Off-grid Solar Aviation Obstruction Light System

Overview

The Redcoast RC-AOL-200 is an off-grid, solar-powered aviation obstruction light (obstacle warning light) system built for tall structures that endanger low-flying aircraft — telecommunication and broadcast towers, wind turbines, chimneys and flare stacks, cooling towers, high-rise buildings, port and construction cranes, transmission line pylons, and bridges. On remote masts and greenfield sites there is often no grid power at the top of the structure, and trenching a cable up a 60–150 m tower is costly and slow. The RC-AOL-200 removes that dependency entirely: each beacon carries its own solar panel, LiFePO4 battery and Redcoast-developed flasher driver, runs autonomously for years, and reports its health back to the operations centre over cellular IoT. It is engineered to satisfy ICAO Annex 14 obstacle-lighting requirements and the FAA AC 70/7460 light types (L-810 / L-864 / L-865), so the same platform can be configured for almost any jurisdiction.

Key Features

• Full intensity range on one platform — low-intensity (Type A/B, 10–32.5 cd steady or flashing red), medium-intensity (Type A white 20,000 cd day / 2,000 cd night, Type B/C red 2,000 cd), and high-intensity white (up to 200,000 cd day) variants share the same mount, controller and IoT layer.
• Redcoast self-developed LED flasher driver PCB — constant-current LED drive, precise effective-intensity regulation, day/twilight/night dimming, and configurable flash character (steady-on, 20/30/40/60 fpm) instead of relying on a generic third-party module.
• GPS flash synchronisation — all beacons on a structure, and across an entire site, flash in unison to the same UTC-locked timebase for a clean, unambiguous signal to pilots.
• Integrated photocell with automatic day/night switching — white-by-day / red-by-night dual-mode operation and automatic intensity step-down at twilight, per ICAO/FAA practice.
• True off-grid autonomy — Redcoast MPPT charge controller, oversized LiFePO4 battery and low-loss optics give 5+ days of cloudy-weather backup with zero external power.
• IoT remote monitoring & alarming — per-beacon lamp status, battery voltage, charge current, photocell state, GPS lock and flash-fault telemetry pushed to the Redcoast cloud/Web + mobile app, with instant lamp-outage alerts (a compliance requirement in most regions).
• Marine-grade enclosure — UV-stable polycarbonate dome, anodised/painted aluminium base, IP66/IP67, salt-fog and sand resistant, rated for high-altitude and high-wind exposure.
• Long service life — high-efficiency red/white LEDs rated ~100,000 h, hot-swappable beacon head, and a design intent of 8–10 years field life with minimal maintenance.

Technical Architecture

Each RC-AOL-200 node is a self-contained light point. A monocrystalline solar panel feeds the Redcoast MPPT power-management PCB, which charges a sealed LiFePO4 pack and supplies a regulated rail to the Redcoast LED flasher driver PCB. The flasher driver runs constant-current strings of high-intensity LEDs (red and/or white), shaping effective intensity, flash rate and duty so the optical output meets the target ICAO/FAA type. An onboard photocell tells the controller whether it is day, twilight or night; the controller then selects the correct colour and intensity step and applies the correct flash character. A GPS receiver locks every beacon to UTC so that all lights on the tower — and neighbouring towers — flash together.

The control logic, flash timing, dimming curves and fault detection are firmware on Redcoast hardware, so behaviour can be tuned per project (for example, switching a medium-intensity head between L-864 red-night and L-865 white-day operation). A cellular IoT module (4G/NB-IoT/LoRa, optionally satellite for the most remote masts) carries telemetry to the Redcoast platform: lamp on/off and current draw per LED string, flash-synchronisation status, battery state of charge, solar yield, enclosure and controller health. Edge logic raises an alarm the moment a beacon drops below its certified intensity or stops flashing, which is exactly what aviation authorities require operators to detect and report. Configuration, firmware updates and intensity profiles can be pushed remotely, so a fleet of towers is managed from one dashboard rather than by climbing each structure.

Connectivity & Power

Connectivity is modular. 4G/5G suits sites with carrier coverage and high reporting frequency; NB-IoT is ideal for low-power, deep-coverage status reporting from steel lattice towers; LoRa links a cluster of beacons on one structure to a single gateway; and a satellite (NTN) option is available for masts with no terrestrial signal at all. A dry-contact / RS-485 interface lets the system integrate into an existing tower BMS or SCADA.

Power is built around true off-grid operation. The MPPT controller harvests maximum yield from a 50–200 W panel and stores it in a 50–200 Ah LiFePO4 pack sized for the beacon's intensity class and the site's solar resource, delivering 5+ autonomous days. For structures where grid or PoE is available at the light point, the same beacon accepts an AC/DC or 24/48 VDC feed with the battery acting as ride-through backup — useful for high-intensity heads whose daytime power demand exceeds what a single panel can supply.

Protection & Reliability

The beacon head uses a UV-stabilised polycarbonate dome over a corrosion-resistant aluminium body; electronics are conformally coated and sealed to IP66/IP67. The system is built for the harshest tower-top conditions: an operating range of -40 to +70 °C, salt-fog endurance for coastal and offshore wind sites, sand and dust resistance for desert masts, and a vibration/wind rating suited to slender high structures. LEDs are driven well within their thermal envelope for a ~100,000 h rated life, and the modular beacon head is hot-swappable so a failed unit is replaced in minutes during a scheduled climb rather than requiring a full fixture change.

Application Scenarios

• Telecom & broadcast towers — steel lattice and monopole masts in remote, off-grid locations where running power to the top is impractical; low- or medium-intensity red beacons report outages automatically for compliance.
• Wind turbines & wind farms — synchronised medium-intensity beacons on nacelles and met masts across a whole farm, GPS-locked so the array flashes as one.
• Industrial chimneys, flare stacks & cooling towers — high-temperature, high-vibration environments needing rugged, sealed beacons with remote health visibility.
• Construction & port cranes — temporary high-intensity or medium-intensity warning on moving structures, battery-backed so they never go dark during a power interruption.
• High-rise buildings & bridges — rooftop and pylon obstruction lighting integrated into building/asset management dashboards.
• Transmission line pylons & spans — marker lighting on tall crossings and river spans where grid tapping at the conductor height is unsafe or impractical.

Case-style Examples

Off-grid telecom tower fleet: An operator managing dozens of remote lattice towers needed each top to stay lit without grid access and to be alerted the instant a beacon failed (a regulatory obligation). Redcoast configured L-810 steady-red plus a single L-864 medium-intensity red top beacon per tower, each solar-powered with NB-IoT telemetry. Lamp-outage alarms now arrive at the NOC in minutes, and climbs are scheduled only when a real fault is confirmed — cutting truck rolls dramatically.

Coastal wind farm: A wind project required synchronised aviation warning across many turbines in a salt-laden environment. Redcoast supplied GPS-synchronised medium-intensity beacons with salt-fog-rated enclosures and a LoRa-to-cellular backhaul, so the entire farm flashes in unison and the developer sees every nacelle light's status on one map.

Construction crane on a high-rise site: A contractor needed temporary obstruction lighting on tower cranes that could not be left dark during site power cuts. Battery-backed solar beacons with magnetic/clamp mounts were deployed and redeployed as the cranes moved, with status visible on the site manager's phone.

Customization & Selection Guide

• Pick the intensity class by structure height and local rules. Structures below ~45 m typically use low-intensity red (L-810). 45–150 m generally calls for medium-intensity (red L-864 at night, optionally white L-865 by day). Above ~150 m, high-intensity white (up to 200,000 cd) is usually required. Confirm against the governing ICAO/FAA/national specification for the site.
• Match power to intensity and climate. Low/medium red beacons run comfortably solar-only with a 50–100 W panel; high-intensity white daytime output is power-hungry, so specify the larger panel/battery or a hybrid grid-backup feed.
• Choose connectivity for the site. Carrier coverage → 4G/NB-IoT; clustered beacons on one mast → LoRa to a single gateway; no terrestrial signal → satellite NTN.
• Single vs. dual mode. Specify dual white-day/red-night heads where authorities require white daytime visibility; otherwise red-only low/medium beacons are simpler and cheaper.
• Mounting. Pole-top, side-mount bracket, flange, or magnetic/clamp for temporary crane use — Redcoast adapts the base to the structure.

Deployment & After-sales

Beacons ship pre-configured to the agreed intensity type and flash profile, so field work is mechanical mounting plus a quick GPS/IoT commissioning check via the app — no power cabling to the light point. Redcoast provides mounting brackets and an installation guide, remote firmware/profile updates, the Web + mobile monitoring platform, and engineering support for compliance documentation. Spare hot-swap beacon heads can be stocked on site for fast restoration. Lead time scales with intensity class and quantity and is confirmed per project.

Standards & Compliance

Designed to meet ICAO Annex 14, Volume I, Chapter 6 obstacle-lighting requirements and the FAA AC 70/7460 light-type framework (L-810 steady/flashing red ≥32.5 cd, L-864 medium-intensity red 2,000 cd, L-865 medium-intensity white 20,000 cd day / 2,000 cd night, and high-intensity white systems). Component and system certification directions include CE, RoHS, IEC 60598 (luminaires) and IP66/IP67 ingress protection, with national civil-aviation approvals supported on a per-market basis. Redcoast aligns the optical performance, flash rate (20–60 fpm) and monitoring/alarm behaviour to the specification governing each deployment.

Why Redcoast

Redcoast designs and builds the hardware itself — the LED flasher driver PCB, MPPT power-management board and IoT controller are our own board-level designs, paired with our self-developed Web and mobile management platform. That means we tune effective intensity, flash character, day/night logic and fault thresholds to the exact standard your project answers to, integrate the telemetry your operations team needs, and open new PCBs when a structure or jurisdiction demands something off-the-shelf vendors can't deliver. Software-and-hardware as one, customised per project, built to survive on a tower top for a decade.

Tell us your structure height, the governing standard (ICAO / FAA / national) and your site's power and signal conditions — Redcoast will configure or custom-build the obstruction lighting system that keeps your asset compliant and visible. Contact us for a tailored proposal.