Remote computer/ham radio
I’m working on a project with a 2 meter radio for packet, WSPR transmitter, camera and environment monitoring (Power, Temp, Sunlight etc) into a utility trailer I have in a storage yard. I have a BeagleBone Black, with a TNC-X connected to a 2 Meter radio on 145.520 MHz runing AX.25 and a TCP/IP stack. I also have a Cellular 3g sim900 Modem connected which establishes a VPN connection back to my house.
With this, I can connect to the Beaglebone via 2 meter radio/Packet or over the cell connection.
It is powered by (3) 15W solar panels and is connected to 140AH AGM batteries with a MPPT solar controller.
I have the “server” take a photo every 5 min, and upload it to this site. It also reads the battery voltage using one of the GPIO pins every min, logs the data and builds a graph and also uploads that data every 5 min to this website.
Lastly, it has 4 relays attached to GPIO pins, where the Beaglebone can power cycle the USB Camera, Cellular modem or the 2 meter radio if/as needed. The USB camera is a bit flakey so it’s recycled before every picture is taken, and the Cell modem recycles every 4 hours. Performance usage/metrics are recorded using Munin, and uploaded in the late hours each night. Link to remote systems server stats – Here
I have a few more items to complete:
- Temperature graphs
- WSPR transmitter install
- Weather proof the webcam
- Not sure what else…
Camera Photo updated every 5 min (Except in the late evening hours)
Battery Level collected every min, graph updated every 5 min. (Except in the late evening hours)
