Sunday 13 July 2014

WiFi Repeater Progress

The box has been completed, the board modified, and all installed into the case


The purple wire is the thinnest I have at the moments. Unfortunately its not thin and flexible enough and has led to one of the pads coming off the board. Luckily, this was for the WAN  LED, which was to have been the green one. I can live without this, but subsequent wiring was done with far more care! It had proved impossible to remove the original SMD LEDs, so these had to be destroyed in situ, to prevent running parallel LEDs and ramping up the current. One of the coax's also had to be redone as the dielectric melted and shorted out.


With care, the remaining two LEDs (PWR and RF) were connected up, along with the reset switch and fitting the RP-SMA connectors. I dont know if the LEDs are wired correctly yet, that will become apparent when the unit if finally powered up. Apart from the sheet of insulation behind it, the board is only currently held in place by hot melt glue along the edge and around the LAN connector. Much more hot melt will be added to the top corners later.

The device bolted to the side of the case is a 7805 5v regulator. A set of bypass capacitors are still needed on this before the board can be wired to it, and the DC socket connected up. Prior to this, the antennas will be fitted temporarily and the boarded fed 5v from the variable PSU on the bench, with the laptop connected, just to prove the board is still operational.

When the 2nd repeater arrives, i'll meter out the WAN LED connections and find a way to reconnect the LED.

Apart from the PSU and testing, there remains the mounting plate. This will bolt to the lid of the case, and hold two U-clamps. With this in place, a section of pole with a base plate attached will be fashioned to allow a free standing repeater unit to be set up.

Hopefully testing of the unit can start in the next day or two.

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