Long-Distance WiFi Device

[simonmd]

Originally Posted by mlahrkamp

Curious about:
What's the size of this 23dBi antenna?
How long of a cable run is there to the wi-fi device?
What are you using as your wi-fi device?

BTW: Nice video of your boat.

Cheers,

Heres a couple of pictures for you. The cable is not hidden as it's a temporary instalation at present, I bought it to use on my future sailboat.

The first pic shows it mounted up on top of the radar arch and is about 2 ft long.

From there it runs down to an Alfa WIFI card, which in turn plugs into the Alfa router situated on the main bridge via a USB plug.

You could of course get rid of the router and plug the Alfa card (2nd pic) straight into your pc.

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Again: BulletM2hp or the older Bullet2hp with a matching antenna so the sets as sold and listed in this thread many times.

You do need a router and this has nothing to do with a hotspot on board... if you want that, you need two Ubiquity devices.

cheers,
Nick.

My boat's hotspot consists of a $34 Netgear wireless AP.
Both the Bullet M2hp and the AP run from a single 12 volt POE injector I got for $3.49 with free shipping.

[mlahrkamp]

Originally Posted by simonmd

Heres a couple of pictures for you. The cable is not hidden as it's a temporary instalation at present, I bought it to use on my future sailboat.

What's the brand of this 23dBi antenna? Who makes it?

Cheers,

[mlahrkamp]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

Both the Bullet M2hp and the AP run from a single 12 volt POE injector I got for $3.49 with free shipping.

The injector provides power to both ethernet ports and powers both the M2 AND the AP? Cool! What's the model and where'd you get it?

Cheers,

[simonmd]

Originally Posted by mlahrkamp

What's the brand of this 23dBi antenna? Who makes it?

Cheers,

Sorry, no idea! I went to a local PC shop and he ordered and supplied it for me.

[mlahrkamp]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Anyway, this is a 5+ mile link to a Linksys with it's little mickey mouse antenna's and it's impossible that you can receive that well enough for a solid connection.

Nick buddy: How did you conclude all that from the screen shot? ACK does not necessarily indicate distance, although distance is a factor. Other aspects such as multi-pathing and signal bounce/reflection can result in this displayed value. Also, Linksys makes a broad range of devices from small desktop to outdoor high power access points. We know because we use them. I don't think we can draw any conclusions as to what he's connected to.

Regards,

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by mlahrkamp

The injector provides power to both ethernet ports and powers both the M2 AND the AP? Cool! What's the model and where'd you get it?

Cheers,

The POE only powers the Bullet.
I split the 12 volt line and added another plug for the AP.

Passive Power Over Ethernet Injector @ Netgate

Here's another one at Amazon for $4.99 :

Amazon.com: Alfa Wall Mount Passive Power Over Ethernet PoE Adapter - Dual Usage, Injector or Splitter: Electronics


I mounted the POE and AP behind the electrical panel.

[Cotemar]

senormechanico,
Nice install. The pictures tells it all.
Thanks

[senormechanico]

BTW, the AP is stuck on to the fiberglass cabinet shell with 2 x 5 inch pieces of Velcro.

I used 3M Super 77 spray adhesive on the Velcro.

The POE and AP are on a single 3 amp fuse.

The whole setup draws about an amp and a half.

[mlahrkamp]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

The whole setup draws about an amp and a half.

So that would be 250mA for the Bullet and the rest for the AP. They're thirsty little beggars. We've got one of those on our boat too. We did the same thing and spliced the second power plug.

Cheers,

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by mlahrkamp

Nick buddy: How did you conclude all that from the screen shot? ACK does not necessarily indicate distance, although distance is a factor. Other aspects such as multi-pathing and signal bounce/reflection can result in this displayed value. Also, Linksys makes a broad range of devices from small desktop to outdoor high power access points. We know because we use them. I don't think we can draw any conclusions as to what he's connected to.

Wanna bet? If it would've been a decent linksys we would have seen better than -90dB signal. I guess I recognize the link or something...

The ack... I would believe 4 mile but not less. Over these distances it's usually within 25% of the displayed value for ack distance.

cheers,
Nick.

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by mlahrkamp

So that would be 250mA for the Bullet and the rest for the AP. They're thirsty little beggars. We've got one of those on our boat too. We did the same thing and spliced the second power plug.

Cheers,

The Bullet current rises as the voltage to it falls.
It's mounted at the masthead. I measured it when installed.
I seem to remember a half amp or so to the Bullet.
The rest is the Netgear AP.
I'd go measure it, but it's snowing like hell; must be glowbull warming...

[mlahrkamp]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Wanna bet?

Hey Nick,
Naw... there's not enough info to settle it. It could be you're right, but it could just as easily be that there's something else. Like the masthead has a 2HP with 12dBi (as I remember) and the M2 with an 8dBi on a halyard. It could be that the masthead's narrow pattern was above the linksys so it couldn't see it and the hoisted M2 was lower than masthead with a broader pattern from the 8dBi antenna. See, we could just have a low power linksys with mickey mouse antennas pretty close by.

Cheers,

[mblowes]

The ubiquiti powerstation 2 seems to be a fully self contained unit for B and G wifi networks with similar range specs to the Bullets but can't see any reference topic in this thread. Does anyone have any experience with that?

[norsewind]

Any thoughts on this set-up?

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