WRZT743

Yes breakers are DC for the dc side of the system and the two breakers above the transfer switch is ac. Solar panels have inline fuses on the wires coming into the system and the battery has a marine terminal fuse also. so system has fuses and breakers. Breakers as size smaller than the fuse so hopefully it trips before blowing the fuse and all wires are also oversized because why not other than cost and it was a small project so using 12g instead of 14g wasn't to bad. I run a mini fridge 24/7 during the spring summer fall it uses about 50watts an hour when running . And the tv and lights don't take up much electricity so the 24v 100ah has been doing great for 3-4 day trips I did leave my coffee pot on when I went out hunting once it used about 1/2 my battery in 4 hours that morning

The raspberry pi controller does more that just Id it also gives me the time on the hour every hour and I have skywarn so when there is a noaa weather alert for my county it reads it off and changes the tail squelch tone and repeats the alert every 15 minutes

looks nice and clean

pics or it didn't happen. lol (fishing / hunting rule in my family)

This is the solar system for my cabin very similar to the one I built for my dad but its a 24v system 1200 watts of solar mppt charge controller looking to upgrade from 24v 100ah to a 24v 320ah

And some picture of solar build for the off grid cabins I build two of these solar systems for my dad.one for his cabin one for the Snack Shack everyone hangs out in. 12v 100ah lifepo4 battery , 400watts solar powmr mppt This is a ad/dc system. The lights, usb plug, diesel heater, and 12v socket are all 12v it also has 120v ac outlets feed off a 300 watt inverter for small items like fan or boot dryer but it has auto transfer switch so when you start the generator it switches the ac power from inverter to generator allowing for 1800 watts of power to the outlets and starts charging the battery automatically . All power is run threw a relay so a switch at the door kills everything except the charge controller

And a little off topic on solar but here is my home repeater built off (2) cdm1550. This repeater is on 24/7 and another repeater I put and my brothers house both are identical

this is how it all started picture shows (2) 12v 9ah batteries but I upgraded them right away

Everyone on here is correct. 30watts is the power consumption.. The repeater is a 10w repeater. I run it in low power and I am on my 3rd rebuild/design. This repeater is in the thick forest with horrible sun so I would turn the repeater off when I left camp so the panels could slowly charge the batteries for the next time I was up. My first build had (2) 12v 12ah sla batteries with 50 watts of solar and a pwm charge controller and was a more portable setup good for 3 days. Repeater would boot up with direct sun on panel but not overcast sun. Next, I took the 31 group flooded lead acid battery from my boat 200 watts of solar to a pwm charge controller with adjustable battery disconnect/ reconnect voltages stretched the repeater to 7-9 days and would cut the battery off at 1/3 charge rather then taking the batteries down to nothing. then it would reconnect once battery hit 12.6v again. Repeater will always boot up during the day hours overcast or not, if clear sky battery would keep repeater going overnight Redesign 2.5 added (2) 100 watt panels but pwm charge controller didn't like it...so only ran (2) 100 watt panels out of the 4... This is now my third redesign and should be my final. I am going to be cutting down some trees hopefully this winter if not in spring to get some more sun on the solar panels. I am switching to the lifepo4 battery and the mppt charge controller and added (2) more 100w solar panels

Solar powered GMRS Repeater set up for off grid communications in UP Michigan. Items included - powmr 45amp MPPT solar charge controller -$50 ebay 4 - 100watt eco worthy solar panels -$50 each =$200 total ebay Retevis RT97S - $350 amazon Raspberry pi /case -$50 amazon Att 4g Hotspot - $50 ebay 4g service not included Retevis GMRS Base Antenna -$70 amazon 12v 100ah self heating Lifepo4 Battery -$220 amazon say $1000 -$1200 when your all done with wires and brackets to set up everything comms will cover 5-10 miles easy runs 24/7 365 8watts in stand by - 25watts tx low power - 35watts tx high power (raspberry pi and hotspot are optional for controller) you only need the solar charge controller, repeater, antenna, battery, and solar panels to make it work with this set up it will use this many watts per hour 3watts in stand by 20watts tx low power 30 watts tx high power

I have a Solar powered GMRS Repeater set up for off grid communications in UP Michigan. Items included - powmr 45amp MPPT solar charge controller -$50 ebay 4 - 100watt eco worthy solar panels -$50 each =$200 total ebay Retevis RT97S - $350 amazon Raspberry pi /case -$50 amazon Att 4g Hotspot - $50 ebay 4g service not included Retevis GMRS Base Antenna -$70 amazon 12v 100ah self heating Lifepo4 Battery -$220 amazon say $1000 -$1200 when your all done with wires and brackets to set up everything comms will cover 5-10 miles easy runs 24/7 365 8watts in stand by - 25watts tx low power - 35watts tx high power (raspberry pi and hotspot are optional for controller) you only need the solar charge controller, repeater, antenna, battery, and solar panels to make it work with this set up it will use this many watts per hour 3watts in stand by 20watts tx low power 30 watts tx high power

Maybe I missed something but that topic links back to this topic. How does that help?

I am also looking to build solar powered Retevis repeater. For deer camp. Please keep the updates coming. So far I have my Retevis hooked up to a raspberry pi connected to a GMRS Live hub. This allows me to connect back home 250+ miles away using the internet as a bridge. I have been testing it at home and it has been doing very well. Now I am working on building everything into a waterproof box with built in battery. I only need it to run for 2 week at a time max but it I can keep it going longer via solar why not.

I ordered my thru https://www.retevis.com/ they have better prices than retevissolutions.com and it was to my door in 6 days. Ordered on Jan/9/2024 6:46pm CST delivered on Jan/15/2024 10:37am CST

I hunt in the norther parts of the UP of MI. Cell service dies off before we make it to our campsite. I also was looking for some line of communication back home. My plan is the use a mobile linked repeater to connect back home to a HotSpotRadio node($298). -HotspotRadio is plug and play. Great for new guys and gals that have no clue what a node is (like myself) For that I recently purchased the Retevis RT97S ($305 on New Years Sale) built a node for it using a Raspberry Pi 3b+ and Amazon case kit comes with heat sinks, fan, and power supply ($70) the RIM lite ($65) used the Bingfu mobile HAM 8dbi antenna from Amazon ($37). Built the cable using 2PCS DB9 Male adapters very easy to build. I received my free node numbers and OS image for GMRS Live. Total cost for my mobile linked repeater $477. I set it up at home for testing. I only have the antenna on my garage so say 12 feet maybe 14 feet high. I am in a city and many houses, buildings, and trees are much taller than my antenna. I still can hear the repeater 5 miles from my house. Using a mobile radio with the same antenna on my truck i can talk back to the repeater at 5 miles with Baofeng handheld its more like 3 miles with the ABBREE AR-771 GMRS antenna. Plan now is to leave a truck with the repeater at the highest spot possible that still has cell coverage. Have the repeater, hotspot, and node all plugged into solar with its own battery. Not only will we have local radio coverage for about 5 miles around the truck. We can use a WiFi hotspot to connect the repeater node to the network. Back home HotSpotRadio will be connected to the network. Creating a internet bridge for the radios to talk to back home 250 miles away as the crow flies. I will let you know how it works next time I go to camp. Total cost for everything $775 not a bad price if it saves a life. Even once!

feel free to chat here.... I plan on having a mobile as a base station in my house but also wanted to listen while in my garage. So I took what I already knew worked in my truck and put that antenna on the garage. I did not want to buy another power station to run a mobile unit for the little I will be in there. That is why I used a handheld comes with power cable. I was amazed that I was hitting repeaters as far as I was and as clear as I was being told it was. Wanted to share, that's all not saying it the best set up just saying it was CHEAP and WORKS.

Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying...

Low- 2 watts Med- 4.5 watts High- 8 watts

I can test when I get home

So this is how I set up a garage radio station very cheap key word CHEAP Baofeng UV-5G Plus $35- https://www.baofengradio.com/products/uv-5g-plus-5w-gmrs-radio Commountain Heavy Speaker Mic $20- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MX4J3W8/ref=sspa_dk_detail_5?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B07MX4J3W8&pd_rd_w=FkIlh&content-id=amzn1.sym.386c274b-4bfe-4421-9052-a1a56db557ab&pf_rd_p=386c274b-4bfe-4421-9052-a1a56db557ab&pf_rd_r=7TFA91RXNWDQRYP7RH6R&pd_rd_wg=HOOT3&pd_rd_r=25bf468d-0588-4e66-8c45-ea93606e0b2c&s=gps&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWxfdGhlbWF0aWM Bingfu Vehicle Antenna with Ground Planes $37 - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CLKLHHNP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Program Plug and Play for the most part Total $92 Contact made to repeaters 15 miles away no problem. It can get better, the antenna is good with the factory setting but it is tuned for 440.xxx We want 462.xxx-467.xxx for GMRS so I purchased some 10G black solid copper wire from my local home improvement store and trimmed it to the perfect tune for 467.400 my SWR is 1.02 - 1.03 I am happy with that. Tune the Antenna with a NanoVNA NanoVNA $50- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08132DJLS?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details I will take picture of the set up tomorrow in the daylight.

I some how missed his response saying he fixed the problem. OffRoaderX - Just wanted to say thanks for all your videos, they have helped with allot of my own questions... FYI Your sense of humor is great.