Access Points and
Housing
Access Points are the devices that link the wireless signal to the
wired LAN/WAN. They range in features, quality, purpose and price
from a home office $50 firewall appliance to NEMA certified utility
grade gear that is very expensive. They also vary in antenna
connections. You may have to look around on the web or carefully
inspect the product
documentation to find the antenna connector type. The access
points I've chosen are embedded
linux devices that come with a remarkable feature set and only cost
about $75 US. The cable connectors for this make of AP are shown
above. I bought ROM
images for the APs from
these folks: Sveasoft:
Firmware. They have added WDS, antenna separation, and
transmit
wattage adjustment to the APs. These APs have known slight heat
stability
issues, but for my application and budget, they are fine and have
performed flawlessly so far. There
are also open source firmwares for this device. If you are
interested in embedded Linux devices, one can add two RS232 ports to
them, as shown below. The APs have the full Linux kernel and many
BusyBox apps, so you can do lots
of interesting things with them.
I've included some links below that have more info about the APs.
Linksys
WRT54 Hardware Versions
WRT54g-spectraloutput
And if you should ever need to revive one that choked during a
firmware update: wrt54g_revival
The Linksys WRT54GS is shown below in it's dish mounted
box. I mount my access points at the dish and have less
cable, cost, and signal loss. The metal
box houses an access
point an it's power supply. All I need to connect to the AP
is the antenna and Ethernet
cables,
and a 110v cord.
The Housing
I want a lot of air flow. The piece of PVC pipe has an open face
and fits over
the front of
the metal box. I made the opening by sawing off a side
with a bandsaw, but I could have used a circular saw and make two
cuts. The ends of the PVC get capped
off with louvers and the whole rig gets painted grey. So does the
box except the top,
that gets painted glossy white. I found the circular louvers at
the hardware store.
In situ. The louvers are epoxied and nylon tied to the PVC
pipe. I'll lash the whole cover with wire to the box and fix the
cable entry to discourage birds and insects. Paint the
top glossy white, and the rest grey. Painting the bottom flat
black might be good too, but I haven't.
I added a serial
connector (AD233BK) to one my Access Points. It Voids my
Warranty and allows for remote control and data
collection: I'll
be fooling with that more soon.
The Linksys WRT54GS with an add-on
serial port
