Matt Westervelt posted a description of a solar-powered WiFi node that runs his Metrix Kit. The weatherproof, solid-state access point uses a wireless backbone.
Ben over at Golden Hill Free Web is using solar because it’s much more cost-effective than running conduit, and like many of us, he is interested in bringing the technology where there might not be the luxury of a first world power grid.
This is his second solar powered rig, and he is definitely refining the process.
“Because of lessons learned from the first solar rig, I scaled back the size of the panel (now a unisolar 32 watt), and tried two 12 volt 18 AmpHour gel cell batteries wired in parallel, which should give me just over a 100 hours of run time.”
For those of you interested in setting up a solar powered node, there are more details on parts and prices at socalfreenet and daily wireless.
BTW, I took my “wireless bike” on the 2004 Providence Rose Pedal, August 6th. The bike ride travels over Portland’s bridges and featured over 15,000 cyclists, making it the second-largest community bike ride in the country
I brought my laptop with a +13db panel antenna (hooked to a USB Lucent 802.11b client) and Netstumbled on top of the tallest bridge, the Fremont (the one with two flags). The plan was to have a live Netcam on the bridge next year.
Unfortunately, while Netstumbler picked up about 40 “hits” none was quite strong enough to support a live webcam. A +19dB panel with a more sensitive card may work, however, since signal strength was often solidly in orange and yellow levels.
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