Compaq is still running strong

I reported that one of my first MeshAP that I built was a Compaq computer. This unit has run with out any problems for over a year in the outdoors. It failed back in June and I replaced the unit with one of my newer VIA boards. After a few months of the Compaq collecting dust I went to check it out. When I hook it up to the monitor I notice that the failure was in the memory.

I opened the case and pulled the RAM out. I pull both sticks out and re-inserted them into the PC (MeshAP). I turn it on and now it has start up again. Amazing. I just wanted to get Re-register it Wiana again and get it work.

I bought this Compaq for $49 dollars two years ago and it keeps working and working. I love it. I just wish it didn't need a keyboard connected to the device.

Restarted at 11:00 AM

If you have been following the last 5 or 6 blogs you know I am experimenting with off the shelf solar panels and battery. Yesterday I observed that the panel and battery extended the batteries range. Today at about 11:00am the Meshap started up again and continued into the night. The charge last only until 7 pm. It looks like the solar panels were running the MeshAP but did not have enough time to charge up the battery.

It looks like I have to charge the battery once again however, I need to reposition the solar panels to get more light on them from early morning to late afternoon.

A second battery is also required. I also thinking that 3 more solar panels may be required. Before I go out on a spending spree I will try to first optimize what I have and verify the findings.

19 hours on the battery and solar

Well it took over a week but I have finally have some data to share. Yesterday morning a 6 AM I turn on the Solar MeshAP. It continue operation until 1AM this morning. This is good sign the solar panel gave an extension to the battery. I will duplicate this again and again to see is I can improve the performance.

The solar panels are not setup in the optimal position. This I have to work on. I knew that a second battery is important to maintain a 24 hour operations.

I also will examine again if there is enough power coming from the solar panels to power two batteries and run the Meshap.

Solar back on track

Well we have been having some extensively cloudy days and the solar panel have fully charged the battery. I turn on the MeshAP once again at 8:30 EST PM. I will try the experiment once again.

I was very concern about the performance of the solar panels. I started to change the configuration of the panels to be more in direct contact with the sun. I notice that the panels were partially covered by a shadow. It hard to determine shadows on cloudy days. Most of the experiment failures have been due to human intervention and improper placement of the solar panels.

The placement of the solar panels is in a south western direction. It starts to work about 10 am and finish is about 6 pm. I should consider placing the solar panel flat of the roof. Hopefully it would take into consideration the rising son and setting sun.

In the winter time I believe it should be about 10:30 am to about 4 PM. Not much time but that why we actually experiment and observe.

Severe weather and solar

Well, Toronto had some severe weather on Friday and the solar panels where blown around but not damaged. The unit has not yet fully recharged but I have noticed that wireless mesh has activated itself and is indeed working. The solar panels are able to produce electricity during cloudy days. I'm not impress of these units performance as the battery should have been fully charged by now.

I hate to start from scratch again put I have to charge up the battery once again with the solar panels. This mean shutting down the MeshAP until the unit is fully charged. I hope on Monday I can once again continue.

The amazing thing is that the MeshAP is not properly setup but is setting on the ground with the antenna in the horizontal position. And it still is able to mesh in such an awkward position. I impress a bit with the technology.

The antenna I'm using is only an 8dbi omni directional. It is about 18 inches long and no matter how I position it can easily mesh with all the MeshAP in the area.

Well at least the MeshAP and antenna are working!

11:00 AM the next day

Well I lost power at 11;00 AM the next day. It was strange that the solar panels weren't able to continue the charge into the morning. After an extensive investigation I found that my youngest son and wife unplug the solar panels in the morning because they were in the way of the day to day activities.

We are about to get rain for the next 3 days so I connected the panels up and will resume the experiment in the next few days. Mean while I will leave the panel charging the battery again and leave the MeshAP plug in.

Generally speaking being a backyard scientist may have its challenges. I hope to see a 48 hour result in the next two weeks. My assumption are that I need a second battery.

The two failures, ie. wrong position of the solar panels and the second one isolate the test area, will need to reset the test again. Solar panel technology has been successfully deployed in sunnier climates and also in Northerly climates. Understanding why it is failed is the fun part.

10:25 PM Solar Mesh Up and running

The solar MeshAP is now started to run 10:25 PM Eastern Standard time August 17, 2005. My setting has confirm it and we hope that it can run 24 hours.

Solar Day

Well it worked. Placing the solar panel in a southern direction did the trick. The battery is fully charged. I now adding the low power MeshAP to the battery unit and will start to monitor it. Unfortunately it is 10 PM and the sun has gone done for a number of hours already. Most important is the charge is at 100%. Yesterday it was at 0% so I believe the everything was charge properly.

My assumption is to drain most of the power tonight and check with in during the day.

Solar night

Yesterday I put the solar panels to charge the batteries and it started to charge. I didn't put the solar panel facing south but east and lost most of the days sun. I hope the solar panel can charge from the moon's energy?:) I repeating the charging process today with the panel in the correct position. With three solar panels, one would think that the time to recharge the battery would not take a half day. We will see.

When I did my initial testing the battery was fully charged and the panels were able to keep the battery charge as the MeshAP drew current from the battery. I am a little surprise that a dead battery would take so long to charge. The gage on the powerbox indicates that the battery is charging. I didn't check the % complete.

I let it go today and check the statistics tonight.

Low Power MeshAP

For preparation of the solar MeshAP I have started to observe the battery life using the low powered Meshap. Last night I turn on the unit and it was still on for over 12 hours then it lost power. My initial finding is that a single battery may not be sufficient; however, I will start the solar experiment tomorrow.

Night mare and project update

Well if you have noticed I haven't been updating my blog lately. It has been a real night mare loosing my main computer cpu. I just now starting to recover.

On the project front a number of developments have happen.

Solar power unit. I testing the battery life on the low power Via boards with 60W morex power supply. In the next day I will see how long it will take to drain the battery. It has been runing for over an hour. I just hope I get 20 hours out of the battery.

Once the battery is drained I will put the solar panel and start to recharge the battery with the unit plug in. I want to see how fast the charge process is and what I can expect from a dead unit to fully alive. I expect rain shower in the next few days so the test isn't really scientific other that to check out my curosity.

I changed a few of my MeshAP with some new prototypes in door prototypes that I have been working on. I see if these units work any differently than the outdoor units I built. So far so good.

I was planning to take some pictures and put it on my web to show you the configurations. You will have to be patient as I still having PC problems.