3 ms·
It could be power restraints -- the buoy is almost certainly solar powered and may not have enough reserve/design capacity to transmit at high resolutions over
by sathackr 10y ago
It could be power restraints -- the buoy is almost certainly solar powered and may not have enough reserve/design capacity to transmit at high resolutions over multiple days without sunlight.
Or it may have just been designed that way -- perhaps the cost of the necessary equipment to transmit/log at higher frequencies didn't justify the benefit. Perhaps once per hour is sufficient for the purposes the buoy was deployed for.
- dandelany 10y agoYeah - power does seem a more likely constraint when you put it that way.
- sathackr 10y agoPhoto of the buoy http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/images/stations/42089.jpg http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/images/stations/42089.jpg Looks like at most 50 watt solar panels, probably closer to 25 watts. It probably has 4 of them but only 2 can make any appreciable amount of power at a time. Not much power at all considering the instrumentation and lighting load(I believe most are lit at night for collision avoidance) and that it has to power the buoy and recharge the batteries during the day. I considered why they wouldn't put larger panels/batteries -- cost, which, compared to what I would think is the overall cost, would be minimal. Wind loading is another story -- It looks fairly streamlined. Larger panels would significantly increase the wind load, and they already have a fair bit of trouble keeping them attached in storms(though more likely due to the waves).