DIY Wi-Fi

almichie

almichie

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I’ve been wondering why the Huawei Wi-fi box hasn’t been performing as well as my phone for streaming in the motorhome, and having watched several hundreds videos it seems the Wi-fi box I have, with no option for external connection, has old technology (legacy) and as such would never perform like new technology (my phone) or a dedicated set up with external antenn.

Looking at what’s available and not wanting to spend £300, and I am not disputing the value of the system, I went about researching other options.

What I have ordered is a TP Link MR200 Wi-fi router capable of 4g (12vdc input), a dc-dc voltage regulator and a Poynting PUCK 2 (5G capable) antenna. Total price £110.

Once it all arrives, I am happy to let everyone know how it all works and installs.
 
I will be interested in hearing of your findings. My experience over the years with phones and Mifi and aerials etc. is that choosing where you go (the site) and where you park (the pitch) makes a vast amount of difference - as does the sim provider. The hardware has all been much of a muchness by comparison.
 
I watched a lot of videos on antenna and routers and it seems to be the antenna that is the key, and this seemed to be a good route with good reviews - I am expecting at least 4 times the speeds I am currently getting and I wanted to be 5G ready so it was a plus.

You can go crazy, like with everything, and spend a huge amount of money. I know with a little shopping around and some research you can usually do very well for a lot less.

The downside Is the router has no battery, but it will be connected permanently anyway so it won’t matter.
 
I have a similar setup in my own van, a TP Link router with a Panorama puck antenna.
Also using a DC regulator.

Works great for us and really like the guest network if a friend or family member parked next door.

Hopefully you will too (y)
 
Tp 200 spec says aerial is external detatachable. Is this the wifi antenna or the mobile network antenna?

I Have a different tp link modem with built in sim, to get to the mobile network antenna leads i had to open case and extend antenna leads to new sockets i mounted on the case.

Do check you can plug your Puck antrnna in ok.

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They spin off, rabbit ears - https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/3g-4g-router/archer-mr200/

the antenna screws back into where they come off
SandraL said:
Tp 200 spec says aerial is external detatachable. Is this the wifi antenna or the mobile network antenna?

I Have a different tp link modem with built in sim, to get to the mobile network antenna leads i had to open case and extend antenna leads to new sockets i mounted on the case.

Do check you can plug your Puck antrnna in ok.
Click to expand...
 
Agreed , your link confirms the remvable antenna are the 4g mobile network, on mine they were the wifi antenna.
 
Lenny HB said:
A Puck is a waste of time unless you camp in big towns. The gain in 800mhz band which most rural cell masts use in non exsistant.
Click to expand...
The 800Mhz range bracket on the mi mo is an average over the frequency set. It’s negative on the lower range and positive above 800 and the average is 1db. I’m not saying it’s worse but not amazing either.

I may send the pick back - the panorama looks like it covers a wider frequency range but I see no data on gains other than an average?
 
Reading into this a little more it’s not clear cut on the 800Mhz frequency band. If you are far away from a mast then it helps keep signal but on its own it has a low dynamic range meaning capacity (or the number of users) is limited. Three use 700Mhz, 800Mhz, 1400Mhz, 1800, 2100, for 4g (700 is 5g as well) and 3400, 36000-4000 for 5g.

The lower the frequency, the further a deeper the distance but the less capacity, and the opposite for higher frequencies. Which is why you’ve got super high frequency for 5g coupled with that 700Mhz bolt on for penetration.

So, I agree with you on the 800Mhz, but you need the 1400mhz band to be good too and neither of the poynting antennas have that band available, unless I’ve missed something? The panorama great white does. This might be a better solution - I will keep the puck (in the name of science) and try it on a comparison to the great white!

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Looking at the mast data, bands 1,3 and 20 are the most common - 2100, 1800 and 800…. I take it back and will also swap the puck!
 
Lenny HB said:
A Puck is a waste of time unless you camp in big towns. The gain in 800mhz band which most rural cell masts use in non exsistant.
Click to expand...
In case I missed it what external Mifi aerials can you recommend? My box has two ports ready for a suitable external fixed aerial.
 
We have a Netgear M2 and I am considering fitting an external antenna now we will be using it a lot more, so this thread is helpful, thanks.
 
Get a good router, ideally one with carrier aggregation, for the best performance.

Testing your antenna in a town or city doesn’t really tell you anything. The real test is when you’re rural, far from a cell tower, and your phone has weak or low signal.

Antennas give you the best chance to stay connected wherever you are… not the absolute fastest download in the middle of a town compared with your mobile.

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We've just used a cheap mobile mifi device without an aerial socket - TP-Link M7000.

Even in a metal PVC it works really well. During 10 weeks of touring France, Spain and Portugal last year, only failed to get a signal once - in a deep valley in the Pico's D' Europa.

If signal is marginal in the van we have placed it on top of the blind / fly screen in the midi heki skylight where it is proud of the metal roof and gets a clear view out.

The added advantage is that being battery powered it comes out with us during the day in my wife's bag. She becomes a mobile hotspot!

Previously paired with an unlimited Superdrug SIM. Now they have introduced roaming restrictions we will have to look around again for when we next cross the channel.

As an aside, during our recent couple of weeks in SE England I have to say I was surprised at the poor 4g coverage in many quite densely populated areas - significantly worse than in rural Wales.
 
Jev88 said:
In case I missed it what external Mifi aerials can you recommend? My box has two ports ready for a suitable external fixed aerial.
Click to expand...
You can’t go wrong with this example:
www.netxl.com

Poynting MIMO-3-V2-15 Transport and Marine MIMO Antenna | NetXL

This Poynting MIMO-3-V2-15 is a high performance 5-in-1 antenna system within a single housing, providing 2x Cellular, 2x Wi-Fi and 1x GPS/GLONASS. This antenna is specifically designed for the transportation and marine industries. The 2x Cellular MIMO antennas (for 2G/3G/4G) cover the...
www.netxl.com www.netxl.com
 
Jev88 said:
In case I missed it what external Mifi aerials can you recommend? My box has two ports ready for a suitable external fixed aerial.
Click to expand...
The one Raul recommends in post #17 is a good one, I have an older version and have been very impressed with the performance.
 
Jev88 said:
In case I missed it what external Mifi aerials can you recommend? My box has two ports ready for a suitable external fixed aerial.
Click to expand...
The two main ones appear to be the Panorama or the Poynting MIMO’s.
Avtex and Motorhome WiFi use Panorama versions in their kits.
After a lot of complicated research I chose a Panorama Great White 5G LTE from Co-Star,

Co-Star Antennas, Panorama, TETRA, 4G, 5G, LTE, IoT, DAB

Co-Star supply a comprehensive range of Panorama antennas incuding: 3G, 4G LTE, GSM, TETRA, DAB. The applications for the Panorama antennas include: The Internet-of-Things, M2M, Mobile WiFi, TETRA, DAB.
www.co-star.co.uk www.co-star.co.uk
though it’s slightly more expensive than the Poynting.
It’ll depend on what you’re connecting it to, I chose the 2x2 Mobile 2x2 WiFi 5G as I have the appropriate connections on my Teltonika RUT950 router.
With both the Poynting and Panorama antennas there is a large choice of configurations/specs according to your needs and what you’re connecting it to.
 
Last edited:
Poynting do a 4 cellular as well, as you say, depending on the router capability.

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So, the choices appear to be;

Panorama LPMM 6-60

Poynting MIMO 3-v2-12

Poynting PUCK 2

The Panorama antenna has a motorhome specific kit available as in the posts above, and this is quite appealing. That said I have a convenient entry point where the solar enters which means the Poynting could be a better fit. I will review today or tomorrow on the roof and make a decision.

I could keep the puck and try it - it has the ability to clamp to a pole and our van has roof bars…. It would be an easy transit to the MIMO then if the rural signal was poor - I think this could be route for now and feedback to you all if it is as poor as people seem to think it is.
 
almichie said:
So, the choices appear to be;

Panorama LPMM 6-60

Poynting MIMO 3-v2-12

Poynting PUCK 2

The Panorama antenna has a motorhome specific kit available as in the posts above, and this is quite appealing. That said I have a convenient entry point where the solar enters which means the Poynting could be a better fit. I will review today or tomorrow on the roof and make a decision.

I could keep the puck and try it - it has the ability to clamp to a pole and our van has roof bars…. It would be an easy transit to the MIMO then if the rural signal was poor - I think this could be route for now and feedback to you all if it is as poor as people seem to think it is.
Click to expand...
It was between the first two for me, our LPMM 6-60 is more than we need right now but the point was to future proof.
 
Poynting did their own comparison of the Puck vs Mimo. I tried the Puck and it was good, but the MIMO does outperform. Yesterday I had no reception on phones when local cellular masts went down, but was able to use wifi in the van.

Poynting Comparison
 
Guyadria said:
Poynting did their own comparison of the Puck vs Mimo. I tried the Puck and it was good, but the MIMO does outperform. Yesterday I had no reception on phones when local cellular masts went down, but was able to use wifi in the van.

Poynting Comparison
Click to expand...
The problem is there are so many variables, a lot of cell masts transmit on multiple frequencies and sometimes comparing a phone with a Mifi, the phone gets a stronger signal often because it has logged onto a different bandwidth to the Mifi but there is no way of checking.
Data speed varies constantly depending on how many connections are on the cell, at home where we have a good signal over a 15 min period my data rate can vary between 30mb/s to 50mb/s.

One thing I have found with a MIMO even in good signal areas the upload speed is generally doubled which is great for uploading photos & videos.

One thing I have found in remote mountains areas of France & Spain where neither of our phones couldn't get any signal but with the Mifi and the MIMO I got a 3G.
 
Motorhome Wifi, plug in and forget 4G/5G system with 160gb a month data sim, on a EE contract at £20 a month. Gets a signal even when my iPhone with EE struggles.


1645311184735.png


1645311139042.png

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almichie said:
I’ve been wondering why the Huawei Wi-fi box hasn’t been performing as well as my phone for streaming in the motorhome, and having watched several hundreds videos it seems the Wi-fi box I have, with no option for external connection, has old technology (legacy) and as such would never perform like new technology (my phone) or a dedicated set up with external antenn.

Looking at what’s available and not wanting to spend £300, and I am not disputing the value of the system, I went about researching other options.

What I have ordered is a TP Link MR200 Wi-fi router capable of 4g (12vdc input), a dc-dc voltage regulator and a Poynting PUCK 2 (5G capable) antenna. Total price £110.

Once it all arrives, I am happy to let everyone know how it all works and installs.
Click to expand...
I have a Huawei Wi-fi box installed with 4g/5G ready Ariel installed as well. At the moment we are only using it to connect the laptop. Only been doing weekday since we bought the van last October and not great TV watcher over these weekends. TBH we haven’t even properly figured out the satellite yet. But we are supposed to be able to stream over the wifi, I’ll try and check that out next time we are out.
 
I looked into this area a while back and concluded there was no point in spending money on this. Any modern phone with a half way decent processor and 5g support will act as a fine hotspot for multiple other devices, and save the cost not only of the mifi device/aerial but also another SIM card subscription. I use Xiaomi for their excellent price Vs performance.

So that's what we do. Works fine. In rural areas the marginal difference between having an external aerial or a phone is so small that, even if we could get a signal, the data speed would be awful.

For the same reason we don't bother buying tablets with LTE options - which also saves quite a lot of unnecessary expense.
 
The Lobster said:
In rural areas the marginal difference between having an external aerial or a phone is so small that, even if we could get a signal, the data speed would be awful.
Click to expand...
I disagree with this one. A good antenna can mean the difference between no connection and a relatively robust 10-20mb or more.

I guess it all depends on the value we place on being connected. We both work p/t from our van, so it’s important for us…. But each to their own 👍

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