OT: How to build a cost effective outdoor data network

[exsdgal]

Thought I would piggy back on the DSL/cable discussion on the other thread. What are the cost effective options to build a reliable wifi/data secure network for the outdoors? The objective is to have as low a monthly recurring cost as possible. Do not mind having some upfront equipment expenses.

Some background on the requirement, recently I developed a prototype to monitor moisture content in my home garden. For this experiment I was able to use the home wifi connectivity for data collection. Recently I was asked if I might be able to develop a similar monitoring system for trees over a large acreage. The project sounds intriguing I would like to explore the options.

I am considering wifi in part because of possible low cost compared to a cellular. Also the location does not appear to have good cellular connectivity. Not being a network person, would like to get some recommendations on potential solutions to build some network connectivity to transmit data.

Is wifi a suitable solution for outdoors? What are the products that can increase network range? The subject property is remote and has a bit of a mountainous terrain. Is there an alternate connectivity option I should consider? My thought is if a reliable secure data network was accessible the individual/group of data collection nodes can transmit data points to a personal website.

Thanks a bunch for your valuable suggestions.

[spdrun]

What kind of acreage? Name x, where x is 10^x acres 🙂

[exsdgal]

Initial acreage scope x=0.84 with a potential for x ~ 2.5 🙂

[meadandale]

My weather station uses RF to transmit from the sensor suite to the base station. It has much lower power requirements than wifi. The whole sensor suite runs on a small solar panel that charges a capacitor for transmission during the night.

Does moisture data transmission really need to be done via a secure IP network?

[Hatfield]

You might look into Ubiquity Networks’ outdoor products.

https://www.ubnt.com/products/

[Hobie]

Exsdgal: This sounds like a terrific idea. Can’t offer any help re network but would like to stay posted on your progress and hopefully rollout. Can imagion the possibilities and $$ potential.

[FlyerInHi]

[quote=Hatfield]You might look into Ubiquity Networks’ outdoor products.

https://www.ubnt.com/products/
[/quote]

I second that.

My friend built a house on a hill and shares Internet with line is sight with the next hill, several miles over.

You might want to look at a z wave network. You can put sensors around to contol different parts of a property.

Sounds like a very interesting project you have

[Doofrat]

[quote=meadandale]My weather station uses RF to transmit from the sensor suite to the base station. It has much lower power requirements than wifi. The whole sensor suite runs on a small solar panel that charges a capacitor for transmission during the night.

Does moisture data transmission really need to be done via a secure IP network?[/quote]

What model are you using? I was thinking about getting one of these stations.

[barnaby33]

I would suggest RF as well, it scales well. There are then public repeaters that you can use so the project could in theory scale to a commercial farm.
Josh

[moneymaker]

I would say try Brillo, Android for Internet of Things devices announced by Google in May 2015. Brillo will also work with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE,if you are a developer, otherwise get something off the shelf that works. I have experience with ZigBee and it can be a pain at times, but could be made to work over a yard that is less than an acre it is low power and can be used with repeaters.

[meadandale]

[quote=doofrat][quote=meadandale]My weather station uses RF to transmit from the sensor suite to the base station. It has much lower power requirements than wifi. The whole sensor suite runs on a small solar panel that charges a capacitor for transmission during the night.

Does moisture data transmission really need to be done via a secure IP network?[/quote]

What model are you using? I was thinking about getting one of these stations.[/quote]

Mine is a quite a few years old (I think I bought it in 2004) but I have the Davis Vantage Pro 2:

http://www.davisnet.com/weather/products/vantage-pro-professional-weather-stations.asp

For a long time I just used it stand alone but finally last year I bought all the doohickies (ambient weather air bridge kit) I needed to get it online so it now publishes data to the WeatherUnderground.

It’s not a cheap investment but since I’m a geek who does a lot of gardening…well, you know.

My station is here:

http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KCASANDI237#history

[exsdgal]

meadandale and barnaby33, Thanks for the RF suggestion. Is my understanding correct that RF is used to collect data from the sensors to transmit to the base station? I presume the base station has a data display or logger. Is the sensor data accessible in an online portal transmitted via RF?

The moisture data does not need much security for transmission. I just like to cross off potential use cases by starting with a secure network requirement.

Hatfield, Thanks for the Ubiquity link. Their products have opened up a whole new world for me! Air Fiber looks promising. I am still reading up on the potential use cases. One aspect I haven’t found is do products like air fiber support data uploads to say a server hosted on ec2? I suppose there also needs to be some ISP for the input data feed. The few articles I read discussed configuring a pair of air fiber units to share bandwidth and transmit data across a collection of buildings w/o touching the public internet.

moneymaker, Thanks for the Brillo suggestion. Will explore the option.

Hobie and FlyerInHi, Thanks for the encouragement! I think there is potential. For my home project I started with a general concept and fumbled my way through arduino and few different sensors to get to the initial version. It was a fun project, and got me exploring domains I had no prior experience in.

For the next version I have few different ideas, but I find I need to pace my ideas and focus one requirement at a time. This project needs a lot of learning and research on topics I am not familiar with and that seems to be the challenging aspect. My background is working magic on data from 80 or 443 for web and mobile UX. For now I am just picking one visible end of the woolen ball with the hope once unravelled I will have a working proof of concept.

For now I don’t see making any money off this project, and the PoC will be self funded. If I can manage to build a useful product, I might have couple of prospective customers and/or beta users.

Thanks again for all your suggestions, and sorry about the delay with my response. I started writing something earlier in the week and got distracted.

Not sure if this is appropriate… I think there is a lot of collective knowledge in this group, and if you don’t mind me asking silly questions along the way I could use your help! Like I mentioned there is not much money to be made atm, and if it does turn into something interesting, I am more than happy to share the outcome (or at least a case of your favorite beverage!). In case this were to happen Rich gets a percentage for providing an excellent forum :-). If this is of interest PM me.

[barnaby33]

I wasn’t suggesting a known solution that for instance I’ve seen. I was suggesting it based on the general guidelines for the type of project. Moisture data doesn’t need to be secure. The transmission doesn’t need to be real time and you want low power consumption so that each sensor lives a long time on a single battery. Since the information, or most of it is going upstream, RF seems the way to go from my perspective.

So with RF you get a lot of benefits and of course low cost hardware!
Josh

[meadandale]

[quote=exsdgal]meadandale and barnaby33, Thanks for the RF suggestion. Is my understanding correct that RF is used to collect data from the sensors to transmit to the base station? I presume the base station has a data display or logger. Is the sensor data accessible in an online portal transmitted via RF?

The moisture data does not need much security for transmission. I just like to cross off potential use cases by starting with a secure network requirement.
[/quote]

In the case of my weather station, the sensor suite controller has a small battery and solar panel that charges a capacitor. It transmits data periodically (every minute or less) to the base station, which has a display and stores history. You can also add a data logger and use that to upload to an online portal.

[ucodegen]

I have extended WiFi using antennas, particularly directionals. I have tested going diagonally across a parking lot, more than 300 feet. Where is your base station relative to the acreage? is the land flat?

Using uploaded packets, you may want to watch out for collisions. Maybe have the data packet contain current reading and 3 previous readings(time stamped). This is a simple way to allow recovery of drop outs. The data you are sending is probably small relative to the minimum packet size, so slightly larger packet will really not have a cost.

[Author]

Posts