Field Notes

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Other sites visited today: West Pond | DWR Corn | Twitchell Rice
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Twitchell Alfalfa: 2013-10-24 08:00:00 (DOY 297)
Author: Joe Verfaillie
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Summary: System down due to low power, Installed new solar panel, filled wash reservoir.

Alfalfa
2013-10-24

I arrived about 8am. It was a beautiful, cool, quite morning with a strong breeze. I watch the sun rise over the freeway at about 7:30am. There were huge flocks of black birds and some cranes in the cow pasture to the west. There was dew on the ground.

The Alfalfa system was down due to low battery voltage. I remounted the solar panel at a slightly higher angle and added a second panel. When both panels came on line the battery voltage jumped from 12 to 13V and the system started up. It was charging with 10 to 12amps while I finished up. Most of the hardware used to mount the panels are security bolts and both panels a chained to an anchor screwed into the ground. Not impossible to steal but more than a little difficult. It could use some longer screws for the wooden base at the low end. The new panel is sn 11ZV0M0860.

I have to move the camera post to get the second solar panel in. The post move about six inches to the west from inside the scaffolding to outside the scaffolding. I restarted the camera and adjusted its field of view to match the usual frame.

The 7700 RSSI was at 40 and climbed to about 70 after cleaning. The wash reservoir was almost empty and I refilled it completely. There was a spot of bird poop on the bottom mirror that might have caused multiple cleanings. The cleaning cycle was every three hours.

I thought one of the soil heat flux plates was disconnected, but it was just a remaining length of the one that got chewed a while back and reconnected.

I filled the wire ports in the box with duct putty to prevent invasion.

2 photos found

20131024TA_SolarPanelMounting.jpg ( 2013-10-24 11:02:25 ) Full size: 1920x1440
Mounting and security chain on the back side of the solar panels