Board Design

Hardware MikroTik hardware general
1

First off, this is not a post putting Mikrotik down. I love their products and will continue using and recommending them. This is aimed at being a constructive discussion on the current board designs and what the community would like to see.

Since rejoining the Mikrotik community a few months ago, I have noticed a large number of posts on the forums stating how bad Mikrotik’s current board designs are.

I agree on some designs such as the RB333/433 solely due to the 3 high mini-pci. But I think a lot of the other criticism is unfounded.

The RB600 is almost identical in design to the RB532 only longer.
The RB333/433 are almost identical to the RB133/411 only longer.

So Mikrotik has tried to make the board designs somewhat backwards compatible. I also believe this is where the biggest problem lies.

I have heard several people saying that they should just make another design the same as the RB532 but I disagree here, as I believe this is actually the problem. The RB532 was not wide enough to have two mini-pci slots side by side in between the mounting holes. This is also why the daughter boards have the cards in funky positions.

In my opinion what Mikrotik should do for the next revision of the higher end boards is forget about the current designs and design a new board that can accommodate two mini-pci slots side by side at the top of the board. Then for a daughterboard make it so that you can have four cards with the slots facing outward from the centre, this would allow two cards to go toward the back of the daughterboard and two toward the front. Also, the boards ground should extend below the cards to provide extra RF shielding to the other components, this should be entirely achievable by using 4 layer PCB’s.

Having a slightly wider design will allow the board to be shorter, like the RB532 was and will allow for more flexible mounting, as well as this it will provide a screw pattern that can be used for future boards without having to juggle mini-pci slots into funky positions or double stacking them.

What does everyone else think ?

2

Thank you for the opinion.

Just wanted to point out that RB133/333/411/433 all have the same 4 mounting holes and width, only 333 and 433 are by one section longer.

3

Hi Normis, I was just editing my post as you posted that info.

I have to say, Mikrotik have some of the best support around. No other manufacturer would respond that quickly!

4

I would like side by side MiniPCIs rather than stacked ones too. While they are at it, they could put holes in the board (perhaps at an edge) so that we could ziptie or otherwise harness the pigtail, then the routerboard, radio card, and pigtail would be one solid reliable piece of gear that could be one final assembly for field installation/repair/upgrade.

5

Thats a good idea, I think the board would have to be quite a lot bigger to accommodate that though, especially since mini-pci cards are all different lengths.

I usually put a dab of hot melt glue over the u-fl connectors to hold them in place. I have seen other vendors such as Proxim actually put a dab of solder on the MMCX connector to hold it in place.

6

Be careful with the hot melt glue. I used to do that as well. I have since seen a few U.fl connectors pop off that had hot melt glue on them with the change of the seasons going between hot and cold. And they are a mess to remove and replace on a tower. I have since stopped that practice. I still use hotmelt elsewhere though like to glue a plastic window into an outdoor box so I can see the LEDs illuminated from the ground.

Tom