I’ve got a weird problem on 5 GHz on an hAP AC3 device at home. The house is located in a village and the air is very quiet, I only see two other (very remote) APs at 2.4 GHz with signals worse than -90. Nothing on 5 GHz and so the channel I chose is 5180.
The router is located under the roof and only a single drywall and 5 cm of stone wool insulation separates it and the room below. No concrete or metal of any kind.
The problem is: The phones and the laptops in the room (less than 3-5 m from the router) see the 5 GHz network at very good signal levels: -45 to -55, but when they connect, the registration table shows their signals at much worse level, -78 to -88 and the speeds and connections stability is not good. At the same time, if I connect at 2.4 GHz, the levels are the same on the clients and on the router and the connection is stable.
What has been tries:
Relocating the router in another part of the roof - no improvement.
Resetting the router and setting it again - no improvement.
Registration table shows signal levels, measured by AP on client’s signals. Ideally signal levels, measured by both parties, would match but in reality it’s not like that. One of reasons is that battery-powered devices (e.g. smart phones) will usually use lower Tx power (to conserve battery). And for stable bi-directional link signal levels in both directions should be “high enough”.
So either make your wireless clients to use more Tx power … or decrease Tx power of your AP (to make connections more symmetrical) … but you’ll loose coverage.
Did a test with another router (a cheap TP-Link) on 5 GHz next to this one, the signals are 20 dBm better than the Mikrotik. On 2.4 GHz they are the same.
Since that AC3 is out of warranty, I decided to open it up. Its not good - after less than 3 years of operation, the thermal compound is toasted, hard as a rock and brittle. On the reverse side of the board, a couple of condensers have changed color and are shorted.
I guess the device overheated and the 5 GHz chain is toast.
Can someone recommend another Mikrotik device with WiFi AC/AX, which can handle the heat under the roof? Maybe something intended for outdoor use?
The wAP AX is the first device that comes to mind. But be aware that the orientation of this device is important, as its radiation pattern is not omni directional. In comparison to the TP-Link, there shouldn’t be that much of a difference if all device comply with regulations (assuming both are transmitting at full power). Older devices tend to not comply.
Why this specific place (under the roof)? What temperatures does it get there?
I can’t find its radiation pattern, is it unidirectional?
The location under the roof is because the house is split in the middle with a very thick (almost a meter) stone and concrete wall. The router sits on top of it, covering both parts. The temperature reaches 60° Celsius in the hottest days.
The tests with the TP-Link router (running openwrt) were made with the same tx/rx power of 25 dBm.
I suspect - but I may be wrong - that the brochure is written by the marketing department, and - strictly speaking - it is carefully worded to suggest something ( better than reality) without being technically incorrect (to the point that you can use that for suing them).
The brochure says :
Antenna beam 180 degrees
which may be not totally inaccurate, but they forget to mention that emissions in the outer 30-45 degrees on both sides are a fraction of those in central 90-120.
While both hAP ac3 and wAP ax are specced for operation in environment temperature up to 70°C (so they won’t just stop working during your summer heat waves), such a high environment temperature does mean that device ages much faster than normally. So I wouldn’t expect for the new device to fare much better than your old hAP ac3 in the long term. I don’t think that MT produces anything “oven rated” … and I guess it’s mainly because normal capacitors are rated at around 85˚C and when speccing device working temperature one has to account for internal heating (thus requirement for ambient temperature lower than rated temperatures of components). Ideally you should try to place your AP in environment which is more device-friendly. Even if that means using two APs, one for each side of that “castle wall”.