Power Draw of the IP67 Conduit

[Nick]

We recently purchased an IP67 conduit and I was caught off guard by the power requirement which utilizes POE. I assume the power is stepped down inside the unit; does it get stepped down in a similar manner to the indoor Conduits? I was wondering if it would be possible to remove the POE module and make it a 12VDC power in. I figure that might be a loaded question since there may be many different voltages required for the motherboard. I know the indoor conduits use a 9-24(?) VDC input, so I assume that gets regulated down to some voltage as well. Is that hardware shared between the IP67 and the indoor Conduits and the POE is just an add-on on of the standard hardware?

Also, I notice the power draw of the IP conduit seems to be much higher than the “indoor” conduits. Is this simply due to the POE itself, or are there hardware differences that require more power?

We have an IP conduit set up outdoors and powered completely by solar panels and there is definitely some inefficiency from converting our 12VDC solar system to the POE power injector. Ultimately we are just looking at way to make the IP Conduit as power efficient as possible.

Thanks!

Nick

[Russell Clark]

Nick-

Did you have any luck figuring out how to do this? I’m interested in a similar solution. I want to do a solar powered LoRa gateway but don’t want to waste the energy dealing with PoE.

Thanks,
Russ

[Nick]

I had no luck and no input from M-T and I never had the gall to crack mine open. Might seem odd, but I have a “spare” that I can operate on, but I have no time. If you are near Milwaukee, I’d consider letting you tinker with it.

What we did initially was buy a DC-to-POE converter and put it in our battery bank to power the unit. This was killing our solar power. So we tried plan B.

Plan B include a standard Conduit with a good enclosure. It is much easier to buy the standard Conduit and a good, locking, IP rated enclosure to mount it in. We punch the holes and added the bulk-head connectors for the antennas, power, etc. We used internal antennas for the wireless since we weren’t concerned about wifi signal strength. We did not add any vents…I was concerned about heat and moisture, but so far, so good. We put some desiccant in the enclosure to try to suck up as much moisture as possible. I should note the solar charge controller is in a separate battery box – the charge controllers tend to create a lot more heat. Molex makes tons of slick vents that we will utilize in the future. Gore makes good vents, but they require a lot more input on their end before they will sell them.

For charge controllers, we used a very small output, very low cost unit. One feature I recommend is that the charge controller automatically cuts power to the unit if the voltage drops below a certain threshold and only comes back on once the voltage rises above the cut-off plus a delta voltage. If this is not done and the Conduit is powered from the batteries, you flirt with a low voltage situation where the Conduit repeatedly tries to start up – say a few hundred times an hour. Can’t be good for anything and don’t ask me why I know this. Let’s just say the IP Conduit’s power supply requirement put through a lot of headaches.

The biggest benefit of doing all this is that it can significantly reduce lead time. We had some longer lead times on the IP Conduit flavors, but the regular Conduits are commonly stocked. Cost wise, I think it can save a bit, but not much. I think we could have saved more if we had planned it better. I’d really have to sit down and see what we save on DC-to-POE injectors, additional solar panels, etc. to see how costs flushed out. Bottom line is that it saved our solar bank and power has been right where we need it too be and haven’t had a problem since.

[terry@spot2nite.com]

Nick

Great information and very much interested in your final solution. Can you link a picture?

Thanks….

[Author]

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