Extreme Lengths for the Search of “Decent” Internet: A Ubiquiti PtMP and PtP link setup

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Extreme Lengths for the Search of “Decent” Internet: A Ubiquiti PtMP and PtP link setup

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tripper1000

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#1955729 12-Feb-2018 14:11

BTW, how come you didn't just reconfigure you 2x 12v solar panels into series to charge your ver2.0 24v system?

If you still have them, the additional production could help sustain the batteries on the long overcast winter weeks when the solar production is very low.

NZCypher819

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#1955770 12-Feb-2018 14:43

tripper1000:

BTW, how come you didn't just reconfigure you 2x 12v solar panels into series to charge your ver2.0 24v system?

If you still have them, the additional production could help sustain the batteries on the long overcast winter weeks when the solar production is very low.

We worked out that the 2 x 80w panels in 24v configuration simply wasn't enough to charge the batteries and we would eventually loose power. The charge controller would have stopped damage to the batteries so was more worried about continuous service. The new panel at 270w produces ~8.5amp which, according the math (which I don't really understand) should give the batteries a complete full charge in about 3 hours low light winter months at 50% efficiency (i think...). Here's the details on the 260w panel (they dont have the 270w trinity on the website anymore) http://www.reidtechnology.co.nz/shop/Solar+Power/Solar+Panels/Trina+Solar+Module+260W.html

The 2 x 40 amp hour batteries was, by memory, just enough to survive a night but we are talking summer time with max sun. Theres no way we would have sustained power during winter. It would have been a nightmare to manage the batteries and to get the equipment to the particular site, I had to dig "steps" out of a large 5m high bank, I don't want to be trying to carry new batteries up and down there all the time in the rain. The current setup took 3 of us to get the kit up there as they are heavy.

I do prefer to over engineer (in terms of robustness) these things while attempting to keep everything as simple as possible so I don't have to muck around with them later unless I'm trying to upgrade them. Just want to get on and enjoy having a high speed connection again at home.

The old panels and batteries are destined to run LED lighting in my workshop as a experiment to taking my house off grid with hydro as the power source in the winter. Too many projects basically with not enough time, nor cash to do them all.

sbiddle

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#1958857 16-Feb-2018 07:25

Just a few comments on this after reading this again and also seeing your post on the UBNT site -

Every exchange and cabinet in the Wellington region has been upgraded as part of the cabinetisation and RBI project. 100% of these are VDSL2 capable - but the reality is you live outside the cover of copper.

You've mentioned using 80MHz for the PtP link, something that's pretty poor practice and impacts on spectrum use for everybody. It is overkill, and running at 40Mhz will also improve gain significantly.

Using 5180 for your PtMP link breaks current RSM rules for the 5GHz band. As a plenty of people in the country have already found out RSM will come knocking on your door and impound your equipment on the spot for breaking these rules. I would highly recommend you make your radios legal.

NZCypher819

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#1958914 16-Feb-2018 08:56

sbiddle:

Just a few comments on this after reading this again and also seeing your post on the UBNT site -

Every exchange and cabinet in the Wellington region has been upgraded as part of the cabinetisation and RBI project. 100% of these are VDSL2 capable - but the reality is you live outside the cover of copper.

You've mentioned using 80MHz for the PtP link, something that's pretty poor practice and impacts on spectrum use for everybody. It is overkill, and running at 40Mhz will also improve gain significantly.

Using 5180 for your PtMP link breaks current RSM rules for the 5GHz band. As a plenty of people in the country have already found out RSM will come knocking on your door and impound your equipment on the spot for breaking these rules. I would highly recommend you make your radios legal.

Thanks for this, and as mentioned in the previous reply to your first post, the 5180 freq's have been changed and appreciate the link to the Gowifi wireless basics page, has been quite useful.

As for the 80Mhz, that's a fair comment, currently only using 40mhz for the link and as you suggested, it has improved the link significantly in terms of stability. The diagram needs to be updated to reflect that change. Once I have sorted the alignment out I was going to update the article (hopefully with new/better speed tests too) and will put a updated network topology diagram in too, hopefully that'll happen this weekend.

As for the exchanges, we are certainly outside of the coverage for copper, I understand they did a feasibility study to put a new exchange in to service the part of the road we are in but everything went quiet from them after that. I understand Chorus's decision not to put fiber up the road particularly with RBI coming out but as mentioned in the post, the data cap currently is what killed us with it. Hence the reason we developed this solution.

freakngeek

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#1959355 16-Feb-2018 21:47

Very nicely done, looks like a much longer range setup than what I've done with my Litebeams to radio VDSL from road to house
Also running solar but with a single 270w panel and a 110 AH battery, seemed to do OK last winter, but your ability to collect sun is greatly reduced
I run my Litebeams via a 12 to 24v converter as Litebeams specs say 24v PoE

Will keep an eye on post to see how you get on.

michaelmurfy

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#1959389 16-Feb-2018 23:10

@sbiddle hate to break this to you but not 100% of cabinets are VDSL capable - one is UPN/AC in Pakuratahi which has no fibre run to it and only offers "up-to" 5Mbit:

I must admit however this appears to be the only cabinet in the Wellington region not fibre fed and I only looked it up because I had to prove you wrong.

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NZCypher819

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#1959464 17-Feb-2018 08:36

@freakandgeek. Are you running a single 12v 110amphr battery then upping it via invertor or something to 24v?

If that's the case I have two 12v 120amphr batteries wired for 24v so hoping they survive the winter. You have given me the seed of doubt however so I might check them more often hahaha.

Anyone know how to pull voltage info from the litebeams?

sparkz25

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#1959465 17-Feb-2018 08:41

this is exactly what i did for my parents, where they live now there is nothing lol, there is vdsl either side of them but nothing in the middle,i think in total the link i setup was about 4k from the AP, the link still needs work but its working for now lol i did do a story on ubnt.com about this but this was when they were at their old place.

https://community.ubnt.com/t5/airMAX-Stories/A-Year-long-Project/cns-p/1782196

this post is about 2 years old now i think and when they moved it was just lower the mast and load it up and relocate it to the new property and stand it up lol, now we have a fiber link running around the property and a 24v supply powering ERX-SFP's the get the internet to mutiple places around the property.

muppet

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#1959466 17-Feb-2018 08:48

Damn, I thought I was hardcore installing two Unifi AP's in my house.

Nice one!!!!

freakngeek

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#1959529 17-Feb-2018 11:17

NZCypher819: @freakandgeek. Are you running a single 12v 110amphr battery then upping it via invertor or something to 24v?

If that's the case I have two 12v 120amphr batteries wired for 24v so hoping they survive the winter. You have given me the seed of doubt however so I might check them more often hahaha.

Anyone know how to pull voltage info from the litebeams?

Single 110AH, I use a MMPT controller with a 36v Panel = higher efficiency in charging than a 24v system
I could have gone 24 volt but then would have needed a 24 to 12v converter for the modem (DV130)
My link only 400m, my post on setup is here https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumId=49&topicId=215269
The Litebeam and Modem draw about 0.6amps at 12v
On a full charge I get about 2-3 weeks of battery life, in winter biggest enemy = cold = bad thing for holding a charge in battery
I installed a temp probe on the MPPT controller that raises the charging voltage to make up for lack of charge able to held

As for voltage on the Litebeam, I had an issue with initial ancient MPPT controller I used which died
The Litebeam stopped working at about 8v, modem merrily kept on chugging way.
But don't know of a way to check voltage remotely on the Litebeam

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