Blackbird Posted January 11, 2020 Posted January 11, 2020 Finally got it today and heard some rattling inside so I opened the case and this is how I found it! What happened to quality control? I emailed UDI and I am waiting for the response.
Teken Posted January 11, 2020 Posted January 11, 2020 I just received my unit too and also found something was rattling around when it was taken out of the secure mailbox. ☹️ On a related note did everyone receive two antennas?!? As I have only one on hand and there are two ports left / right. Im going to let the box thaw out for a couple hours because it’s -29’C here! ?
mwester Posted January 11, 2020 Posted January 11, 2020 No big deal -- a lot of the early units got bounced around worse than that in shipping (mine arrived with BOTH the wifi and the SSD cards loose!). Just pop them back in place. The hardware designer chose to use spring clips rather than screws to hold the boards down, which is great for hobbyists, but as you've noticed, not so good for shipping. 2
Blackbird Posted January 11, 2020 Author Posted January 11, 2020 33 minutes ago, Teken said: I just received my unit too and also found something was rattling around when it was taken out of the secure mailbox. ☹️ On a related note did everyone receive two antennas?!? As I have only one on hand and there are two ports left / right. Im going to let the box thaw out for a couple hours because it’s -29’C here! ? I got two antennas but the 1 spot where the antenna screws onto has a pin in the middle but the other is a hole like male, female but both antennas are the same, female. Is this normal?
f11 Posted January 11, 2020 Posted January 11, 2020 Ok, I thought maybe I got a fluke dud unit, but now that there's two of us, well ... I have the same situation, so the same question: I got a unit with one "male" antenna BNC-type connector on the box, and one "female" (no central pin, just a hole). Neither antenna have a pin, so this is strange. I can't see how the female BNC-type connector can possibly contribute to WiFi signal strength. But what do I know. Is this normal?
Teken Posted January 11, 2020 Posted January 11, 2020 I thought this was pretty interesting and funny at the same time. My brand new system has been up and running for more than 2 years, 7 months, 3 weeks, 1 day, 38 minutes, and 8 seconds! Must be that clean brisk Canadian air we have up here that makes things go faster . . . ? 1
larryllix Posted January 11, 2020 Posted January 11, 2020 20 minutes ago, Teken said: I thought this was pretty interesting and funny at the same time. My brand new system has been up and running for more than 2 years, 7 months, 3 weeks, 1 day, 38 minutes, and 8 seconds! Must be that clean brisk Canadian air we have up here that makes things go faster . . . ? The North Pole has many time zones to select from. You need to set it to the proper one. 1
mwester Posted January 11, 2020 Posted January 11, 2020 3 hours ago, f11 said: Ok, I thought maybe I got a fluke dud unit, but now that there's two of us, well ... I have the same situation, so the same question: I got a unit with one "male" antenna BNC-type connector on the box, and one "female" (no central pin, just a hole). Neither antenna have a pin, so this is strange. I can't see how the female BNC-type connector can possibly contribute to WiFi signal strength. But what do I know. Is this normal? Never looked at mine, since I don't use the wifi (folded up the antennas, and ignored them...) - but same here. I believe the correct terminology for those connectors is SMA and RP-SMA (for Reverse Polarity SMA). And no, it's not normal to attempt to connect an SMA with an RP-SMA - as you note, the center pin (the antenna) will never connect, so it's pointless. The manufacturer's site doesn't state conclusively if mixing the two was intentional, but I'd have to assume that it wasn't intended - probably the one pigtail from the card to the chassis is wrong. It might be really convenient to have one of each -- the SMA is the "standard" connector, but a lot of routers early on used the RP-SMA (Linksys for example). So I have a few higher-gain antennas with the RP-SMA connector that should fit very nicely - and add a bit of range to the wifi. But for those who don't want that, perhaps swapping one of the antennas out, or using an adapter is the solution. A glance at Amazon shows dozens of adapters all about $5/pair -- and likewise, numerous RP-SMA wifi antennas, at all sorts of prices (not all of which are legal in the US per FCC rules, but that doesn't seem to stop the sellers! )
oberkc Posted January 11, 2020 Posted January 11, 2020 Never looked at mine, either. I checked them and found the same. Starting to see a trend?
apostolakisl Posted January 11, 2020 Posted January 11, 2020 Never checked my antenna sockets either. Actually didn't even install the antennas until my wife started complaining about the fact that they were sitting on the counter. I also found that my polisy was giving me an up-time initially that was a number that was far larger than correct. At some point after reboots or firmware updates or something or another, it became correct.
larryllix Posted January 11, 2020 Posted January 11, 2020 I installed my antennae immediately before powering up.Some radios, transmitting power without an antenna to absorb it, can burn out the rf output amplifier stages.Sent using Tapatalk
oberkc Posted January 11, 2020 Posted January 11, 2020 Looking a little closer at mine, I am starting to wonder if the antenna connection without a "pin" is also something other than a hole. It looks to me not to be a hole, but a gold contact point. The antenna half of this appears also to be a similar contact point. I don't know why the two antennas would have to be different, but they are in my case, but I don't know that this represents a problem if, in fact, there is connectivity.
glarsen Posted January 16, 2020 Posted January 16, 2020 On 1/11/2020 at 3:39 AM, oberkc said: Never looked at mine, either. I checked them and found the same. Starting to see a trend? Same here. Just checked mine, one chassis connector is male, the other female, while both antennae have female connectors. Female to female might be ok in some circumstances, but not for connectors. Looks like a manufacturing error. OTOH, if one isn't using Wi-Fi, it's academic. 1
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