Sutron Corporation 8310 & 7310 Users Manual 8800-1125Rev. 2.7 (BETA) 4/16/2014 pg. 186
Power Budget
The power budget is an analysis of how much power the 8310 requires. The analysis is required
to determine how long the 8310 will operate from the battery without recharging and what size
solar panel (or charging source) should be used.
The 8310 uses different amounts of power depending on what it is doing. The only way to come
up with the power budget is to determine how much time the 8310 spends in each of its tasks
and how much power is used doing each task. The following list shows the power used by the
8310 in some typical tasks. Please note that the consumption is approximate:
Quiescent (basic model): 3 mA
Quiescent GOES: +9 mA
Measuring: +8 mA to + 30 mA depending number of measurements occurring
simultaneously.
Transmitting GOES: 3 to 4A depending on Antenna, Satellite, & baud rate
Display ON: +70 ma
LanON or LanAuto with a connection: +21 mA
Downloading log: +32 mA
Note: Most of the items are listed with a plus sign “+” in front of them meaning that they add to
the base current. For example, the quiescent current of an 8310-N-S that includes the Satlink
GOES module would be: 3+9 = 12 mA.
To find the power needed by a site, add up all the power required by each of the tasks taking
into account the percent of time spent in each task. The best way to do this is to make a table
(or spreadsheet) listing each of the tasks, current and times as shown below for an 8310-N-S
with GOES that collects data every 15 minutes and transmits once every hour.
5sec/900 sec
5 seconds to collect
every 15 minutes
8sec/3600 sec
8 second tx every
hour
Total Average
Power (current *
12VDC)
Remember to add in the power required by sensors.
You can see that we had to estimate the amount of time spent collecting, transmitting as well as
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