[Cialug] Anyone have experience setting up solar powered wireless repeater outdoors?

[Nathan C. Smith]

I've done it, it did not go so well.  A couple cloudy days and nights and the battery drained, but my panels did not have the best orientation.

I got some cheap panels at harbor freight.  If you get the right charge controller you might not need an inverter.  The controller from Harbor freight (http://www.harborfreight.com/solar-panel-kit-45-watt-68751.html ) had outputs for several different voltages and I hooked the repeater up to one of them.  Running through an inverter wastes precious solar energy.

The harbor freight panels are inexpensively made and I would guess not very efficient.

I used marine batteries.  The first one did not fare the winter very well.  The second one was a design that used round battery cylinders in it and seemed to do better in the cold weather.

If I were doing it again - or for my only network connection, I would definitely look for a similar charge controller so an inverter was not required.  I would get better (more efficient) panels.  I think the ones I had were 15 watts each, I would look for a 60 watt in the same or similar form factor and use only one or two panels instead of three.  I would orient it to the arc of the sun better - perhaps making it adjustable by season, and I would use more batteries.  I understand that used electric forklift batteries are pretty good if you can get them.

My system also powered a playhouse doorbell and lights, and sometimes kids would leave the lights on all night....  grrr.

A small wind turbine might be a better solution - you can also put the repeater up on the mast.  It's pretty amazing how many consecutive cloudy days you can get in an Iowa winter.

Wlanparts.com just added some new solar powered stuff - they may have a better turnkey setup.  They even have some charge controllers that can use PoE as a secondary source.

-Nate

-----Original Message-----
From: cialug-bounces at cialug.org [mailto:cialug-bounces at cialug.org] On Behalf Of John Lengeling
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2013 12:10 AM
To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group
Subject: [Cialug] Anyone have experience setting up solar powered wireless repeater outdoors?

I am looking at an Internet connection but I won't have line of site at my house. I am able to get line of sight about 1000 yards out in an open field but I need it solar/battery powered and then a repeater to get the signal
back to house.    I generally know what I need:

Solar panel
Inverter
Charge controller
Battery
Linksys WAP reconfigured with dd-wrt as repeater Antenna Enclosure Mast/pole

Looking for others who have done this and recommended suppliers/vendors and ideas.

John
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