Wifi to the obs

[codemonkey (Lee)]

My "obs", which is perhaps a little too flattering way of referring to the composite panel box my gear is in, sits up in the paddock, around 200-250m from the house.

Inside the house I have an Apple Time Capsule, which includes a wireless base station.

I'd like to be able to connect to the laptop in the obs, from the comfort of my living room. The software side of things is no worries, but when it comes to networking / hardware I'm clueless.

One thing to note is that the obs is not powered, so any solution needs to have low power consumption and/or be easily hooked up to a small solar rig.

There are also trees in between the house and the obs, so there's no line-of-sight.

Any suggestions on what gear to use to accomplish this?

[Atmos (Colin)]

WiFi and Bluetooth both have a maximum distance of about 75m so you would have to put signal boosters between the observatory and the house.
The cheaper and possibly faster way would be to use a buried Ethernet cable. These also need a booster every 50-100m and boosters but the boosters are significantly cheaper.

[Wavytone]

+1 a buried pvc conduit with an Ethernet cable and a repeater or two. Then a wifi base station in the observatory, configured as a different network (ie don't use the same SSID) and on a different channel to that in the house.

[The_bluester (Paul)]

You can get long range wifi stuff that will go far longer than 75 meters, but in my experience it is about a reliable as Wifi ever is. I have one of these on my shed back to a normal AP in the house http://www.tp-link.com.au/products/d...L-WA7210N.html

It gets me basic connectivity to the shed (Around 100M from the house AP) but throughput while tests show about 25mb/sec is really unreliable, I use it for an intercom link and for media streaming and even music from the server in the house can be a challenge sometimes. Video seems to be buffered differently and is actually more reliable than music!

I am so heartily sick of Wifi that I just spent a day on an excavator to install a comms conduit to the shed to build a fibre optic link (No earthing issues that way) Now I just have to get the shovel out and install the P2 pit I bought for the pipe to give me a hauling point. Then a couple more bits of electronics to make it all work.

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Regards wifi on a different SSID, I have actually found that to be a bit of a problem although the 200M distance would make it less so. I used to have the AP on my shed broadcasting as an AP on a different channel and SSID as well as being a bridge to the house, but even on lower power my phone would usually pick it up first as I drove into the garage (The shed AP has a directional antenna) and would stay connected to it even inside the house. Phone performance was really poor as it was on the end of a low speed, two way, long distance link.

In the house I got the irrits with wifi performance ages ago and installed a trio of Ubiquiti access points, with an Intel NUC that is acting as a Minecraft server for my son and as an IP PBX for our intercom system now also hosting the Ubiquiti management suite, when I get the fibre link in and running I plan to get another Ubiquiti AP for the shed and join it to the network in the house. With the software running on the NUC it gives seamless handoff between APs. So when you walk from one end of the house to the other the software monitors your signal strength and when you have better coverage from a different AP, changes you to it. That way once I have an AP in the shed I can set it up on the same SSID and it should just work, seamlessly roaming even out into the shed!

[glend (Glen)]

Gee do you guys live on outback stations? To far for extended wifi? Who has backhoes sitting around for putting in trenches.?

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Hah, I have been planning a fibre link since a while before I built the wifi one! It took a while to gather up enough work to do to justify hiring an excavator though.

When I eventually build an obs, it will be near-ish my shed so it will be another excavator hire to trench in a power connection and I will chuck in another comms conduit when I do it so I can extend the network out to the observatory shed.

Now I just have to decide on "good enough for now" with a ruggedised patch cord or to haul in some 12 fibre I have lying around and get one of my work subbies to come and terminate it for me on a weekend.

[codemonkey (Lee)]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

A couple of people have suggested ethernet with boosters now. To clarify, are you suggesting using a PoE injector at the source, then using PoE boosters, and then finally a splitter at the end?

At this stage I'm thinking to try out the long range wifi solution that Paul provided, going directly from the house to the obs.

If that doesn't work, what I might try is putting one on the shed, then running PoE to another wifi booster positioned mid-way. Either that, or getting a Veracity Longspan PoE extender, which enables gigabit ethernet up to 600m away, and just running ethernet the whole way from the shed to the obs, but still wifi over the last bit from the house to the shed.

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Really depends on the cost of the gear. I am going fibre for lack of any earthing issues and hopefully better reliability.

We have a switch in the house with SFP slots, and I bought a pair of single fibre (Bi directional) SFP modules from ebay for under $100 the pair (Bi direcitonal ones there is an A and a B end SFP and I reckon someone bought the wrong one, normally one end unit is more costly for some reason but I got the more costly one for about $20, normally over $100!

Still, if you had switch or router ports free, a pair of media converters and SFP modules for around $300, a couple of hundred dollars for a preterminated fibre cable between patch panels at each end (You can get keystone plug ins to take fibre optic through connectors to put them in an RJ45 patch panel, you just have to think about accessability to prevent anyone being able to look into the connectors) and some patch cords and off it goes with reliable gigabit Ethernet speeds, I expect a lin kwith about 40 times the throughput of my wifi setup!

I was actually fiddling around with tools like Backyard EOS, and with a mapped network drive I should when I finally get imaging be able to have BYE save subs direct on to my NAS in the house as they download form the camera, it would not be feasible on the wifi link due to speed and reliability issues.

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Originally Posted by The_bluester

I am going fibre for lack of any earthing issues and hopefully better reliability

What is the earthing issue people are referring to?

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Actually, rather than earthing specifically (Ethernet interfaces have isolation transformers so earth loops "Should" not happen) for me it is more the idea of electrical isolation, there is no chance of any fault current if there is no conductor.

Plus, I work with fibre connections day in day out for a job, if I can put in a fibre based link for a reasonable cost you wont see me running copper! There is more cost in the pit and pipe and excavator hire than there is in the fibre and associated equipment, let alone the incremental cost difference between a CAT6 link and a fibre one.

Nearly done with the pit and pipe work, I have just come in from installing a 2 pit outside the shed which gives me flexibility later to run another link out to the planned obs or to a new shed that is on the long term plan (Ten years!) without having to break into the conduit. Dig down the pit wall, pop in another 50mm penetration and put the pipe up to it, bang a spigot on the end, haul cable!

[White Rabbit]

Check these guys out they have some pretty cool wireless solutions.
I recently used their air fibre dishs to wirelessly issue DMX commands to some lighting fixtures on a job I was doing recently. It was was only a few hundred meters but the signal was solid the whole time, they are rated to 13km so you would expect it to be solid. The air fibre is probably overkill for what you need but the do have smaller, more reasonably priced solutions available.

http://www.ubiquitishop.com.au

[acropolite (Phil)]

+ 1 for the ubiquiti wireless gear, agree that the Airfibre is overkill for almost any application and a bit expensive.

If you get a pair of Nanobeam 5ac units you'll get blisteringly fast speeds (well in excess of 100mb/s simultaneously 450 Mb/s total throughput).

They're good for a range of up to 10 km's or 15 for the 19dbi model (power output and receiver sensitivity is adjustable) and at the distances you're aiming for penetrating trees shouldn't be a problem. We have used many of the ubiquiti bridge radio products in point to point and point to multipoint applications and I can verify that they perform as advertised and are rock solid.

[bugeater (Marty)]

Directional antennas on normal wifi gear? Many years ago I constructed a thing called a cantenna (yes, made simply from a tin can), which was pretty impressive with the range it could pick up access points, if you pointed in their direction.

[pmrid (Peter)]

My obs is about 200 meters away from home. I have a wireless router with 2 external antennae. I removed one if those and connected a directional antenna to it. I have an idemtical antenna on my obs. It does not require power. The obs antenna is plugged into an access point which is then conne ted to a switch. This allows me to connect multiple devices. The acces point amd the switch do require power but is 12VDC and these run happily off asinewave inverter which is powered by a deep cycle bwttery and solar panel.
Works for me.
peter

[The_bluester (Paul)]

I thought about doing the Nanobeam units, but I had the conduit lying around, already had the SFP cards and had to dig a trench most of the way form the house to the shed anyway, after that the incremental cost to slip a fibre in was minimal.

For the OP, it is a pity you are too far away from me or you could have one of the two TP link directional jobs I bought. Still welcome to it if you want to pay for postage. They are pretty low power, only using a handful of watts, but not sure what voltage they run on over the POE connection, I will have to look.

[codemonkey (Lee)]

Didn't realise this thread was still going. Thanks for all the great advice, everyone!

@ Paul: I really appreciate your generosity and may well take you up on it, but I'll wait until I know for sure what I want, rather than abuse your generosity by accepting something that may not be ultimately what will work for me. Thanks very much though, that's a very kind offer!