Alpha arrival status

Charging then deploying. But I use an external LiPo charger.
It ran for quite a few hours on battery after this.

Charging via micro USB seems to be extremly slow (when the lantern is on)
even when connection a 2 amps supply.

This is the third topic in this thread but anyway: I was wondering the same.
Iā€™ve spend some time powering wifi equipment with solar and also used one of the panels that are included in the alpha lantern. They were way to weak to provide power for 24x7 and I have a hard time imaging that this could work for the lantern given how hot it runsā€¦

(In my case I had to resort to a 20W panel to harvest enough energy in the place I live)

Continued here: We Moved!

This is all very helpful guys.

This could be the reason Iā€™m having problems. Not giving the Lantern a full charge to start with before deployment, then the solar cells not strong enough to keep it going.

I finally did take the back cover off and discovered the rectangular silver device plugged into the L-band receiver was hot (well burning hot) to the touch which may be the source of exceptional power drain.

What say you Syed? Ken

By the way, my charger is 5 volts at 2 amps. Probably not enough, thou. Ken

You should be OK, Micro USB connector is rated at 9W max, i.e. 1,8A.

A 2A USB charger is what we use.

Weā€™ve tested the radios all the way up to 65C. There is another model of radio that weā€™ve cooked at 85C for a solid weekā€“all while downloading. Are you seeing the SNR go down after itā€™s been outside for a long time?

The radio should be pulling about .160A.

By the way, the solar panel is meant to trickle charge, not fully power the unit. Itā€™s a 2W panel (rated), which is a little less than what the receiver runs at.

Hi Syed just tested mine .16A to boot and .14A running.

While hot, I see no degradation of signal level. I put my unit on a deck rail with a plastic utility cover to keep the naked antenna and apparatus dry, and have now powered it from a 2 amp wall wart. Surprisingly, I have a clear view of I4-F3 here in Washington, DC, on my deck in the forest. I found the ā€œsweet spotā€ :slight_smile:

My Lantern is downloading packets with SNRs of 4 to 6 dB. Iā€™ll see what I get in the way of files when all the packets arrive!

I measured (using a clamp on amp meter) overall power consumption out of the Boston Power Swing 5300 (with no external power or solar panel connected) and see a total unit (radio, computer, and WiFi hot spot) draw of .6 amp. This should allow a fully charged Boston Power 5300 mAh to run the Lantern for 6 to 7 hours battery based on the discharge capacity chart on Boston Powerā€™s web site showing 3.25 volts at the 4,000 mAh point. This time calculation may not be what you expect, but I donā€™t know at what voltage level the Lantern will turn off.

My original problem with charging may have been that I used too small a wall wart - - I donā€™t remember which one I used now. Ken

Yep, this is exactly what our initial test rigs looked like.

Let me offer another thought here, Syed - - I understand the near field issue of the ABS case being too close to the antenna, and so inadvertently fixed that problem by weather proofing my gear.

As to the solar cells which I am not using - - they trickle charge the Boston Power battery, but not enough to run the Lantern 24/7 since the Lantern is drawing about 600 ma continuously. That said, you would have to provide external charging from a 2 watt wall wart at some time during the day. So why bother with solar cells at all? The Boston Power battery will run the Lantern for several hours before it runs out at which time you provide land power.

Ken

I agree with you completely. Itā€™s just that everyone seems to be really interested in a trickle charged solar Lantern. If I could design this product from scratch right now, it would focus completely on cost and size. Power would be achieve by only one meansā€“USB.

Iā€™m thinking that a 10 watt solar cell such as Synthesis Power SP10P 10W 12V Poly Solar Panel could POWER and CHARGE the Lantern. It costs about $21 but is large at 16.33 x 9.64 inches.

Using it as my only power source, I could run into problems getting enough sun during the day and it not working on overcast days. Ken

Hi Syed,

Slightly off topic from all the previous posts!
Just got my Alpha in the past few days. Havenā€™t got a chance to fully test it. Although, 2 days ago, I managed to have a 10 watt solar 4-cells under a direct sunlight, and the Alpha works perfectly normal. Need more updates on this in the future.

There was one thing that was bothersome and that is the battery. As similar as to the post above (but may slightly differ), after charging for one hour, the battery seems to be dead.

Is there anyway I could troubleshoot this issue? Iā€™m going to plug the Alpha to a wall socket to see if itā€™s any better.

Thanks,
Michael

It could be that the AXP209 charger on the CHIP is not getting enough current from the panel to run the receiver and charge the battery. The best test of this is with a wall charger. How many amps is your wall charger?

Where are you located? Under the Americas beam?

I am located in the Americas beam, Canada to be exact. The wall charger is around 25W. It fully charged the Alpa Lantern less than 7 hours.

Updates on my Lantern: Getting some alright signals (around in the 1.5-3.00 numbers). I was amazed to see how I could also get signal inside a close space (so like a building), and the signal was pretty ok.

Waitā€¦are you actually receiving packets indoors?

Yep, although the signal you can say is of course not the best; it was in the decimal regions 0.01-0.99. I was surprised too, but I did made sure the Alpha Lantern was aligned to the nearest satellite as accurate as possible since if I touched just a little bit there wonā€™t be any signal coming through.

Was it pointed through the roof or a window? If the roof/walls, what is the material of the roof/walls?

It was pointed through the roof/walls. I believe the material is like wood, but Iā€™m not too sure (there are porcelain made materials; a bit of concrete and plastic as well).