Advice on hardware for local network

Hardware MikroTik hardware general
1

Hi all,

I am new to the forum, planning to make a purchase of some Mikrotik devices and thought I should ask questions before, rather than after.

Can you (more experienced people) let me know if the devices I have chosen below are any good for my system? Should they perform as I expect? Would you recommend different devices?

Background: We are in a remote rural area of New Zealand so I expect low interferance. We have satellite internet at home but no mobile signal, and want to extend our home WiFi access around the small farm and run some security cameras at the gate.

Primary goals:
A) to provide a reliable wifi bridge to a station 210 metres away where there will be POE cameras.
B) to extend our home wifi and internet coverage to cover most of the property (range 200-400m line of sight, with patchy trees)

My intention is to purchase 3 microtik devices:
NetMetal AX for the base station,
SXTsq Lite (could be 2 or 5ghz version) for the client side of the bridge,
PowerBox Pro 5 to connect 48v POE devices to the SXTsq Lite.

I have included a network diagram as a quick example.
The longer description below the image details the environment, my expectations for each device, and specific questions.

Network
Network1566×612 55.9 KB

Station 1 (base):

Location: The base station let's call it "Home" is on a knoll in the middle of the property. There is an antenna pole on the roof, able to get the base antennae several meters above the roof. There are patches of thick trees in most directions but the raised antenna has a view of the whole area. Standard AC power is available at this site so any adaptor can be used. We already have an old 2.4Ghz b/g/n Belkin router set up as an access point, which provides patchy service within 100m up to 180m max. We have signal reaching to within 20m of station 2 using this old router.

For station 1, I intend to purchase the NetMetal AX with 2x HGO-antenna-OUT omni antennae.

  • I might instead get a L23UGSR-5HaxD2HaxD (I believe it is the same device as Netmetal but without the case?)

The netmetal will be set as an access point and connected to the LAN of our internet provider's lease router.

My expectations of the Netmetal:

  • It will provide Wifi access to multiple end user devices such as phones and wifi cameras within a roughly 300m radius, with reasonable limitation expected due to patchy tree coverage.
  • It will provide a wifi bridge to a remote station with an SXTsq Lite at 210 metres distance, with one row of thin trees in between.

Are these expectations realistic?

Questions:

  • Is the NetMetal with HGO omni antennas capable of coverage to 200-300 metres line of sight? Or should I use multiple directional antennas?
  • Would I need a directional antenna to make the bridge connection?
  • Would I be better off buying the bare router board L23UGSR-5HaxD2HaxD? it's the same board as NetMetal without the case and has 4 MMCX connectors instead of 2 SMA. I already have an old routerboard case that fits, it could be well worthwhile to save some cost on the Netmetal. I would keep it indoors and run coax a few metres up the pole anyway.

Station 2:

Located 210m uphill from station 1. There is a direct view but one row of thin trees in between.
This site should be able to provide a stable connection to probably 2 POE cameras, maybe more or some sensors as well. Cameras need to be of good resolution, and I'd like them to be able to connect to the WiFi internet in the normal way for these new-fangled cameras so I can watch them from in town on a cell phone as well as anywhere on the local network.

For this location I intend to purchase 2 devices: a Mikrotik SXTsq Lite, either 5g or 2g, and a Powerbox Pro 5.

My expectations of the SXTsq Lite:

  • It will run on 12-24V via the DC plug on a POE injector.
  • It will create a wifi bridge with the NetMetal device at station 1.

Question: Should I get the 2.4ghz or the 5ghz version of SXTsq Lite for this distance and the trees??

My expectations of the Powerbox Pro:

  • It will run on 12-24V DC via the DC input plug.
  • It will output 48V POE on all 4 LAN ports.
  • It will connect via ethernet cable to the SXTsq Lite and share the home wifi connection from station 1 with up to 4 POE cameras or other devices.

Question: is it correct that I can give the Powerbox Pro low voltage 12 or 24v dc, and it will still output standardised 48V POE? Meaning it has a voltage booster inside?

~ Thankyou for reading ~
I know it was long, but hope to have given enough useful details to help you to help me :smiley:

2

Take two SXTsq 5 ax units and set up a radio bridge between station 1 and station 2; it will work independently. But I would run an optical cable.
Do not use a professional-grade construction kit as a base station; use ready-made devices with built-in antennas, such as mANTBox 2 12s. Just keep in mind that they have a 120-degree antenna directionality. First, install one, and if the sector is not enough, install another one (3 pieces for a full circle).

Where the camera is 100 m away, it is also better to lay a cable.

IoT devices are unlikely to be able to transmit a signal over 300m, so tests need to be done.

1 Like
3

Awesome! Thankyou for the advice which is very helpful. I will definately go for the mANTBox, probably our area would be covered by two of them because of the shape so I will try one first as you suggest. Can they be mounted back to back on the same pole? I suspect there could be interferance problems and they need to be separated?

About the optical cable - I looked at that but ran into budgetary problems. Possibly I am looking at the wrong type of cable: or possibly the prices and availability are worse than they should be in my country.

Locally I can only find terminated cables at a maximum length of 90m, which costs NZD$265 per 90m piece. Or I can find 300m spools for NZD$1276 without pre-terminated ends, not ideal for a first DIY fibre install. And that's without counting the cost of devices at each end of the fibre. In contrast the SXTsq 5 ax radios only cost NZD$134 each so two of those sound like an economical option.
(I do see cheaper cable on aliexpress, NZD$160 for 250m but I'm not sure if its genuine - it doesn't even give an OM number, and I'm not sure the quality will last.)

Other concerns are how to protect the cable - we don't have the equipment or manpower to bury it all the way, left above ground it's likely to be chewed by our sheep and goats. We normally put cables through alkathene pipes to protect them, but 200+ metres of pipe adds considerable cost and I doubt the cable's tensile strength will allow it to be pulled through much pipe at once. These thoughts and the cost are why I chose to go with a wifi bridge …

4

Hi! Don’t look for OMx cable, but rather for single mode, single fibre G.652.D FTTH armored cable (100$ for 1km). You can use a 1G BiDi SFP module for 20km (less than 10$) on both ends. Have a hEX S (2025) with an SFP slot, for connecting the ends to the cameras.
One more remark: I had no more trouble with Aliexpress than with Amazon purchasing nerdy stuff.