@irreverent_sol The only time I’ve seen any heat related damage to a solar panel has been from improper install. I know about the articles with the larger scale ones from the SolarCity projects that are affiliated with Tesla. But with critter guard and proper equipment it’s basically unheard of. I work in the industry and on my house I’ve got some of the fancier DC optimised equipment. Power is stupid expensive and solar is pretty cheap.

@eye4detail I’m located near Calgary and my peak range is 240.7 nautical miles with current average max range being 176.9. The US traffic def has been reduced I only see a few places at a time along the border. I can reach juuuust above Great Falls.

@Xrave It’s 25 less wings not percent. What I have been seeing is an average of 130 wings per day now and I was previously floating around 150-155 wings when I installed it on this mount on my roof. Then of course it had the defect so dropped and was replaced. So now it’s back on the same pole in the same place. I forgot to record what my gain was before the failure as well. It’s the one thing I’m tempted to play with since you shouldnt really play with firmware.

@leviaton rewards are also based on the amount of flight traffic, so it might just be due to variance in the amount of flights that change depending on travel seasons.

Also did you compare the hexes covered with the old station and new station?

@Tachyon that’s a good thought. The only change in devices in the area is a hex close by is reserved but has never been online yet. Do you know if it matters if they are in the range area or just close by?

@STxFarmer That’s at least comforting that it isn’t just me in this situation. I’ve got a few friends who have the same rewards level with their miner who were lucky and didn’t have a failure and the little adaptor is all they installed. They however are still on the previous firmware version which is all I can see as a difference currently.

@leviaton Mine has always been a bit squirrelly but nothing bad enough for them to replace it. After I installed the filter then it finally had an issue big enough for them to replace it. Wish we could use 3rd party hardware as them putting both miners together in a single package is not my favorite way of doing things. But it is what we get to live with

@STxFarmer I read in a previous thread about people using different antenna’s and things and it not making a massive difference. The wingbits hardware requirements aren’t out of this world but with the changes on Aug 5 2024 basically puts them out of reach for most hobby users. The Cryptographic security chip (Microchip ATECC608 recommended) which will need an ECC P-256 compact keypair and the ability to sign and verify data is the only item on the list that I wasn’t able to source easily. Now you need to submit an application and proof of business as well as signing a partnership agreement basically takes it off the table for me.

Otherwise it would be fun to build a beefed up model in a rugged box with solar, battery and cellular service and just go for a hike into the woods somewhere unclaimed. Once Wingbits themselves have value on the open marketplace and you can get a better sense of ROI it might be worth buying more of these stations and trying to dominate a few areas. Buuuuuuut till then its absolutely worth just having the tar1090 web interface to just see whats flying around.