Ripwave High Gain Antenna's

[bear]

i have a friends ripwave modem for the weeks end and using it in an area which is not covered???!!!!

Anybody know of a high gain antenna which i can get for the ripwave modem and or a power amplifier for boosting the signal?????

I believe it is an accessory which can be bough but i dont know where....on the side of the box it mentions an accessory not included.....high gain antenna.

i think this would increase my chances of Irish Broadband giving me the service on my own modem and account :-)

[flyingpinkelephants]

I have a friend who uses his in lots of locations in ireland on the move

I also use it around dublin area

I could do with a similar solution

All i know is rip wave is 2.4ghz

It is best to mount unit as high up as possible


I have a fold up to 1.5metre fishing pole extends 4 metres and and a cat 5 extension cable some 7 metres long and a power extension 5 metre long


Never had to use this option so far either becuase I was on ground floor of building in deep valley of dublin street of 5 story buiding and so pole wouldnt make any diffference to height or I clean out of range as in ten miles from nearest transmitter

High gain can increase range by large factors but at crazyy money prices

how to get the rip wave anteenna to hook into high gain dont have a clue


I will also try to find out

flyingpinkelephants

[DHU2U2]

There's an extensive, and often humourus, discussion on this topic, to be found on the Sydney Unwired(an Aussie IBB) section of the whirlpool.net.au discussion board. A Breeze antenna might do the business, if you can get hold of one.

[flyingpinkelephants]

Somewhere I saw that IBB gets it stuff from OZ

not sure if its true

This link came from search
http://www.therfwave.com/

further down does 2,4ghz stuff
that readily available in europe if you know the component you need
and save the long post from down under but then the Australian PESO is very low and if the components can slip past costoms without duty and VAT your ahead of the game if not figure triple the OZ price

Flyingpinkelephants

[paddyd]

Originally Posted by bear

i have a friends ripwave modem for the weeks end and using it in an area which is not covered???!!!!

Anybody know of a high gain antenna which i can get for the ripwave modem and or a power amplifier for boosting the signal?????

I believe it is an accessory which can be bough but i dont know where....on the side of the box it mentions an accessory not included.....high gain antenna.

i think this would increase my chances of Irish Broadband giving me the service on my own modem and account :-)

What you gain with the antenna you can loose over the connector/cable. Navini stopped selling the high-gain antenna as a result of this.
Simple reflectors get around this, are free and don't interfere with your unit.

After wasting a lot of time and money on various types of dipole/quadpole/cantenna/antenna/dish/amps I got the best results from a simple home-made tinfoil and cardboard reflector based on this template, and careful selection of base station.
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects...te2/index.html
Placed behind the upright antenna it makes the unit directional. If you are high enough range is not a problem, and you can point it at the base station of your choice. Some base stations give terrible performance, no matter how good the wireless link. This is due to packet discards on the upstream side of the base station. All you can do is direct the unit to the base station which performs best. Invariably this is not the nearest. I get optimum speed/latency from a station at a range of 7 Km, OK connection at 14Km. Voip works so long as you use a gsm or 729a codec. Connect a cheap wifi access point or long Ethernet cable to the ripwave so you can place it at the highest point. You may need to shield it from closer base stations.
For mobile use a corner reflector(Tin foil on the inside of a cardboard folder and open at a right angle) is easier to carry.http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/Ez-10/
When using batteries/solar panel an accurate 6v voltage regulator is a must . Inverters give noise problems.
When trying expensive external antennas/dish(3.5ghz incidentally NOT 2.4ghz) I found that the signal loss from the connector cancelled most gain. The ripwave would switch to either of the two internal antenna under its plastic cover. I also use the clearwire service which works better in most case but is twice the price and uses more power.
I have been using the ripwave around Dublin for about 2 years so if you mention your rough location I may know if it works there.

If you still want to waste your money on antenna(they look impressive to some people) I have several I can sell you. Just don't expect them to make any difference.
This is my performance at 7Km from the Tymon(Tallagh) base station 18, with the reflector. Without it I can only connect to the 3rock at 1/10th of the speed.

[glasso]

How do you know if the base station is changing - from the bts id? How do you know which one is Tallaght etc.

[paddyd]

Originally Posted by glasso

How do you know if the base station is changing - from the bts id? How do you know which one is Tallaght etc.

Simple.

Get the BTS ID from the diagnostic. (download from navini.com if you have lost the cd).
Ask IBB where the base station with this ID is located(the diagnostic will also indicate the distance if you press ctrl-****-f10, and you already know the direction). In this example BTS ID 18 indicates Tymon park in Tallagh, 16 indicates the Coachhouse in Balinteer, 110 is the Digital Hub(Guinness Hop Store)East, 108 West.

Alternatively

Do a reverse traceroute. On the final hop you will see a prefix in the result such as tymon, rte, 3rock , Hop_store, Ballymun, Odlums, etc.
http://www.xciv.org/cgi-bin/traceroute

In this case

6 DN42-ge-0-2-0-50-ibis-access.irishbroadband.ie (62.231.52.158) 15.4 ms (ttl=249!) 14.6 ms (ttl=249!) 14.1 ms (ttl=249!)
7 DN03-as0-0-tallaght.irishbroadband.ie (62.231.52.133) 15.0 ms (ttl=248!) 14.5 ms (ttl=248!) 14.3 ms (ttl=248!)
8 DN47-fe-0-0-0-10-tymon.irishbroadband.ie (83.141.117.6) 27.1 ms (ttl=247!) 19.6 ms (ttl=247!) 19.6 ms (ttl=247!)
MY_IP_removed.

Indicates Tymon Park in Tallagh.

Each base station has its own IP range(s) so you can tell from your IP as you get to know which range relates to which base Station.

[glasso]

only one that I can pick up is rte - number 10. will try making one of those reflector things to see if I can change this and get a better performing station....

[flyingpinkelephants]

paddyd

I freqently go to Malahide area texas lane yellow walls rd any ideas
I can mount the RipWave on a short pole on top of my friends house against the wall on flat garage roof and gain some 5 feet over the main house roof

Would I be best to aim at treerock or clontarf or which

I suspect the hill affect decending into Malahide willl block line of sight to clontarf

My ethernet cable is some 6 metres long

If it could work my friend could dump expensive BT and put the wifi connector on the pole permentelty and get his own rip wave and and save money as 1/2 meg is suffecient for his needs as BB at work for heavy downloads and use work mobiles for phone and or VOIP or similar

Also I wish to use battery to drive the rip wave in the future
mine is the new LED type not like my friends the three lights

I have access to a large amount of different cells all capable to produce 6 volts

first is 4 amph gel cell from €15 ALDI rechargeable tourch light with home brew output tap out

(specialist packs not available in ordinary shops)
second is soldered up packs of 5 cells nicads and nimh cells of various capasities and with ultra fast chargers can be recharged in 15 to 45 minutes

packs are
AA 5cell nicad 700mha
AA 5 cell Nimh 1800

Subc 5 cell Nicad 1300mha

D size 5 cell NiCads 4000 mha

Plus I have other cell packs in 8 and 10 packs

All these types of cell can deliver the 3 amps load the rip wave requires as I use them extensivly for modeling purposes at 5 amps plus no issues


The problem that stumps me so far is the connector

I went to maplins and peats ands bought similar fitting to Ripwave fitting and connnected to all the normal cell pack s and NADA ZIP

I tried with 8 cell pack in case there wasnt suffient voltage and green light would flash for one second and stop

I measured the voltage from the power adaptor supplied for rip wave and it gives out 6.25 volts at 3.25 amps and the rip wave unit says 6 volts at 3 amps or some 18 watts
I remain stumped
Is it the connector is ultra special or must you have a restrictor on the cells to deliver exactly 3 amps and without restricor the unit get too many amps or something

As i didnt want to grill the unit before my four months use was up i put further experments on hold until may

if you know a home brew way to solve problem that realy works at a reasonable price preferably so i can use my own batteries rather than some special pack at crazy money like what Austrials pay let me know to save a grilling in May



I also have a friend in Newbridge some 3 - 4 miles from town on the SE side and my rip wave in house didnt work no signal not even a hint at top or anywhere in the house or with windows open and hanging out the windows

Where is the antenna in Newbrige and would ripwave work there as it shows it a breeze place

a friend of mine says ripwave works anywhere as its only marketing that say one area is breeze and another is ripwave
whats the facts


Its a rented house so limited to tempory pole solution mounted against the wall but again there seems to be a small bit of a hill betweeen the housing estate and the centre of newbridge and one year contracts and or paying rip off prices for eircom for phone installation and or any other telecoms and or IBB breeze one year contract are not an option especialy as with good summer weather no problems to hook into the many WIFI in the surronding estates with WAR in the car
Negosations with nearest to pay or share costs with them only succeeds to annoy them and get them to close up the gap so there you have it and I told my friend that would be the case so it dosnt pay to ask

Can you confirm all ripwave and IBB is 3.5 ghz

Winter solution as bad weather rain mucks up signals
Also I did trace route no problems connection deansgrange 470 down and 108 up packet loss zero so seeem s good

Mine is a MAC and for distance to IBB emmiter I tried control shift F10 and nothing

any ideas



Flyingpinkelephants

[paddyd]

Originally Posted by glasso

only one that I can pick up is rte - number 10. will try making one of those reflector things to see if I can change this and get a better performing station....

Try roof of Belmont Nursing home, Whites cross. RTE has been hopeless for some time, as is the 3Rock. Bakers corner seems very good if you can get it. Point the unit in the general direction, switch the power off/on(maybe a few times) to switch base stations. If it seems locked to one base station call IBB, ask them (nicely) to make sure roaming is enabled, then try sheilding it from this station by placing it in a box with ordinary tin foil over the sides. Check the diagnostic to make sure it is using the upright antenna.(press ctrl-shift-f10 together, then statistics, and scroll down to see if antenna says patch1, patch2, or upright. The patch antennas are along the sides of the unit. Move around both horizontaly and verticaly to find a hot spot. Moving a few centemetres in and direction can make a huge difference.

[paddyd]

Malahide was no use when I tried it over a year ago, I was expecting to pick up Ballymun. Sutton/Howth worked well from 1st floor to Fairview BTS. If they can get adsl, and don't need mobility, I would not recommend the Ripwave.
When using batteries/solar panel an accurate 6v voltage regulator (with correct polarity, and fused at 2.5amp) is a must. At this voltage the unit will draw only the current it requires.
I would never try to power the unit directly from batteries, or any other power source. Only via a 6V voltage regulator I know works properly, or the manufacturers unit. If you are not sure about what you are doing leave well alone. The connector is nothing special. Above/below 6v the lights may work but the unit will not function.
Please do not try to force it to draw a fixed current, at 3 amps the unit could be an incendiary device. I fuse it at 2.5Amp but would not expect it to draw anywhere near this unless there was a serious short.
For batteries I use 12V 2.1 AH sealed lead acid types, sometimes in combination, and 1.8W/5W solar panels.
I have used a 10 pack of AA nimh batteries(via the regulator) in order to move around and look for a signal without being bound by a mains lead, but did not expect more than 30 minutes for this.
Ripwave and Breeze are not compatable, it is not just marketing.
Some very early units were 2.4ghz, I dont know if they still work. Any I have come across in recent years are 3.5ghz.
In Newbridge town Clearwire works. Ripwave does not.

[DHU2U2]

Paddyd, any updates on the Wimax situation, in relation to Ripwave equipment? Navini say that they are part of the Wimax consortium. Are IBB going to upgrade?

[Cyclonite]

Got my Rabbit about 3 months ago and its rated for 3.5 Ghz. I'm based in ringsend and only get a download of 30/kbs using DAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!30/kbs from 512k connection sucks,any hints on improving it,Thanking you all in advance

[paddyd]

Originally Posted by DHU2U2

Paddyd, any updates on the Wimax situation, in relation to Ripwave equipment? Navini say that they are part of the Wimax consortium. Are IBB going to upgrade?

This is what IBB say about the current fixed Wimax Standard
.http://www.irishbroadband.ie/admin/7...%20rollout.pdf
Make of it what you will. It is signifigant that the standard allows customer equipment to act as base stations. A so called "mesh" can leapfrog across wide areas.
I would not worry too much about waiting for the WiMax 802.16e (Mobile) standard. Which is what Navini is involved in. It has "issues", especially in Europe. In the short term Navini have already launched a PC card, that gives the same functionality.

As with most "pre WiMax" equipment today the firmware is upgradable anyway. So investment is safe.
A customer should be able to buy a card, bung it in their laptop(or whatever) and roam away. Just like a mobile phone. None of the current hassles with batteries etc. I have doubts about its implementation however. Given the current situation. I dont fancy climbing on a roof with a laptop to use it.
There is great potential there. If IBB would address technical issues.
I hope the threat of WiMax and VOIP will make the mobile operators get their act together as regards 3G(EDGE -UMTS) and costs. The less to carry around the better.

[DHU2U2]

I made a corner reflector from a plastic Ferrero Rocher sweetie box(yummm!). I redirected the modem from bts150(Ballymun), at 2km, to bts22, at 8km. Signal strength equally good(according to NavDiag), quality slightly improved(occasional yellow bars - woohoo!). My modem has a wonderful view of the roofs and spires of Dublin city, from my attic window.

[glasso]

cheers- you sure know your sh1t in relation to ripwave