It Is True What They Say About Men With Big Hands...

CWB · April 12, 2020, 6:37pm

We really can not get the doors off the F300-25.

My guys did a Force 300-25 install Friday afternoon that did not work out too well. It was very windy and they thought once winds calmed down they could come back and re-align antenna for better signal. Was planning to do that tomorrow morning before another install, but customer complained too much that their "new" internet was horrible.

I went out today to either re-align or move them to 2.4Ghz. I found too many trees in path to tower for 5Ghz to work. Signal was fairly good (-67) until wind blew, tress in path would shift and RSSI would bottom out into the 80's and disconnect. I decided I would put customer on 2.4Ghz.

For almost 10 minutes I attempted to remove the door from the F300-25 so I could disconnect the ethernet cable. I could not get any of my fingers into the slot between door and unit housing to apply enough pressure to release the door. I tried a flat head screwdriver as well to hopefully add enough pressure. No go. I finally had to lower bucket to ground, grab my ethernet kit, cut ethernet cable, and remove 300-25 from mast. I then had to re-install RJ45, and mount F200 2.4Ghz. My fingers are still slightly burning from fighting with the door for so long.

I can not be the only person having issues like this. I run into often programming the 300-25 as well, but can usually get a flat head screwdriver or something to get door open. But then again I am not in a bucket with a unit swaying on a mast.

Anyone else loving the doors on the 300-25?

I also can not see Cambium giving these units as prototypes to anyone who actually does any type of install and that person/s telling Cambium, "You nailed it..do not change a thing with the design". I will not even get started with the mount, as there has been enough gripes about it here already.

I have a suggestion for Cambium. Please send future prototypes of units to some of us who actually install these things. I feel several of us here could have found the mounts and door an issue within a few minutes of holding a 300-25. Unit does to have to power up or even have electrical guts. Just let us go over the mechanical aspects of it and give our feedback. If that is not possible, please, please...I am begging you...please, make the next generation (F400-25, etc) with an easier to release door and bracket like the F200.

I do not intend this to be a whining post. I feel data wise the AC series is definitely a move forward from the N series. I do want to stress having a unit that was mechanically designed with installs in mind is also very important to those of us deploying these units. Fighting with a door for 10 minutes does not make our job easier.

ninedd · April 12, 2020, 9:38pm

@CWB wrote:
We really can not get the doors off the F300-25.

And when it finally does come open - that little plastic tab immediately breaks off. And if you break/lose the door - we can't buy a replacement, so it's basically $250 flushed.

And it's not just big hands - it's guys with small hands who need to wear gloves 8 month's of the year (Canada). The little doors are not designed by (or tested by) anyone struggling to use these things in the real world.

OH - and use LED's which can be seen outdoors on a rooftop in the daytime! We can't even tell if they are powered up or not - let alone use any of the lights as diagnostically useful info. We have been begging / pleading / screaming-at-the-tops-of-our-lungs for YEARS, and all the requests are totally ignored.

AND - when you do design the Force400's, please make the feedhorns / mount be interchangeable with the dish's from the Force 300's. We should (LIKE OTHER MANUFACTURERS) be able to buy boxes of Feedhorns, and swap them into existing installations. Why in the world should we need to ship 100's and 100's of boxes or new dishes, mounts, brackets, etc, etc - - why can't we just buy a few boxes of replacement feedhorns and fit them into existing dish hardware?

CWB · April 13, 2020, 6:52pm

Did some researching, and for anyone interested, Harbor Freight makes a F300-25 ethernet door quick release tool. Works like a champ, just squeeze and pull. And for those of you in Canada, it is glove friendly.

brubble1 · April 14, 2020, 8:43pm

Hate almost everything about the F300-25 including that "squeeze and pull" door. But OMG the F200's .. that cover has 2 models "falls off when the wind blows" and "Can't be removed without a great deal of effort, cursing and a knife and a small screwdriver and even then it's a PITA".

When the new company bought this company I had to go take some kind of physical testing thing where they measure how far you can move your limbs and how much you can lift and all kinds of things ( I was told the info would be used if ever got hurt and needed rehabilitation , so they would know what 100% recovery was or something for Workman's Comp) .. anyway.... one of the things they had was this contraption that you squeezed and pulled and twisted and it measured the force you were able to exert and it also had a part you "pinched". Now I make a lot of patch cables and squeezing those 8 little wires and pulling to straighten/flatten them out has apparently built up my pinch'en muscles because the guy giving the test commented that my pinch was far beyond anyone else he had ever tested... yet I can not squeeze those doors/covers/caps hard enough to get them off.

The plastic lanyard holding ePMP caps on is a prank, I'm sure of it. I think the designers snicker every time they think about some poor sole having to come down off the roof/ladder and find the cap that fell off because they foolishly trusted that lanyard for a second.