Question about solar power the sensor and 4G/LTE communication

FAQ
1

Hello forum members.
I am new here and love what you all are accomplishing.
I have electrical / electronics background and in my spare time I am working on a food forest .
Now I want to put 2 air quality and sound sensors in this forest.
Does anyone have experience with solarpower and 4G/LTE communication for these sensors.
What is the power consumption of these sensors ?

Thanks for your support

2

There should also be a v2. Try to contact Grigori.
4G/LTE small routers often prevent users to do what they want. Can’t you use LoRaWAN?

3

Thanks for your reply pjg
I try to contact Grigori.
And I will look into a LoRaWAN solution or NB-IoT

4

I tested ESP8266 and ESP32 boards with Simcom Sim7020/7080G NB-IOT modems. Worked well with solar panel and 18650 battery

5

Thanks for your reply and info ibetsun.
Did you use a Sitcom NB IoT development board or did you made your own PCB with ESP and Simcom ?
do you have a schematic of your solution ?

Thanks.

6

I testd with Simcom devboard from AliExpress which there are plenty of. I am planning to develop a daughter board with Simcom module
The schematic is not ready yet. I suppose there will be some power management and a level shifter 1.8<>3.3V

As to the solar part, you can find some info there:

1 Like
7

Did you also compare power conscumption between the two?

8

You mean between 7020 and 7080? Not yet. I have them both as modules, and when the PCBs are ready, I will test the overall efficiency.

But, according to datasheets, there’ should not be much difference in power save mode

9

I see, thank you. The ESP32 should also consume less in power saving mode.