Solar power?

[hpronhovde]

I have not deployed any hardware outside yet but I have been thinking about how to provide power. What would be the power budget for deploying the wind sensors, temp, humidity, and pressure sensors? My thoughts have been to be able to provide battery power with solar recharging. There are some inexpensive solar battery chargers and combine that with a adequate battery to carry things for 18 - 24 hours without sunlight the unit would be self sufficient. Add in a data collector that would be able to update the computer via wifi and there would not have to be any wires between the house and the collectors.

Any thoughts on how practical this is please let me know.

TIA,

Ron Ronhovde

 

[Rupp]

I have not deployed any hardware outside yet but I have been thinking about how to provide power. What would be the power budget for deploying the wind sensors, temp, humidity, and pressure sensors? My thoughts have been to be able to provide battery power with solar recharging. There are some inexpensive solar battery chargers and combine that with a adequate battery to carry things for 18 - 24 hours without sunlight the unit would be self sufficient. Add in a data collector that would be able to update the computer via wifi and there would not have to be any wires between the house and the collectors.

Any thoughts on how practical this is please let me know.

TIA,

Ron Ronhovde

Ron,
This is exactly how my Davis Vantage Pro station works so I wonder if you can look at the specs on that station and get an idea of what you would need.

 

[ericvic]

You would need about +14V for the Barometer but the power draw for those devices would be less than 150mA (probably much less). That number is off the top of my head so I could be wrong. A data collector would up the power budget a good bit.

Eric

 

[hpronhovde]

You would need about +14V for the Barometer but the power draw for those devices would be less than 150mA (probably much less). That number is off the top of my head so I could be wrong. A data collector would up the power budget a good bit.

Eric

I remember back when I was learning basic electronics there was a circuit called a voltage double that would double the voltage fed into it. The circuit did not provide a lot of current but with today's technology that should not be an issue.

You were looking for uses for a data logger, this would be a good one. The logger or some other device would have to be used to convert to wifi since there is no protocol in TCP/IP that would handle the 1-wire protocol.

Thanks for giving this some thought. Like I said I am just getting started on the weather station and the solar powered wifi station would be great. It would keep you from having to run wire and provide electrical separation between the outside masts and the inside computer.

Ron R