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alex_rhys-hurn
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SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Sun Nov 16, 2008 3:13 pm

Hey Folks,

I am planning to power my hi-sites with Solar Power. Will my solution shown below work?

EDIT: Also refer to the new Wiki Article addressing this topic for more info: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Solar_Power_HOWTO
Base Station Solar Power.jpg
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Last edited by alex_rhys-hurn on Mon Nov 17, 2008 11:59 pm, edited 2 times in total.
 
odie
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Re: Solar Power Solution for RB433

Sun Nov 16, 2008 5:45 pm

you will need at least twice the panel power - better would be 24V 120W
 
alex_rhys-hurn
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Re: Solar Power Solution for RB433

Sun Nov 16, 2008 9:21 pm

Thanks for the reply.

Please can you explain why this is necessary?

I used two or three different websites to calculate this and they all seemed to agree.

Perhaps I should point out that I am located on the equator in kenya.

Regards,

Alex
 
odie
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Re: Solar Power Solution for RB433

Sun Nov 16, 2008 9:31 pm

you only can use about 80% of the daylight - as long as your panels are fixed
the pax power of a solar panel is alwas given with 25°C panel temteratur - when they get hotter the
output goes down
only about 65 to 70% of the energy is loaded int the battery ...
 
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Re: Solar Power Solution for RB433

Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:33 am

 
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jp
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Re: Solar Power Solution for RB433

Mon Nov 17, 2008 4:53 pm

I would use larger panels too. Things change quickly with the Internet and you'll want to add more radio cards or a different routerboard at some point in the future without having to redesign the whole system. If the cable run isn't too long, I'd prefer a 12v system.
 
alex_rhys-hurn
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Re: Solar Power Solution for RB433

Mon Nov 17, 2008 6:58 pm

HEy Folks,

Thanks for the tips.

I have now bought the follwoing:

1 x 100Watt 24 Volt Panel
1 x 15Amp 24Volt Charge / Load Controller with Low Voltage Disconnect
2 x 44Ah Low Maintenance Deep Cycle Batteries

Funnily enough two 40 watt 12 Volt panels cost the same as 1 100 Watt 24 Volt Panel. About 400 US Dollars for the Panel.

@ JP why would you prefer the 12 Volt system? I figured that the RB are all quite wide ranging in voltage but the RB 433 Manual actually states that 24Volt is the best choice and that they have tested it with charging voltages ap at around 29Volts....

This has been quite a learning experience, as there are so many variables that accounting for them all properly is a mission!

Cheers!

Alex

p.s. Will send photos of the rig when its built.
 
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jp
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Re: Solar Power Solution for RB433

Mon Nov 17, 2008 8:20 pm

Well, every need is a little different, but I needed to be able to run a 12v inverter. 24v under charging conditions can exceed 24v by a fair amount and I did not want to put too much voltage into the RB. My rb is only 2' from the batteries, if you have a long poe cable run, it would likely be a lower voltage. At other sites, the equipment either uses 12v or converts from 12v to what is needed. 24v would be preferable anywhere there are long cable runs, either for the solar panels or for the load. Probably not an issue in Kenya, but here we also grease all the battery connections to prevent corrosion as well.
 
alex_rhys-hurn
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Re: Solar Power Solution for RB433 (Solved)

Mon Nov 17, 2008 11:56 pm

Hi There,

Well, its been an interesting few days learning about this. to this end I have started writing a wiki article to try and document my lessons for others. http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Solar_Power_HOWTO

Thank you for clarifying the 12v point. I see what you are getting at.

I decided not to use the POE, and will instead run a dedicated copper cable up the mast (35 Meters) to the regular Power Socket on the Routerboard, for voltage drop reasons.

I am now testing it. Wish me luck.

Alex
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Tue Nov 18, 2008 4:28 pm

I have a couple 24 volt solar sites using Morningstar charge controllers. This summer I replaced some older Routerboards at one of the sites with RB4xx's and everything has been fine until a few weeks ago. As the temperature has been dropping, I've been having problems with the RB4xx's going offline during the day. By the time I would drive out to the tower they would be running again.

After a couple days of this happening, I found out that the Morningstar PS-30 I'm using has a temperature sensor that increases the charge/boost/float voltages for the lower temperatures. Instead of having the normal 28.8 volt charge voltage, it was putting out over 30 volts which was causing the Mikrotik to go into over voltage protection..

I wired a resister on my load side to drop the output voltage into an acceptable range for the Mikrotik and everything has been find since.

Just something to keep in mind depending on the controller your using.

-Gerard
 
alex_rhys-hurn
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Tue Nov 18, 2008 5:25 pm

Great update gerard. A great tip.

It is similar to the first problem I have seen on my new test rig. Only in reverse.

My test rig is running the newer boards, Crossroads and RB433 (which I designed it for), but my older RB532 wont power at all. This is because when the voltage drops below 25V the RB532 with the jumpers set for high voltage (25-48V) means it doesnt get enough juice.

Then the Low Voltage setting is like 12-24 or something cant quite remember. When the voltage of the battery bank comes down below 25V the RB532 quits.....

I am thinking of putting a DC-DC converter to step this down to a 12V for the RB532. Dont wanna do it though. Too many conversions just causes losses.

Well, the lessons you learn.

Cheers!

Alex
 
alex_rhys-hurn
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Sat Nov 22, 2008 9:50 pm

I have created a wiki article to document the process of making a solar power system. Hopefully this will help others.

The article is found here: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Solar_Power_HOWTO
 
radocicala
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Mon Dec 01, 2008 11:51 am

How much can cost the solar panel like that?
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Mon Dec 01, 2008 11:53 am

How much can cost the solar panel like that?
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Solar_Pow ... O#KIT_LIST
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Sun Jan 18, 2009 7:52 pm

This is a bit late but I like to get my 2cents in. I have 7 solar powered sites in production, the oldest is about 4 years. They all run 12v as the panel, battery and radio's are mounted together at the top of the tower for security reasons. 12v has so far served me well, not having any of the problems described above. I've changed from RB532 to RB433's on several sites without hassle.

The solar wiki rocks. good job.
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Sun Jan 18, 2009 8:46 pm

I'm gonna run RB433 and RB600 on 12V over networklinks of 10km's. Put injectors in the panel box and in the battery box to run the system over POE. The test I did were ok. Load is fine. I use 75W solar panels and 120Ah 12V Batteries.

I run since 2005 a network over 15km in the same set up but then with WRAP PC's. I changed one battery in October 2008. Just let me know if you need a network diagram.
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Mon Jan 19, 2009 5:31 am

I have created a wiki article to document the process of making a solar power system. Hopefully this will help others.

The article is found here: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Solar_Power_HOWTO
The photos of the batteries in the wiki article appear to be a 12v setup (parallel 12v batteries). Otherwise, a good wiki article.
 
alex_rhys-hurn
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Mon Jan 19, 2009 9:01 am

Hey jp...

Busted.... you caught me out. The photos ARE actually of a 12v system. Its a different site than originally used in the article......

BTW for others I started using a really cheap Chinese charge controller, and it was fine, but an accidental shorting of the load side caused me to go and buy another one.

I bought one made by Steca and I have to say its WAY better. More expensive at 100 USD but the built in monitoring features etc are great, and the charging is more thorough for VRLA batteries....
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Mon Jan 19, 2009 7:54 pm

Steca is de way to go. 100USD? In South Africa it's +/-35USD for Solsum (10A). Check http://www.stecasolar.com
 
alex_rhys-hurn
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:08 pm

The one I got for 100 USD is the Steca PR1010 which is a 12/24 volt 10 amp unit with lcd screen and bunch of monitoring functions. I dont know the model you suggest.

But then everything in Kenya is a rip off these days... ho. hum.
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Tue Jan 20, 2009 6:11 pm

A definite "yes" to Steca, too!
They are located only half an hour away from here, and definitely know how to create good solar charge controllers.
There are even some bigger models with a serial port, but I don't know right now if this can be used to monitor them via RouterOS...
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Tue Jan 20, 2009 8:16 pm

The one I got for 100 USD is the Steca PR1010 which is a 12/24 volt 10 amp unit with lcd screen and bunch of monitoring functions. I dont know the model you suggest.

But then everything in Kenya is a rip off these days... ho. hum.
Kenya? If you put it in a {dark} enclosure then i suggest to use the http://www.steca.de/index.php?Steca_Solsum_en simple and cheap.
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Wed Jan 21, 2009 3:33 am

FYI before you get too excited about running the new routerboards on 24V you will find that they screwed up the voltage range that these boards will operate at. You will unfortunately find that at normal charge voltages for 24v battery system, the routerboard will shut down and stay off until the input voltage drops.
I'm currently trying to deal with this problem where I had older routerboards that worked great, the new ones shut off.
PITA, I wish they would have wider voltage range for applications like this. I am having to build a separate voltage regulator circuit to power the board on 18v.
regards....
 
alex_rhys-hurn
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Wed Jan 21, 2009 2:55 pm

Why not use 3 x 6volt batteries in series to give you 18volts and run it from there?

I guess the main worry is the charging voltage huh?

I would be interested to hear about your regulator. I can get here some 24-12 volt reducing dc-dc regulators and some others that reduce from 12 to 3-6-9- volts.

But I suppose what we need is a variable dc-dc regulator that steps down to some other voltages...

Having said all that, like the other post here, I havent had any problems with the RB433 yet on 12 volt systems. MAybe thats because my slight over engineering of the system means that voltages in system and batteries is always around 13 volts and never drops to 12 or below. IN the tropics we get year round sun so dont have to worry so much.

Anybody any ideas?

Alex
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Sat Jan 24, 2009 12:36 pm

Your WIKI docs is very interesting, but you should extend it about winter situation.

You use your sollution in hot area. But what will happend in winter in cold areas (-25 degrees of Celsia)?
And with snow on it?
Dont forget that baterry should operate from +12 to +25 degreese of Celsia.
 
alex_rhys-hurn
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Sat Jan 24, 2009 9:27 pm

@ LaSolitaire

I am afraid that I have never seen snow in my life, so you are asking me to do something that I have no knowledge of..

Why dont you add a section in there? It is a wiki and you can make your own changes. Your work would really improve the article.

The basic stuff applies just as much to other environments, as PV panels work on insolation rather than temperature, its all about sizing the rig to suit the number of hours of insolation per day.

I have heard that batteries perform badly in cold climes.

So what about the Steca fuel cell? You do have to keep filling it up with methanol, but at least that wont freeze....

Cheers!

Alex
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Sun Jan 25, 2009 2:58 pm

Your WIKI docs is very interesting, but you should extend it about winter situation.

You use your sollution in hot area. But what will happend in winter in cold areas (-25 degrees of Celsia)?
And with snow on it?
Dont forget that baterry should operate from +12 to +25 degreese of Celsia.
Batteries are fine in cold weather; as long as they are not highly discharged at -25c
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Sun Jan 25, 2009 9:42 pm

I've some Heavy Loaded Remote sites with 10 solar panel and 2 Aerogens and 8 batteries.
Sometimes the voltage drops to 10.9v and the routerboards aren't suffering by that.
There are RB333 RB532 RB433 on those remote sites and no problems at all..
Just be aware they don't drop under 10v
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Thu Jan 29, 2009 3:15 am

WOW - I love this forum - I learned more here then all the time I spent researching online.
Kenya - great wiki!!!!
 
LaSolitaire
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Thu Jan 29, 2009 4:52 pm

I have found some article in Czech lanquage that describe baterry life cycle against high or low temperature.
Use translator to read it ;-)

http://www.saft-ferak.cz/cz/PRIRUCKA/prirucka6.htm

In graphs you are able to see that temperature under or above 25C degrease baterry capacity and durability.
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Sun Feb 01, 2009 6:36 am

We are running solar tower and will have another next week. The first tower is using an OSBridge 5GXi and a RB333 with 3 R52h's. The R52h's required the least power at the time. It is a 12 volt tower with 120 watts of solar energy. I went cheap and easy and just bought Walmart marine batteries. We did this as a quick solution while looking for sealed gel batteries. Two years later we just replaced the batteries with new marine batteries, old batteries were not holding a charge as well. As the site is outdoors and the battery boxes are outdoors, we did not concern ourselves with fumes. We ran an outdoor extention cord to the top of the tower and plugged directly into the radio. We simply cut off the ends and wired on an adaptor. Like I say, it was on the cheap. We are now on our third year and reboot it maybe once every 4 to 6 months.

Rebooting the tower remotely if/when it does lock up is accomplished with a Nighthawk NH100 12 volt pager reboot module. This was worth the money. We have these units on all our towers.

New tower next week will be 24 volt. Nighthawk does not make a 24 volt unit to reboot the tower, however, we have worked it out where we can use the 12 volt unit and simply trigger a 24 volt relay. This new tower will have a 24v 500 watt wind turbine, and two 12v 50 watt solar panels wired in series to attain our 24 volts. We are trying POE to the top on this tower, may have to change to a Home Depot extension cord. :-)

I will try to supply a similar page with pictures and update the forum. Thank you so much alex_rhys-hurn, your wiki is like a bible of what to do and how to do it. It took me lots of trial and error to figure out all the amp hour calculations three years ago. No where is it all laid out like your article. You ROCK.
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Sun Feb 01, 2009 10:26 pm

That pager reboot system is pretty cool, how is it setup? Do you just buy it and activate it with any pager carrier? Does it have a special code or something to prevent random people from paging it by mis-dialing a number?
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Sun Mar 08, 2009 1:44 am

Edited.
 
Bomber67
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Mon Mar 16, 2009 8:14 am

Very interesting thread and wiki! :D

Any of you that have experience in running sites on solar AND wind? Here on 60 degrees north sunpower must be accompanied by air generators during the winter.

Any good Steca controllers for this purpose?
I see that on Steca's homepage some hybrid systems are mentioned, but they appear to be larger systems with inverters for supplying 230V.
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Thu Jul 02, 2009 4:54 am

I know this is a old thread, I found the wiki article quite helpful, so here is my contribution...

This is a Excel spreadsheet that will make all the calculations mentioned in the article. Just fill in the grey boxes with your numbers and the results will be displayed in the green boxes. Simple.
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nowoxi
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Thu Aug 20, 2009 2:06 am

I really think this thread and the wiki is underestimated it is so great. Thanks a billion men so well documented. I would try and add anything I can over time.
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Thu Aug 20, 2009 9:34 pm

I tried it today all still seems well would lpost the outcome here after this i would try with the monitor device in one of the links
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Mon Oct 19, 2009 9:19 pm

Hi, I'm new to using Solar/Battery and have installed my first site recently. I'm having trouble with my RB433 with 2 R52's cutting out everyday, usually when dark and then coming back online the following day in daylight.

I believe I have my solar panel and battery solution spec'd correctly but am not sure about voltage cut out situation. I'm powering my radio via POE - about 30 Metres and taking a direct feed from my 24V charge controler and squirting it into the POE. A fully charged battery system seems to deliver about 27.x volts to my RB433.

Does anyone know at what level my RB433 is likely to drop out at?

I'm trying to get the voltage scripts running so that I can monitor at what point this happens.

Any advice welcome

thanks

Rob
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Mon Oct 19, 2009 9:57 pm

Max. input voltage for RB433 is 28-28,8V Regarding RB433 voltage monitor as higher load you have on 3,3V as higher voltage offset you see.
 
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Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Tue Oct 20, 2009 10:46 am

Hi, I'm new to using Solar/Battery and have installed my first site recently. I'm having trouble with my RB433 with 2 R52's cutting out everyday, usually when dark and then coming back online the following day in daylight.

I believe I have my solar panel and battery solution spec'd correctly but am not sure about voltage cut out situation. I'm powering my radio via POE - about 30 Metres and taking a direct feed from my 24V charge controler and squirting it into the POE. A fully charged battery system seems to deliver about 27.x volts to my RB433.

Does anyone know at what level my RB433 is likely to drop out at?

I'm trying to get the voltage scripts running so that I can monitor at what point this happens.

Any advice welcome

thanks

Rob
I run 2x RB433AHs over about 50 meters of PoE run.
First one is equipped with 3x R52Hs running one Nstreme Dual link and one regular. Draws approx 0.26 amps at 24V
The other has 3x R52Hs, one regular link and 2x client ants. Draws approx 0.19 amps.

Drop over the Cat5 (AWG24 I believe) is something like 1.8 and 1 volts. making the voltage measured by the boards peak at about 27V and 28V, respectively during charging at 28.8V.
This does not cause the boards to black out.

I use the following scripts found on the wiki for monitoring and alerting when running on batteries:
Works like a champ.
/system script
add name=voltmonitor policy=\
    ftp,reboot,read,write,policy,test,winbox,password,sniff source="#set lowvol\
    talarm to desired alarm voltage in tenths of a volt. 125 = 12.5v\r\
    \n:global lowvoltalarm 210\r\
    \n:global highvolt\r\
    \n:global lowvolt\r\
    \n:global starttime\r\
    \n:global hivolttime\r\
    \n:global lovolttime\r\
    \n:global vh\r\
    \n:local thisbox [/system identity get name]\r\
    \n:global voltage [/system health get voltage]\r\
    \n:local thistime [/system clock get time]\r\
    \n:local thisdate [/system clock get date]\r\
    \n:local thishour [:pick \$thistime 0 2]\r\
    \n:local emessage (\$thisbox . \" voltage is \" . [:pick \$voltage 0 2] . \
    \".\" . [:pick \$voltage 2 3])\r\
    \n:if ([:len \$lowvolt] < 1) do={:set lowvolt 999; :set highvolt 0}\r\
    \n# set your email address in the next line\r\
    \n:if (\$voltage <= \$lowvoltalarm) do={/tool e-mail send to=\"voltagemonit\
    or@mydomain\" subject=\"\$thisbox low voltage\" body=\$emessage}\r\
    \n:if (\$voltage > \$highvolt) do={:set highvolt \$voltage; :set hivolttime\
    \_(\$thistime . \" \" . \$thisdate)}\r\
    \n:if (\$voltage < \$lowvolt) do={:set lowvolt \$voltage; :set lovolttime (\
    \$thistime . \" \" . \$thisdate)}\r\
    \n:if ([:len \$vh] > 0) do={:set vh ([:toarray \$voltage] + \$vh)} else={:s\
    et vh [:toarray \$voltage]}\r\
    \n:if ([:len \$starttime] < 1) do={:set starttime (\$thistime . \" \" . \$t\
    hisdate)}\r\
    \n:if (\$thishour = \"23\") do={:execute voltreport}"

add name=voltreport policy=\
    ftp,reboot,read,write,policy,test,winbox,password,sniff source=":global hig\
    hvolt\r\
    \n:global lowvolt\r\
    \n:global hivolttime\r\
    \n:global lovolttime\r\
    \n:global starttime\r\
    \n:global vh\r\
    \n:local tvolt\r\
    \n:local thisbox [/system identity get name]\r\
    \n:local thisdate [/system clock get date]\r\
    \n:local thishour\r\
    \n:local emessage \"Daily voltage report for \$thisbox on \$thisdate\\n\\n\
    \"\r\
    \n:if ([:len \$vh] > 0) do={\r\
    \n    :for x from=0 to=([:len \$vh]-1) step=1 do={\r\
    \n        :set tvolt [:tostr [:pick \$vh \$x]]\r\
    \n        :set thishour [:tostr (23 - \$x)]\r\
    \n        :while ([:len \$thishour] < 2) do={:set thishour (\"0\" . \$thish\
    our)}\r\
    \n        :set emessage (\$emessage . \$thishour . \":00 = \" . [:pick \$tv\
    olt 0 2] . \".\" . [:pick \$tvolt 2 3] .  \"\\n\")\r\
    \n    }\r\
    \n    :set emessage (\$emessage . \"\\nSince voltmonitor started on \" . \$\
    starttime . \"\\n\")\r\
    \n    :set tvolt [:tostr \$highvolt]\r\
    \n    :set emessage (\$emessage . \"Maximum = \" . [:pick \$tvolt 0 2] . \"\
    .\" . [:pick \$tvolt 2 3] . \"v at \" . \$hivolttime . \"\\n\")\r\
    \n    :set tvolt [:tostr \$lowvolt]\r\
    \n    :set emessage (\$emessage . \"Minimum = \" . [:pick \$tvolt 0 2] . \"\
    .\" . [:pick \$tvolt 2 3] . \"v at \" . \$lovolttime . \"\\n\")\r\
    \n# set email address in next line\r\
    \n    /tool e-mail send to=\"voltagemonitor@mydomain\" subject=\"\$thisbo\
    x Voltage Report\" body=\$emessage\r\
    \n}\r\
    \n# remark out the next line for testing to avoid resetting the voltage arr\
    ay\r\
    \n:set vh"

/system scheduler
add comment="" disabled=no interval=1h name=schedule1 on-event=voltmonitor \
    policy=reboot,read,write,policy,test,password,sniff start-date=aug/27/2009 \
    start-time=08:00:00

Sample report board 1:
Daily voltage report for Myboard1 on sep/10/2009

23:00 = 23.8
22:00 = 23.9
21:00 = 23.9
20:00 = 23.9
19:00 = 23.9
18:00 = 23.9
17:00 = 23.9
16:00 = 23.9
15:00 = 23.9
14:00 = 23.9
13:00 = 24.0
12:00 = 24.0
11:00 = 24.1
10:00 = 24.1
09:00 = 24.2
08:00 = 24.3
07:00 = 24.5
06:00 = 25.8
05:00 = 25.8
04:00 = 25.7
03:00 = 25.7
02:00 = 25.6
01:00 = 25.5
00:00 = 27.0

Since voltmonitor started on 20:00:00 aug/30/2009
Maximum = 27.0v at 05:00:00 aug/31/2009
Minimum = 21.0v at 09:00:00 sep/09/2009


Board 2:
Daily voltage report for Myboard2 on sep/10/2009

23:00 = 25.1
22:00 = 25.2
21:00 = 25.2
20:00 = 25.2
19:00 = 25.2
18:00 = 25.1
17:00 = 25.1
16:00 = 25.1
15:00 = 25.1
14:00 = 25.2
13:00 = 25.3
12:00 = 25.2
11:00 = 25.3
10:00 = 25.4
09:00 = 25.5
08:00 = 25.6
07:00 = 25.8
06:00 = 27.2
05:00 = 27.2
04:00 = 27.0
03:00 = 27.0
02:00 = 27.0
01:00 = 26.9
00:00 = 28.0

Since voltmonitor started on 20:00:00 aug/30/2009
Maximum = 28.0v at 04:00:00 aug/31/2009
Minimum = 22.0v at 23:00:00 sep/08/2009

 
RobClem
Frequent Visitor
Frequent Visitor
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Jun 09, 2004 12:45 pm
Contact:

Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:20 am

Hi,

What spec of Solar/battery solution do you use to power your setup.

Mine is

2x62W Panels joined with 1 x 32W Panel combined produces 47V charge
2x62aH Batteries in Series giving 24V at the Charge Controller

I am running 1 x RB433 with 2X r52 cards running at 7dbi each
and
1 x Mobotix Dual Lens dome camera - drawing 3W
and
1 x Raytec IR lamp that should only come on at night when it detects movement. So not much run time.

ta

Rob
 
Bomber67
Member
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Posts: 383
Joined: Wed Nov 08, 2006 10:36 am

Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:29 am

Actually this was a temporary solution awaiting a grid connection to be established.

I was running off 2x120 Ah "leisure" batteries which were charged from a gasoline gennie every 8-9 days.
I picked voltage alarm levels to be able to start charging at 22 volts. Reluctant to drain the batts lower due to sulfation of the cells.
 
nowoxi
Member Candidate
Member Candidate
Posts: 154
Joined: Tue Aug 30, 2005 2:47 am
Location: nigeria

Re: SOLVED Solar Power Solution for RB433

Thu Oct 22, 2009 12:06 pm

I have had the system running on the wiki setting for 2 months and I am a happy man. I have had my setup for over 2 years and it used to go out every 12AM but now its perfect. I am running a deep cycle 12v battery two 85 watts panels in parallel and a 10 amp controller.

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