Can M2 power up by phone via USB cable?

Hi all,

Does anyone know if we can power up our M2 from USB cable connecting to a phone?

Thanks

Thatā€™s a good idea, as long as it meets these specs for powering the unit and antenna

What make/model phone is it?

Can you use a portable usb type battery bank instead - that should provide way more capacity than a phone.

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I have done it with one of the portable usb battery packs. It was a cheap one I got free at one of the farm shows or somewhere.

I have never tried my phone. I would think the same as Bryan

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The M2 runs for a little under an hour on my portable battery pack, though it does not reliably start off it, It really likes the juice. have to use the shortest cable i have with the battery pack.

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An inline USB power meter should confirm actual draw startup and steady state. My experience with receivers is that the stated power specs are shall we say sometimes quite conservative or ā€˜optimisticā€™ and donā€™t cover the multitude of use scenarios. For example switch off various constellations, corrections and/or logging and watch the impact on power draw, you might be surprised.

The only thing i donā€™t get is the RS2 seems to run on very few amps. So it must just be at startup it really draws hard.

I eventually gave up on the portable battery pack, and made a solar base station power supply. The solar charger would automatically turn the M2 off a few hours after dark, then on again at sunrise. Handy feature in a solar charge controller.

No issues once permanently installed, but removed the M2 after harvest was complete.

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Startup surge is fairly normal with any electronics (or electrical) - itā€™s the steady state draw thatā€™s important. Average consumption above is around 1 watt, which sounds on the low side to me based on what other receivers typically draw. However they say ā€œaverageā€ which is quite woolly, and donā€™t indicate which/if any active output ports or constellations. All these have a major bearing on power draw.

I know my other receivers in base mode with GPS+GLO and NTRIP via network are drawing around 3.5 watts. But my total power budget (for solar incidentally) includes a discrete 3.5/4G modem + MPPT charge controller, which all add up.

Hi @l3technologycambodia,

We donā€™t recommend using a mobile phone for powering Reach M2, as it may be an unstable power source. Iā€™d suggest powering the receiver via a wall adapter, PC, or a power bank.

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