Reddit mentions of Mighty Max Battery ML35-12 - 12V 35AH U1 Deep Cycle AGM Solar Battery Replaces 33Ah, 34Ah, 36Ah Brand Product

Personally for local or camping (not air travel) I like the 35-55 AH AGM SLA scooter batteries. (SLA = sealed lead acid aka non-spillable) If you turn of heated hose & humidification (passover humidification is okay) they will last a few nights. See the ResMed battery guide for more detailed run estimates at https://www.resmed.com/us/dam/documents/articles/198103_battery-guide_glo_eng.pdf.

Basic list of parts you need:

• Battery https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K8E0WAG
  
• Battery box https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002WCUIC4 (optional but nice to have)
  
• eyelet terminal cigarette adapter https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G8WLW2Y (optional for ResMed)
  
• battery charger https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004LWVEKS or similar
  
  Depending on which CPAP machine you have:
  
  
• ResMed DC adapter https://www.cpap.com/productpage/resmed-dc-converter-airsense-aircurve-10-machines
  
• Philips DC adapter https://www.cpap.com/productpage/pr-dreamstation-shielded-dc-cord
  
  Edit: the cigarette adapter is only optional for ResMed since it comes with a clamp adapter - Philips does not. I'd still get one though since it can bolt to the battery terminals.

My laptop needs at least an 180 watt inverter so that would be pretty useless to me. You can spend the same amount to get a 200 watt inverter along with a much more robust 35AH battery. Or spend a little more and get a 800-1000 watt inverter that can power your laptop plus a few other things and you will have a far more versatile setup. Save your other batteries for your mower, weed eaters, leaf blowers, etc.

I'm going to try to make this easy for you. Here is a setup that will provide you with some basic solar power. Don't expect to run your laptop 24/7 , but this will give you plenty of juice to get a few creature comforts in place and you'd probably be able to keep a business class laptop going all day with it.

• 100w Solar panel, charge controller $167: https://www.amazon.com/HQST-Polycrystalline-Display-Charge-Controller/dp/B01GVVE2WI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496765420&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=solar+panel+kit&psc=1
  
• small battery box $13: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000B12YQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
• 35AH sealed battery to fit in box $64: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K8E0WAG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
• Power inverter with USB ports $37: https://www.amazon.com/BESTEK-Power-Inverter-Adapter-Charging/dp/B00UFERZKO/ref=pd_sim_86_2?
  
• solar cable connectors $8: https://www.amazon.com/Sun-YOBA-Pairs-Female-Connectors/dp/B00A8TRKJW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1496763777&sr=8-3&keywords=mc4+connector
  
• 100ft of cable to use as needed $30: https://www.amazon.com/Paradise-GL22132-landscape-lighting-protected/dp/B00378K8XG/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1496763822&sr=8-6&keywords=low%2Bvoltage%2Bcable&th=1
  
  Total cost is under $400
  
  
• Find a conveniently hidden and inconspicuous place to hide the battery and charge controller. Mount them both securely. Make sure you still have access to this space as needed to monitor power.
  
• Run a line from the battery terminals to the battery ports on the charge controller.
  
• Mount the solar panel to the roof using the provided brackets. Make sure you seal that shit up to avoid springing leaks. Run the power from the solar panel to your inverter and hook up the cable to the solar ports on the charge controller. Seal that shit too.
  
• Mount the power inverter wherever you find it convenient. Run a line to the charge controller and mount it to the load ports.
  
  Try to avoid leaving exposed metal wiring at your connections and make sure you have all the positives and negatives matched up and you now have solar power.
  
  When putting this together, I opted for decent starter solar panel, charge controller, and battery. I skipped details such as multiple outlets, custom lighting, and vent fans because that will add more complication as you're wiring multiple things. You could always upgrade to those later.
  
  Down the road, depending on your needs you may want to upgrade to a 100AH battery (it's much larger and heavier so keep that in mind), add a 2-3 more of the 100W solar panels, and add a vent fan and LED lighting.
  
  Keep in mind that heating, cooling, and refrigeration will not be viable with this setup. To run a good fridge/freezer setup like this one, you'd need probably 200AH of storage and 300W of solar panels to be safe.
  

I am going to echo others who suggested that it might be a good idea to prepare a way (or several ways!) to heat food without fire. No point in storing all that rice if you have no plans to cook it. For a bug-in grid-down situation, my plan involves a set of 12 volt deep cycle batteries (which will become part of my battery bank when I eventually save enough money to go solar) and a 400 watt inverter as a power source for a small slow cooker (90 watt) or a small rice cooker (300 watt). What I like about this system is:

It's very effective for boiling water, cooking stored grain, canned food, etc.
It is very quiet, just a little bit of a hum from the inverter fan, unlike a noisy generator, which could attract uninvited guests.
Can safely be used indoors without risk of CO fumes, although you do want to be very careful with any sort of lead acid battery - keep it in a protective container.

Only drawback I see is you do need access to clean drinking water (for cooking and/or clean-up afterwards) and you need to keep lead acid batteries charged or they lose power over time. Stored and maintained properly, this could be a good prep for folks in apartments.

Sure, I will try to list everything here, most of what I got was from Amazon.

$107 HQST 100 Watt,12 Volt Solar Panel

$20 Charge Controller from Amazon

$90 1000W Power Inverter I went overkill for most on this, but I wanted to power a chainsaw if needed, otherwise you would only need to put in $37 for something really good

$11 Battery to inverter cables

$64 35AH 12V Deep Cycle Battery

$14 12V LED lights

$5 light wiring

$6 Switch

$38 Solar Panel Wires

$13 Battery Cables

$16 Conduit Pipe

$17 Unistrut

$13 For the Satellite Mount on eBay

Then figure $20 for various nuts an bolts.

So for me it came out to about $434, but considering that I paid high for my inverter, and over paid on cables/wire (you can use cheaper cables, but I went with the pre-set ones for convenience), you could do it for just over $350.

What are the dimensions? It's the right voltage for a car battery and it looks like it's car battery-sized, but 10Ah is tiny for a car battery. If it fits, you can get a much higher capacity car battery (here's one that's 12V, 35Ah). Odds are you can take that 35 Ah battery and run it 2-3 as longer than the battery you had in there. Otherwise, you can get another 12V, 10Ah battery (here's one) for cheaper. No matter what you get, try to remember to charge before the battery gets too low though because lead acid doesn't like being all the way depleted.

I'd get one of these and carry it on:

https://www.amazon.com/MOHOO-Bendable-Lightweight-Connector-Compatibility/dp/B06XVWPD7N/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1506055237&sr=8-11&keywords=100+w+folding+solar

Note that you'll need a battery (AGM/sealed) and at minimum a solar charge controller. I like these ones:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0191QN7OO/ref=sxr_rr_xsim_1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=3008523062&pd_rd_wg=dnE5M&pf_rd_r=86BF01NK65JWJANM0TKG&pf_rd_s=desktop-rhs-carousels&pf_rd_t=301&pd_rd_i=B0191QN7OO&pd_rd_w=BQDtY&pf_rd_i=solar+charge+controller&pd_rd_r=8YE8X122ADP49YFNBB11&ie=UTF8&qid=1506055373&sr=1

Appropriate battery:

https://www.amazon.com/ML35-12-Battery-Replaces-Mighty-product/dp/B00K8E0WAG/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1506055420&sr=8-10&keywords=agm+battery

The thing with car batteries is you gotta worry about them flipping and spilling acid into other chambers. Probably won't be an issue, but it can be. Which is why I suggested an AGM. I used something like this https://www.amazon.com/ML35-12-Battery-Replaces-Mighty-product/dp/B00K8E0WAG

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0748GKHZ8/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518115896&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=80w+folding+solar&dpPl=1&dpID=51GlBo5rIvL&ref=plSrch

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00K8E0WAG/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1518115963&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=35ah+battery+deep+cycle&dpPl=1&dpID=51TNL6zn1RL&ref=plSrch

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00G8WLW2Y/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1518115996&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=12v%2Bbattery%2Bsocket&dpPl=1&dpID=511ZvmcpmsL&ref=plSrch&th=1&psc=1

I thought of getting the yeti 150. But went with this instead due to 2-3x capacity, and cost. The only thing i didn't get was an inverter, which i don't need

I'd just put the biggest marine deep cycle battery I can fit as my starting battery, (probably group 31) and get a $100 lithium jump pack in case I ran it down.

Or

You can build your own goal zero type portable battery setup for$200-400. The Yeti 400 is a 33ah 12v AGM deep cycle battery with 300w sine wave inverter and a 12v plug in. It also has features like low battery alarm, displays power usage, and comes with an AC charger. You won't save much $ making it smaller/less powerful, but it will weigh less if you'd like to use a smaller than 33ah battery.

$50-150 for an AGM deep cycle 12v battery, 33ah

$75-150 for a 300w pure sine wave inveter, you can save more money if you don't need pure sine wave or 300w, or don't mind an always on fan

$25-50 for a 12v trickle charger to charge the battery up at home, if you don't have a charger already

$15 for a male to male 12v adapter to charge it from your car, or use your jumper cables.

$10-20 for a 12v socket or two, or a USB charger socket

$10-50 for a battery case to hold the battery and mount the inverter and sockets on

$30 on misc parts like voltage display, wire, and fuses

It's only 50 watts. Assume 60 watts therefore 5 amps. For 3 hours, you need a 15 amp-hour battery. Double that for safety and buy 30 amp-hours or more.

When you buy it, post pictures of the power adapter and the label on it and I'll tell you more. A 100 watt or greater inverter should be fine, but there are other options.

This http://www.amazon.com/ML35-12-Battery-Replaces-Mighty-product/dp/B00K8E0WAG

might be more than enough. I'd try Walmart for one. Get Deep Cycle.

Thanks to all who replied!

So it got me thinking about how to do it.
I was hoping it would be simpler -- "Buy motor, CAD up some connectors, wire it up, write simple code, go". ( Even that is too complicated, IMHO... )

So, what I've decided to do is make a simpler robot that is closer to what I imagine in difficulty, then scale up.


Here's my BOM so far:

• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N3XZSTY
  
• https://www.ebay.com/itm/202488241409
  
• https://www.ebay.com/itm/111715988116
  
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K8E0WAG/
  
  I figure I'll make a more toy version first to see problems, then begin searching for a way to scale up. My initial hope is just to be able to haul the battery around on grass so I get a better sense of the problems I need to solve.
  
  Thanks!