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I have a 1000-yard 220 volt electrical line (AC) that runs from my house to a water pump. I want to install a microcontroller (Arduino or R.Pi) to read a digital thermometer and send the information back up the 220 volt line to my house. So during the winter I can monitor the temperature of my pump house.

Is this possible?

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  • What has this got to do with Ethernet
    – Dave
    May 22, 2014 at 14:30
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    @DaveRook He knows what he wants, google for "ethernet over power line"
    – peterh
    May 22, 2014 at 14:34
  • So is the question whether Powerline Networking works over 220 volt?
    – Madball73
    May 22, 2014 at 14:35
  • Np powerline ethernet I have ever seen goes that far. You would be considered extremely lucky to go 300 feet. And I havent seen a 220 volt adapter, but never looked for them either...
    – Keltari
    May 22, 2014 at 14:37
  • He doesn't state powerline adapters... I use these, I know of them, but had no idea this is what the OP meant
    – Dave
    May 22, 2014 at 14:53

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No, but not because some design problem. It is only because 1000 yard is too much. Even the ethernet cables are only able to bridge 180 meters. OVer that, the ohmic resistance of the wire, and a wide range of other noises/effects will destroy the data signal, even in the specifically for data-transfer optimized ethernet connections.

If the thermometer were much closer (in the range of some 10 meters) you had very good possibilities with cheap "ethernet over power line" devices in the $10 - $100 range.

1000 yard is very big, you couldn't even handle this with ethernet lines. You needed a lot of bridges/repeaters, solve the problem of their power supply. It is hard.

Or you could make some like a longrange network, or optical wire. It is very costly.

A wifi network were a possibility as well, but 1000 yard is also too much for that.

What I did in your place: because you are reading only simple sensoric data, probable you won't get too wide network bandwidth. GPRS is very cheap in your place, here in the EU you could buy 500 megabyte/month packet for around $5, which were far enough for you. Probable in the US (from your "yards" I see where you are) it is also in this cost range.

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  • I like the idea of using 3G + GPS with an Arduino board... this URL shows the modules that can be used... This would be a great little project! cooking-hacks.com/documentation/tutorials/…
    – Kinnectus
    May 22, 2014 at 14:56
  • Thanks for the reply, Pete. You hit what I was looking for. I was afraid that the distance would be too great, but I figured I would ask anyway.
    – Jake
    May 22, 2014 at 19:48

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