Newest Site on Grain Elevator

[Stratolinks]

Here's an old picture of the location from about 1 mile away. (The top of the leg is 184ft AGL.)

http://stratolinks.com/forums/dscn2553_TN.jpg (http://stratolinks.com/forums/dscn2553.jpg)

The nearly completed backbone router, setup on the top of the silo. Yes, I spent most of the day up there. This was taken before the second LMR400 cable was installed and before the ground wire was attached.

http://stratolinks.com/forums/dscn1168_TN.jpg (http://stratolinks.com/forums/dscn1168.jpg)

A closeup of the inside of the box.

http://stratolinks.com/forums/dscn1163_TN.jpg (http://stratolinks.com/forums/dscn1163.jpg)

The 5A Power Supply installed is temporary, while I wait for a June delivery date on the power supplies that I do want. There will be a 10A power supply in there then (maybe even 2 of them). Although the entire unit draws 2.8 amps from the battery with the AC cable pulled out, but nothing plugged into the power injector for the WAR4-Metro. The slot CPU card has the 1.4GHz Pentium III, 512Megs RAM, 64M Flash card (plugged right into the board) and the on-board Intel Pro 10/100 Ethernet. The CPU board sits in the backplane that provides 4 additional PCI slots for the RB11 adapters which all have WLM54SAG radios on them. The Small power supply board to the right of that is from mini-box.com and is their standard ATX car power supply, wired for always on. It takes 6-20VDC and provides the +5 volts that the board needs (and 12V for the CPU fan). There is a small industrial Ethernet switch in the upper right corner. Beside that is the DIN Relay. This is from digital-loggers.com and it takes 8-24V input and gives web enabled control of the 8 relays in it. It pings the main router and will power cycle it if it stops responding for the set interval. It also does the same to the AP power (which goes through a 12-24V converter to run the Metro). To the left of that are the fuse blocks and terminal blocks. Just above the terminal blocks is a 3 terminal power diode. It brings power from up to 2 sources and allows it to pass into the load on the centre pin. This way I can have 2 different power sources and either one will charge the battery and the unit. The large fan is on a thermal switch and only comes on when the cabinet exceeds 35 C. It keeps the air circulating to prevent any "hotspots" inside the case. All coax lines are protected by Polyphaser surge protectors.

[skyclimber]

What could i say...WoW! Nice setup!

[ninedd]

Really nice. Well documented and really nice.

A couple questions though...

1) What are you used for the 'industial switch'? Is it POE and good with extreme tems?
2) What is the Solar Convertors dealie doing in there by the POE Injector?

[Stratolinks]

It is a Moxa 5 port DIN rail mounted switch. If I recall the stated temp range is -10 to 60 C. Here (http://www.neteon.net/prod.aspx?clvl=4&c1=1&c2=2&c3=75&p=101)... Has screw terminals for the power connection.

The Solar Converters takes the 12V input and converts it to 24V to run the WAR4-Metro.

I have not found a switch that is 24V and has at least one POE powered port (not yet anyway). A number of my older sites are still using WRAP boards on the AP so the 12V supply is fine for them anyway.



Really nice. Well documented and really nice.

A couple questions though...

1) What are you used for the 'industial switch'? Is it POE and good with extreme tems?
2) What is the Solar Convertors dealie doing in there by the POE Injector?

[go.fast]

Nice work.
I bet that stainless enclosure has some weight to it.

[Stratolinks]

Just an additional note: If you click on either of the newer pictures they will open at the full res of my tiny little camera. (a bit over 3000 pixels wide). That should allow you to zoom in on the details pretty well.

[go.fast]

Nice, I seen that, you did a neat job. I'm not so neat sometimes.
What did the entire box cost you to build complete?

[wwalcher]

Where did you get the CPU card and backplane? That is a nice setup.

[valenti]

Awesome!

And an exciting place to work too, right near the edge. :p

So you still prefer the Metro over WP188, is that because of the 24V?

[Stratolinks]

Where did you get the CPU card and backplane? That is a nice setup.

This one is definitely improved since the early ones I was building back in 2001 when I made my own 12V-5V converter. This one is also a lot neater internally than the early ones too. They also had an older model CPU card too (Celeron 1.1GHz CPU 128Megs RAM), although all those boards are still working yet too.

The slot CPU card is an Advantech (http://buy.advantech.com/Single-Board-Computer/Half-size-SBC/SB_Half-size_SBC.mx.htm) PCI-6870F-00A2E on their own PCA-6105P5-0B2E "5 slot" backplane card. 5 Slots means 1 Master slot for the CPU card and 4 normal PCI slots. That CPU card is still current product and has been set with an end of life of 2010.

One of the reasons to go with such a product is because it is available for long periods of time, unlike most PC motherboards that available for a few months or so and then replaced with the next new model.

[Stratolinks]

Just one more step and :o:o:o

Yes I still prefer the Metro, partly because of the 24V (I could put in a 12-48V converter) but mostly because the accessibility of the radios. Not only that, but I know I can put whatever cards in the Metro in the future that I want to. I am hoping to be putting some 900MHz cards in some of them soon.

Awesome!

And an exciting place to work too, right near the edge. :p

So you still prefer the Metro over WP188, is that because of the 24V?

[Stratolinks]

Nice, I seen that, you did a neat job. I'm not so neat sometimes.
What did the entire box cost you to build complete?

How about the entire site...

Well, I actually hadn't added it up yet, but here goes.... (these are approximate numbers from memory)

Rittal Electromate enclosure (purchased surplus) $150.00
Panel, welding, and SS key latch for door on the box - $100.00
20" long DIN Rail - $4.00
Lambda 12V 10 Amp PSU (not there yet) - $85.00
Large Panaflo Fan - $20.00
Solar Converters 12-24V converter - $100.00
POE injector - $7.00
DIN terminals, grounding blocks and fuse holders - $25.00
RINRelay web relay module - $150.00
Moxa Ethernet switch - $100.00
PolyPhaser surge protectors ($46.00ea) - $184.00
Pair of 17Ah Sealed Lead acid batteries - $70.00
Inline fuse holder for battery connection - $5.00
Delta Fan on CPU heatsink - $11.00 (replaced the thin CPU fan)
Pentium III 1.4GHz Processor (from ebay) - $13.00
512Meg PC133 DRAM DIMM - $50.00
64M Flash Card - $15.00
5 Slot PCI backplane - $39.00
RB11 Mini PCI to PCI adapters ($18ea) - $72.00
WLM54SAG radio cards ($45ea) - $180.00
Premium pigtails ($12.00 ea) - $48.00
PCI-6870 CPU card - $375.00
Piece of aluminum angle to make PCI card holder - $10.00
Internal Wiring (rough guess) - $25.00
Electrical outlet box and cover - $4.00
Spec grade outlet for stranded wire - $7.00
Tek cable connector (brings AC in the bottom of the box) - $16.00
185ft of Cat5e Gel filled outdoor cable - $37.00
125ft of 14/2 Tek cable - $100.00
Tek cable connector (for connection to source) - $16.00
Big custom made aluminum box and mast support with mast, engineered for 1200lb push at 6ft off deck - $300.00
Pair of 34dB 4ft waveguide feed antennas $1000.00

WAR4Metro - $300.00
2 WLM54G radio cards - $70.00
Box for Metro at top of leg - $50.00
2 Polyphasers - $92.00
2 sector antennas (180ea) - $360.00

Total hardware cost - $4190.00

Total of about 5 days of my time building the box, getting it hoisted up and in place - PRICELESS ;);)

Having a site as ready to expand from as this is also worth quite a bit. 2 unused radios ready and waiting to be hooked up at the main router, and 2 more empty slots at the top of the leg for future growth in the area.

This site had a WRAP based unit at the top with a 2.4 feed and an omni antenna that was feeding 31 clients. Now it is right on the backbone with a lot more capacity to keep going.

[amp]

Very Nice setup.

I was wondering what thermal switch you used and where you got it, i am more looking for a 24v one for a 24v fan but it would get me started.

[Stratolinks]

Thanks, I just looked it up on Digi-Key's web site here (http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail?name=317-1092-ND). A simple 2 terminal device that closes the contacts at 35 and opens at around 30 or something like that. Voltage doesn't matter, and I think it is rated something like 6 amp or so.

I was back up at the site today to finish up the connections to the WAR4 at the top of the leg. I took my trusty Fluke meter up and connected it to measure the current from the battery. When I pulled the AC plug, the current draw went to 3.7 Amps. The router was passing about 8Mbits right then, and I don't know how much of that was going up to the WAR4 with the 3 radios active in it. 34 AH battery, apply a 25% discharge curve due to the faster than rated discharge rate, the battery standby should last about 6.9 Hours without AC power before shutting down. Most power failures are considerably less than that.


Very Nice setup.

I was wondering what thermal switch you used and where you got it, i am more looking for a 24v one for a 24v fan but it would get me started.

[Stratolinks]

Since I have had inquiries about the efficiency of the SolarConverters 12V to 24V converter, here are my test results (measured with my trusty old Fluke 87 meter):

Load is War4 Metro with 4 radio cards all in 2.4GHz AP mode (sitting on the workbench). 3 WLM54SG @ 22dBm in 2x, 1 WLM54SAG-23 @23dBm in 1x mode. This is with a SolarConverters CV 12-24 2A (12V input 24V constant voltage output at 2Amp continuous 4amp surge)

Direct on 24.00 V Power Supply - 192mA = 4.608W
12.00 V Power supply to converter - 437mA = 5.244 W
Power lost in conversion = 0.636 Watt (Approx 53mA @ 12V)

The no load draw on the converter is 14mA. From that we must assume that the 39mA difference is the actual loss due to the conversion efficiency of the unit at that load (about 8.9% loss).

Certainly not quite as efficient at powering the device directly off of a 24V source, but in situations where you already have 12V power systems and backups in place, it may be the best solution rather than convert all the power equipment. Yes they do make a CV 12-48 1A converter too.

[lonnie]

That is a very decent conversion and if an extra 53 mA kills the project you did not have enough Solar panels.