Concept

The electric car build has stalled, thus I thought I would post an update on my latest lithium battery build. This one was dreamt out of necessity. After doing a large amount of renovations on an investment property and not having power to charge batteries and run tools I decided to build myself a battery. The 2 key factors for this build were: Portability – It needed to go in and out of my Ute with ease, and Modular – I need to be able add components that I need as I go without hassle.

I decided pretty early that I was going to use the Milwaukee Packout cases. Yes they are a bit expensive, but they fit the bill for portability and modularity. Its already setup in a way that they can be clipped in and taken out easy. They also have a wide range of different cases which would fit my build perfectly.

Battery Box

The idea is to have a battery as the main component. For the battery I used the Packout toolbox 48-22-84-8424. I chose this case because of its rugged design and the additional stabilizing/protection that it has on the sides. You should be able to drop this on a corner and it will not break. This case features a 4 x Lifepo4 Prismatic cells, a BMS, an active balance board, temp sensors, Fuses and circuit breakers. A link cable is used from a 120A Anderson connector to connect to the control box. However you can use this box independently if required.

Control Box

The control box is used to breakout additional 12v Accessories. As you can probably see from the battery case, it is limited on inputs and outputs. This control box features 4 x 50A Anderson Outputs, 1 x 120A Anderson output (Connected via a 200A contactor), A 2.1A USB and CIG plug. All of these outputs are fused and controlled via a little tactile switch panel with relays. A link cable from the battery plugs into the side. The control panel can be remoted away from the packout via a 2m cable. I plan to put some magnets on it and route to the back of the ute for easy access.

Solar Charger Box

The solar control box will house a Victron MPPT charger and hopefully a DC-DC to assist charging from the vehicle. I am yet to build this one. TBC

Inverter Box

I have a 1000W Renogy Inverter to put into a box and breakout. The reason for the 1000W Renogy and not larger is because of the 120A limit of the BMS and Anderson connectors. At full draw, we should be seeing 90-100A @ 12v.

Other Potential Boxes to build

• Water Pump
• Compressor

If anyone has any other ideas I am all ears!

Please use these files at your own risk. I can not take responsibility for a design that does not fit or work. This library is intended to help you research and provide a starting point for your EV conversion.

VW Beetle to Fit an AC-51 (2015)

Electric Mustang Drivetrain for 1965-1970 Ford Mustang/Falcon/Ranchero (2018)

Honda CRX (1995?)

Nissan Leaf adapter Plate (2018)

Porsche914 AC50 Motor Mount

As this list expands, I will organize it much better! If you want to contribute to the list, please drop a comment below! Stay safe legends!

Let us start with the BMS

As mentioned in other posts I ended up purchasing the Batrium Watchmon 4 14S kit with expansion board. At the time, this was the ‘bees-knees’ of Battery Management Systems. It comprises of the main and unit and the Longmons which attach to each cell pack. The longmons look after the voltage of each pack, basically it burns off excess power to keep each cell pack balanced with each other. The Longmons and Watchmon 4 kit is not an active balancing unit. More of a passive balancer. The Longmons also have a few other functions, such as temp monitoring and feeding of this information back to the Watchmon. See the latest Watchmon 5 for a more centralized approach to battery management.

I ended up finding a couple of clear front enclosures and mounted the BMS inside on some DIN rail. Originally I thought I would mount the gear on the same wall as the inverter, but after some thought and worry about running out of space, I decided on mounting on the cabinet itself. This part was probably the most complex of the build, but it’s pretty straight forward to follow once you have all the parts.

My Solar (Finally) Installed

After much procrastinating, I decided upon the Goodwe GW5048D-ES Inverter. It is a 5Kw Hybrid inverter and has a lot of the features I needed. The first being a 48v suitable charger for the batteries. The spec on the charger is up to 60v @ 100A charge/discharge. At 48v that is a lot of current. I think I’ll run it at 50A first. The other bonus to using this inverter is the ‘backup’ functionality. It has a built-in UPS type function in which it can switch to battery during a power outage. I’m not really sure I’ll be using this just yet, but other inverters require separate hardware to make this happen.

As for solar panels, I ended up getting a good deal on some 315w Link Energy panels. Now a lot of pros and cons going for a less than known brand, however, my main considerations were; They must be considered tier 1 panels, they must be on the CEC approved list and they must have a good warranty that can be executed directly in Australia. They seemed to tick all these boxes so I pulled the trigger. (Hopefully, this theory works for me, could come back to bite me.)

A quick mention of the cable tray and gantry into the shed

It seems a lot of people don’t exactly get their inverters installed in a small shed. I had to be confident I could keep the space cool and that I could get all associated cabling in the shed safely and be accessible to the battery cabinet. I ran some 75mm cable tray down a concrete wall and around into the shed. I then installed a large box to act like a gland. This should allow for future expansion and putting the Xmas lights in/out as required. I also installed a couple of runs of cat5 and got the sprinkler controller/cable to come in as well. I will be covering the cable tray with some cream-colored sheet metal. I am yet to get this priced up.

Trip Shunt Install

The ZJ Beny Trip Shunt I also installed in a similar fashion to the BMS. Its a tight fit, but with some carefully placed glands I can get the 35mm2 cable in/out. (I may need to drill them out for the lug thou!) The trip shunt is controlled directly from a relay on the Watchmon 4 expansion board. I have installed a Meanwell DC-DC power supply to feed 24vdc to the trip shunt (Via the relay). When the Watchmon activates the relay because of a ‘critical fault’ it will activate the trip and cause the ZJ Beny breaker to be turned off. It was interesting to note that during my testing, I was required to turn the 24vdc power off first before I could reset the unit. This kind of made sense, but took me a little while to figure it out.

Battery Mounting in the Cabinet

If you have been following along in the last post, you would have seen that I tried to build some funky perspex holders for the cell packs. I ended up throwing this idea out and going with something a little bit more simple. I ended up using the laser cutter and

router to make a permanent shelf with side protection. The 6mm acrylic base was routed to seat 7 cells and the 3mm acrylic used to slot into the base as side protection. I glued all these parts together using acrylic glue and it seems to be very solid. This approach means that I can disconnect a battery and just slide it straight out to work on it. I won’t have to mess around taking apart the last design.

So what now?

Well apart from finishing the wiring in the BMS enclosure and running the battery cable to the inverter, I need to start looking at how the Batrium BMS interacts with the CANbus. I’ll get back to you soon with how the connection went!

A couple of pics from progress thus far!

If you missed the first parts of the build.

Part 1 – Recycling batteries
Part 2 – Building Packs
Part 3 – Fusing and cell protection

Saying that, it is not all ‘doom and gloom’, I have managed to make some progress on other fronts. The first is the cabinet shelves. I have managed to rig up some V-slot ally that I had lying around for shelves and was still able to use my vertical mounts on them. I also started work on some pack side protection and Longmon mounts. More info below!
EDIT: and yes I know the fuse wire is doubled up, It is easier to work with a continuous length. I am yet to trim them up.

Fusing – Let us have a quick chat about the path I took.

Very early on I decided to spot weld fuse wire on both the positive and negative sides of each individual cell. My reasoning behind this was that the cells are from unknown batches and even though I tested each cell individually I still did not trust each cell. It would have been a different story if I did not get the batteries from recycled laptop packs. The fuse copper wire I decided upon was around the 32AWG mark and is tinned with copper. This wire gave me about a 2amp draw before blowing. If an individual cell pulls 2 amp then I’m in a LOT of trouble anyhow.

It was pretty clear from the start that I needed to practice the spot welds. I grabbed a pack of 20 discharged batteries and went to town. The biggest thing I will say is that you do not need a lot of power when spot welding 32AWG tinned copper wire. I left the spot welder on 2 pulses and only put the power up to 5 or 6 on the dial. The other technique that needs practice is the positioning of the welder tips. You can either put both tips on the wire and weld or put one tip on the wire and one on the battery surface. Either or, does not really matter, however, I did notice at higher powers the welding tips would arc a lot more if putting both tips on the wire. You will find that the wire will break at the weld if under stress. Thus having two welds on the wire doesn’t really matter.

Cabinet Layout

My initial intent was to have the battery packs laid out vertically. I felt this was much easier on the eyes and for maintenance easier to get in and out. However, with the size of the cabinets and my battery pack sizes, I was not left for much room if I was to put two banks in. The cabinet was deep enough to run them horizontally and as it turns out uses the space much better. I still have a ton of room for more banks when/if required. Saying that I doubt I will be spot welding more packs any time soon. I still used the vertical mounts but laid them down and mounted to the V-slot. This will stop the packs moving if for some reason we have an earthquake or someone runs into the cabinet.

Cell pack side protection

This is a work in progress. Have you heard of the saying ‘Keep it simple stupid’? well, in this case, I am aiming VERY high and already feel that I will be coming back down to earth quicker than expected. Not only am I trying to protect the fusing on the side of the packs, but, I have also decided to incorporate the following items: Voltmeter, Cell Pack Labelling, Some Vents and a Longmon (BMS). I’ve decided to use 3mm clear acrylic and make a hybrid type case. I have attached a design file. It may change once I do the laser cutting. You will have to wait until part 4 to see how it turns out.

EDIT: 13/06/19 – Just in case anyone wanted to know how the first cut of the side protection covers came out. Check out the gallery below. It still requires some adjustments. I feel as if it has been over-engineered. But I will not really know until I try to mount the packs properly. Stay tuned.

Still to come:

• Finish Fusing
• Install Cable tray
• Gland for Shed
• Solar Install
• Watchmon install
• CB and Trip Install
• A lot!

If you missed Parts 1 and 2 of the DIY Powerwall. Here are some direct links:

Part 1 – Recycling batteries
Part 2 – Building Packs
Part 4 – Solar/Inverter Install and BMS

The Shed – No chance am I putting this build inside the house!

Having a suitable location for your power wall is probably one of the largest considerations of the whole build. As mentioned earlier, if lithium batteries are not treated correctly it could end up in a molten mess and no matter how many fire extinguishers you have, the lithium battery fire will consume everything in its path. If you do not believe me, check out some of the videos on youtube! My build takes us out to the shed of course. The shed is not far enough away from my house for my liking, but have to work with what I have. I was able to pick up this nice B&R electrical cabinet for $150. These cabinets are very sturdy and made of steel. The orange powder coasting was not by choice, but for the price, who am I to complain. The cabinet is large enough to fit my first 14S100P setup, with room to double it at a later date. (Top and Bottom) I am also looking to get some airflow top to bottom in the cabinet at some stage.

I went ahead and mounted some structural pine to the wall. My plan is to now use some slotted C-Channel to mount the inverter and components to the wall. This will allow me to conceal some of the cabling, whilst maintaining the structural integrity of the ply and wall. I’m yet to decide if I should paint the ply?.see what happens. I also need to look at cable management, and how/where to mount all the other associated equipment.

Insulation?? As we are working from a common garden shed, I had to insulate the roof of the shed. It was getting WAY too hot inside to house all these components. I ended up purchasing some foam foilboard from the local hardware store and mounted a small 200mm solar vent. It seems to keep the temperature steady. Even on 40deg C days, it seems ok inside. I do plan to hook up some temp sensors into the future. Also some more ventilation. Bring in the cool air from the bottom, vent out the top.

Sorting and Stacking Packs

From what I have read, sorting your cells into equal packs can be crucial to the whole setup. The aim is to have the same (or very similar) capacity in each pack. But how do we do that? well, there are a couple of methods. The first and possibly most accurate is using some online software called ‘rePackr’ which is located here. With this tool, the idea is you enter in the capacity of every single 18650 you have and it tells you which pack to put them in. Pretty much sorts them out so that each pack is as close to the same as possible. The downside is that you need to type in or cut and paste in the value of every cell. When your wall contains over 1400 batteries this can become a PITA.

The method I chose to use was a bit more archaic but has been proven to get the job done. I sorted all the batteries out into groups of 50mAh. For example, the cells that are at a capacity of 2050mAh to 2100mAh would all be grouped together. I did this across the whole range of my cells. I think I ended up with 20 groups of cells. From here it was then pretty easy to take one from each group and fill the packs so that they were somewhat evenly mixed. The proof will be in the pack testing. Only then will I know how close I got.

Once we know the remaining capacity of a cell, we then write it on the side of the cell for future reference and we also notate the current-voltage of the cell at the time. The cells are then placed into tubs grouped by capacity and left to sit for a minimum of one week. The reason for this is that we want to identify any cells that can not hold their voltage. These are known as ‘Self Dischargers’ we do not want a cell in our packs that cannot hold a charge/voltage. This can have significant effects on our packs once built.

Battery Management and Safety

ok, so we have our packs now and we need a few additional bits of hardware to make sure out battery packs are as safe as we can make them. The first item used is a Battery Management System (BMS). The BMS we chose was the Batrium Watchmon setup. This seems to be the go-to BMS for DIY type powerwalls at the moment. They seem to be doing a fair bit of development on the hardware and software which is always good. If you want to check out more of their items head over to the website here. In a nutshell, the Batrium BMS controls the charge states and the balancing of the packs. It is important to control this as we do not want to over/under charge the batteries and we also want each pack to drain and recharge in a balanced fashion.

The BMS works by connecting ‘Longmons’ to each pack. These are small bits of hardware which link each pack together and provide the feedback to the Watchmon controller. The Longmons are the workers and do the balancing, monitor temps and a few other cool bits and pieces. The BMS, with the help of some relays, can also be used to trigger a shunt trip. The Shunt trip will basically cut off any use of the batteries during a fault state. For example, if the temp rises past a set parameter, the BMS can trigger the trip and all use of the batteries will be cut. This is just one of the safety features which I intend to implement.

In line with the circuit breaker, we also have some large fuse(s). These 160A HRC type fuses in a disconnect/isolator will also be used. At $12 per fuse and $50 for the holder, you can never have too much circuit protection. So not only will each of the individual batteries be fused, but the entire pack will also be covered.

So that’s it for part 2! What’s next:

• Bus Bars on packs.
• Cabinet Install
• Solar Install
• Lots of wiring up!

Want to skip Back or Forward? Check out the other parts.

Part 1 – Recycling batteries
Part 3 – Fusing and cell protection
Part 4 – Solar/Inverter Install and BMS

How to configure TVheadend via the wizard

If you are unsure how to get to the web GUI for TVheadend, I would suggest a quick review of this post. Particularly looking at step 3. In a nutshell, you need to use a web browser to configure TVheadend. Go to the IP address you set on your device. If it is your first-time use, you will not get a login screen, however, you should get the wizard to come straight up. If for some reason you canceled the wizard, you can find it by clicking ‘Configuration > Start Wizard’

Open up a web browser and enter the IP address of your TVheadend Server. Also, use the port number ‘9981’. (For example http://192.168.1.168:9981) This will bring up the TVheadend Web GUI. On the first startup, you will be presented with the setup wizard.

Select the web interface language and the EPG language if different. In most cases, you will only need to select the web interface language. Click next.

This section allows you to set ‘allowed’ networks to use the server. You can insert 0.0.0.0/0 to allow all networks, or you can use something like 192.168.1.0/24 to allow anything on that network to access the server. This is a personal preference. You might also notice an open IPV6 entry separated by a comma. This is also acceptable. You can add multiple networks this way. Add an admin login, keep this super strong, especially if you plan to stream content via the internet. If you plan to allow other users into the network, then set them up here also.

The next section will give you an insight into how many adapters the server has picked up. You should see all of them plugged in. If not, then check your connection to the tuner (USB) and ensure the RPi operating system has loaded the drivers. Some TV tuners may not be picked up by Linux. Network 1 always defaults to IPTV, disregard this and continue to your adapters/tuners. Assign each adapter to a network. In my case, it is DVD-T which is Digital Terrestrial TV in Australia.

Because terrestrial television is transmitted on different frequencies dependant on your location, you need to select a profile that matches the location you are in. This will tell the tuner to look at these frequencies. Go ahead and select the correct profile for your area.

This next screen will begin to scan for all services available for the area that you selected. If you accidentally select the wrong location, then you may run into issues. Also, ensure that your TV antenna is connected at this stage. Some of the tuner details can be found in the window behind the wizard. We can revisit this screen later to fault find signal quality issues.

Now that we have found the desired TV channels, we need to map out all the tags and channel names/numbers. This can be done automatically by selecting the 3 check boxes. It is possible to re-sort these at a later date. For now, it is easier to allow TVheadend server to sort it out.

Congrats, your server is now set up! Be it at a basic level, you should now be able to consume some IPTV. The next section will cover off on some ways to do this!

Watch a stream with VLC

Now that you have done all the hard work, its time to consume some IPTV. This section will outline how to view a channel with VLC. If you have not downloaded VLC, then you will need to do this first. https://www.videolan.org/ For those of you who are not aware, VLC is a media player that is very popular and compatible with a LOT of different media types. We can use VLC media player to open our TVheadend streams.

Open up the TVheadend web GUI and navigate to the channel you want to watch. Click on the small ‘info’ button on the left-hand side of the screen. This will open up a modal window with which you can grab the stream.

Select the ‘play program’ button. This should initiate a download. This file is basically a .m3u which can be opened by VLC. VLC will then be pointed directly to the stream you selected.

Open the downloaded file with VLC.

Your stream should then begin to play in VLC.

After a small bit of research, I stumbled across two resources that have become staples in my DIY Powerwall diet. Those are the Second Life Storage forum and the HBpowerwall Youtube channel, run by Peter Matthews. Using these two resources you can find out just about everything you need to know about building your own power-wall. Check out the links. Also, check out my journey below.

First Steps – Find Laptop Packs, Pull them apart…

Some of the DIY’ers find this step one of the most difficult. Finding laptop battery packs to recycle the 18650 cells can be tricky. I approached a few battery stores and computer stores but most seemed disinterested in selling me the old packs. I am not sure if it’s a health and safety thing, or they get more recycling them. However, after finding the right people through a few Facebook groups I was able to get a steady supply of laptop batteries through an IT recycler. At first, I purchased 20Kgs of batteries not knowing what I would get. But then went on to purchase 30kgs, 40kg and most recently 60kgs. The break-down of how many usable cells I actually got from these old laptop batteries is below.

Everyone has their own method for pulling apart the laptop packs, however, I will say that safety is paramount here. The last thing you want to do is slice yourself open on the nickel strip or even worse short/explode a cell or two. (Saying that, it’s pretty hard to do this unless you’re super careless.)

I would suggest purchasing the following items:

• Vice Grips
• Sharp Small Side Cutters
• Gloves
• Eye protection

The end state of pulling the laptop batteries apart is to get the singular 18650 batteries out. Once we have them out and ready to go we can begin to analyze them to see if they are suitable for our power wall. Noting that these batteries did come from old laptop batteries we really do not know what state they are in, we must ‘process’ the cells to determine the capacity of every cell. Also, try and detect the bad from the good cells.

Step two – process a heap of cells

Once you have started your journey to building a DIY power wall, you will no doubt need to process bulk cells to weed out the good from the bad. There are many ways to achieve this outcome, however, I will give you a rundown on how I am doing it. (And a basic guide to the budget required for processing.) This part is easily the most tedious part of the build. For example, if you decide you would like a 48v 10-12kwh power wall then you are looking at requiring 1400 cells at a minimum. 1400 may not sound like many, however, after weeding out the bad cells, you soon find that it does take time.

The process that I follow to process cells is as follows. First I will check the voltage of each cell. If a cell pulled directly from a laptop pack is at 2V then it will go into the pile to be charged/discharged via the charging wall. If the cell is below two volts then I will put the cell into another pile which will require a specific charger to get them back to health (If they can be revived?)

For the cells that pass the 2 volt test, they will then be placed into the cell holders attached to the TP-4056 chargers. These small lithium specific chargers are very cheap and an ideal way to bring any old batteries up to full charge. You can pick these up from eBay very cheap in packs of 10-20. I went with 20.

Once the cells are charged to maximum voltage, the cells are then cycled into the Opus chargers for a discharge test. This is will give us the remaining capacity of the cells. Basically, it ensures that the cell is at 4.20v, discharges the battery to 3 volt, records the capacity in milliampere-hours (mAh), then charges the battery back up to 4.20v ready for the next test.

Once we know the remaining capacity of a cell, we then write it on the side of the cell for future reference and we also notate the current-voltage of the cell at the time. The cells are then placed into tubs grouped by capacity and left to sit for a minimum of one week. The reason for this is that we want to identify any cells that can not hold their voltage. These are known as ‘Self Dischargers’ we do not want a cell in our packs that cannot hold a charge/voltage. This can have significant effects on our packs once built.

Step three – prepare processed cells for packs

It will depend on a lot of factors on how you will proceed with building your packs. Each choice will have pros and cons. Go with the method that best suits your cell count and abilities. At present, I have not 100% decided on the method I am going to use, however, I am re-wrapping the vast majority of my cells first. Once I have 1400 quality cells, I will then arrange them into 14 packs of 100 cells. (14S100P) This will give me a 48v nominal power-wall around the 10-12kWh.

So where am I at right now? Well, I have processed approximately 60Kgs of recycled laptop batteries. I set my limits for the cells to go into my wall at 2000mAh. I currently have 4 packs with 100 cells in each pack. If I lower my standards to 1800mAh I could probably have a 5th pack built, but for now, I plan to stick to the magic 2000mAh for my wall.

• Cell pack builds (Once I decide which method to use)
• Some tips and tricks for better pack build.
• Solar/Inverter installation and connection to battery packs.
• cost/cell breakdown
• Anything else I can think of that may be relevant! (Let me know in the comments what you want to know?!)

What to skip forward in the series? check out the other parts of the build!

Part 2 – Building Packs
Part 3 – Fusing and cell protection
Part 4 – Solar/Inverter Install and BMS
Part 5 – Thats a wrap….Kinda

Sounds simple, and sure enough, once we did a bit of research, it was. Keep reading to find out the basics of setting up your GL router to trigger a relay module using the built-in GPIO pins. If the config stuff is a bit boring for you, skip directly to the working video below!

• http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/hardware/port.gpio (Understand how OpenWrt and GPIO works)
• You will require a GL.inet router. We used a GL-MiFi and a GL-AR150
• You will also require a 5V relay and some headers/jumpers to connect
• A soldering iron

Pinouts (For reference)

Solder some header pins to your device

First of all, you will need to decide which sort of relay you are going to use and which pins to utilize. I only had 5V relay spare, thus I need to grab 5V from the board and a signal from a GPIO pin. Connect the 5V + and GND up and the signal/GPIO.

The gallery above has the pinouts for the GL-MiFi and the AR-150. Check these to determine the pins you want to use.

Add some config to the router

SSH into your router, locate the file: /etc/rc.local Add the config below. Remember to set the pin number to the GPIO you intend to use. This will enable ‘output’ on that particular GPIO. Also, make sure you insert before ‘exit 0′

Shutdown your router. Connect up your relay to the 5V source, and the GPIO you selected in the rc.local config. Power back on your router, SSH back in and run the commands below. ‘1’ will turn the relay on, and ‘0’ should change the state so that it is off.

The GL-MiFi is powered by an Atheros AR9331 processor, is small, lightweight and contains a slot for various PCIe 3G or 4G modules. Combine that with 150Mbps Wi-Fi and you have yourself a very powerful little device. The GL-Mifi runs an embedded OpenWrt system, is extremely extendable via hardware and software. It can be used in mobile applications, industrial, commercial or at home.

Pros

• 3G/4G capable
• Built-in Battery for mobile use
• OpenVPN client capable
• Excellent portability
• 6-8hrs uptime on battery

Cons

• When trying to charge the battery, the router turns on.
• GL-inet frontend software can be clunky at times.
• GL.inet GUI has been updated and is much better now.
• The sim card can easily be inserted incorrectly.

Gallery

Specifications

The Hardware

When you first get your hands on the router, you notice that the enclosure is very solid. (As you can tell, I have dropped this unit twice? and it still works!) Nothing about the physical form of this router says ‘cheap’ or ‘made in China’, The quality is second to none. All clips, buttons, and panels feel as if they will last the distance. This gives me confidence, I was certainly not afraid to throw it in my backpack with all the other crap I carry around.

3G/4G Module(s)

One of the standout inclusions in this travel router is the modulized 3G/4G PCIe cards that can be included. We ordered the Quectel EC25-AU with the unit. The seamless?integration of this module with the built-in WiFi means that we can share a 3G/4G connection with as many devices as we need to. The configuration is as easy as inserting a sim card and selecting the region and provider. The module connects very quickly, so long as you have a data plan you will have connectivity to the internet. Of all the GL-inet travel routers the GL-MiFi is the only one with integrated cellular. Sure the other travel routers can use a USB dongle and tether, but nothing beats the quality and reliability of these built-in modules. For more info on the Quectel 3G/4G modules check them out here.

The second is portability and travel. Using the travel router in a hotel or a restaurant means that our data is safe and secure. (Assuming you connect to the local wifi with the travel router in bridge mode.)

For this demo, we have decided to use the GL-AR300M Mini smart router. This router acts as an OpenVPN client which is what sets these small devices apart from any others. Not all travel routers have this functionality.

Signing up to a VPN service

The first thing we need to do is sign up for a VPN service. Yes, we could run our own VPN server, but what’s the point when you can get top class servers and better speeds for a few dollars a month. Not all VPN services are alike. Some keep logs, some don’t, some allow P2P traffic, some don’t (Few VPNs have been able to prove they don’t keep logs….but from a security point of view, a VPN with no logs suits us the best.) We also want to look at where the servers reside and what services we can put over the VPN. For example, we do not want to connect to a server in Europe if we are located in Australia. However, the Australian server may not allow P2P traffic or torrenting. These are just a few of the things to consider when signing up.

We use IPvanish, it is a reliable, no logging VPN services that we have no issues with. Feel free to give it a go. Or do a quick google search and you will be inundated with services to use.

Where to obtain the config files for OpenVPN?

As we are using the GL-AR300M and it uses the OpenVPN protocol we must search our VPN provider for an OpenVPN configuration and certificate. Without this, we cannot connect securely to the VPN service. Most services will have a location and the files will be split into servers. Pick the server you require and download the OpenVPN config and certificate. In our case, we downloaded every single OpenVPN config for all servers. We then extracted the config we wanted (A Melbourne based server) and created a .zip file with only that config and the certificate.

Loading the config onto the travel router

Depending on how the OpenVPN config is delivered to you, there may be an additional step to create a zip file with the certificate and the config. At times the OpenVPN config file can include the certificate. But generally, for VPN services, a separate VPN certificate is used.

Log into the GUI of your router and locate the OpenVPN tab. From here we can either upload the OpenVPN config or our ZIP file containing the config and the certificate. Once installed, we can then go ahead and activate the VPN profile. You will see a log at the bottom which indicates if/when it is connected and how much data is passing over the VPN. You can also look into using other settings to confirm that the VPN is being used.

You may be greeted with some VPN authentication. You only need to do this once and it is most likely the same login that you use for the VPN service. For IPVanish it will be the email that you registered with and the same password you use to log into the website.

Once Authenticated, the VPN should be good to go, simply click the ‘enable’ checkbox and ‘apply’ the settings. You should then see the VPN begin to connect. If you get errors in the log at this stage it will be an error with the certificate, OpenVPN config or your Authentication. It is possible to load up multiple OpenVPN configs. Use the dropdown box to select the server/config you want to connect through then click apply.

Some assumptions we have made…

This tutorial assumes that you have already connected your travel router to a hotspot with the internet ie. Hotel, Maccas, Home. Obviously, this is the link that we will tunnel through with our VPN service. There are some settings to ensure that the internet does not work without a VPN connection. This ensures that the VPN is being used at all times. Also, we set the DNS to use Google DNS. (8.8.8.8 as primary and 8.8.4.4 as an alternative.)

Confirm VPN is working

One way to confirm that your internet traffic is traveling through the VPN is to use https://ipleak.net/website when you are connected. You should see that ‘your’ IP address is that of the VPN server you have selected. Also can check to make sure the DNS servers being used are masked.