moxi

Cheers,

I had just put the thread underneath into the "post your internet speed"
and thought someone might know anything about 12 V modems, that's the reason to have the same again in a different place.


My dial-up is only 28.8 Kbps this is certainly not what I want, but the only option at the moment here where I live.

My home is actually on a small island off the Tasmanian coast with few people.
I am not connected to the electric grid and I am only on 12 Volt batteries. I charge them with three solar cells.

I would have the option to get Satellite Internet but the modem is 240Volt.
If I add an inverter to my system my batteries will not cope with the power demand.

I have to look seriously into finding a low powered 12 Volt modem - but about this technology there are not a lot of knowledgeable people who could advise me.

Perhaps someone of you people knows a camping or caravan system which I could adapt for my needs.

I tried the internet, but could not find a simple solution.

Cheers again,
Moxi

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fotomavin

Moxi,

Do you have cell service in your area? If so perhaps you can pickup a Blackberry and use it as a modem. You simply install the BB desktop from the disk. Get the modem driver. Now you can plug your BB into your laptop and use it as a modem.

The downside is that this would take time to d/l the driver at 28.8. Perhaps someone on the mainland could d/l it and mail it to you on a disk or the carrier depending where they are and how good their customer service is would send it to you also.

You can also get a 12volt BB charger or just use your inverter. Hardly any draw for that little device.

jcjacob

Excellent suggestion - most cellular providers, have fairly reasonably priced data plans so you wouldn't have to be concerned with the time or amount of data you sent/received.

A possible caveat: Verizon Wireless is my cell provider for my Blackberry, and if I use the Blackberry software as a tethered modem, they charge me an additional $32 per month on top of my data plan. If I use the Tetherberry software, which cost me $29, there is never an additional cost.

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-John

fotomavin

Must be a Verizon thing. T-mobile does not charge me to tether. I have a BB data plan.

moxi

Hi there,

thank you very much for your help, unfortunately the place where I live seems to be in a black hole. Cell phones don't work at all.

The main problem is that not many people experience the same problem like I have
1. lack of power
2. lack of reception
3. lack of money

However thank you for the suggestion - I certainly will investigate this further, perhaps with a suitable aerial I might get somewhere.

Cheers moxi

Thunder9

Just an idea, what about a usb or pcmcia modem either of those would run off your computer power. I don't recall you stating whether you have a laptop or desktop. How are you running that? I can only assume you are running a laptop off a battery so a modem might take a little more power but not that much I would have thought. Anyway just a thought.

Jon Foster

Moxi, let me do some checking with our vendors to see what kind of options are available. I'll post what I find.

I'm also a RV'er and have a few people we run into that live completely off grid. I'll hit them up too. Actually, one of the guys has an online solar power blog. I'll get the link from home tonight and post it here for you too.

Edit: The modem you mentioned for satellite service. I believe Tasmania/Australia are both on 240 volt 50 HZ. Any modem you use should have a power adapter to change the line voltage of 240 volts AC power to a much lower DC voltage. Probably in the range of 5-20 volts. I would image the current rating is pretty low too. Maybe 2 amps or a bit over? (but I could be wrong). So, if you were to get a new modem you would need to find a power adapter to meet the modems needs on your system. IE: Step your 12 volt line voltage up or down to meet the modems requirements. How many amps it uses would be the only thing to worry about. The higher the draw the quicker your batteries will be drained etc. Also, another reply asked what kind of computer you are using. Knowing that would help us too.

On a side note, a few years ago we setup some satellite phone and Internet systems for some African hunting safaris that used batteries to run the entire setup. I'll try to find the details on those systems for you as well. They worked very well but were very expensive too.

Jon.

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Jon Foster

Here's a link to Handy Bob's Blog. He has some good info on small solar powered setups.

Jon.

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moxi

Hello again to all of you,
and thank you Jon for Bob's blog, it looks very interesting.

We(my wife and I) run two laptop computers, not always at the same time, have them via a 12 V car adapter on our large battery. Each of those computers are around 60 to 70 Watts, the modems I have found use all around 75 Watts as well, a inverter does not eat much juice but all put together it is more than we can easily re-charge with our three solar-cells, in particular at the dark winter month.

We are presently looking into adding a wind generator to the system, previously they only had one-directional wind generators here, but with the new breed which continues turning regardless where the wind comes from we might be able to install one. Our place lies in a small valley surrounded by trees where the wind constantly changes.

With all the help you chaps provided I might find the right solution - Thanks kindly.

Cheers Moxi

Jon Foster

Wow. A 12 volt modem pulling 75 watts is 6.25 amps (75/12=6.25). That's a considerable load on it's own.

Jon.

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