DBK
LIFE MEMBER
For the last couple of years I've used a Huawei E5577C Mifi with a Netgear Aircard antenna. This worked well but it wasn't very convenient to use - too many cables to get tangled up.
The answer was to fit a permanent antenna on the roof of the van. After looking at what was available I chose a Poynting MiMo 1-1 antenna which I bought from Solwise.
https://www.solwise.co.uk/4g-wifi-antenna-omni-a-mimo-1-1.html
Not cheap, but other antenna of similar performance have similar prices. I chose this one as the claimed performance was the best I could find and you could download various graphs to back up their figures, which I couldn't find for the competition.
Choosing where to fit the antenna took a lot of thought. The main problem is getting access to the underside of the roof without removing the headlining. One place I could get to the roof was in the toilet compartment. By removing a cabinet under the ceiling I found an area without headlining where I could reach the bare metal underside of the roof after pushing aside the insulation. The second problem was the top of the roof wasn't flat here but was the typical PVC flat ridges. The flat top of each ridge was only about half the width of the antenna so it would overhang along the sides. Solwise thought this wasn't a good idea as water might get in but I also emailed Poynting and got back a quick reply to say the antenna was fully waterproof and this wouldn't be a problem. While exchanging emails with Poynting they recommended I look again at the front of the vehicle.
To cut a long story short, I eventually fitted it at the front of the roof. Access on my van is difficult here but not impossible as there is a fixed shelf under the forward part of the roof. The headlining here is also stuck directly to the roof.
Access is through the slot above the strip of blue cloth you can see above. Working inside here was like performing surgery through a letterbox. With a 90 degree drill attachment and some very careful measurement and several coffees to steady my nerves I drilled a 20mm hole in the roof. I started with a 2.5mm pilot drill from underneath. I then double checked from above this was in the right place and then opened it up to 5mm. Then from outside and still using the 90 degree attachment, I used a new 20mm hole saw bought for this job to cut the final hole.
Ideally, it should be a little further to the rear, but as you can see in this shot taken from inside the shelf it was not possible to drill the hole any further back as there is a roof reinforcing member running across at this point. Where it is now the roof is very slightly curved at the front but the bottom of the antenna has a layer of foam so it caters for a little unevenness.
The antenna comes with a pair of short cables with SMA plugs. I added two 1m extensions, which you can see fixed with 4.8mm P clips going to the left. I need to buy some 10mm P clips to support the cables coming out of the antenna as they are thicker and surrounded by braid but for the moment I have used a self-adhesive pad and a zip tie. The cables need to be kept as short as possible as there is typically a signal loss of 0.5dB per metre of cable.
The cables are fed round and into the locker on the left. Inside the locker they drop down and out again.
They emerge here.
The blue material where the two cables emerge is padded, so I could drill the 10mm holes required to pass the SMA plugs through, out of sight. The cables are then attached to two short cables with 90 degree TS9 plugs on them to connect to the antenna sockets on the MiFi.
In the picture above you can also see the USB power lead. I've just pushed this into the padding for the moment and connected it to a USB extension cable you can see in the bottom left. I will fix up a more permanent power supply later.
Here's another picture of the finished installation.
The MiFi is held in place by Velcro, as conveniently the front of the locker is a sort of fuzzy felt. The other cable you can see dangling on the left goes to the dash cam. My next project to sort out with a proper power supply.
Here's a close-up of the antenna on the roof.
And a general shot of the front of the van.
So after spending around £200 including the cables (but not including the MiFi) does it work?
Here are the figures:
MiFi on its own, no external antenna but placed high up near a window.
Download: 8 mbps Upload: 4.5 mbps
MiFi with Netgear Aircard antenna:
Download: 10 mbps Upload: 6 mbps
MiFo with Poynting MiMo 1-1 Antenna
Download: 12 mbps Upload: 18 mbps
The figures above are rounded off averages of 6 tests in each configuration. Ping in all tests was about the same at around 32ms.
The striking performance on upload was a surprise. While this may not matter for some I use my MiFi a lot when away for uploading images so upload speed is important.
The tests were all done with a Vodafone sim card. Vodafone reception where I live is very poor, I can't get any signal inside the house. This makes this a good test of reception in an area of marginal reception I think. Test conditions were 10°C and dry with clear blue sky in daylight. It would be worth repeating them when it is raining I think and possibly at other times of the day.
Of course the way I fitted mine was specific to my van and if you want to fit your own you will need to sort out your own installation. Poynting were very helpful, I sent my first email to sales-europe@poynting.tech but then had dealings with specific individuals. They were very quick to answer technical questions and I would suggest contacting them before finalising your design. For example, the steel roof of a PVC is an ideal mounting surface but if you have say a fibreglass roof you would need to mount the antenna on a metal plate as it needs a ground plane. They could advise on the best material for this.
The answer was to fit a permanent antenna on the roof of the van. After looking at what was available I chose a Poynting MiMo 1-1 antenna which I bought from Solwise.
https://www.solwise.co.uk/4g-wifi-antenna-omni-a-mimo-1-1.html
Not cheap, but other antenna of similar performance have similar prices. I chose this one as the claimed performance was the best I could find and you could download various graphs to back up their figures, which I couldn't find for the competition.
Choosing where to fit the antenna took a lot of thought. The main problem is getting access to the underside of the roof without removing the headlining. One place I could get to the roof was in the toilet compartment. By removing a cabinet under the ceiling I found an area without headlining where I could reach the bare metal underside of the roof after pushing aside the insulation. The second problem was the top of the roof wasn't flat here but was the typical PVC flat ridges. The flat top of each ridge was only about half the width of the antenna so it would overhang along the sides. Solwise thought this wasn't a good idea as water might get in but I also emailed Poynting and got back a quick reply to say the antenna was fully waterproof and this wouldn't be a problem. While exchanging emails with Poynting they recommended I look again at the front of the vehicle.
To cut a long story short, I eventually fitted it at the front of the roof. Access on my van is difficult here but not impossible as there is a fixed shelf under the forward part of the roof. The headlining here is also stuck directly to the roof.
Access is through the slot above the strip of blue cloth you can see above. Working inside here was like performing surgery through a letterbox. With a 90 degree drill attachment and some very careful measurement and several coffees to steady my nerves I drilled a 20mm hole in the roof. I started with a 2.5mm pilot drill from underneath. I then double checked from above this was in the right place and then opened it up to 5mm. Then from outside and still using the 90 degree attachment, I used a new 20mm hole saw bought for this job to cut the final hole.
Ideally, it should be a little further to the rear, but as you can see in this shot taken from inside the shelf it was not possible to drill the hole any further back as there is a roof reinforcing member running across at this point. Where it is now the roof is very slightly curved at the front but the bottom of the antenna has a layer of foam so it caters for a little unevenness.
The antenna comes with a pair of short cables with SMA plugs. I added two 1m extensions, which you can see fixed with 4.8mm P clips going to the left. I need to buy some 10mm P clips to support the cables coming out of the antenna as they are thicker and surrounded by braid but for the moment I have used a self-adhesive pad and a zip tie. The cables need to be kept as short as possible as there is typically a signal loss of 0.5dB per metre of cable.
The cables are fed round and into the locker on the left. Inside the locker they drop down and out again.
They emerge here.
The blue material where the two cables emerge is padded, so I could drill the 10mm holes required to pass the SMA plugs through, out of sight. The cables are then attached to two short cables with 90 degree TS9 plugs on them to connect to the antenna sockets on the MiFi.
In the picture above you can also see the USB power lead. I've just pushed this into the padding for the moment and connected it to a USB extension cable you can see in the bottom left. I will fix up a more permanent power supply later.
Here's another picture of the finished installation.
The MiFi is held in place by Velcro, as conveniently the front of the locker is a sort of fuzzy felt. The other cable you can see dangling on the left goes to the dash cam. My next project to sort out with a proper power supply.
Here's a close-up of the antenna on the roof.
And a general shot of the front of the van.
So after spending around £200 including the cables (but not including the MiFi) does it work?
Here are the figures:
MiFi on its own, no external antenna but placed high up near a window.
Download: 8 mbps Upload: 4.5 mbps
MiFi with Netgear Aircard antenna:
Download: 10 mbps Upload: 6 mbps
MiFo with Poynting MiMo 1-1 Antenna
Download: 12 mbps Upload: 18 mbps
The figures above are rounded off averages of 6 tests in each configuration. Ping in all tests was about the same at around 32ms.
The striking performance on upload was a surprise. While this may not matter for some I use my MiFi a lot when away for uploading images so upload speed is important.
The tests were all done with a Vodafone sim card. Vodafone reception where I live is very poor, I can't get any signal inside the house. This makes this a good test of reception in an area of marginal reception I think. Test conditions were 10°C and dry with clear blue sky in daylight. It would be worth repeating them when it is raining I think and possibly at other times of the day.
Of course the way I fitted mine was specific to my van and if you want to fit your own you will need to sort out your own installation. Poynting were very helpful, I sent my first email to sales-europe@poynting.tech but then had dealings with specific individuals. They were very quick to answer technical questions and I would suggest contacting them before finalising your design. For example, the steel roof of a PVC is an ideal mounting surface but if you have say a fibreglass roof you would need to mount the antenna on a metal plate as it needs a ground plane. They could advise on the best material for this.
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