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Solar Powered Wi-Fi
Posted by
samzenpus
on Thu Aug 30, 2007 03:59 AM
from the wireless-anywhere dept.
from the wireless-anywhere dept.
inkslinger77 writes "A small US startup has announced it has created a system for running Wi-Fi routers in remote places using only the power of the sun. Among the first round of products from Solis Energy is the Solar Power Plant, touted as being capable of supplying 12, 24 and 48 Volts DC for use in stand-alone applications such as surveillance cameras and outdoor Wi-Fi."
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Bright idea (Score:4, Funny)
Here in the UK we use the tiny amount of light to power calculators but I think you would need a panel at least 3km square.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
> they just need light and they work perfectly well in the UK.
No they don't. They can *just* provide enough power to power a calculator if you're sat near a window. In the UK, photo-voltaic solar panels are almost never used for anything commercial because it just doesn't lack of direct sunlight we have over the winter months. If you go to sunny countries, you'll see solar panels powering phone masts, traffic flow monitors, road sign
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PV cells are used for lots of stuff in the UK including some of the the things you list above.
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You are talking about a mesh network [wikipedia.org]. Should go fine. Maybe add a directional aerial to connect to it's peers over slightly longer distances, saves a 100% overlapping network.
Re:Bright idea (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Covering up... (Score:2)
Struggling... (Score:3, Informative)
Simpleton (Score:2)
AND WIFI!!!
or didn't you get that part?
Re: (Score:2)
My previous response got lost somewhere, so I'll try again:
I agree. I can attach a solar cell to a UPS and a $50 Netgear WAP.
Where's MY check?
-l
Exactly (time investment) (Score:5, Insightful)
I could also create something for my shed if i want to look into manufacturers for quality and price, choose the individual components, ensure I knew how they all went together (safely), and mount it on the shed. Just like I don't have the time or interest in building computers from scratch anymore, I don't have the interest in investing all this time into building a custom solution. If they can give a warantee that covers their whole package, they can test the configurations and crazy outdoor conditions, and they can build thousands of them in the time it takes me to assemble one, then super. They aren't stopping you from creating your own custom product for your shed.
I wish someone would make some entry level package like this for homes -- a solar cell, simple cables (as easy as a power cord you can plug into each side), and a battery. Then give me some ways to go battery-out to random appliances and I think it would be a good way to let people try solar without the 10K+ investment and installation knowledge. Even if I only get enough juice to charge my laptop, it is at least a way to get started/interested.
Parent
Been around a while.... (Score:5, Informative)
And this is 'news'? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/14481
Note 2002, FIVE years ago.
solar powered hovering wireless routers (Score:3, Insightful)
I disagree.
At least for outdoor municipal wifi, the routers are usually mounted on utility poles. There's no shortage of cheap power on utility poles!
You can make the argument that it might not be mounted on a utility pole. Like somewhere indoors. But then that renders the solar aspect pretty useless.
What we really need are solar powered wireless wifi routers that can autonomously position and hover themselves at a fixed location. Now that'd be cool, and useful.
This is old old old (Score:3, Interesting)
Ben 'Polyhead' Smith
KE7GAL
But not to my living room... (Score:3, Informative)
City-wide or country-wide WiFi sounds very cool to me. But - walls are a serious problem for WiFi. This in contrast to GSM signals, however in the concrete jungle called Hong Kong (with like 6 or 8 networks), even GSM is not everywhere available, particularly indoors.
I've wireless at home. It has a problem sometimes penetrating the two concrete walls between my living room (where the access point is) and my bedroom (where I sometimes use my laptop as well). I live on the 16th floor, a wireless access point on the ground level will never reach my living room. The penetration is too poor, and the distance is too long. So for city-wide WiFi, are there better solutions available?
In the countryside the problems are of course different - mountains are in the way and distances are often huge. Yet GSM networks are already fully covering even sparsely populated countries like Sweden and Norway. Is there a way do do so for WiFi without setting up repeaters every 500m? Is there a way to penetrate walls like GSM signals do?
The technology is nice, I love it. But at this moment for wireless networking on the go I will continue to use my mobile phone, over GPRS (yes we have UMTS available but that is mighty expensive, not worth it for me). It ain't fast, but it is virtually everywhere available, and has no problem keeping a connection when sitting in the train (try that with WiFi that is not in the train itself).
All and all I wonder, why not use the existing GSM networks? Most developed countries have UTMS available everywhere (USA is a developing country when it comes to digital technology, sad as it may be). Isn't that much more convenient, and cost efficient to use than a newly built WiFi network? There are more and more unlimited wireless plans (in Hong Kong you pay about US$80-100 per month for unlimited UTMS, add say US$200 a month for unlimited UTMS/GPRS roaming in mainland China). It's there, it's ready, and it's getting cheaper fast.
Re:But not to my living room... (Score:4, Insightful)
I just have a feeling from my humble experience that wifi is overrated concerning real-world range.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Anyway, I had the same experience with WiFi. My room was one wall away from the router, about 20 feet. 70-80% signal, and roughly 10mbps actual throughput (measured by scp of large files). We tried to set up a computer on the other side of the house. It got either the speed of cheap cable or just enough signal to stall out but st
Slashdotted? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Slashdotted? (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Anonymous reflectors (Score:3, Interesting)
This clever, patent-pending device will act as a distributor/reflector of music and warez (does anyone use that term anymore), and will add to the misery of the mafIAA.
I can just see hoards of people willing to go spend $69 to buy one of these, and drop it into a remote location... the same people who aren't willing to license all their music.
What do you think?
(PS I'm kidding on the patent pending... you want to take this idea and run with it, go for it! I have 5000 more, that are just as bad!)
Only the power... (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, only the power of the sun. It's such a great power source we should manufacture more.