An Outdoor Telraam: Is It Even Possible?

I have just (two days ago) completed my outdoor, solar panel-powered Telraam build.

I used a TP-link solar panel (https://www.kjell.com/no/produkter/sikkerhet-og-overvaking/kameraovervaking/nettverkskameraer/tp-link-tapo-a200-solpanel-for-overvakingskamera-p65414) that is supposed to deliver up to 4,5 W.

The battery is a 24 Ah/88,8 Wh power bank that can charge and discharge at the same. It also has its own solar panel, though that has proven to be of little use historically.

I put it outside two days ago in the evening. Yesterday was rainy. Today was sunny. There is some, but very little, direct sunlight where it sits at the moment, and it faces east. Not ideal conditions, but certainly real-world scenario. Two nights, one rainy day and one sunny day later, the power bank reports between 25% and 50% remaining.

Let’s say best case is 50% remaining. That’s 44 Wh over a little less than 48 hours, which translates to a continuous power draw of around 1 W. This is in line with the specifications.

The solar panel certainly has too little charging capacity, at least for this area (southern Norway). I will need to work on that, but the solar panel really can’t be much bigger than it is without being very clunky…

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I used the same approach. Here is the digikey part:
https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/bud-industries/PTQ-11038-C/13907339?so=88352027&content=productdetail_CA&mkt_tok=MDI4LVNYSy01MDcAAAGVGRZqxcpMHcxdL7Gu51nGJX1UZ2j641PMo1yql0xk4EwNCHzJ0XBnYKeOt7fwVgJoOkula8u_zf164o3GLcyK6cPQXffSIRmZZbUBMgEa

@Jed, how did your S2 survive the wet season?

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We haven’t had any reliability issues as far as we can tell. I would definitely like to explore solar power as a next step, but haven’t had the time to do so.

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I’ve done a longer test at an actual mounting location, with the panel facing south. Solar charging provided an additional 8 Wh over three and a half days. This is from a panel that is rated for 4.5 W max.

We need on average 24 Wh pr day. A quick calculation says we need a panel with at least 50 W rating. And this is still the summer season. For the winter season, I imagine we can double that… (the shortest day is 6 hrs).