Has anyone developed a fairly simple(and not-$$) off-grid Tempest installation?
That would mean solar power for the base hub, and some sort of solar powered uplink like a mobile hot-spot.
The company said they were developing such a unit a few years ago, but each year it seems to be no an active project.
I’m in the process of figuring this out now. I have the station mounted .7 miles offshore on a piling in the Currituck Sound, NC.
I mounted a junction box for the cellular hub and the Tempest power bank. I’ve got a small solar panel charging the power bank.
The issue I’m running into is that the power bank doesn’t seem to charge and power the hub simultaneously, possibly because the bank only acts as a pass through when connected to power and the solar panel doesn’t have quite enough power to keep the hub on.
The station goes online every night and shuts off during the day. I’m assuming it’s because the power bank only powers the hub when the solar panel is not providing power.
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Not all powerbanks have pass through charging. You need one which can charge/power a connected device while also charging.
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…and when you find that unicorn battery power bank, please post it for everyone because many don’t support the feature and a lot of people are looking for them!
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@ [danmcisaac] Could you share your current setup?
TIA
Isn’t the sslt water going to ruin the Tempest?
WeatherFlow’s “day job” is operating a for-profit/commercial coastal weather station network, and they were using off the shelf commercial-grade sensors and not Tempest hardware the last time that I looked. They have stations mounted on pilings, on long bridges, and many other places in close proximity to salt spray. Anyway, I would assume that the Tempest sensor is protected by comformal coating, and the Cellular Hub should always be in a weatherproof case sealed from spray…
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The WeatherFlow/Tempest power bank is one option. I’ve been using this one Amazon.com: CUKTECH 20 Power Bank, 140W 25,000mAh Portable Laptop Charger, 3-Port, Smart TFT Display, PD3.1 PPS Protocol Battery Pack for MacBook Pro/Air, Surface Pro, iPhone 15/14, Samsung S24, iPad and More : Cell Phones & Accessories for about a year now, and it works just fine. It is overkill for just powering a hub, but it does work. I just set the display off so it doesn’t drain the battery in the case the power goes out.
Can you give the specifics of your setup? Solar panels, any power filtering or limiting, converting the 5v power bank to the 120v station node, ??
Believe it or not, the first batch of those didn’t do pass-through charging IIRC. I don’t know if it was fixed in a newer revision…or if there was even a second batch made…
I think I have the first batch and it does do pass-through charging but any time there is a change to the input, it power cycles the output. I do remember reporting this as an issue that needed to be addressed.
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Yes—I think I’ve got it figured out. On the advice of customer support, I changed the Tempest battery pack for a Voltaic battery pack. They confirmed that the Tempest pack only allows pass-through charging from an outlet.
I now have an inexpensive 10W 5V solar panel with usb-c output running to the input on the Voltaic power bank which is connected to the hub. It’s been running for several days. The pack has remained fully charged and there have been no interruptions in signal.
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Where is your station located?
Could you explain; the hub is 120v, how do you power that from a usb (5v) interface? And how do you provide online Internet (wifi) connection for the hub? do you have any electronics for power regulation from the solar cells to the battery?
Yep, you got it. Nor’Banks Sailing is the name of the station.
I have the cellular hub, so no wi-fi required. The cellular hub sends the station info out every 5 minutes. As for the power, I don’t think any hub truly requires 120V. I’m no expert, but I believe when you plug the hub into the wall, the charger converts the 120V to 5V DC. A 10-20W, 5V solar panel and a solar-compatible power bank do the trick.
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Here’s a link to the Voltaic power bank I’m using. This was the suggestion of Tempest support.
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Very interesting, thanks.
I was not aware of the cellular hub - will have to take a look!
So this all fits together, and creates a remote self-sufficient solar station? Great!!