The current draw of my D-Link DWL-900AP+ is 650 mA at idle. A file transfer across the AP between two associated clients causes current peaks of almost 800 mA as measured on a Fluke 19 Multimeter.
Perhaps this information will prove useful to people creating solar or battery powered Access Points. The latter technique was used to provide temporary access to Melbourne Wireless members who attended the Melbourne Wireless 2003 Christmas BBQ.
The Access Point was mounted on a tripod and provided a connection into a local Melbourne Wireless node which would not otherwise have been able to reach into the RF hole along the Yarra River. The AP was powered by 12V gel cell via a 7805 regulator which required a substantial heat sink. At the 2003 BBQ the AP was suspended in a tree with some fishing line.
While in some more photos of the BBQ you can see various Melbourne Wireless folks and pictures of the pair of 12V gel cells wired in parallel as the power supply for the D-Link 900 wireless access point.
The strange looking heat sink is a folded dipole from a UHF TV Yagi Antenna I once made from a design in an Australian compendium of electronic circuits called Hobby Electronics.