[Commotion-announce] Picostation tx power offset

[Josh Harle]

Thanks Adam,

I've just ordered some high-gain antennas, but I would still like to up the
output if possible.  I understand upping output for a router is normally
not helpful at all, since the clients can't tx back loudly enough, but for
the commotion mesh, I'd like to make sure I can cover the area I need to
with my limited APs.  I'll have a look in the openwrt discussions.


Kind Regards,

Dr Josh Harle
____________________
http://joshharle.com
http://tacticalspace.org
ph: +61 (0)409 771 163

On 25 February 2015 at 01:08, Adam Longwill <adam.longwill at metamesh.org>
wrote:

> Josh, there is so much power that the hardware is designed to put out. It
> is almost always better to improve the antenna rather than just pump up the
> volume with radio. By increasing the tx power, each router's "voice" is
> louder, but their "ears" stay the same size. If you increase the size of
> the antennas, then their "ears" get more sensitive and you will see an
> increase in gain. This is an unscientific explanation.
>
> You're probably not going to find a way to increase the tx past 16db. But
> by going about it that way you're going about it in the wrong way anyway.
> Invest in some ballin RP-SMA antennas. Here, let me help:
>
> Your connector:
> http://www.amazon.com/Connector-RP-SMA-Antenna-Pigtail-Cable/dp/B006Z8MJ6Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424786811&sr=8-1&keywords=rpsma+to+n
>
> My fave little omni antenna:
> http://www.amazon.com/Engenius-Outdoor-High-Antenna-EAG-2408/dp/B000VIA4CA/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1424786864&sr=8-7&keywords=hi+gain+wifi+antenna
>
> good luck!
>
> On Tue, Feb 24, 2015 at 7:59 AM, Josh Harle <josh.harle at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I'm a newbie to commotion and open-wrt, and I could really do with some
>> specific guidance.
>>
>> I'm just gearing up to set up a mesh network across a small town as part
>> of an art festival.  I have 20 x Picostation M2HPs and have installed
>> Commotion on them all.  I took a battery-powered PoE and one of the APs for
>> a walk, and the range was terrible.  This led me to check the tx power and
>> it looks like it's way below the maximum.
>>
>> I can't get it above 16 dBm, and I think it's because it (wrongly) thinks
>> there's a 12 dB antenna attached and so is applying that as an offset to
>> the 28 dBm the device can do.  (here's the output from various commands
>> <http://tacticalspace.org/archives/fixing-low-transmit-power-for-picostationm2hp-with-commotion-wireless/>
>> )
>>
>> I don't have enough experience of open-wrt to know how to get around
>> this.  The actual antenna is just 2 dB.
>>
>> I've been looking at bug reports and conversations for a few hours, and
>> can't figure out how to change the tx power about 16 dBm.  At the moment I
>> can set it lower but not higher, and I am assuming I need to modify the tx
>> power offset?
>>
>> Thanks for any thoughts!
>>
>> Kind Regards,
>>
>> Dr Josh Harle
>> ____________________
>> http://joshharle.com
>> http://tacticalspace.org
>> ph: +61 (0)409 771 163
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Commotion-announce mailing list
>> Commotion-announce at lists.chambana.net
>> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/commotion-announce
>>
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/commotion-announce/attachments/20150225/50332c92/attachment.html>