Bringing data storage and handling to hot, dusty and humid environments

The aim of the competition was to design a solar powered micro-data centre capable of withstanding extremes of heat, dust and humidity. Entries came in from across the world, with teams comprised of three to seven people.

The winning design is a self-contained weather monitoring station based around the Banana Pi single board computer (SBC) that uses an an ARM-based processor. It’s powered by an absorbent glass mat (AGM) battery, charged in around four hours from the roof-mounted solar panels.  Once fully charged, this provides enough backup power to sustain the device for up to three days.

The data centre is housed in a tough aluminium casing, which also acts as a heat sink, helping the electronics inside to withstand ambient temperatures of over 50^oC. This task was made harder by dust ingress, which meant the casing had to be almost completely sealed.

“This design challenge was essentially an enclosure and heat problem. The concerns with racking, powering, and layout of the data centre components are relatively trivial compared to determining how to prevent heat issues,” said Weatherholtz.