[Commotion-announce] Picostation tx power offset

[Josh Harle]

Thanks for your sustained help on this Adam.

I've tried reducing the tx output as someone said it might be distorting
from 27dBm.  Something is definitely amiss though: when I walk down the
road at the point where ETX jumps to "INFINITE" my old mobilephone still
has 3 out of 4 wifi bars and can happily connect to the net.



Kind Regards,

Dr Josh Harle
____________________
http://joshharle.com
http://tacticalspace.org
ph: +61 (0)491 155 985

On 25 February 2015 at 12:45, Josh Harle <josh.harle at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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/20150227/9fcb57d6/attachment-0001.html>