Friday, March 10, 2017

Squirrel Net Update: Flaky Components

Squirrel net has been running for only about 10 days. (It's my solar wifi node experiment.) There have been 2 failures so far--the solar charge controller failed, and the Raspberry Pi 3B has been flaky.

The charge controller that failed "HQST 30 Amp PWM Smart Solar Charge Controller with LCD Display" gave up the ghost after exposure to high humidity, but no moisture. The controller appeared to still function, but the voltage sensor on the battery terminals failed. It's not clear if it was a physical component failure or something else.

The Raspberry Pi 3B just fails periodically. It seems like it is probably a software failure. In fairness to the people who make the $40 gizmo, it was probably not designed for this application. The WiFi, for example, is relatively slow and low powered. The hardware also seems to keep plugging away in spite of exposure to the humid conditions lately.

Anyway, I'll probably replace the Pi with dedicated outdoor wireless hardware. It'll have better power and better reliability (hopefully) due to the packaging.

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