Real time battery voltage level monitoring system for telecommunication towers a case study: Habari Node public limited company Arusha, Tanzania

Abstract

Voltage fluctuations in batteries during consumption are amongst the challenges facing telecommunication towers. Due to these fluctuations, many injuries that cause deaths and environmental poisoning have been reported. These fluctuations and injuries mainly occur due to poor management and lack of battery voltage-level monitoring systems after installation. This paper proposes a battery voltage-level monitoring system to be used in telecommunication towers. The proposed solution is incorporated with a centralized mobile application dashboard that allows access to the live data of the installed battery due to integration with components for sensing the battery’s voltage, current, and temperature levels, as well as fire, and gas contents. An Arduino Uno microcontroller board was used in the processing and analysis of the data collected from the sensors. The global service message module (GSM) internet connectivity was used to store and monitor data in the cloud. The user was then alerted about low voltage, detected fire, and increased levels of harmful gases in the tower through a short message service (SMS). The experiment was conducted at Ngorongoro and Manyara telecommunication towers and it revealed that the developed battery voltage-level monitoring system could access battery information remotely while allowing users to continually monitor the battery usage in telecommunication towers in real time. The unique value of this study is the proposed battery voltage-level monitoring system that contributes to the elimination of battery hazards in telecommunication towers. The proposed battery voltage-level monitoring system can be adopted by telecommunication towers engineers to reduce voltage fluctuation risks like injuries, environmental degradation, and deaths.