When working with a board that involves getting power from solar panels and batteries, even a simple project quickly becomes complicated. Due to the nature of solar panels, their voltage changes over the course of the day. If you want to keep a continuous RF link up and running, the board must be able to work with a wide voltage range and only run on battery power when necessary. The ArduRF1 takes care of all the small details that need tending when working with solar power. This will let you get your project running with minimum hassle.
The maximum supply voltage is a whopping 42V meaning you can take power from a wide range of sources, from automobiles to wind turbines. And the board is designed to handle the varying voltage of a solar panel. A panel spec’d at 12V might put out 18V on a very bright day and 0V at night. The board will keep the RF link running and charge the battery while the sun is out, switchung to battery when solar power drops off.
The RF transceiver used is an RFM69 which has a maximum range of 1.5 miles in open air and on the lowest baud rate setting. Testing of the ArduRF1 showed that 80 hours of battery life is possible on a single charge of a 1500 mAh battery. This was while transmitting a 40 byte message once every 5 seconds. This test did not make use of the low power sleep mode on the ArduRF1. With the addition of solar power, it should be possible to transmit continuously especially factoring in sleep mode.
