Digital Matters Remora – Long Term Testing

The Remora has now been tracking our lamp post for 3 years. And the lamp post is still there!

This is a long term test we set up early in the project. It has 4 x Duracell Alkaline C-Cell batteries – the original set of batteries from 3 years ago. It is in the sun and elements. It is set to get a GPS fix and upload every 2 hours. We started at 3 hours, and after about a year, we set it to 2 hours. That’s a total of 11814 uploads! This is a 2G Cellular device, which makes it all the more impressive.

Consider the possibilities for an LTE-M1 or NB-IoT device with LTC batteries – half the power needed to upload with more battery capacity. Our calculations for our new Remora2 “Dolly” D-cell device works out at a GPS fix and upload every hour for eleven years!

Sadly, we don’t think we’ll see the 4th anniversary. The voltage suggests we’re down to 9% remaining. Still, an impressive example of the Remora and its low-power operation.