[TriEmbed] wireless communications and battery life

[Mark Kruse]

You may also want to consider an ESP8266 or ESP32. The low power mode
consumes almost no power. I believe the maximum sleep is 30 minutes, but if
there is nothing to do when it wakes, you simply go back to sleep. You
should also be able to wake on interrupt from the door opening, take a
picture, connect to WiFi, transmit, go back to sleep. Combine that with a
solar cell and I think your batter would last through a few rainy days as
well.

- Mark

Help stamp out and eradicate superfluous redundancy


On Wed, Jan 8, 2020 at 11:33 AM Brian via TriEmbed <triembed at triembed.org>
wrote:

> On 1/7/20 10:43 PM, Glen Smith via TriEmbed wrote:
> > I'll add my welcome to Brian's, and add a +1 to most everything he said.
> >
> > The only additional insight I hope to add would be that you may very
> > well be able to add a small solar cell to the top of your mailbox
>
> Great idea!  And very likely the complete answer to the power question,
> since the device will only be awake a tiny fraction of the day, as you
> pointed out.
>
> >
> > You biggest problem may be transmitting through the Faraday cage of the
> > mailbox.
> >
>
> Faraday cages aren't very effective when they aren't grounded.  If the
> mailbox doesn't have continuity to Earth (on a dried-out wooden post,
> maybe), it won't attenuate the signal as badly (RF power will still be
> lost by induced eddy currents in the metal, but the metal won't be as
> reflective as it would be if grounded).
>
> That said, all you really have to do is get the antenna outside the box.
>   It shouldn't be too hard to find an Arduino-friendly RF module with a
> connector (SMA or UFL) instead of an onboard antenna; then a short cable
> and "rubber duck" antenna mounted outside the box is all you need.
>
> -B
>
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