diy solar

diy solar

Remote Internet and Power

Got it. Company I work for doesn't service that far from our footprint. Sylva, NC area 50-60 mile radius.
Yeah that’s quite a ways south
@NCislander Mtiks rock as you know. StarLink was iffy back when I first got it so i also still have a Mtik RBM33G doing load balancing and policy based routing behind both LTE and StarLink. They are cheap, fast and the OS is easy to learn. Funny many of us are into the same type of tech/topics.
Had never encountered Mtik stuff before, definitely some neat stuff. Keeping them in my back pocket for future projects. Some neat fiber options. As cheap as fiber is these days I've contemplated running some single mode from the house up to the hill since we have equipment for burying it. Then the back haul from the hill to the house would be easy without wifi signal issues.
 
So my off grid place in WNC I'm designing a small system for getting internet to the house which currently barely has 1 bar of Verizon signal. 500ft from the house we have a hilltop that gets full signal LTE from Visible(Verizon). Using Visible's lower tier service I get 20-30Mbps download and 20Mbps upload speeds. My plan is to get a used Google Pixel (probably a 6) and USB tether it to a GL iNet Beryl AX (GL-MT3000) travel router. Then use a directional Wifi AP to jump the 500ft down to the house and pick it up and rebroadcast inside the house as well as provide some wired ethernet inside the house. Sounds complicated but I've worked in IT for 20yrs+ so it's my bread and butter :).

My final snag is battery/solar choice. I'm not using an inverter, I'm staying DC with some step down converters to power 2 USB ports (one for the router, one for the wireless charger for the Android phone). The Wifi AP is 24V POE with a small POE injector that comes with it. If I run 24V setup I can power that directly or if 12V I would just need to convert from 12V to 24V for that one device. The router uses <8Watts, Wifi AP at 24V/0.5A (12watts?) and then the cell phone probably another 15watts. Total power draw maybe 40watts... Would ideally like enough battery to power the setup for 48hrs due to the often cloudy periods we experience in the mountains at 3,500ft halfway up a 6,200ft. Nice sunny summer days will even have 5-6 10min rain showers frequently. Temps usually no higher than low to mid 80s in summer, most often high 70s, lows in the winter generally only a few days a winter are below zero.

I'm thinking AGM is probably going to be the route to go given the cold temps in the winter. It will be in a weather proof box, with the travel router, POE injector, and batteries with solar panels nearby. Has anyone else done something similar? Oversizing the solar will help recovery happen quicker in the periods of sun. I have seen some small solar panel kits with midnight solar charge controller that may work.
You are on the right track. Step up and down converters will be needed; you will want to check the consumption of each of those before buying.

AGM batteries are likely a good choice (unless you are buying new and intend to have this a long time whereas you might want to consider something like a Silicon Battery as they do better with the cold) - if you go with AGM, insulate / bury them best you can to make use of capacity.

When calculating your consumption, remember you have consumption for the devices you are powering plus the charge controller, and both step up & down converters. Whatever battery choice you design with will give you a temperature capacity chart to incorporate into your design. If you can swing it, I'd probably build at least 2.5 extra days of capacity into the system if the site isn't easy to get at with a small genny & charger for "those times".

Personally, I would build a DIY 280ah lithium battery using EVE cells & insulate it very well / bury the battery portion of the box. The benefits are more efficient charging and a lot more density for lower cost and longer life due to the dod considerations. I would take my chances on the cold with this because I look at it along the principles - I have water lines buried under 12" of soil sided with 8" of foam and they don't freeze - plus with all the insulation, you have some good guys to catch the heat as they discharge / recharge. And I bet you can connect the bms via bluetooth to the phone and keep an eye on things.

We have a p2p set up with starlink to get to another cabin nearby. So many nifty solutions!
 
You are on the right track. Step up and down converters will be needed; you will want to check the consumption of each of those before buying.

AGM batteries are likely a good choice (unless you are buying new and intend to have this a long time whereas you might want to consider something like a Silicon Battery as they do better with the cold) - if you go with AGM, insulate / bury them best you can to make use of capacity.

When calculating your consumption, remember you have consumption for the devices you are powering plus the charge controller, and both step up & down converters. Whatever battery choice you design with will give you a temperature capacity chart to incorporate into your design. If you can swing it, I'd probably build at least 2.5 extra days of capacity into the system if the site isn't easy to get at with a small genny & charger for "those times".

Personally, I would build a DIY 280ah lithium battery using EVE cells & insulate it very well / bury the battery portion of the box. The benefits are more efficient charging and a lot more density for lower cost and longer life due to the dod considerations. I would take my chances on the cold with this because I look at it along the principles - I have water lines buried under 12" of soil sided with 8" of foam and they don't freeze - plus with all the insulation, you have some good guys to catch the heat as they discharge / recharge. And I bet you can connect the bms via bluetooth to the phone and keep an eye on things.

We have a p2p set up with starlink to get to another cabin nearby. So many nifty solutions!
Well we have a backhoe so I like the idea of burying the batteries. Will definitely check out DIY lithium. Thanks for the tip. I’ll be able to use most of the setup even if I end up going with a direct bury fiber back to the house. $700 for 1,000ft two strand single mode isn’t too bad considering I can install it myself. A pair of 10Gtek media converters to link it on both ends only costs $72
 
Completely off-grid location, connecting to a cell tower 20km away, with a nearly unusable signal at -119db. I run two cellular setups and now Starlink.
1 - WeBoost signal booster can give full bars, going from about -119db with no up/down capability to about -66db with around 55up/8down. Single Yagi roof mount antenna and panel mount indoor.
2 - LTE 4G Cellular Router - This router has a programmable IMEI and TTL, so, in theory, it could mimic a smart device. Dual Yagi roof mount antenna offset 45*. 50+up/14down. Higher quality signal over WeBoost, plus this is a genuine router to easily connect multiple devices and broadcast signal via directional antennas.

The local community has complained about a decrease in cellular service signal and quality, and I see the same issues across multiple cell companies and various bands in my recent testing. I have been running Starlink for the past 6 months or so, and it is a game-changer for remote work and conference calling capabilities.

I haven't posted any Starlink videos, but they exist everywhere online. At this point, I am working on low-draw systems to run internet routers, repeaters, and cameras without the need to run the larger all-in-ones while the property is not occupied.
 
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So the two solar panels I am using to keep the battery charged for this project I finally opened this weekend. Dad had got them in 2013 and never opened them. (Uses hydro so no need). They were Kyocera KD135GX-LP 135watts each. Not the best panel by today standards but kind of a time capsule moment opening them for the first time. https://www.altestore.com/static/datafiles/Others/KD_Modules.pdf

100Ah 12V SOK battery is what I will be using most likely. Charge controller is final piece.
 
First test with equipment in place temporarily. Tested on M2 MacBook Air. Definitely pleased with the results.
Image 7-30-23 at 1.21 PM.jpeg
 
LiTime 12v 100Ah self-heating battery. Epever 20amp MPPT, Gl iNet Slate GL-A1300, iPhone XS, various 12v>5v step-down converters, and one 12v<24v step-up for the POE going to the directional wifi. That Wi-Fi shoots 750 feet down to the house to another one pointed back at it. Omni-directional wifi AP picks up from there, extends, and covers the house/barn. It's not ideal with the wifi bridge, but it works. Overnight, starting in the 40s and then finishing at 25F this morning, the battery voltage was 13.4 when I fired everything up around 5 pm, and if it had dropped overnight, it was back up to 13.4v by 9 am. That was with a spotty dusting of snow on the panels with clouds and light snow still. It was varying between 4-10 watts coming in from the panels at that time. At 3 pm, when the sun was shining, the battery had climbed to 13.6v with an outside temperature of 30F. Box placement and wiring are not final. I am also still waiting on fusing for the power lines coming to and from the battery, which will get added once they arrive. I lose about 5Mbps with the wifi bridge vs. speed testing at the box from the travel router directly. The box will get mounted up out of reach of the goats and donkeys that inhabit that field, either on the tree or on posts in the fenced enclosure where the panels are. I will replace the wifi bridge with single-mode direct bury fiber from Lanshack when the weather improves this spring. A spare 10Gtek media converter will pull copper from the travel router and send it out 900ft of fiber to the house and into an eight port gigabit switch with an SFP fiber receiver.
 

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The black screw-in anchors laying on the ground will be installed slightly off to the sides below the high point and will have cable and turnbuckle to pull some tension down for extra uplift prevention. In the long term, I will put the battery in a box in the ground and do a smaller, lighter plastic box for the other electronics. The covering is a piece of old vinyl flooring to provide something waterproof for the lid, which was painted particle board. The cell tower is 5mi as the crow flies in the direction the panels are facing. One mile away, there is a 4,500ft ridge in between, but the tower beyond the ridge is around 4,000ft. On the iPhone, in this location, the signal varies from 3-4 bars, mostly 3 bars.
 

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