A few of our techs are reporting seeing link issues between a Force300-16 SM and a R195W router when using a Cambium 30V gigabit surge suppressor. SMs are installed using shielded cable between the SM and gigabit SS with a standard end at the SM and a shielded end at the SS, then a non-shielded cable between the SS and the 30v Cambium POE using standard ends, then a standard patch cable from the LAN side of the POE to the WAN port on the R195 router.
We currently have a customer repair ticket open for this, SM and router are both set to autonegotiate but are reporting 100M link in both devices when connected using a gigabit SS.
I am currently testing the issue in-house using 3 Force300-16 SMs, a 40’ shielded cable feeding a 30V gigabit SS, then a 100’ premade patch cable between the POE and SS, 4’ premade patch cable from the LAN side of the POE to the R195 router. So far I have been unable to recreate the issue in-house. I did try setting both the SM and router to 100F, but then had no link between the router and SM. When I changed the router back to AUTO, there was link to the SM but the SM reported the link as 100F and the router reported it as 100H. When I changed the SM back to AUTO, there is gigabit link in both devices.
We are using 4.5.5 firmware for the SMs and 4.7.2-R10 for the cnPilots.
We have not created a support ticket for this issue because we have no hard data to support it at this time, just reaching out to see if anyone else is experiencing a similar issue.
Further testing yesterday showed the 30v gigabit suppressor i was using with failed during testing. This was a new SS that was only used during in-house testing with 3 Force300-16 SMs and a R195W; simply unplugging one device and plugging in another. We have had increased link issues reported since we began using the 30v suppressors for gigabit links between a Force300 and a R195 instead of the 600SS.
Does anyone have a different recommended 30v gigabit capable surge suppressor they would recommend?
We use the Mimosa SS 99% of the time but it’s really for 56v I believe. We really only install them to give us a way to ground before the cable enters the building (just for NEC compliance). We have way more Mimosa SS in the field now than Motorola/Cambium and there have actually been instances were it appears the Mimosa actually protected the customer’s equipment. I can’t say that in the 14’ish years we used Moto/Cambium SS’s that I ever remember thinking “Hay, this SS may have actually protected the inside equipment” it’s almost always been “curious that the SS was the only thing to survive…”.
That said, going to a home and finding the only thing that is blown is the Mimosa SS may just mean they die easier than other SS and had there been a Cambium SS there I wouldn’t have had to do a truck roll. I also can’t say that there have been any more/less cases of SS being the only thing that survived.
We use McCown Tech gas discharge tube SS’s on AP’s but they make one better suited to customer installs also :
According to McCown Tec Cambium equipment Ethernet circuitry is very susceptible to crc and frame check errors and solid state SS’s make the problem worse. They claim even Cambiums own SS’s (which are solid state ? ) make the problem worse.
The gas tube SS is slower to fire (according to McCown Tech) but they were designed specifically for Cambium equipment due to it’s supposed issues with solid state SS’s.
Edit: The Mimosa SS’s are also Gas Discharge Tube and not Solid State.
We have started using the Mimosa gigabit SS after repeated issues with the Cambium 30v gigabit SS; working well for both 30v and 56v applications. Cambium gigabit SS just keeps dropping link quality and would not maintain gigabit link between gigabit capable devices (Force300-16 and R195)
They aren’t perfect (lose the tiny stainless steel nut/washers from time to time due to the cramped space around the ground lug and my big fingers and not a fan of the zip tie being the only way to secure the door shut) but aren’t they sooooo much easier to install than the cambium SS ? Seriously cuts 10 minutes off the install time I think on average and if there is anything out of the ordinary about how the SS has to be mounted the cambium SS could add 20 or more minutes to install time…