I'm not taking it the wrong way, not to worry! Good idea on the soliciting of funds, but I'd be careful of any strings attached. That is a good idea about the monitoring software on the IRLP node. I use that on mine, and it sends an email to my cell phone when the power drops, then again when it is restored. Richard <http://www.n7tgb.net/> www.n7tgb.net
_____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Eric M. Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 5:12 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Switching a Repeater Betwen AC Sources Good points Richard. Not trying be a smart a$$, so please don't take this comment that way, but what is the service worth to the community? SKYWARN, and up here in Canada CANWARN, are valuable services that can save lives. Property can be replaced, lives can't. Maybe there is some local, state or federal money that could be tapped into or maybe even some private money for that matter. Maybe suppliers would be willing to give the group a break on pricing or even provide it at a substantial savings to the group. I would go direct to the manufacturer. Couple of thoughts on monitoring power outage. - Some controllers have inputs that can be monitored and if a signal is sensed it sets off an alarm. But a walwart could be plugged into the main receptacle and connected to a controller input with some cleaned up DC of course. In the event of a power failure, the controller would no longer see the precense of the required voltage and notification could be provided, hopefully spoken if that option is available, and a designated person(s) could attend the site to check power. If you know your runtime on the UPS, you know what your response time needs to be. - I forgot that there was an IRLP computer at the site. In that case, some UPS monitoring software will run on a unix/linux platform, there is notification as well, as this software can advise you of outages, self test results etc, etc by email. I am thinking here of the APC line, we use them at our data centre for backup server power and in all of our LAN closets for backup switch stack power. I mentioned APC, I have nothing to do with APC, I have only used their products and have always been pleased with the results. Eric, VA3EAM Richard wrote: It would have to be a very large, very high capacity UPS, in order to handle the current the transmitters draw. This would be very expensive. Maybe you could install a battery bank with a good quality four stage charger to power the repeaters. When the power drops, since the repeaters are already running on batteries, the switchover would be seamless. Your IRLP computer could be powered with a 1500 watt or better UPS. This should allow sufficient runtime, plus the higher capacity should get you out of the cheapo consumer grade UPS category. As Eric suggests, you could plug the serial cable into the computer, and with the right software, the node could monitor the battery voltage when it is running on the UPS, then shut the computer down gracefully if the voltage drops too low. Richard <http://www.n7tgb.net/> www.n7tgb.net <http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=104168/grpspId=1705063108/ msgId=83529/stime=1216011209/nc1=4025338/nc2=5191955/nc3=5349276>
