Battery to power Z4C for 12 hours- Suggestions?

Willrockhopper
Conversationalist

Battery to power Z4C for 12 hours- Suggestions?

I'm currently investigating a solution to power the Z4C via battery, ideally with enough capacity to provide 12hrs of continuous use. 

 

The use case is ticket scanning for event entry, generally in locations where no mains power is available, and often also with average cellular coverage. While the usage in terms of bandwidth will be quite low, there may be up to 4+ scanners hanging off the one Z4C. 

 

Looking at the data sheet for the device, power draw varies considerably from idle to max load, and it's difficult to predict how this will change based on our use and other factors outside of our control.

 

If anyone has some recommendations they can provide in terms of necessary battery capacity or actual portable power units we could purchase it would be very much appreciated.


I'm also interested in how we could conserve power through device config while still providing adequate signal strength/bandwidth.

 

 

5 Replies 5
BlakeRichardson
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

You would be best to speaker to a specialist that works with off grid power. 

If you found this post helpful, please give it Kudos. If my answer solves your problem, please click Accept as Solution so others can benefit from it.
DarrenOC
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

I’ve seen a few posts on here from engineers looking to do similar.  There’s an also a post in the Projects Gallery where an engineer had done exactly this. Worth looking through and making contact to see if they can advise

Darren OConnor | doconnor@resalire.co.uk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenoconnor/

I'm not an employee of Cisco/Meraki. My posts are based on Meraki best practice and what has worked for me in the field.
rhbirkelund
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

It doesn't look like there's any battery packs that are able to provide the required input power for a Z4C. I think your best bet would be to get an inverter  and 12V battery, and use the power supply that comes with the teleworker.

LinkedIn ::: https://blog.rhbirkelund.dk/

Like what you see? - Give a Kudo ## Did it answer your question? - Mark it as a Solution 🙂

All code examples are provided as is. Responsibility for Code execution lies solely your own.
PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

50W is a trivial amount of power.  Lets over spec it and say you need it to run for 24 hours (big safety margin then).  That is 24 hours  * 50W = 1200 Wh of power.

 

You can buy portable "power stations".  EcoFlow Delta and Bluetti are well-known brands.  They come in 240V/110V depending on your country.  You just pluy in the Z4C like normal.

This is an example of one with 1152Wh of capacity (about 23 hours based on the max above).

https://www.bluettipower.com.au/products/bluetti-ac180-portable-power-station

 

These kinds of units often have a solar input as well.  If you get a flexible solar panel, you could probably even keep it charged up during the day.  This is an example of a 100W flexible panel (double your power draw).

https://au.ecoflow.com/products/100w-flexible-solar-panel

 

KarstenI
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

I think the maximum power load is with a PoE device attached. Without that, I would calculate with no more than 20W power consumption.

 

(BTW: I wish these Teleworker devices had an option to be USB-C powered)

If you found this post helpful, please give it Kudos. If my answer solves your problem, please click Accept as Solution so others can benefit from it.
Get notified when there are additional replies to this discussion.
Welcome to the Meraki Community!
To start contributing, simply sign in with your Cisco account. If you don't yet have a Cisco account, you can sign up.