It's completely solar power driven and somewhat inefficient, only allowing me an uptime of 1 hour per day. It's using a 12VDC->220VAC->55VDC converter for the WiMAX antenna, and a 12V Netgear WNDR3500 router with custom Linux firmware running the webcam and atmosphere sensors.
The panel is an old 60w, and the battery 215Ah.
I'm planning on replacing this with, or rather adding, a RPi to make me able to get an uptime of "daylight" for the webcam using "motion" or similar to record, and 1/2 hour or on-demand WiMAX connection to upload the results. Panel will be upgraded to 160w and battery to 450Ah. What I've figured I need so far (already ordered):
- Timer/Daylight sensor to switch on and off power to the RPi
- MOSFET relay to switch on and off router/wimax
- RTC to know when to switch on and upload for daily snapshot
- Powered USB hub for cam and sensors
- 12V-5V buck converter
- 12V-48V boost converter
The webcam and atmospheric sensors are already covered and should be working fine, I'm using a Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 and a USBTenki sensor.
What I need help with:
- Verifying it's a sound setup
- How to make the RPi powerloss-ready before the daylight sensor switches off
- Making a daylight sensor
- Optimizing power efficiency (RG1/RG2, converters)

Making things cheap is not necessary (panel and battery are like £2000 alone), making them power efficient is.
In the end I'm hoping it can all stay up 24/7!