Sabie Sands

Report back on Sabie Sands Super cap installation

Earlier this year (May 2018) we installed 6 solar power units on behalf of Greenfox agencies for Dimension Data for the Connected conservation (Sabie Sands) project.

The installation included a PV module charging a 12V super capacitor supplied by Greenfox agencies, using a MPPT charge controller and providing power from the Capacitor block to the equipment via a DC – DC converter including protection.

The system provides power to remote thermal and PTZ(Photo, Thermal, Zoom) cameras with radio equipment used for monitoring and tracking illegal access to the reserve.

Initially 3 of the 6 systems were installed with Lead crystal batteries as not all the super capacitors were available n me.
This report is to provide feedback regarding the replacement of the interim batteries and the data recorded.

Work performed:
In July 2018 our team went to Sabie Sands to replace the 3 Lead crystal batteries with the super capacitors, to drill ventilation holes in the poles and to collect information.
Lead crystal Batteries removed and replaced with 12V super capacitor blocks:

Holes Drilled: 4 10mm at the bottom of the pole and 4 at the top. All holes have been treated with galvanising spray:

The information gathered included MPPT and Battery monitor logs for each of the Systems and also additional data regarding the PTZ camera loads and use.

Protea view – PTZ -SC

Metsi – Thermal – LC

Billion corner – PTZ – SC

Bosbokdam – PTZ -SC

Kruger Corner north – Thermal -LC

Kruger corner south – Thermal -LC

Based on the above:
The PTZ cameras have the biggest consumption of average 40AH per night and the thermal cameras draw about 11AH per night. This means that even with the rain on 9 & 10July 2018 (visible on graphs) and the fact that on the days we were replacing the batteries it was overcast we have reasonable redundancy built into the capacity of the systems.

We did some separate tests running the PTZ at Protea view for an hour the previous night and 30 minutes in the morning, by the time we got to the site at 9:30 the Unit was already at 95% state of charge.

We measured the current draw on the PTZ supplied with 24V with a clamp multimeter. We found the PTZ’s start up current when tilting or panning goes up to approximately 1,44A and then settles at around 1,0 with a resting draw of about 0,78A.