[Commotion-announce] Picostation tx power offset

[Josh Harle]

Hi All,

I've discovered that if I turned off all but one of the open APs (i.e. just
left mesh on, but no public WiFi) my ETX dropped to around 1 for all my
nodes.  Can anyone offer advice on how I can set up meshed, town-wide
access without interference from APs?  With three nodes, even at a distance
(about 200m), having APs turned on for the to furthest nodes degrades all
the connections.

node A (gateway, AP) -- (20m) --> node B -- (200m) --> node C (AP)

connection between A and B if AP is running on A climbs up to 2-3.



Kind Regards,

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

On 27 February 2015 at 19:58, Josh Harle <josh.harle at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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