High gain wi-fi aintenna

After trying some things (including counterfeit Alfa kit, real Alfa kit and some bits from Solwise), I've found a setup that I'm happy with and that performs well. It's an Ubiquiti Bullet (BM2‑Ti) with a 12 dBi omni-directional antenna (powered via non-standard PoE). I'm planning to mount it on the solar arch to be constructed later this year, but even just sitting in the cabin it picks up Wifi from far away with excellent performance (hooray for plastic boats that offer no obstruction to radiowaves). Even in the cabin it by far outperforms any of the other things I've tried, including a Solwise USB antenna hauled up on the signal halyard.

This being an Ethernet device, it's plugged into a router - specifically an Alfa R36 (2x Ethernet, b/g/n Wifi, USB and internal serial port), which I've flashed (via said internal serial port) with OpenWRT (a versatile custom router firmware based on Linux). On the USB port is my ZTE MF823 4G dongle, so that I can switch between Wifi and mobile networks without having to fiddle with plugs. All of this is presented to the computers/phones/tablet inside the boat on an internal Wifi and Ethernet LAN. If I manage to repair/replace my dead Seatalk1/NMEA/RS232 bridge, I'll also put NMEA data on the R36.

Both the R36 and the Bullet are capable of being powered by boaty 12V (that is they'll happily eat 10 - 15V without smokey death or unstable performance).

If that all sounds a bit technical I'm happy to come round and set it up in exchange for welding me above mentioned solar arch! ;-)
 
nigelmercier said:
Last time I looked at the Bullet I discounted it as the PoE box said it needed 24V. Did you modify this part?
Click to expand...

Quoting myself from this thread:

Yngmar said:
The Bullet can use 5 to 24V. That means it is not suitable for a 24V boat supply which goes well above 24V when being charged - but suitable for 12V. It has an internal DC-DC converter, so the "best range" thing is a myth (but do account for voltage drops on long cable runs, i.e. if mounted up the mast).
Click to expand...

That's definitely an undocumented feature of the Bullet, and the above linked forum posts by an Ubiquiti employee were the only evidence I could find of it, but it works. You just splice it into the pins of the Ethernet cable - it's not 802.3af PoE, just DC on a spare pair, sometimes referred to as "passive PoE" (very popular in Mikrotik land). I just measured the included AC adapter to get the right pins and polarity.

Also not in the official spec is the R36's ability to run off boaty 12V, which has been kindly explored and documented by another cruiser here [PDF].
 
Alfa Tube U

Outdoor USB Long Range

Works for me

3 km range with 8 m high antenea

ebay.com USA

from Rokland add the actice USB cable if you want to use 8 m from antenea

Cost about thirty UK pounds

Have them ship US Mail

I always say US Mail to avoid confusion with rip off UPS (huge extra charges)
 
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Toni at Crucial told me recently they will have a set of Alfa gear for about £92 soon. That is a R36 router, USB lead, Tube U and external antenna. I've done some research recently and that seems to do all I need.
No connection etc. but Crucial seem well thought of on here and other internet places.
Allan
 
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