So Cal Free Net.org

The latest solar node (more info), seems to be dying from lack of juice. It has a 32W panel charging 2 x 12v 18 amp hour gel cells.

We're not sure yet, but Ben's testing at the site shows that the 802.11b signal was intermittent during the afternoon and the backhaul doesn't appear to work at all - though the La Cresta radio end of it seems fine.

Climbing up there is a pain, especially in the rain, so we'll wait until the sun comes out and see if it magically starts working again. Mooted solution is to add another battery, but Ben is still running the numbers...

Cynic that I am, I wonder how long it would be before we had another long spell of weather like this, so why bother :-)

Oh, and in case you're wondering, our estimate for the original solar node, is that its good for 6 weeks with no daylight, so it should be fine -- even if we're off by a factor of 2 ;-). (It has a 65W panel and 2x 6v 225 amp hour batteries - twice the charge rate and substantially more storage!).

cheers, michael