Specifications

Section 2. Hardware Installation
2.5.4.1 Power Considerations
AC power is recommended when using RF450 radios with the station. A 10
watt solar panel can be used but days without sunlight and winter months with
little sunlight should be considered. The ET107 station comes with a 7 amp-
hour battery that is NOT designed to handle deep discharge. Discharging the
battery below 11 Vdc may require battery replacement. Below are some
examples of power calculations. Battery current consumption is based on
discharging the 7 amp-hour battery to 80% capacity (5.6 amp-hours).
Discharging the battery past this value could result in damaging the battery.
Polling the station once every 10 minutes and staying on line with the station
for one minute consumes approximately 1.276 amps over a 24 hour period. If
the station were to lose power it could run for around 4.3 days (105 hours)
before damaging the battery. A station with a 10 watt panel would need at least
3 hours of sunlight every day to keep the battery charged. Recommendation
here would be to decrease the power output of the radios or add a PS24 power
supply and enclosure with a 24 amp-hour battery below the main enclosure.
See Appendix B for mounting options and information on the PS24.
Polling the station once an hour and staying on line with the station for one
minute consumes approximately 0.388 amps over a 24 hour period. If the
station were to lose power it could run for around 14 days (346 hours) before
damaging the battery. A station with a 10 watt panel would need at least 1 hour
of sunlight every day to keep the battery charged.
2.5.4.2 Default Configuration
By default the radios are configured as follows.
Base Radio At Computer
• Multi-Point Master
• RS-232 @ 115,200 Baud
• Network ID: 1234
• Frequency Key: 5
• 1 Watt Output (Transmit Power: 10)
Weather Station Radio
• Multi-Point Slave
• Communication With Datalogger via CS I/O SDC7
• Network ID: 1234
• Frequency Key: 5
• 1 Watt Output (Transmit Power: 10)
• Low Power Mode: 2
See the RF450 manual for changing radio settings.
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