Need solar setup for one PoE PTZcamera camera using a cellular router

[iuc]

I am looking for advice putting together a solar setup to power a PoE camera and cellular router/gateway/modem. The cell modem is a Sierra Wireless RZ50. The camera I am leaning towards is an Axis P5515-E ... but if there is a reason that is not a good choice I am open to another option. I noticed some of the higher end solar controllers/chargers have ether ports on them for sending alerts/status updates of the solar system... so I am guessing I would need some sort of switch to use a feature like that along with the camera.

All of the hardware will be mounted about 25' - 30' up on a wood pole. What size panel do I need? What size batteries do I need? What sort of controller do I need? The camera, modem, and any other associated electronics need to run 24x7 with room to spare. This installation will be in north Texas near Fort Worth.

[Sunking]

Very doable I put up quite a few weather stations using ATT M2M service for unused GSM bandwidth. You are wanting to do about the same thing, but likely a bit more energy required which brings us to the most important part of the design.

You have to know the daily watt hour requirements, location, and time of year use. So look at the equipment specs and determine how many watts they consume. Let's say they total 15 watts. How many hours per day will the equipment operate? Lets say 24 hours. So 15 watts x 24 hours = 360 watt hours.

So get those numbers then we can talk. I sure hope the equipment uses less than 15 watts and used less than 24 hours per day, or this can get expensive real fast. Weather stations only transmit data every minute with a quick burst of data with a still picture.

[iuc]

Attached are the spec sheets for the Axis P5515-E camera and Sierra Wireless RV50 cell modem. I am also including the specs for the PoE switch RB960PGS, I'm not sure if it's the best/correct way to power the camera and have an extra ether port for solar controller data or not. Also, I will include the Axis PoE injector sheet, this is what Axis requires if no PoE switch is available. Once again, I am choosing Axis because I have experience with them. I am open to use of another high definition PTZ if it makes more sense. The modem power spec is a little ambiguous but if we assume it will be burning 2W all the time and the camera will be maxed out at 12.95W all the time we are at 15 already.

Here are some power specs from the attachments:

Axis P5512-E -
Power Power over Ethernet (PoE) IEEE 802.3af/802.3at Type 1 Class 3
Camera consumption: typical: 6.9 W, max 12.95 W

Sierra Wireless RV50 - Configurable I/O pin on power connector
Digital Input ON Voltage: 2.7 to 36 VDC
Configurable Pull-up for dry contact input
Digital Open Collector Output > sinking 500 mA
Analog Input: 0.5-36 VDC

Mikrotik PoE Switch -
Supported input voltage 12 - 57 V
Power output
On ports 2-5, Output: 1A max per port; 2A max total (12-30v),
450mA max per port; 1,8A max total (31-57v)
RB960PGS can power 802.3af/at devices if 48V DC input is used (unit comes with 24v power supply,
so you would have to purchase 48v power supply separately to support this). Unit provides max
current 450mA for each port regardless device power class

[Sunking]

OK I have taken a look and here is what I came up with

7 watts Camera
4 watts Wireless Internet via LTE Sierra Wireless
6 to 10 watts Router
15 watts Axis Midspan POE

Total = 30 to 35 watts, ouch

My first question is why the Axis POE? From what I can see the Router can do that? If true you can cut power use in half.
Second question is will this run 24 x 7?

OK assuming 30 watts and 24 hours per day you need 720 watt hours per day. That is a lot of power and not cheap. So here is how the numbers work

Battery 12 volt 300 AH. That is a very large battery consisting of 2 6-Volt batteries. Around 180 pounds worth. Estimated cost $540
Panel wattage assuming you have at least 4 Sun Hours in winter. 270 watts If you shop around cost $300 to $400
MPPT Charge Controller 20 amps, estimated cost $250.

Doable but expensive. So it is extremely important you only use lowest power consuming devices you can find. 30 watts on commercial AC is nothing, less than 10-cents of electricity per day. 30 watts 24 hours a day is significant using solar power and batteries. To cut cost you could use 6-volt 225 AH golf cart batteries, but the trade off is instead of 3 day run time, you only get 2 days before you have to shut down and wait for the sun to shine a couple of days to recharge.

Is there any chance you can build this thing, and test exactly how much power it really uses? For every watt we can shaves off will save you $36 to $40.

[iuc]

OK I have taken a look and here is what I came up with

7 watts Camera
4 watts Wireless Internet via LTE Sierra Wireless
6 to 10 watts Router
15 watts Axis Midspan POE

Total = 30 to 35 watts, ouch

My first question is why the Axis POE? From what I can see the Router can do that?

My previous post got cut off somehow. The Axis PoE injector was just for reference. I have edited the post and removed the confusing content. I would not be using the Axis PoE injector. So I think this will be closer to 20 watts.

Sorry for that confusion.

This setup does need to run 24x7. The PoE switch will need a 48vdc input to power the camera... I think.

[tyab]

If you are willing to use an unmanaged switch some of the 5 ports gigabit ones use a max of 3 watts. I'm using a TRENDNet TEG-S5g in my communications cabinet on the remote solar system. Cost under $20 from Amazon, 5 port gigabit unmanaged and has a max draw of 3 watts if all 5 ports are in use. Mine is in a NEMA 4X box along with its power supply and other stuff. Yes - it's a low cost throw away if anything happens to it kind of equipment but that is 3-7W less than you are planning on. In any case look around - you will find small switches that are low power.

I have a PoE camera on my system, it is an Ubiquiti UniFi Video G3 PoE camera. With its included PoE injector - it has a max current draw of 4W. 1080p 30FPS camera with mic and IR. There is an optional IR range extender, it itself adds another 7.5W max (I'm not using this addon). And again - I'm sure if you look around you can find other low power cameras. The Ubiquiti is really low power for PoE since they are non-standard - you have to use their PoE injector.

Get that to the 11-14W range and it will bring down your costs.

[iuc]

If you are willing to use an unmanaged switch some of the 5 ports gigabit ones use a max of 3 watts. I'm using a TRENDNet TEG-S5g in my communications cabinet on the remote solar system. Cost under $20 from Amazon, 5 port gigabit unmanaged and has a max draw of 3 watts if all 5 ports are in use. Mine is in a NEMA 4X box along with its power supply and other stuff. Yes - it's a low cost throw away if anything happens to it kind of equipment but that is 3-7W less than you are planning on. In any case look around - you will find small switches that are low power.

I have a PoE camera on my system, it is an Ubiquiti UniFi Video G3 PoE camera. With its included PoE injector - it has a max current draw of 4W. 1080p 30FPS camera with mic and IR. There is an optional IR range extender, it itself adds another 7.5W max (I'm not using this addon). And again - I'm sure if you look around you can find other low power cameras. The Ubiquiti is really low power for PoE since they are non-standard - you have to use their PoE injector.

Those Unifi cameras are nice, as are most Unifi products, but I need PTZ for this project. Most of the PTZs (that I'm looking at) call for 48v DC power. Does this mean I need more batteries or can different DC voltages be created using the controller or some other device?

[Mike90250]

Thread closed and updated specs at https://www.solarpaneltalk.com/forum...ce-redo-thread