Hi there.

We are an offgrid farm and I have solar panels around 250m away from the house. The house has wifi. There is no power at the panels. I am looking to create a stand alone solar powered power box to power the wifi. My 2 questions would be..

1. How could I extend our house wifi the 250m or more to cover the solar panels. I would install a 3-5m pole at the panels to extend above any trees to improve signal. 

2. What would the outdoor solar power box be made up off to power the wifi receiver.

Thanks

I take it the inverter with WiFi is there with the panels. So there is AC on that side. Then cheapest option is those power line WiFi extenders that use your AC wire as a network. Some of them have a built in WiFi ap on the side you want the WiFi to be. Have seen mixed results with these devices. I have a few that are at least 5 years old never given a problem. They just have a couple ip cameras at the front gate so not to high bandwidth required and extra latency no problem for simply monitoring the inverter.

Option 2 to just get 2 ubiquity loco AC units, must have line of sight. Beam angle is wide so easy to align then get a wifi router on the panel side set  to broadcast WiFi

 

 

Sorry I misread, no AC at panels. Then go for option 2 and put a small battery say 12v 20ah lifepo4 battery and  appropriate charge controller that is suited to charge lifepo4 and get one that also has a 5v usb out on it, it'll give you options of powering even 5v WiFi routers or switches. The locos will also run on 12v no problem pins 4 and 5 are positive and pins 7 and 8 are negative or just use those passive Poe injectors with DC plugs on to make it look nice and neat. Try buy a WiFi router that uses 12v or 5v.

Hi Kyuubi. Thanks for the reply. Can I confirm a few things related to the attached pic. 

As a first option could I install a Ubiquiti at the house (blue dot) and see if I will get wifi coverege at the panels 250m away? Is it that simple? 

If this doesnt work then I would add another unit attached to a power box as mentioned above? 

The 250m solution will be a point to point connection, the two antennas will basically connect as if they are a lan cable. No other devices, phones etc can connect to that. 

Then at the remote end if you want a WiFi network that you can connect your phone or other devices to, that will require a separate access point to achieve. 

Overall it needs a bit of know how, so if you aren't familiar with IT, networking etc, i would suggest you get someone to help you out. 

250m is too far for most Access Points, and in your case you have quite a bit of forest in your space between the two points.

Unifi equipment is fairly straightforward and user friendly...the Litebeam range.
One device will be at the house and the other at the solar plant site, but this too will need clear line of sight between the two devices to be efficient.
Any bit of blockage between the two devices and it will impact signal/connectivity.

This solution though will still require you to have AC power at the solar plant site to power the Litebeam device, and a router.
LAN is limited to 100m runs and fiber...well that's a pretty penny for a 250m run 🙂
 

Thanks for the feedback. Will look at the various options. 

On 2025/01/24 at 11:24 AM, Chris Kitson said:

We are an offgrid farm and I have solar panels around 250m away from the house.

Are those panels powering the house or something else at 250m away from the house?

Hi Tim. It powers the panels for our borehole. Im wanting to put a security camera there that we can view from the house through wifi. 

Can the borehole controller output a separate 12v? which can be used for charging a battery to power the network equipment?

From the limited info i have seen on the borehole type controllers they are variable voltage / speed pumps and the controller puts out a wide range of voltages during day which speeds up or slows down the pump, as the rises and falls? Without any battery backup.

If the borehole controller has not power output 12v for example,  you may find putting up a separate power plant and battery for camera, and wifi is not worth the cost??

Maybe you have some technical details of the borehole controller or unit? that may inspire some further answers? or questions?

I hope you find a cost effective solution.

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Arandoza. I cant use the controller as an output as its completely powered by the panels. Sun up, power on, sun down power off. So the best solution would be a stand alone power setup. Panel, controller and battery.