Melrose Solar Powered Site
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Top of the Tower The white antenna at the top provides the wireless service to the surrounding community. The grid antenna brings the service into our hotspot. We use a special low power embedded computer with two wireless network cards and special software to operate the hotspot, mounted inside a stainless steel weatherproof box. Everything is properly grounded and protected from lightning. The tower is grounded with a 10 ft ground rod driven in at the base. |
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The Solar Panel The solar panel is a Shell 110Watt panel mounted on an aluminum custom made adjustable bracket that clamps to the tower without drilling any holes in the tower. The panel is tilted to optimise the solar energy during the shortest days of winter. This will cause a 10% loss of efficiency during the summer but this is more than offset by the longer daylight hours. |
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At The Base At the bottom of the tower, you can see the weatherproof stainless steel box on the back of the tower, containing the batteries and solar charge controller. We are currently designing a very low power TCP/IP based monitoring system to allow remote monitoring of the panel voltage and current, and load voltage and current. There is an ethernet cable running from the equipment at the top of the pole that will provide the network connection. |
