I am preparing where to site my new Tempest and have decided to get a PBA based on advice about UK winter weather. I would like to site it in a waterproof box safe from the elements e.g a junction box. Can anybody advise the dimensions of a PBA please. Any photos of PAB installations?
I took the measures with the cables plugged in the PBA . If you want also to put the power plug in there …
20 * 10 * 6 cm should be ok for the PBA and count another 6 * 5 * 4 cm for the plug. Maybe take it a little bigger to have a more comfortable mounting in there.
Also consider a special plug to get humidity in/out to avoid condensation or silica gel.
Share the build, might interest others.
Many thanks. Intend using 8 AA. Will have a look on-line and then go to Tool Station or similar to collect. I’ll put up an installation shot when Tempest etc arrive.
Neat. I have arranged a junction/project box and will mount on the fence post adjacent to metal pole when I site the Tempest. PBA will be powered by batteries. Will put a photo up when job done.
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I just pieced together a small setup for my Tempest a few weeks ago and have been meaning to get it posted to possibly help others, so here goes.
Used the power booster accessory, a 5w 12v solar panel, barrel adapter for the solar panel/pba, enclosed junction box/nema enclosure, solar panel mount, pole mount brackets for the solar panel mount, and a cable nipple/pass-through for the box.
5w 12v solar panel: B01M0UEP4W
barrel adapter: B09JKNRHBZ
solar panel mount: B09SWMXLP3
enclosure: B08281V2RL
cable nipple: B08R852GJQ
bracket for mount: B0B4DW4HFM
forum wont allow me to post links, so copy and paste those asins into the search box on amazon and you can bring up the products I used.
Pieced all of this together in a nice little setup, the panel connected to the pba provides enough power for a rapid charge to full with even short blip of light (think mostly cloudy with an occasional break in the clouds), provides a slow charge during overcast but small amount of light coming through, and in full overcast it provides just enough power to maintain voltage during the day without losing any charge (still going to drop overnight).
completed setup:
the forum will only allow me to post one image currently… so there is the completed setup.
the only change that I would make if I was repeating the project is to get a slightly larger enclosure, the one used works but it is a little bit of a tight fit getting the rj45 and the barrel plugged but not bad. A larger enclosure would also allow for a small battery and charge controller if you wanted to go that route.
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forum would only let me post one image, so here is a second showing how I situated everything in the enclosure. Added some lithium batteries to the pba that charge the tempest in the event the panel isn’t putting out power and the tempest voltage drops below 2.42v.
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The Solar Panel you used is a 12 volt 5 watt panel. The AC adapter included with the PBA is a 12 volt 1000 ma power supply which would put out 12 watts at 12 volts. Probably a 10 watt solar panel would be a much closer replacement for the included AC adapter.
I’m going to install a newpowa 10 watt panel using their pole mount and install batteries in the PBA as well. I installed a Right Angle RJ 45 adapter cable and a Right Angle 2.5mm x 5.5mm barrel connector adapter cable to allow the PBA to be mounted closer to the bottom of the weatherproof cabinet. I’ll post photos when I’ve finished.
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