Replacing my Bullet M2 to bring Wi-Fi in the boat?

[samoorelex]

Hi All,
I have been using a Ubiquiti Bullet Titanium M2 for the past three years. It has worked well till recently. Every time we move the boat or restart the electronics, the unit resets itself to default settings.
I think it's on the fritz!
So I went back to Amazon to order another one. To my shock, they were not readily available and the cost was north of $250 (double what I paid) and it's been discontinued.

I ordered the newest version (BulletAC-IP67-US)only to find out it's only compatible with airOS systems. So I sent it back.

So the question is this - what do people like for alternatives?
I did look at the peplink products - They look good, pricey and probably lots of rewiring and configuration changes to make work. I like the idea of adding a cellular SIM when Wifi isn't available.

[jt11791]

I'm still using my M2, but looking at the BulletAC as a future upgrade.


What was the problem with airOS? The worst part of the M2 is the clunky outdated UI.


Also, here's the older M2 in stock for $79


https://www.streakwave.com/itemdesc....S&eq=&Tp=&o1=0

[samoorelex]

Hi,
My unit keeps resetting to defaults - loosing my settings.
I have to temporarily rewire to the local network - upload the settings - rewire to original then go. Another issue is that it now takes 5-10 minutes for the antenna to begin to find SSID's when scanning.


Note - the unit I have is the Titanium version "more weatherproof" not the unit you show in streakwave.
Thanks for the reply.

[W32PAMELA]

Get a Bullet M2 and remove the board from the case and put it in the case from your Titanium. You'll find that the only weather proofing advantage provided by the Titanium is a more UV resistant case. The top seal is essentially the same on both cases and the compression fitting on the bottom of the Titanium is overkill as long as you don't plan on mounting the Bullet upside down.

[samoorelex]

Hi Bob,
Have you taken one of these apart? I noticed that on the regular M2 there is a block of LED's on the side. Will it fit with those in the Titanium case?
Thanks for the idea. I like it!
Cheers,
Sam

[alctel]

I use a nanostation, it doesn't need a separate antenna.

It's not omnidirectional though but that isn't a problem most of the time.

[W32PAMELA]

Originally Posted by samoorelex

Hi Bob,
Have you taken one of these apart? I noticed that on the regular M2 there is a block of LED's on the side.

Hi Sam, I dropped a Bullet M2 board into a Titanium case before I responded this morning and had no problem. The LED block did not interfere. The Titanium board has the led's on it but not the plastic block.

[Jerry Woodward]

Originally Posted by samoorelex

Hi All,
I have been using a Ubiquiti Bullet Titanium M2 for the past three years. It has worked well till recently. Every time we move the boat or restart the electronics, the unit resets itself to default settings.
I think it's on the fritz!
So I went back to Amazon to order another one. To my shock, they were not readily available and the cost was north of $250 (double what I paid) and it's been discontinued.

I ordered the newest version (BulletAC-IP67-US)only to find out it's only compatible with airOS systems. So I sent it back.

So the question is this - what do people like for alternatives?
I did look at the peplink products - They look good, pricey and probably lots of rewiring and configuration changes to make work. I like the idea of adding a cellular SIM when Wifi isn't available.

AirOS is the firmware for the Bullet and other Ubiquiti devices. It has nothing to do with compatibility with other devices.

It sounds like your issue could be with the airOS firmware in your Bullet. You might try re-installing or updating it to see if that fixes the problem.

[W32PAMELA]

Originally Posted by Jerry Woodward

AirOS is the firmware for the Bullet and other Ubiquiti devices. It has nothing to do with compatibility with other devices.

It sounds like your issue could be with the airOS firmware in your Bullet. You might try re-installing or updating it to see if that fixes the problem.

The OP's compatibility comment concerned the fact that the new Airmax ac hardware is not compatible with other brands. An Airmax ac CPE can only connect to an Airmax ac AP.

The OP's problem was self-resets under certain conditions which is going to most likely be hardware related rather than software.

[CarinaPDX]

Originally Posted by W32PAMELA

The OP's compatibility comment concerned the fact that the new Airmax ac hardware is not compatible with other brands. An Airmax ac CPE can only connect to an Airmax ac AP.

I don't think that is quite right. It can interconnect with other 802.11ac devices just fine. What you are thinking of is the mesh capability; if you are setting up a mesh network then you do have to stay within one provider.

I used an M2 for years and liked it a lot. I am currently using a TP-Link on 5GHz. I have bought a MikroTik Groove A 52 ac (~$100), which looks similar to a Bullet and is dual band with an antenna (6dB on 2.4, 8dB on 5). It has the powerful MikroTik RouterOS inside; with great power comes great complexity it seems - setting it up is non-trivial. Being able to use either band is a big plus.

Greg

[W32PAMELA]

Originally Posted by CarinaPDX

I don't think that is quite right. It can interconnect with other 802.11ac devices just fine. What you are thinking of is the mesh capability; if you are setting up a mesh network then you do have to stay within one provider.
Greg

Greg, Ubiquiti's new line of Airmax ac CPE's will not connect to another vendors AP unless it is capable of running the Ubiquiti's proprietary Airmax software. I don't know of any other vendors using Airmax.

Airmax cannot be optionally disabled on the ac line of hardware as it can on your Bullet M2 and other older Airmax products.

[CarinaPDX]

Yes, but that is meshing. Of course I can connect my laptop with ac to an Airmax AP as a client. I can connect an Airmax AP and a non-Airmax AP to the LAN via ethernet cables. It is only when you want to create a mesh of APs, interconnected wirelessly, that it is necessary to stay within one vendor. Other vendors are the same; apparently there is no agreed standard.

I suspect the OP may be referring to the apparent necessity to run the Windows configuration program to change settings on a Bullet - my understanding is that there is no web server inside the new Bullets, so no easy direct setup. For large installations the central configuration is a big win, but not so much for us. That is one reason I bought the MikroTik as it is still directly configured (they also offer a configuration program similar to Ubiquiti).

Greg

[W32PAMELA]

Greg, I don't know how meshing relates to cruisers and I haven't tried to create a mesh network. I do know that if you get a Bullet ac or Nanostation ac and set it up as a client you will be disappointed when you find that it won't connect to any access point that isn't another Ubiquiti ac device set as an AP.

The OP had trouble with a Bullet ac he bought and I had trouble with a NanoStation Loco5 ac that I tried to use . My NanoStation Loco5 ac would not connect to my Mikrotik hAP ac router in my office. I went back to using a Mikrotik Groove 52ac for the task. Both the OP and myself returned our devices to the seller.

I thought the new NanoStation ac's looked like a great idea and jumped on it without doing my home work because assumed it work as the old NanoStation Loco but with ac mode. It won't.

[CarinaPDX]

OK, remembering now, I think. The Bullets are only supporting AP or mesh mode, not client mode. They dropped client mode for their APs. All of these changes (dropping client mode, web server for setup) streamline their APs for commercial installs of infrastructure; they are pushing any client side to other devices if at all. I suppose it gets a lot of amateurs, with their support requirements, out of their hair. MikroTik does the job...


Greg

[W32PAMELA]

The bottom line is that the new Ubiquiti line of "ac" mode client devices are no good for cruisers. If they want to use Ubiquiti Bullets or NanoStations they should stick to Bullet M2's or NanoStation M2's. We agree that if they want a dual band client device then the Mikrotik Groove 52HPn or Groove 52ac series is the best choice.