Help deciding battery pack + solar panel for driveway project - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: ryanb9
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 01, 2019, 05:51:01 pm
content: Family has a 1 mile long driveway that wants to know when someone is coming down the driveway to the farm. Strait clear LOS from house to end of driveway. Going to usehttps://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-NBE-M5-16-2-PACK-NanoBeam-airMAX/dp/B0167IWU5Gto get the wifi from house to end of driveway. Going to use arduino / pi to sense the car and send a text to them to let them know someone is headed down the driveway. I'm going to build a shelter to house this stuff at end of driveway, but I need a solar panel + power bank down there.The receiver uses 12v DC, arduino or pi can run on POE from that. I'm not sure what is a good battery pack to buy and if I should get a certain type of solar panel to power that battery pack to power the 12v DC to the receiver. The weather for the region is such:https://lmgtfy.com/?q=powell+butte+oregon+annual+sunshine&s=gMaybe I'm heading down the wrong road here but that is my plan thus far. Any ideas / input would be very much welcome, even criticism would be very much welcome.

author: ryanb9
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 01, 2019, 05:58:00 pm
content: Sorry, the receiver is 24v and pulls 0.5 A. If the arduino / pi was powered not by POE but just by 5v, I could turn off the receiver by a relay until I needed it b/c it sensed a car that turned into the driveway, and only turn it on until while it is needed to send the text message I think. I should also note that I am a programmer (got a degree in computer science) and I've only taken 2 ECE classes. All my ece projects are hacked together and my knowledge on the topic is also hacked together bits and pieces.

author: soldar
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 01, 2019, 06:16:10 pm
content: Quote from: ryanb9 on November 01, 2019, 05:51:01 pmHow? Why?

author: ryanb9
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 01, 2019, 07:44:12 pm
content: Quote from: soldar on November 01, 2019, 06:16:10 pmBecause its easy and I know how to do it using sensors. Its not really the part I need help on.

author: ryanb9
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2019, 09:44:10 pm
content: Should I have posted this in a different thread? Did I not post enough information, or maybe this just a boring project? I didn't really get any answers and so I think there is something I should have done differently, but no idea what that is.

author: Apollyon25_
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 28, 2019, 01:50:34 am
content: Possibly you came across as having a rigid approach strategy to this? And that you possibly don't actually need any help?Generally speaking, most people posting here are professionals, and from my perspective, if you come on here asking us to solve your problem for you, you'll meet with reluctance.If you came on here instead with, <here>'s the panel I have, and using <this> charger with <this> battery, and given I want to do <this>, but I'm having trouble with <issue>, do you the community have any suggestions to improve/help solve this or better/alternative approaches in general? You might have more responses. i.e. DIY not DIeevblogforum.If it were my project, I'd use a small embedded micro with a small point to point RF link. All it really is, is something that shouts "CAR". Run off a replaceable coin cell.I'd also consider if simply running cable was not a better idea...My $0.02

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 28, 2019, 01:02:49 pm
content: If you only need to detect a moving car, a cheap radar module would be the most straightforward solution.