw for the Garmin and phone charging, plus my fridge in the centre console, its easily pulling over 80A without breathing. As long as everything else is off I can use the twin ARB's without receiving a warning as this is at idle and at the end of a drive, but with this any concerns will be a thing of the past. If I had considered a regular dual battery setup I would have had to install an isolator, a DC to DC charger that works with the newer "smart" alternators and BMS systems and rewire the winch and other 12v electrics to the second battery, this would have been a 12v system with thick 75mm2 plus cabling lots of breakers and no real way of running an inverter for a 1700w coffee machine without 3 or 4 lifeP04 batteries.. 

This is where I stumbled across Scotty, Scotty is a box that takes in 12v and pumps out 48v and pumps back in when required 12v. LifeP04 48v batteries are now available and are similarly priced to their 12v counterparts, better still the amp draw is less so thinner cables and a 48v/3000w inverter is much smaller and easier to run. So when the Raptor needs energy it can draw a further 250A from my 48v battery system (without additional 12V batteries) and when the batteries need charging they can draw up to 1000w from the alternator to charge up, its all automatic and works over CANbus similar to modern vehicles. This means I can run an inverter for Raptorpresso™ and power all my 12v DC stuff without any issues, this system will add about 40kg including batteries which is much less than a comparable AGM setup or 12v lifeP04 setup. The Australians who invented this of course are using it for campers, with hot water, AC, cook tops, so I have extra capacity for when I get into overloading etc. Also I can pop it out of this vehicle and move it to another if I ever changed the Raptor. The really geeky bit is the CANbus, the batteries have RJ45 sockets and are smart, they are the ones that control the charging, so the batteries are warrantied for 10 years, and the other equipment 5 years due to the fact that it looks after itself and knows what is too much or too little to avoid damage or over charge or over discharge of either the 48v or the starter battery. 

The buck boost is actually a part of modern EV's as this is how they "recover" energy from the alternator as they go, so modern hybrid's already have this system installed. 

Now I just have to find a way to get the batteries to DXB, the guys who make Scotty can log in through the controller remotely for any commissioning, the rest of the wiring is pretty standard.