Thanks for this real world solar router presentation. For lead/acid batteries, it is best not to deeply discharge them. Most folks with solar/battery systems try to only discharge them 50% at most. Also, I've read here and there that PWM chargers are better for battery lifespan than the MPPT chargers, so there is a trade-off there. Thanks for the real world demonstration of just how much power our simplest gadjets use and how little we can actually get from solar from a cost and space requirement standpoint. There is a lot of unfounded optimism out there. I have a friend that mounted and 12 inch by 12 inch panel on his electric scooter and was shocked that it took weeks to charge his scooter battery. Math and physics are beautiful friends, but are also brutally honest friends. For networking, to conserve energy the best, wireless is not the best choice as most of your transmit energy is being sent out to nothingness. Better to just use dedicated cabling if you want to save energy. If you really need wireless, then use a router on which the radio tx power can be lowered to just the bare amount you need as it is the tx energy that will sap the battery the most. Most routers supported by openwrt allow this adjustment. Using highly directional antennas can also reduce the amount of wasted space the signal is broadcast into. Using a good omni with good impedance matching is much better than using a poor omni with poor impedance matching. Poor impedance matching just makes the antenna cable heat up instead of energy going out as signal. Also lowering the beacon frequency, using a short preamble, using longer packets (less overall overhead) can help. Starting from the ground up with something like the following would be the place to start: www.embeddedarm.com/products/board-detail.php?product=TS-7260 [ I just realized that the board above doesn't have a mini-pci slot for a radio and no on-board wifi, so USB would be the only option ] Also, slowing the clock speed can save you some juice. I've never used power save mode on an openwrt router so don't know if it makes sense, but gather the kernel supports it on some hardware.

I was hoping to hear about routers, not batteries. You should rename the video to "A Mediocre Presentation On Solar With Lead Acid Batteries." Not to be mean, it's just true.