My new WiFi/Cellular Network Design

[Four Suns]

Sat Internet requires 2-way communication... and it's currently done on the Ka band... Our cheap ass Ku band antennas are the wrong band and only suck information in... Also, the Ka band Internet providers (like Wild Blue Communications) have their own satellite so you would have to point your dish at that location and lose your TV reception.... I invested in Wild Blue when they were building their first sat... they were called Ka-Star at the time... and I lost all my money I invested in them...

 

[Turtlesboat]

Ok, back to your cell wifi switcher thingy. Got my repeater antenna up. I put my phone in maint mode and can read signal strength numerically. With the booster off i'm getting about -105. With the booster on, it jumps to -48. I'm guessing 0 would be if you were standing in front of a cell antenna. I've read the manual (1 page) about 30 times, apparently the power supply has a chip in it that's able to monitor interference and signal bounce. If it detects this, not sure how it does that because it looks just like a wall wart, it cuts the power to the amp for 90 seconds. but it also states that if the original signal is strong, it'll cut the power too. If this happens like 5 times, then it just shuts down and you have to unplug the thing and plug it back in.

So i'm getting a shut down every once in awhile. I can't tell if it's a signal issue or an antenna issue. I've moved the antenna all over the boat. I guess it's very possible my boat is too small for this. I haven't tested it in low or no signal areas yet, so it could also be that I've just got too good of a signal right now for it to "work". Have you had any issues?

 

[Four Suns]

Ok, back to your cell wifi switcher thingy. Got my repeater antenna up. I put my phone in maint mode and can read signal strength numerically. With the booster off i'm getting about -105. With the booster on, it jumps to -48. I'm guessing 0 would be if you were standing in front of a cell antenna. I've read the manual (1 page) about 30 times, apparently the power supply has a chip in it that's able to monitor interference and signal bounce. If it detects this, not sure how it does that because it looks just like a wall wart, it cuts the power to the amp for 90 seconds. but it also states that if the original signal is strong, it'll cut the power too. If this happens like 5 times, then it just shuts down and you have to unplug the thing and plug it back in.

So i'm getting a shut down every once in awhile. I can't tell if it's an signal issue or an antenna issue. I've moved the antenna all over the boat. I guess it's very possible my boat is too small for this. I haven't tested it in low or no signal areas yet, so it could also be that I've just got too good of a signal right now for it to "work". Have you had any issues?

Hmm... I have a lot more separation from the outside antenna and inside antenna and have not seen that.

 

[Turtlesboat]

Where is your amp, and the power supply for the amp located? I'm wondering if I have to move the magical chipped power supply to another location.

 

[Four Suns]

Where is your amp, and the power supply for the amp located? I'm wondering if I have to move the magical chipped power supply to another location.

My amp and power brick are down in the lazarette area... you don't have one of those....

 

[Four Suns]

How is this part of the project coming? Is it installed yet?

Doug

Well... I got distracted by the front TV... but I have buttoned up a few loose ends. I had to deal with the vacuum inlet relocation on this wifi/network cabinet and the 120v power distribution for the DirecTV recievers. I'll post more details later on the modifications I did with a APC UPS.

In the category of "mundane" but I think somewhat interesting, here is the Beam vacuum inlet that was in the back of this AV/Network cabinet.

This needed to be moved to the front of the new lower AV cabinet. You'll note how it's cracked... (ignore the coke stains from the kids thinking they could vacuum up a spilled coke). If you look at the back where the wires come into this thing, the wires/connectors just fell apart:

I'm convinced this is due to the vibration. This cabinet is right above the starboard diesel engine (the 480DB is a mid engine boat with straight shafts) and there is no other reason for this thing to disintegrate like that other than vibration... those wires were crimped in with a crappy connector and sharp edges and I think 7 years of diesel purr 2 feet from it killed it....

Here's my new Beam plate and my idea of connecting the wires to it...

So... for those of you that agree with the "it's ok to solder stuff", check out what (I believe) vibration can do in a few years.

 

[Four Suns]

Oh... I should also mention I'm replacing about 2 feet of flexible Beam vac hose... that coke vacuum episode, when combined with the AA batteries, crayons, pencils, dog hair, plastic coins, plastic silverware, sand, and gray dead skin dust created a wonderful concrete like substance inside the lower hose.... a substance that is completely vibration proof... should have used that mix on my sidewalks.... The new front plate and hose was like $14.00.... They should put duckbills on these things.

 

[Wreckless]

Gary.

Really impressive network. I also work on my boat. a couple of questions:

1/ is there anything you would change now that you have made this happen?

2/ How do you connect the Digital Antenna Combiner to the Verizon Modem? (I use a Rogers Stick in Canada)

Harold

 

[Four Suns]

Gary.

Really impressive network. I also work on my boat. a couple of questions:

1/ is there anything you would change now that you have made this happen?

2/ How do you connect the Digital Antenna Combiner to the Verizon Modem? (I use a Rogers Stick in Canada)

Harold

I'll answer #2 first... I got a mini-UHF male to FME female adapter and a UMW190 modem antenna cable that plugs into the Verizon UMW190 cell modem... I made sure the cell modem I got had an external antenna connector on it so it could plug into the digital antenna connector on the AV panel. I just needed the short cable and adapter to make the connection.

Here's the links:

http://www.wpsantennas.com/WA-1069-Verizon-Wireless-UMW190-Antenna-Adapter-Cable.aspx

http://www.wpsantennas.com/rfe-6153---mini-uhf-male-to-fme-female-adapter.aspx

What would I change? Nothing really... this is my 3rd iteration on this and I think I got it right this time. I use it all the time... and so does my wife which means it is fairly seamless. I love the ability to tie into a local wifi hotspot or verizon's cell network without changing device network settings (laptops, iPads, Gameboys, Navigation computer, DirecTV boxes, Blu Ray player, etc). The external wifi antenna has got great range and the local free wifi here gives me 2 - 2.5 Mbs with very little latency. Easily supports high-quality Netflix, Pandora, or streaming radio stations on the Internet without worrying about bandwidth limits. Out on the water, the cell modem is used and it gives ~400-600 Mbs but the latency is fairly high... typical cell data service though... and it works pretty much on the whole Chesapeake Bay being tied into the cell amp.

I really like the Mac mini install in the salon... That was one of the best features of the system...

I should mention this project turned out to be MUCH HARDER than I ever anticipated... if you can take advantage of anything I've learned, do it... but on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being easy, this was an 10. Taking the diesel aftercoolers off is easier than this was.

 

[Four Suns]

Here's a crappy video of the AV and network system in the salon... the cabinet mockup I did in the shop is that lower cabinet:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCUmlMmunTQ[/youtube]

 

[Four Suns]

You know... after I answered this... I realized there is one thing I probably would have changed. I would have mounted the Cradlepoint router/wifi hotspot away from the AV cabinet. I probably would have mounted it under the salon sofa by the AC unit and ran the power and network wires back over to the AV/network cabinet.

I had some really bad audio interference on the analog audio lines from stuff in that lower cabinet. It ended up being the wifi hotspot throwing stuff on the analog lines and in the electronics. I tried chokes and it didn't do much... ended up running optical audio up from the Mac to behind the TV to get out of the interference and then had to install an optical splitter and an optical-to-analog converter. I need both optical and analog plugged into the AVAtrix router because the staterooms need analog and the salon needs optical for the 5.1 sound on the Bose system...

So... That's the one change I would have made... but it all works as is now.. Would have been easier just to place the router/wifi hotspot away from the AV gear though.

 

[hmcsw]

that gave me a headache