@BoRRoZ, it seems to me a lot of equipment is designed for cool climate countries. In many parts of the world, the shade temperature is a bit higher, (see photo) and anything in direct sun will be at least 20C hotter. This is why I design my own gateways, the off the shelf equipment would simply ‘fall over’ down here.
well, the individual parts can probably handle these higher temps… but at the moment here in Holland we have a heatwave and I’m a bit afraid that inside some electronics, like my computers and this gateway, the temps are a bit to high for me… if I can’t touch a chip with my finger than we have a problem
So yes … I agree with you, my solution is making ‘off the shelff’ equipment more robust to the climate
I’ve spent more time designing the enclosure along with thermal modelling than the electronics and code. The latter two are the easy bit. I’m starting on the 4th version of the design as I can make it better. Outdoor, self contained gateways are so much easier for an untrained person to install. No antenna cabling to worry about, just mount the device and plug it in and it works.
true… that’s what I see a lot here on the forum… all the attention goes to the code and electronics but not to the enclosures.
for example, a complete sealed IP67 standard plastic enclosure (node or GW) with no ventilation at all, in the full sun… wait for it
This is my idea of a gateway, well above the surrounding obstacles and easy to install. You may have seen this photo published on the Gateway channel on Slack a few times. This is version 1, required a lot of machining to make the enclosure and weather seals don’t achieve sufficient squeeze and will probably become stiff and suffer from “compression set”.
I’ve moved away from a Pi3B+ as this generates too much heat and also looking at direct thermal transfer from the SX1301 chip to the outside ambient air. Trying to reduce the thermal resistance from the chip to the outside ambient air which in current designs this is the sum of “chip - air inside enclosure” plus “air inside enclosure - enclosure case” plus “enclosure case - ambient air”. Each of these thermal resistances are individually high and all add together. The net result is a large temp rise above ambient air temp. Still finalising my latest concept.
I just love these videos, they make me smile as I’d like to see a follow-up video after a month or two. Have you ever seen what oil does to cable insulation? It doesn’t take long and it’s brittle and fails. If you’ve worked on a hydraulic machine where the cables etc are dangling in the oil, you’ll know what I mean. So no, think I’ll try something else.
I’m starting on the 4th version of the design as I can make it better. Outdoor, self contained gateways are so much easier for an untrained person to install. No antenna cabling to worry about, just mount the device and plug it in and it works.
