Introduction: Portable Solar Powered Wifi Extender

The Portable Solar Powered Wifi Extender is a compact design using a solar panel to power a wifi extender. Wifi extenders allow inside wifi to be used away from the house. This is beneficial to everyone in their day to day life. Solar panels use solar energy, which is a clean and reusable alternative to fossil fuels. Other sources of energy release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which furthers global warming, the process of the increased temperature of the world. However, solar energy is one step towards halting this process. Although the Portable Solar Powered Wifi Extender is a small change to the type of energy the world uses, small changes like this will add up. This design is both beneficial and helpful to many in their everyday lives and environmentally beneficial in stopping the effects of greenhouse gases.

Step 1: Collect Materials

You may need to purchase some of these items like the Solar Powered Battery Pack.

    1. Solar Powered Rechargeable Battery

    2. Solar Panel

    3. USB Wifi Extender

    4. Circuit Board (part of Solar Panel)

    5. USB Extender Antennas

    6. Power Switch

    7. Wires

    Step 2: Preparation

      1. Take apart the solar powered battery pack and USB Wifi Extender. The materials needed are the rechargeable battery, solar panel, circuit board, and the antennas. These items will be the ones utilized in the design.

      2. After measure the materials that will be used in order to create a design that will fit the measurements of the items. Measure the solar panel for a solar panel holder, the circuit board for a circuit board holder, and the items together in order for the case and cover to be the size or length of the solar panel.

      3. Plan out the possible designs on paper and pick the best one before proceeding to Inventor in order to 3D print the items mentioned above.

      Step 3: Design

        1. Use the measurements from the objects' dimensions, go to Autodesk Inventor and use "2-D Sketch" and enter the outside measurements of the object using the dimensions command.

        2. Once you have the base shape and measurements, use the extrude command to raise the object.

        3. In the design include three holes for the power switch and the two antennas. The two holes of the antennas should be have one on each side of the design parallel to each other. The hole for the power switch should on the opposite side.

        4. Use fillet command to shape the objects or to edit them.

        5. After you have the desired design, upload the STL file to the 3D printer's SD card. The printer used by the group was the Lulzbot TAZ.

        6. After all the objects are printed, put them together and see if they fit, if not then redesign and change the measurements to fit the components of the project.

        Step 4: Soldering

        1. Rewire the battery pack to the USB circuit board using a solder iron.

        2. Next, the power switch to the same USB circuit board.

        3. Then, the solar panel to the USB circuit board. Do the Building first before this step.

        4. The Wifi extender circuit board to the Wifi extender antennas. Do the building first before this step.

        Step 5: Building

        1. Put together the USB circuit board to the Wifi Extender circuit board.

        2. Then place the battery on the bottom of the case and then the two circuit boards should be on top of the battery.

        3. Place the power switch in the case through the hole made.

        4. Place washers into each hole and glue them in order to allow the antennas to rotate. The antennas can be made by taking the wires from the antennas that were part of the original wifi extender and then printing a version of the case that will surround those wires.

        5. Then place the antennas into the two holes on the sides before soldering in order to have them on the outside of the case.

        6. Then place the cover on top of the case and its contents and glue it in to place. Make sure the wires from the circuit board are on the outside of the case and cover to solder those wires to the solar panel.

        7. After glue the solar panel to the solar panel holder and solder the wires together. The holder should then secures onto the case by pushing a thing metal rod through the hinge on the case and the hole on the hinge on the bottom of the solar panel holder.

        7. Once this step is completed, you should now have a solar powered wifi extender that can then be placed outside.