Tempest battery backup for Hub + Router and Meteobridge

gizmoev The bank allows the hub to keep recording data from the tempest until the power bank dies correct and then i can retrieve the data if it is before the 7 days?

Tempest advised me there is no timer on the hub that will cause a reboot.

All the power bank is, is a power supply to the hub. The hub will not know the difference between it and a phone charger. When the power goes out, the hub wonā€™t know the power went out because the power bank is keeping the hub running. The hub will only know the connection the WF servers is broken. As long as the hub makes a connection to the WF servers before its internal memory runs out AND before the power bank runs out of energy, all the data collected during that time will be sent to WF servers (AKA back filled).

Was told the hub memory last for a full 7 days which is great.

There were ā€˜definitelyā€™ watchdog timers in the Hub as of October 2020 in the v143 firmware but what they were looking for wasnā€™t mentioned as far as I can find in the old (restricted access) Field Tester threads.

I know itā€™s been a couple firmware updates since then but Iā€™d be surprised if they took them all out. There were undoubtedly there for a reason.

Best way to know what to expect is probably to do an experiment. Block your Hub from reaching Internet for a while and see what happens. You would need some kind of network expertise but perhaps just listening for UDP and looking at the uptime therein might work. Maybe.

Can I ask why when I loose power that my tempest hub also looses power for a few seconds until the USB Power block I was given kicks in? My understanding of this system is that the Hub should not loose any power during an outage until the USB power block runs out! Why is there a break in power to the Hub?

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Because that is how the power bank was designed. I brought that up with WratherFlow and it is as designed. I let them know that it should not be that way and should be a full-time UPS, instead. I hope they change that with the next iteration.

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My Tempest hub power bank (HPB) gives a difference response than what I expected and Iā€™m looking for any ideas as to what is going on. I have the system (solar panel to Buck converter to Tempest HPB) and it works just fine with the sun shining on the solar panel. When the sun goes down, the data stops being sent to the Internet, suggesting that the power to the hub is disconnected for the time there is no sun. (I havenā€™t been able to verify that specifically as the system is located 50 miles away.) When the sun comes up the next morning, data is again being sent to the Internet. The voltage coming out of the HPB is 5.05v when the Buck converter is disconnected from the HPB. With it connected, the voltage to the HPB is 4.78 and the voltage to the hub is 4.5v. The HPB seems to be fully charged with 4.78v input, all four lights on the HPB are illuminated.

Any ideas why the hub stops sending data to the Internet when the sun goes down?

Taking a WAG that your HPB doesnā€™t see enough load from the Hub and shuts off. When the charging happens again the next day, it wakes up until charging stops. Again, just a guess, but some power banks Iā€™ve used wonā€™t stay on with just the Hub as a load.

The power bank works as designed with the hub load when the charging input is disconnected. The hub works as designed when powered by the power bank alone.

When testing the Hub and power bank alone, how long did you let it run? A day or two?

That combination ran for about 7 days. I neglected to fully seat the 110v input connector into the HPB and the hub shut down after 7 days of operation from a fully charged HPB.

ok, thanks. Can you tell use your station number so we can look at the data?

87539, Frazier Lake Airpark, Hollister, CA.

BTW, the hub and HPB have been moved back to the source of 110v to power the HPB. They have been disconnected from the solar panel for now.

Walter

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Thanks for the station number. Looks like it has only happened once, on the 29th, and worked again the next night of the 30th. My mistake for assuming it was every night. Tempest level looks fine. Iā€™ll keep looking.

Yes, I moved the hub and HPB from the 110v area to the junction box on the device pole which has the solar panel, in the morning of Nov 29th. I observed that data stopped about 4:30 pm, when the sun went down. I observed that the data came back on about 8am the next day when the sun came up. I could not get to tbe station until that afternoon, when I moved the hub and HPB back to tbe 110v source. If you can view the RSSI values over that 36 hour time period, you can see when it was moved both ways. Iā€™m trying to improve the RSSI values by moving it to the solar panel pole area.

BTW, the HPB I am using is a Tempest hub power bank.

Iā€™m not able to review your RSSI values over time but understand your motivation to make it better. Have you ever had issues due to poor RSSI over time? I canā€™t see any missing data so maybe it was at an acceptable level before moving it? Still, your solution should work and makes for an interesting investigation.

Yes, I was missing periods of data going into a Google spreadsheet. Iā€™m collecting data each hour. High RSSI values seemed to be the cause.

Here are the solar panel and Buck conditioner I am using.

Buck conditioner
https://www.ebay.com/itm/114531603369?hash=item1aaa9d93a9:g:qGIAAOSw5DlfuDnG

Solar panel
https://www.ebay.com/itm/394274001085 or

https://www.ebay.com/itm/203548261057?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1siRXjvdcTgOxRlI7cqyuAQ54&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=203548261057&targetid=&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9032184&poi=&campaignid=17597089569&mkgroupid=&rlsatarget=&abcId=9300988&merchantid=223114833&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_4OAyNjZ-wIVqBXUAR2iTAgUEAQYASABEgKXzPD_BwE

Connector from solar panel to Buck conditioner.
https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https://www.ebay.com/itm/174284772600?hash=item28942e94f8:g:B9kAAOSwLxpbe32~&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAABIJEZQBVZwYlq3Hof4k%2FfQC6N%2FDspJMRdTKoXbibVWxjRiD6pJ3CelFLfk%2FFFuL%2FAjSBKB3%2Bx1iYdI3djUoMjfjMUa24qGEQHb9E7%2BTGL1vdufXvjALSgVgp1NeoCIfh1HU%2FQjRooiFBTjFuEv%2BP%2F4jr%2FFfcA44QEQS0rUq3YV%2BnWVBpnVNjg4MXofu8TUHnzuji58sqXfVYI3Orht5nAM%2BLNL%2B6CAEwyEW7mKzJh3W07SwOSo27J1reivdv1NM67lmObdhTeJYupAiYccM7bLD1licGnykmXajRbBicUC13hdAWXCSrmObyxQBQwekJH65Ktfnj6hUR0B7FdyRaLbiG%2BvJ2mkhUgV4SoPb02HFXdnzo8WcY1T45eSiNdVlTLog%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR_q5uoWaYQ&data=05|01||42d0695d7c944cb8585008dad40065d8|84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa|1|0|638055395420719791|Unknown|3000|||&sdata=hkNjZ7kv2y8p49wHNG+WWyrPT4X8ryhkQnPQqsSS50A=&reserved=0

You could buy them and set up the system as a test.