I know this has been done before and I’m just a little curious as to how I could go about doing it:
We’d like some kind of portable power supply for testing/installing SMs. Obviously we will need to use a battery, but I’m just wondering what the rest of you are using and would like a few pointers on making my own.
18 or 24V drill battery
Or just get a cheap UPS and put it in a back-pack and run your cables out from it.
UPS and pure sine wave power inverter to power / keep it charged. Started out with a cheap modified sine wave inverter but the UPS didn’t like it, made all kinds of humming and clicking sounds, and I’m pretty sure it is what fried the first SM power supply I plugged into it.
http://www.all-battery.com/index.asp?Pa ... ProdID=512
I get about 4 hours of runtime for a Canopy SM on one of the 3000mAh of those.
I simply attached a cat5 cable to a spare battery connector which I bought at radio shack for a few dollars.
Cheap easy and light power source for an SM.
I get about 4 hours of runtime for a Canopy SM on one of the 3000mAh of those.
I simply attached a cat5 cable to a spare battery connector which I bought at radio shack for a few dollars.
Cheap easy and light power source for an SM.
Interesting that it runs the radio at 9.6V.
Actually it runs a canopy radio and a Senao CB3+ at the same time. Just wired up a female plug to a cat5e cable with 2 ends, add velcro and I have an all in one integrated test unit. You can see pics of my 2 setups at:
http://www.smarterbroadband.com/testunit/
Most nifty!
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXMDK2&P=0
We use the above x 2 to get 24 volts, It will last usually a week if not longer before being recharged depending on how long your surveys use.
A response to a PM I received. I thought it was worth posting here:
>i’m looking at http://www.smarterbroadband.com/testunit/
>the key to it all, and the part i don’t understand, is that little white box. did >you make it? buy it? how-to, please!
I made the little white box. The white box is a 2 jack telephone box from Radio Shack. Inside of it is 2x RJ45 Female connectors. There is a small bit of Cat5e cable which creates a crossover link between the two jacks. And the other 2 pair are attached to the switch and then to the battery connector. I threw in the switch (with light) for convenience of not having to unplug the battery all the time. Since Canopy has the + and - for the battery in reverse to most other PoE devices it does matter which connector the canopy is plugged into. I chose blue for the Senao 802.11 and White for Canopy.
The whole setup fits in a small bag which I can attach to the pole the SM is connected to or drop on the ground next to it.
>also, where did you get the blue mast for the SM?
I found the blue mast at a local Hardware store. Its a 6’ aluminum pole. I have 3 of them and they can connect together to make appox a 17’ mast. It makes testing some spots a lot easier. Also an Integrated 900SM fits on the top of it. I have no idea what make/model of pole it is off the top of my head. I can try to look it up.
>and why do you have the wifi kit on the same setup?
The Canopy is attached to the Wi-Fi AP so that a Computer can talk to it wirelessly. To provide service to most of the people in the area I am in, a lot of survey work has to be done to find an acceptable place to put the SM. The Wi-Fi means that I dont have to run a cable from the SM to the computer/PDA while I climb up a tree or on a roof, etc.
On solo surveys I can position the unit somewhere and then hold the laptop and do a survey without worry about trying to hold to much in place and fall down. On two person surveys it means I can walk anywhere (from one side of a roof to another, across the property, etc) with the SM without worry about dragging a cable around. We use walkie talkies to keep in contact since cell service in this area is poor at best.
The 802.11 AP has one other great use. It can provide a demo of the service to the customer while doing the survey. They can connect their laptop to it or I let them use mine to see how fast it is. Its been a selling point quite a few times to someone who wasn’t sure or might not want the unit in the spot it has to go to get service. When they see how fast the service is compared to dialup/satellite its amazing.
That’s a very, very clever idea, mattmann.
I just got a Canopy unit powered off of 2 and 3 9V batteries, so I’m going in the right direction - I did not know Canopy reversed the PoE standard, which is why my previous attempts at this failed. Thanks!
I’ve used a “portable” jump starter/air compressor/inverter unit & just plugged the power supply into that. It’s kind of heavy to haul up on a roof and I really don’t need 400 watts AC.
So now, I’m using a little portable 12V unit I had that’s powered by a gell cell inside. A little 60 watt inverter from Harbor Freight plugs into the lighter socket. It’s lightweight & lasts quite a while.
I use a 500w power converter wired into my service van, converts the Van’s 12 volt dc to 110 AC, APC PRO8T2 Surge to give me 8 pwr outlets. Either cable is cheap so we run a cable (we have two, one 40’ and a 75’) from the van’s LinkSys wireless AP to the sm. The LinkSys AP provides Hotspot wireless around the van up to 300 + ft. When doing a sight survey we can take the Notebook into the prospective clients home for a full demonstration. Also because the SM is hooked up to the LinkSys AP you can take the Notebook up to the SM when aligning.
8 electrical outlets come in handy when no one bothered to charge the notebook eliminating the embarisment of showing up for a survey or install with a low or dead notebook batt.
I use the Xpower Pocket Powerpack, works awesome and fits in the palm of your hand. Also useful for other Microwave IDU/ODUs.
http://www.backup-power.ca/catalog/item … 713809.htm
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Hey all about the portable Power. I have ran my test dish with a piece of 3/16" plexiglass with a notch cut in it that a 24V Black & Decker Drill battery will slide into and sandwiched two female blade connectors at the bottom of the notch to fasten them in place, then crimped them to a cut off Motorola POE (just cut it off and plug the other end in and test which wire is Pos and Neg then match it to the blade conn. on the battery) so I can use it with a PDA to test actual signal levels aswell. I made one with a slot on either side of the notch to go on my belt for installs. The other one I made I screwed right to the dish bracket with a battery powered walk man speaker plugged in for signal noise for a totally wireless test dish. The Dish will run for hours on one battery and the drills come with 2 batteries and a 2 place charger. WORKS AWESOME, LIGHT AND SMALL (NO BACKPACK FULL OF BATTERIES)[color=darkblue][size=18][/color][/size]
someone posted a battery powerd inverter a long time ago
now i want to buy it but cant find it anyware
dose anyone still have a link??? thanks
Just use a 12V sealed lead acid battery (less than 20 bucks) Punch down cat5 cable with this pinout 4,5 NEG and 7,8 POS
12V works just fine on Canopy… just don’t use a 300ft cable.
We use the Xantrex Duracell PowerSource Mobile 100 80W DC-to-AC. You can buy it off eBay for ~$45. Just plug in a standard Motorola power supply into the unit and run a patch cable from the power supply to the SM/AP/BH ethernet port. About the size of a Walkman cassette player (for those old enough to know what that is).
we use 18V Milwaukee drills for our installs so the installers use their drill battery to power the SM and an ASUS mini wifi AP which allows them to aim the antennas with their iPhones.
really handy, extremely light and portable!