---
title: 'Solar Trailer'
url: 'https://www.lekatsas.us/hobbies/solar-trailer'
markdown: 'https://www.lekatsas.us/hobbies/solar-trailer.md'
date: '2026-09-20'
description: "My home doesn't have a garage so I put together a solar trailer, an enclosed trailer with its own solar powered electrical system, workbench and tools. It has its own cellular hotspot and a raspberry pi that controls everything and sends all the solar production statistics, battery charge levels ba…"
---

# Solar Trailer

My home doesn't have a garage so I put together a solar trailer, an enclosed trailer with its own solar powered electrical system, workbench and tools. It has its own cellular hotspot and a raspberry pi that controls everything and sends all the solar production statistics, battery charge levels back to a server so I can keep track of how its doing. The pi also creates a live feed for a backup camera on the back of the trailer and streams it over WiFi so I can see it inside the tow vehicle with my phone. Lastly the pi controls all the exterior work lights so I can toggle it from a webpage or an IR remote and when the interior of the trailer gets too hot it turns on a fan to cool it off. It's a bit eccentric, but so am I.

### Details

- Solar system is just two 100W panels and a large capacity lead acid battery, plenty to keep the pi online and for infrequent power tool usage
- Raspberry pi 3 is running Debian and is always on and connected to my servers over cellular and VPN
- The Pi has two USB WiFi adapters outside the trailer for better signal, one to connect to home base and the other as a hotspot so when I'm driving I can connect directly to the Pi
- Backup camera is a simple wide angle USB webcam I put in an enclosure, the pi's onboard video encoder takes the stream, compresses it h264 and serves it up over RTSP so I can few it on my cellphone
- All solar production data, battery charge levels, voltages and interior temperatures are sent to my [Home Assistant Server](https://www.home-assistant.io/) over MQTT with a simple BASH script
- The pi talks to the solar controller over a USB to RS-485 converter and uses a python script to pipe it back to my Home Assistant Server over MQTT as well
- There is an IR receiver in the front of the trailer, I use an old IR remote to turn on the work lights as I approach the trailer in the dark

## Trailer Website

![Screenshot_20250527_144040](https://www.lekatsas.us/images/6/3/8/2/c/6382c8b4527bc66e58569d6de2a614eb730a1a4d-screenshot20250527144040.png "Screenshot_20250527_144040")

## Trailer Build Photos

| [ ![picture](https://www.lekatsas.us/images/f/0/2/2/2/f02222158694e69f4ccb06011164b904a553948e-img20241028090138.jpg) ](https://www.lekatsas.us/images/f/0/2/2/2/f02222158694e69f4ccb06011164b904a553948e-img20241028090138.jpg) | [ ![picture](https://www.lekatsas.us/images/1/0/1/b/c/101bc7ae7a997dc446220cc5c2ab77724b757069-img20240821194652.jpg) ](https://www.lekatsas.us/images/1/0/1/b/c/101bc7ae7a997dc446220cc5c2ab77724b757069-img20240821194652.jpg) | [ ![picture](https://www.lekatsas.us/images/1/9/0/1/a/1901a2a8e95391ddd1d6efbbaff949ce1bfa4b7e-pxl20251229211315924mp.jpg) ](https://www.lekatsas.us/images/1/9/0/1/a/1901a2a8e95391ddd1d6efbbaff949ce1bfa4b7e-pxl20251229211315924mp.jpg) |
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| [ ![picture](https://www.lekatsas.us/images/6/c/9/a/5/6c9a5c4732caea16a9391aeaff1e269987705684-img20240715102033.jpg) ](https://www.lekatsas.us/images/6/c/9/a/5/6c9a5c4732caea16a9391aeaff1e269987705684-img20240715102033.jpg) | [ ![picture](https://www.lekatsas.us/images/2/e/6/c/c/2e6ccd1f141cea020f78dd3b8ac71981472c6431-img20240526190647.jpg) ](https://www.lekatsas.us/images/2/e/6/c/c/2e6ccd1f141cea020f78dd3b8ac71981472c6431-img20240526190647.jpg) | [ ![picture](https://www.lekatsas.us/images/c/0/e/5/d/c0e5d24da64f1fe39169e3b69c1895b0980f10bb-pxl20250517152637811mp.jpg) ](https://www.lekatsas.us/images/c/0/e/5/d/c0e5d24da64f1fe39169e3b69c1895b0980f10bb-pxl20250517152637811mp.jpg) | [ ![picture](https://www.lekatsas.us/images/5/0/1/9/a/5019a75484885a1089c692c51702af88684dd19b-img20240506192511.jpg) ](https://www.lekatsas.us/images/5/0/1/9/a/5019a75484885a1089c692c51702af88684dd19b-img20240506192511.jpg) |
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