I just put together a Laird RG191 in an outdoor enclosure with mostly everything to get the job done. Of course the antenna cable and ethernet cable lengths are customized for the site! Including links for easy purchase from US based vendors… none of these are affiliate links btw…
I welcome any comments!
Not included in the list: board standoffs… mounting pole…
1 x 25w worked fine for peak summer 24/7 but knew not viable for days drawing in so added 2nd panel in parallel vs changing up. Deep winter on unsupervised site with snow & leaf load not enough. 2x battery capacity with 50w seems ok given visible horizon not clear & minor obstructions at some times of day with low sun. Should mount panel higher to avoid issue at that site but host felt too obtrusive. Have other configs in prep which I will do report back on over next 4 seasons.
See also earlier post wrt typical 24hr consumption…note this will vary by backhaul method (wifi/enet) & volume of traffic + mix of upload/download packets
I checked and my laird gateway draws 3 to 5 watts. So about 250mA continuously. I could get away with 50 watts of solar in the summer but need about 100 watts to make it year round.
Indeed - I often run from 5V USB power banks (2A enabled output safest to allow for inrush and Tx bursts) for pop-up gateways at test sites or temp/test deployments, whilst surveying etc. Safest if running at higher end of USB 5V spec also, and also need to be wary of the one ‘gotcha’ which is that when applying such low voltages the dV/dT of the supply ramp needs to be high enough to avoid being trapped by the devices brown-out protection circuitry, otherwise the device powers up in a basic fashion but without effective reset and initialisation, esp of the LoRa side. I find switching the supply in via a relay, or if the USB power bank has a manual ‘on’ switch (even if electronic) use that and you should be fine. Once supply is above approx 7/7.5v it doesn’t seem to be an issue (haven’t had time/run enough tests to determine precise cut off level for brown-out circumvention). Ironically if you put a decent sized capacitor in the supply line to help filter noise and provide some buffer for RF Tx bursts this can make matter worse by effectively slowing the ramp of the supply line…spent weeks last summer trying to trouble shoot that one with 1st Solar tests…Dhoh!
I’m running 2x365W panels and 600Ah of batteries at 24V on that site, but that’s because we are a Wireless ISP and the LoRa is just a hobby on the side for monitoring our sites.
The Laird itself draws about 5 watts, plus extra for however it’s connected out to the internet
For a problem I had to reset the gateway to the factory, but now it doesn’t let me access its configuration. I cannot access "rg1xxmyethernetMAC.local.
If trying MAC be sure to use Enet vs WiFi MAC and only last 3 Byte Pairs (Last 6 digits), also try to log onto its DHCP aquired IP address directly if it has taken one from the local network? If Reset then perhaps log on using WiFi quick config mode to default WiFi AP of 192.168.1.1? (I often just access using Phone or iPad this way).
Have updated Topic Title as no longer “New”! - A well established workhorse GW, that has undergone several firmware updates, and has been in the market for 2.5 nearly 3 years now (I use several as do a number of clients and associates and fellow community contributors)
How configured, which region/cluster? Which Server settings? What is GW ID? GW EUI? Freq plan?, Console settings… details details - we need info as crystal balls typically a bit misty this time of year ! Is there an active device nearby sending data? What does TTN GW Console show?
Which one? Be sure targeting V3 not old revs using V2 etc.