Duff485
Well-Known Member
Hey everyone,
I wanted to share my DIY Jebao Battery Backup system that I recently put together. The Jebao power supply delivers 24Volts DC (24VDC) to the controller/pumps. The beauty about DC pumps is you can change their speed simply by adjusting the voltage. In the event of a power outage, if you were to supply the Jebao controller/pumps with 12VDC instead (like that from a standard sealed lead-acid battery), the pumps would run the exact same profile you had set except at half speed.
Ok, so let’s talk about how the backup system works. It utilizes a simple DPDT relay, a battery, trickle charger and DC plugs. The DPDT relay has a normally open (NO) and normally closed (NC) circuit as well as a common circuit and a coil. The ”normally” in this case means when there is no power to the coil which means the common circuit will be “closed” or connected with the NC circuit, hence the term “normally closed”. When you apply power to the coil, it energizes and switches the circuit. The common circuit is now connected to the NO circuit. So, when I have power, the power supply is “energizing” the relay and the common circuit is connected to the “normally open” (NO) circuit. This supplies the Jebao with the 24VDC that it would normally have. When I lose power, the common circuit connects back to the NC circuit which is connected to my 12V battery. Now the Jebao will be supplied with 12VDC power until I get my main power back online. Here are a couple sketches I drew up to help explain it.
The DPDT relay sketch is just showing how to hook it up. It all sits inside the project box for neatness.
Here are the parts you’ll need:
24VDC Relay
Project Box
Male DC Power Pigtail
Female DC Power Pigtail
12V Sealed Lead Acid Battery
Trickle Charger
A few notes on the parts listed above: If you are going to get the DC power pigtails from monoprice, order like 3 more than you need since they cost about 25 cents each. I made the mistake of ordering just one female plug which naturally came DOA. Had to wait another week for the RMA to arrive.
The battery listed is a little pricey, but that’s because it’s a 35 amp-hr battery which is about twice the “juice” of Vortech’s battery backup. This should run my dual WP40s for a day or two straight. It doesn’t matter which battery you get, just grab something that will work for you. Likewise, the trickle charger is just the one that I happened to already own. Any 12V trickle charger will work assuming it has the ability to go into float mode for charging. Just hook it up to your battery and plug it into the wall.
The relay works great. You’ll notice if you buy it from Amazon that the review is bad – but that’s because there was an item description error awhile back apparently. All I know is that I ordered it and got the 24VDC relay like I wanted. The reason for the somewhat “unique” 24VDC relay is because I want it to be powered on by the Jebao power supply during normal operation. This allows me to have less parts in general, but also run both the pumps and the relay itself from the power supply only. When I lose power, the Jebao power supply also (obviously) loses power, thus turning the relay off which defaults back to the 12VDC from the battery.
Also, you can see from the sketches, the DC power pigtails I listed are not entirely necessary because you could just cut the DC plug off the Jebao power supply and wire it up that way. However, I strongly recommend the pigtails so that you can easily bypass the relay if you ever had to do some troubleshooting or if the relay ever failed on you.
I’ll get some pictures of the relay later tonight or tomorrow since I’m at work right now, but it’s pretty unexciting. It’s just a relay with some wires shoved into a box
.
The last thing I’ll note for now is how to connect the wires to the relay. There are really only 3 ways to connect wires correctly. They are: soldering, a relay base or using quick disconnect connectors. I have used the relay base before and its super handy, however its bulky and you will need a bigger project box that I listed. Soldering is the least palatable in my opinion because its difficult to replace the relay if you ever needed to change it. The way I chose was the quick disconnects (which I picked up from radioshack). I recommend you go to the shack with the relay in hand to make sure you get the right size connectors. Unfortunately I don’t remember which ones I got. They were the standard quick-disconnect crimp-on types though.
I wanted to share my DIY Jebao Battery Backup system that I recently put together. The Jebao power supply delivers 24Volts DC (24VDC) to the controller/pumps. The beauty about DC pumps is you can change their speed simply by adjusting the voltage. In the event of a power outage, if you were to supply the Jebao controller/pumps with 12VDC instead (like that from a standard sealed lead-acid battery), the pumps would run the exact same profile you had set except at half speed.
Ok, so let’s talk about how the backup system works. It utilizes a simple DPDT relay, a battery, trickle charger and DC plugs. The DPDT relay has a normally open (NO) and normally closed (NC) circuit as well as a common circuit and a coil. The ”normally” in this case means when there is no power to the coil which means the common circuit will be “closed” or connected with the NC circuit, hence the term “normally closed”. When you apply power to the coil, it energizes and switches the circuit. The common circuit is now connected to the NO circuit. So, when I have power, the power supply is “energizing” the relay and the common circuit is connected to the “normally open” (NO) circuit. This supplies the Jebao with the 24VDC that it would normally have. When I lose power, the common circuit connects back to the NC circuit which is connected to my 12V battery. Now the Jebao will be supplied with 12VDC power until I get my main power back online. Here are a couple sketches I drew up to help explain it.
The DPDT relay sketch is just showing how to hook it up. It all sits inside the project box for neatness.
Here are the parts you’ll need:
24VDC Relay
Project Box
Male DC Power Pigtail
Female DC Power Pigtail
12V Sealed Lead Acid Battery
Trickle Charger
A few notes on the parts listed above: If you are going to get the DC power pigtails from monoprice, order like 3 more than you need since they cost about 25 cents each. I made the mistake of ordering just one female plug which naturally came DOA. Had to wait another week for the RMA to arrive.
The battery listed is a little pricey, but that’s because it’s a 35 amp-hr battery which is about twice the “juice” of Vortech’s battery backup. This should run my dual WP40s for a day or two straight. It doesn’t matter which battery you get, just grab something that will work for you. Likewise, the trickle charger is just the one that I happened to already own. Any 12V trickle charger will work assuming it has the ability to go into float mode for charging. Just hook it up to your battery and plug it into the wall.
The relay works great. You’ll notice if you buy it from Amazon that the review is bad – but that’s because there was an item description error awhile back apparently. All I know is that I ordered it and got the 24VDC relay like I wanted. The reason for the somewhat “unique” 24VDC relay is because I want it to be powered on by the Jebao power supply during normal operation. This allows me to have less parts in general, but also run both the pumps and the relay itself from the power supply only. When I lose power, the Jebao power supply also (obviously) loses power, thus turning the relay off which defaults back to the 12VDC from the battery.
Also, you can see from the sketches, the DC power pigtails I listed are not entirely necessary because you could just cut the DC plug off the Jebao power supply and wire it up that way. However, I strongly recommend the pigtails so that you can easily bypass the relay if you ever had to do some troubleshooting or if the relay ever failed on you.
I’ll get some pictures of the relay later tonight or tomorrow since I’m at work right now, but it’s pretty unexciting. It’s just a relay with some wires shoved into a box
. The last thing I’ll note for now is how to connect the wires to the relay. There are really only 3 ways to connect wires correctly. They are: soldering, a relay base or using quick disconnect connectors. I have used the relay base before and its super handy, however its bulky and you will need a bigger project box that I listed. Soldering is the least palatable in my opinion because its difficult to replace the relay if you ever needed to change it. The way I chose was the quick disconnects (which I picked up from radioshack). I recommend you go to the shack with the relay in hand to make sure you get the right size connectors. Unfortunately I don’t remember which ones I got. They were the standard quick-disconnect crimp-on types though.
