Discipline: Technology and Engineering
Subcategory: Electrical Engineering
Austin Koehn - Garden City Community College
In today’s highly connected world, a reliable internet connection while on the move can be a necessity. There are many ways to connect to the internet, but most are on a large scale involving wired connections and access to 120 volt power. Here we describe a backpack containing a mobile wifi hotspot that can be powered by a lightweight lithium-ion battery and charged by a polycrystalline solar panel that can be stowed in the backpack or powered and charged via connection to an electrical outlet. The backpack can connect to mobile networks through a cellular device mobile hotspot and then broadcast wifi through a wireless router. The backpack has a wifi connectivity range in excess of 7 meters and can store enough energy for over three hours use for multiple network users. It can be charged quickly through connection to an electrical outlet or over a number of hours via the solar panel. This design offers a larger number of users access to the network than a typical cellular hotspot, a mobile battery to charge devices, and a solar panel for extended usage away from electricity. In the future, the next step for this design is to make the setup more convenient and power storage more efficient.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): Garden City Community College
Faculty Advisor: William Freisen, william.freisen@gcccksu.edu
Role: I did the research on the parts to use, designed, and built the design.