Ceiling-mounted APs to replace Grandstream APs: Aruba IAP-315

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#2678817 22-Mar-2021 21:03

No, I never did work out how make the lights flash as per the manual, however shortly after I posted above, I tried logging into the device as per @ben28 - presto, it worked. I have the virtual controller working so I'm happy with that.

It automatically adopted the second and third AP as I plugged them in - colour me impressed!

richms

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#2678820 22-Mar-2021 21:06

Tinkerisk: Most cheap WiFi IoT is 2.4 GHz only.

I am able to get total coverage with only 1 AP in the house running my IOT vlan - sure, the devices connect at a low speed but they dont need much and its more reliable than multiple APs I have found since some of them dont handle that very gracefully.

over 100 devices on a unifi AC-Pro and it never misses a beat.

Richard rich.ms

Jase2985

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#2678828 22-Mar-2021 21:28

Maybe we should start another thread for the Aruba AP's

sbiddle

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#2678918 23-Mar-2021 07:54

jonathan18:

I've ended up being persuaded by the clear value proposition that is provided by these Aruba IAP-315s; costing less than $160 for three of them (including two brackets) means the cost is well under half of what I was looking to spend on new product, plus that third unit will let me add a unit to serve solely the HT/sleepout (always had dodgy reception due to the metal walls), so the end result will actually be more consistent WiFi across all living spaces than I'd probably got from two new units.

Thanks to ShinyChrome in particular for alerting me (and others) to these and for supplying me two of the units he purchased, but also to all others who have provided advice and suggestions on this thread.

BTW, does anyone have a compatible PoE injector or power adapter they'd be willing to sell me?

The relevant Aruba data sheet states:

Direct DC source: 12Vdc nominal, +/- 5%
- Interface accepts 2.1/5.5-mm center-positive circular
plug with 9.5-mm length
• Power over Ethernet (PoE): 48 Vdc (nominal)
802.3af/802.3at compliant source
- Unrestricted functionality with 802.3at PoE
- When using IPM, the AP may enter power-save mode
with reduced functionality when powered by an 802.3af
PoE source (see details on Intelligent Power Monitoring
elsewhere in this datasheet)
- Without IPM, the USB port is disabled and transmit
power of the 2.4 GHz radio chains are reduced by 3dB
to 15dBm max when the AP is powered by an 802.3af
PoE source

Just to go back and add some clarification to this..

These AP's are very power hungry. Full functionality requires a 802.3at injector or switch (something that supplies class 4 PoE). If you use an 802.3af injector or switch (class 3) they will stay in low power mode and the limitations of this are listed above.

The AP can also be powered by a 12VDC 1.5A plug pack. If you can power the plug pack near the AP that's great, but typically this wouldn't be the case.

One cheaper option to get around the 802.3at switch is to use the plug pack with a pair of passive injectors such as the following to carry power to the AP location. You plug Ethernet and 12VDC in one and and split it out at the AP end. If you are going to do down this path, just be aware that there are both 10/100 and Gigabit versions of these adapters. Gigabit is quite a bit more expensive as it needs electronics in it to split out power on the 4/5 & 7/8 data pairs, whereas 10/100 FE ones needs no electronics as power is carried on 4/5 & 7/8 and 10/100 FE is only data on 1/3 & 4/6 pairs.

PoE Passive Adaptor Kit

ShinyChrome

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#2679031 23-Mar-2021 10:11

Jase2985:

Maybe we should start another thread for the Aruba AP's

Jonathan18 ended up going with the Aruba APs, so I'm sure he will be interested in how others are going with the setup. Particularly as there isn't a lot of home user info out there on these.

Good to hear that everyone is managing to get these setup; I had the same issues, but as Shanes pointed out, it just took a little bit for them to come back up after the reset while it updated the firmware, and then required logging into it to finish the setup. I would have chimed in sooner, but it seems that visiting family on the weekend is a truly marathon effort now! At least I can come to work for a break....

One thing I also found that might affect a few people: Spotify Connect no longer worked when I initially set it up (Google Cast was fine though). It seems that a level of mDNS filtering is applied by default, so it may also affect other proprietary protocols, like Sonos etc.

The solution for me was to

enable Bonjour for Airgroup under the Configuration > Service menu,
either add a custom group (mine was imaginatively titled "spotify") or enable an existing one
Add a custom service _spotify-connect._tcp to the group from the previous step

I can add some screenshots if anyone needs further direction.

You can then also see the services using mDNS under the main Dashboard > Airgroup tab

dolsen

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#2679050 23-Mar-2021 10:42

sbiddle:

Just to go back and add some clarification to this..

These AP's are very power hungry. Full functionality requires a 802.3at injector or switch (something that supplies class 4 PoE). If you use an 802.3af injector or switch (class 3) they will stay in low power mode and the limitations of this are listed above.

The AP can also be powered by a 12VDC 1.5A plug pack. If you can power the plug pack near the AP that's great, but typically this wouldn't be the case.

One cheaper option to get around the 802.3at switch is to use the plug pack with a pair of passive injectors such as the following to carry power to the AP location. You plug Ethernet and 12VDC in one and and split it out at the AP end. If you are going to do down this path, just be aware that there are both 10/100 and Gigabit versions of these adapters. Gigabit is quite a bit more expensive as it needs electronics in it to split out power on the 4/5 & 7/8 data pairs, whereas 10/100 FE ones needs no electronics as power is carried on 4/5 & 7/8 and 10/100 FE is only data on 1/3 & 4/6 pairs.

Powering them from the poe injectors from the Cambium E400, the ap (which identify as a 802.3af poe source), the one I tried still worked fine.

Powering the aps from a 802.3at switch mine are currently using 5-6W and the highest I have seen is ~8W. With IAP, you will probably still get full functionality out of a 802.3af poe switch, but the led will be red. IAP will try and keep everything running but will drop some features (usb port first) if it needs to. I would say that unless you are running multiple ssids at full power with all features on, you will probably be fine with a 802.3af power source.

Having said that, here is a switch that will power at least 4 of them without restrictions for under $100, or, you can look at what is available on trademe.

https://www.amazon.com/PoE-Texas-Ethernet-Unmanaged-GATS-10-8-51v120w/dp/B08K2PSKJT

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jonathan18

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#2679160 23-Mar-2021 11:50

Yeah, it’s all good from my perspective if this morphs into focusing on the Arubas, as I’ll be needing such tips and tricks when I get around to setting mine up, eg my family wouldn’t have been happy if Spotify Connect didn’t work (the rationale behind the change of APs was to increase their happiness!).

I’ve amended the title of the thread to acknowledge this, plus edited the original post to explain.

I’m interested to see what limitations I face with using the switch I’ve purchased; worst case scenario of 3db less with 2.4gHz should still be ok given I’ve bought three for our house, including one dedicated to the metal-walled sleep-out/HT.

Jase2985

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#2679395 23-Mar-2021 16:35

i want to enable 80MHz channels on the 5GHz band.

under config > RF > show advanced options > i have set wide channel bands to all, and 80MHz to on, but I'm still only getting 20MHz channels

What else do i need to do?

Anyone else notice these take ages to reboot?

Ge0rge

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#2679419 23-Mar-2021 16:58

Mine seem to reboot reasonably quickly - certainly in comparison to the "provisioning" of the unifi devices they replaced.

My channels are showing 80Mhz and I've made the same setting changes as you - and before I get accused of being a bad wifi neighbour, my nearest neighbours on one side are about 800m away, and the ones on the other side are all dead and buried.

cyril7

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#2679444 23-Mar-2021 17:19

Ge0rge: Snip..... , and the ones on the other side are all dead and buried.

Been busy then 😁

Cyril

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#2679476 23-Mar-2021 18:53

Mine are taking about 5 mins to reboot and get wifi going again.

im just managing mine locally at the moment, and only have one plugged in at a time.

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jonathan18

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#2679486 23-Mar-2021 19:42

My current Grandsrtream 7610s - which also have the controller built in - aren't much quicker than this from reboot to fully functioning. How long do other Aruba users find theirs take until WiFi is up and running following a reboot?

openmedia

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#2679502 23-Mar-2021 20:09

Jase2985:

i want to enable 80MHz channels on the 5GHz band.

under config > RF > show advanced options > i have set wide channel bands to all, and 80MHz to on, but I'm still only getting 20MHz channels

What else do i need to do?

Anyone else notice these take ages to reboot?

If I set the AP Radio to Adaptive 80MHz channels appear to work on the 5GHz Band

If I set the AP Channel manually I'm not getting an 80MHz channel. Anyone else seeing this behaviour?

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

openmedia

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#2679506 23-Mar-2021 20:16

Ah it appears I need to use a channel like 52e to get the bandwidth.. selecting 52 gives me a narrower band.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

Jase2985

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#2679510 23-Mar-2021 20:22

Right did a bit more googling based on your info.

the channel number and a + is 40MHz channel, and the channel number and an E is an 80MHz channel.

One thing i will give cambium is, they explain the setting next to the option to give a little more context

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