Thanks for the info guys (a bit late from robert-e, but's ok ) I've succesfully feed 2 WRT54GL with linksys out of the box adapter. The main router with 28mw xmit power and all switches are occupied, the other with 84mw hook to 14dbi panel and connect to the main router through 10 meters cat5 cable. I noticed the adapter is hotter than before, drawing more current I suppose. Thanks for the great guide. _________________ - adx -
Joined: 28 Jun 2007 Posts: 87 Location: Ontario, Canada
Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 21:47 Post subject:
Cool. That's similar to what I want to do in the future... run powered cat5 to an AP acting as a client bridge and hook up a second AP to the first (soldering the right connections to have it all powered) to rebroadcast the signal. It'll all be powered by one adapter too. Fantastic guides, guys!
Joined: 21 Apr 2007 Posts: 86 Location: Buenos Aires
Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 14:26 Post subject:
toysareforboys wrote:
Blackraven wrote:
Anybody has experience with hacking a NIC card so that it powers the WRT?
Laptop? Hmmm. Not too sure. You'll need to feed the network port with power from the power port on your laptop. You could do it internally probably. Check the output on your laptop power adapter, if your using a Linksys router anything 9 to 19 volts should be fine for your POE setup.
Now using a desktop computer to power the linksys, that's a great idea. If you're using a Linksys router, you can power it internally in your computer, right off your computers power supply! Yellow and Black wire to the corresponding pairs of pins on the back of your nic's network port. The back of your nic will look exactly like the back of the WAN port in my picture.
Now, if you need to run a few routers off it, your computers power supply has more then enuff juice .
-Jamie M.
Hi
I think that power from the notebook is a BAD idea (yes in capitalized letters and all), power supplies in notebooks are designed to the last mA used, so it's not a good idea messing with it.
a regular PC is another story, but consider using a Polyswitch in series with the +12V, because PC power supllies are powerful and a short circuit is a serious business :)
WRT54GL with the SD and serial mod, draws 260 mA @ 12V, keep in mind that if you increase voltage the mA goes down to maintain the power factor, for example, @ 14V the same router draws 200 mA and @9V about 330mA (numbers from my head, if you need exact numbers I can tested it again, this is just to give you an idea)
under no circunstances i will try to use more than 16V because input capacitors could blow.
The stock power transformer supports 1000mA (max) so 2 routers would be fine, 3 Is a risky bet.
Joined: 01 Sep 2006 Posts: 92 Location: Netherlands, The Hague
Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 20:00 Post subject:
Check out the Visual Sound 1 Spot for wireless power adaper. While not designed for our kind of wireless, it's an interesting power adapter. Small from factor, tiny compared to the Linksys 12 V-1000mA power adapter. Delivers 12 Volts DC and maxes out @ 1500 mAmps. That could power two WRT's easily, possibly even three... _________________ WRT54GL v1.1 @ 216MHz
2x HGA7T
DD-WRT v24 RC-5 (11/22/07) std nokaid
I've done this mod as you can read a couple post above and need to warn people with SD/MMC mod enable. I've experienced consistent SD card read failure during power cycle if trying to power up both router at the same time. Just don't be like me thinking that something has gone wrong with the card or the solder point. This doesn't happen if you switch on the main router (the one with SD card) and connect the cable to the second router afterward. When it failed, some of the file in the card will corrupt. I'm not sure what's the cause of this because the power would be enough to keep 2 router alive at the same time. Maybe during startup more power is needed? _________________ - adx -
Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 980 Location: Coal Creek Canyon, Colorado
Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 1:48 Post subject:
Treb wrote:
Check out the Visual Sound 1 Spot for wireless power adaper. While not designed for our kind of wireless, it's an interesting power adapter. Small from factor, tiny compared to the Linksys 12 V-1000mA power adapter. Delivers 12 Volts DC and maxes out @ 1500 mAmps. That could power two WRT's easily, possibly even three...
seems obscenely expensive, but a good idea.
with a few centavos worth of parts, a person could easily adapt a stock wart that way, or chain PoE.
I know we're getting off the topic here..... _________________ linksys GSv2, Gv4, Gv2, GLv1, G-TM, Buffalo wbr2, whr, whr-hp, whr-g125, wli-tx4-g54hp, Moto wr850gp, Alix.3C2
Did you confirm this? Maybe coincidence, I don't know. A mmc drains too little current (I don't know how much, but I'm convinced that it's pretty small.
Can you repeat the test?
I've repeat the test a few times. Even now if I reboot the router, it will failed to read the sd card and report the space as 3,800kb. Take out the PoE cable, power cycle and it will read fine again but with some (not all) corrupted file inside. _________________ - adx -
Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 22:43 Post subject: Max Length
I have found without an SD card after cutting 5' per increment off of a 60' poe cable(24awg cat5e) the max run is 35'. Even with a 13.5 volt 2 amp bench power supply. Maybe I'm using substandard parts but they're all verified to cat 5e standards. I would think you might be maxed out at 30' without moving to a larger wire like 22awg. Just a thought anyway.
Edit: and you still might kill the stock power supply.
Edit edit: Under load(the wrt54gl v1.1) at 35 feet/24awg cat5e voltage drops to 4.83volts apparently barely enough to squeek through the boot up and powering on the wireless. Anotherwords the calculator mentioned in the first post has some severe debugging needed perhaps adding end load to the equation.
Edit edit edit: Stock power supply now dead after an hour. Guess that explains the extreme power drop. Guess I should've checked how hot the wart was.
Moral of the story: use a higher voltage wap for longer runs. Guess that's why PoE standards use 48v.
mountainfreak...I am interested in which router you are using; and did you get a chance to check the current drawn by your router, when it very close to your two amp power supply. Something seems odd, since I tried this with a 50 foot run of cat 5, on a Linksys wrt54gl, and the voltage drop was not near yours. Not knocking yours but I have a particular interest in this sort of thing, and would like a bit more info. Thanks.
Regards,
Bob
I should've but didn't get the amp draw on the gl. I'll check the draw at the bench power supply and let you know. The 2 amp bench supply still works great. The stock one fried should've known better when I saw the voltage so low ... voltage drop shouldn't be that high in that short of a run ...I think that was due to overheating now. I think the stock power supply was going out while I was testing. I've done 300' run with 12v/2amp but that was with a 900mHZ dedicated bridge only designed for PoE, perhaps it's a new lower amp power supply(less than .42). It could still be sub-standard material, should I measure raw ohms for 35 feet on the cable?
MountainFreak;
Thanks for the reply...It has been a while now, but if I recall correctly the current draw on the 54GL using the stock Linksys wall wort was 241 ma. I think I had the radio set at 102 mw, but the power of the radio had no significant effect on the current draw of the router. I still have the 50 ft run of cat 5 around here somewheres, and I could measure that easily; but the Copper Wire Table predicts the resistance to be very low. I wonder if you perhaps had a bad Linksys wall wort...mine does run on the warm side. I did some experiments last winter with the wireless repeater mode, and this year I am talking along a 2 amp current/votage regulated supply to help eliminate some of the guesswork. I found that 300 feet of cable worked with a single router on the Linksys supply.
Keep us updated on your findings.
Regards,
Bob
Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 980 Location: Coal Creek Canyon, Colorado
Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:42 Post subject:
all wrts I've ever opened are the same.
I've never seen anything newer than a v4=GL, so I have no way of knowing (or caring) about v5 and up, since I will never use any of that braindead crap.
However, It should be easily visible to the naked eye to any poor sap who pissed perfectly good money down the rat-hole and owns a v5+ _________________ linksys GSv2, Gv4, Gv2, GLv1, G-TM, Buffalo wbr2, whr, whr-hp, whr-g125, wli-tx4-g54hp, Moto wr850gp, Alix.3C2