Larry Bentley is available to advise groups deploying to Haiti on options for portable power, including keeping satellite phones, BGAN terminals and laptops running when no local power is available. We’ll post contact information for him at some point, but for now, email us directly and we’ll forward the information.
Here are some of Larry’s recent thoughts on charging BGAN satellite terminals:
Solar power will work with the Sabre BGAN but not very well. A 25W solar blanket will charge it in full sunlight in about two hours with the unit OFF but the unit can run its battery down in an hour of full time use. You should have access to utility power or else a vehicle battery to support this unit for continuous duty.
…
The Wideye needs DC input 15 – 20 VDC (power adapter and car charger). The battery is 2.4 amp hour and that shows the unit having ONE hour of transmit time on that battery. So looks like it uses about 2+ amps of power draw in transmit and about 800 milliamp (3 hours in receive mode) . The solar panel they sell is rated 15-20 volts and 2 amps, so that is 30-40 watts.
Either of the two solar blankets would recharge it when the terminal is OFF, or charge a spare battery but even the larger one may not keep up with the terminal’s power draw in transmit mode, even in full sunlight.
Now the unit may draw a little less than the published specs, and so may last a little longer, but don’t count on it. For part time use, yes, it will charge it, but for continuous use like this you need more power. 2-3 of the larger ones will run it in transmit mode full time and give the internal battery a charge but will not give enough storage to run more than an hour or so after late afternoon (after peak sun), you will need the second battery if you want to run for hours without external power (solar, utility, or vehicle) to the unit.
This box is pretty power hungry and will need a lot of storage battery over and above the internal one it comes with to run in near 24 hour operation that I expect you will need.
In short solar will work but not as well as you hope for. The larger one will charge it in full sunlight in about 2 hours with the unit OFF but the unit can run its battery down in an hour of full time use.
I’d recommend that you to have access to utility power or else a vehicle battery to support this unit for continuous duty.
Solar can buy some time during the expected power outages you will have during utility restoration efforts, as the internal battery will go down pretty quickly, but it won’t provide enough power to run and recharge the unit to last overnight or for hours without sunlight. Running this unit all day will use about 480 watt hours, if you figure 4 hours of full sunlight each day you would need at least 120 watts of solar panels to charge it and about 150 or so amp hours or storage battery to let it run day and night and not discharge the battery too low and damage it. Sorry for the bad news but I’d rather you be unhappy here before you go than be unhappy in the field with gear and no power for it.
For more information on portable power for disaster response, see HumaniNet’s Power Solutions page. (Some of this material is several years old. We may have an update in the next few days.)
