ICT RMS Remote Monitoring Power Supply System
Remotely located environmental monitoring installations often require sensors, loggers or telemetry systems that have a large power requirement. The ICT International RMS range of remote monitoring power supply system supplies solar based power systems to support a range of sensing applications, from a LoRaWAN gateway in a forest or plantation to a Nitrate (NO3) system in a remote catchment monitoring study.
Base range of off-the-shelf RMS systems:
- RMS140, 140Ah AGM battery, 100W Solar Panel
- RMS90, 90Ah AGM battery, 80W Solar Panel
- RMS30, 28Ah AGM battery, 40W Solar Panel
- RMS12, 12Ah AGM battery, 20W Solar Panel
The ICT RMS is available base unit has the following basic features:
- Environmentally sealed IP67 powder coated metal, stainless steel or GPR electrical enclosure.
- Solar power management system with:
- multiple fuse protection & electrical isolation.
- expansion capability enabling future power loads from additional sensors to be supported.
- High quality solar panel and SLA battery.
- Flexible choice of battery & battery connections for upgrading capacity at systems to be located at higher latitudes or where site constraints provide lower than optimal incident solar radiation.
- Mounting brackets for enclosure and solar panel, and optionally a system mounting pole.
- Grounding system, with a copper earth stake (grounding rod) as surge protection and optional lightning rod for installations in high-risk locations.
- Venting for degassing or temperature regulating enclosures where required.
- Systems manufactured in Australia are often deployed in international locations, so a battery can be best sourced in location and country of final installation.
For sensing and logging systems, the following expansion modules can be added for off-the-shelf customisations:
- RMS-24V Terminal rail add-on to boost sensor power supply from 12V to 24V
- RMS-SDI12-1 Terminal rail add-on for 1 x SDI-12 sensor quick connection
- RMS-SDI12-5 Terminal rail add-on for SDI-12 sensor bussing (5 sensors)
- RMS-RS458-5 Terminal rail add-on for RS-485 sensor bussing (5 sensors)
- RMS-SDI12-10 Terminal rail add-on for SDI-12 sensor bussing (10 sensors)
For telemetry systems, the following expansion modules can be added for off-the-shelf customisations:
- RMS-LoRa1 Power and grounding expansion to support an external outdoors LoRaWAN Gateway (including RAK7249 WisGate Edge Prime), including terminal rail add-on for POE to gateway.
- RMS-LoRa0 Power and grounding expansion to support an indoor LoRaWAN Gateway (including RAK7258), including terminal rail add-on for POE to gateway.
- RMS-L1 External 3dB Omni directional 915MHz flexible whip antenna
- RMS-C Multiband low profile omnidirectional disk puck antenna operating over the 698-960 MHz and 1710-2700 MHz frequency bands
- RMS-NK mounting bolts and wing nuts for mounting ICT International range of IoT nodes
Example System 1 – RMS140 with customisations for real time Nitrate (NO3) sensor
Requirement: Support remote installation of the TriOS NICO real time Nitrate (NO3) sensor at a far north Queensland banana plantation. The TriOS NICO, TriBox mini controller (sensor conditioning computer) and Wiper W55 (wiper motor & wiper arm) continuously draw 8 Watts of power at 12V. The TriBox mini controller reads the sensor every 5 minutes looking for changes in sensor output and controls the Wiper W55 for routine sensor maintenance TriOS NICO real time Nitrate (NO3) sensor output converted to mg/litre of Nitrate (NO3). The TriBox mini controller outputs the sensor data over 4 – 20mA. A Keller Acculevel water level sensor (SDI-12) was also to be supported. All data was to be read and transmitted every 15 min.
Solution:
The ICT RMS140 base unit was modified with the following additional features:
- RMS-NM for mounting an MFR-NODE-C. The MFR-NODE-C was used for secondary logging and transmission of nitrate and water level data (Keller Acculevel) at 15min intervals.
- RMS-SDI12-1 Terminal rail add-on for 1 x SDI-12 sensor quick connection for the Keller Acculevel submersible pressure transducer.
- RMS-LTE external LTE antenna for MFR-NODE-C communications.
Additional Features:
MFR Node is continuously monitoring internal and external battery status of the power system. Batter is 140 Ah
In low power conditions the power system is engineered to shut down the TriOS NICO Nitrate (NO3) sensor and to continue powering & monitoring the Keller Acculevel sensor and hence water level in the RBC Flume.
Example System 2 – RMS140 for LoRaWAN Gateway
Requirement: Support the remote installation of a RAK7240 WisGate Edge Prime LoRaWAN gateway at an Avocado orchard. Located across an undulating site, and with the packing shed, office and pumping sites (points of mains power) in non-optimal positions a solar powered LoRaWAN gateway was installed on a central hill (holding pond).
Solution:
The ICT RMS140 base unit was modified with the following additional features:
- RMS-LoRa1 Power and grounding expansion to support an external LoRaWAN Gateway, including terminal rail add-on for POE to gateway.
- RMS-PWR-L Remote diagnostics of power supply system and sensor supply consumption over LoRaWAN, including internal enclosure temperature.
Example System 3 – Soil Moisture, Soil Oxygen and Microclimate Monitoring for Peat Soil Research
Requirement: Build multiple stations to support the installation of 3 x SO-411 Apogee Soil Oxygen probes and 3 x SMT-100 Soil Moisture and Temperature probes into a peat soil research project in Indonesia. The configuration of soil oxygen and moisture probes requires a continuous 0.24W (soil oxygen heater), with a peak of 0.8W during measurement cycles. Data is logged at 15-minute intervals and transmitted hourly.
Solution:
The ICT RMS12 base unit was modified with the following additional features:
- RMS-SDI12-10 Terminal rail add-on for SDI-12 sensor bussing (10 sensors)
- RMS-LTE external LTE antenna for LTE-M communications.