I have been using the Artemis Global Tracker for some time to get a better understanding of the Iridium 9603N modem. My end goal is to design my own board that can transmit GPS coordinates using the Iridium modem. This board will be powered using LiPo batteries. I’m trying to get a sense for how much battery life will be needed (in Watt-hours) to send maybe 1 location message every hour. What is the power consumption of the AGT in Watt-hours? Thank you!
The product page says 5mW, so 0.005 w/h…without low power mode enabled between messages (so, it’d be much less if you use https://github.com/sparkfun/SparkFun_Ar … wPower.ino)
I generally advise folks to just overdo things by default, see this 6aH lipo here https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13856 (should be more than enough! My rough calculations say it’d last at least a year)
Thank you! One thing I was also curious about is the capacitors on the AGT. My application requires a board that can handle high pressure, so I am worried that the capacitors will not be able to hold up. Is it possible for me to just power the Iridium modem using a lipo battery source? How does one choose how big the capacitors need to be?