Hello All,
Our research group is planning on conducting surveys of GCPs for drone mapping in the Arctic in winter 2021-2022. Due to travel restrictions this winter, we did not get to test our units in southern Canada in any ‘extreme’ winter conditions. They performed fine in the mild temperatures down to -10C. I did notice recently when leaving the RS2 unit powered down overnight outside (-1C), when I powered it up, the low battery indicator came on, however the unit continued to operate normally for the next 12 hours, despite still indicating that the battery was at 1% charge (Reach firmware v2.24.2). I thought this issue had been resolved:
We have purchased the RS2 2m cable w/o 2nd connector to hook up to a deep cycle 12V power source and are planning on deploying several RS2 units as base stations recording continuously for several weeks around our Arctic research sites. But it is unclear to me whether this external power source simply charges the LiFePO4 battery or whether this port by-passes the internal battery and powers the unit itself. If it it charges the LiFePO4 battery, then I have concerns on whether the battery will accept a charge at -20C?
I would like to get some feedback/advice/suggestions for running the RS2 units in temperatures close to the suggested operating limits (-20C) and for long periods of time. Or better yet, has anyone successfully operated this equipment in temperatures below these limits?
Thanks in advance!