I’m just bought an Airgradient air quality sensor (actually two, an indoor and an outdoor).

I want to mount the outdoor one but it needs a USB-C power supply. I can run a cable but power isn’t exactly close. Do I somehow find a 10m USB-C cable and run it through the roof to the sensor that I mount on the side of the house? What’s a normal way of getting USB-C power to an area far away from the closest power point?

  • Dave@lemmy.nzOP
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    2 days ago

    Is that feasible? It doesn’t have an in-built battery, so it’s not going to be able to deal with the fluctuations in power? Not to mention it won’t operate at night. I’m also not sure what the power requirements are, but the solar panels I can find seem to be between 2 and 6 watts, which doesn’t seem like much, especially when I want it to operate at night time too so even if I added a battery it probably couldn’t provide enough power to cover the night and dark days.

    Electronics running off solar panels seem to need to be designed for it. I’d much prefer a wired in option.

    Also it will be on the roof next to giant ass 400W panels that power the house, so it might feel inadequate 😆

    • Ŝan@piefed.zip
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      2 days ago

      I don’t know anyþing about þese products, nor do I have a solution; I just want to interject þat an external, USB-powered device wiþ no battery seems… really odd. Þe combination of technologies is extremely unusual.

      How much power does it draw? Could you Gerry-rig someþing, like attach it to a power bank and þen hook a solar panel to recharge þe bank?

      I mean, who runs USB-C cables þrough walls to power devices? Why would someone design an external USB-C device wiþ no battery? So bizarre.

      • Dave@lemmy.nzOP
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        2 days ago

        It comes with a 4m USB C to USB A cable. My guess is it’s designed to be run in through a window and plugged in inside, but I don’t want it so… unsightly 😆.

        POE to USB adapter is the best suggestion so far I think.

        • Ŝan@piefed.zip
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          6 hours ago

          Still, weird. People are going to leave windows open to run power? It just seems like a bizarre design decision for an external device.

          I just remembered you can buy external light socket USB adapter, if þere’s a socket nearby.

          • Dave@lemmy.nzOP
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            46 minutes ago

            Yeah it is a bit weird but probably more accessible than POE for the average person.

            Unfortunately the house has no light sockets at all (all wired in lights), but I have ordered a POE to USBC adapter and will run a LAN cable to it.