Well, mostly disappearing.
The Setup:
I received two 400mw 802.11A SR5 mini PCI cards from demarctech today.
I went to upgrade my main hub, running RouterOS 2.9.6 on a RB532 with a 12db 5.8Ghz omni and one radio. The current radio is an Atheros 5354.
I’m using a 48V POE supply on a ~50 foot length of shielded Cat5
The Problem:
I shut down the box and installed the new card, left the cover off, and powered it up.
After configuration, everything came up fine and my remote sights were registering with the hub.
I shut the box down to put the cover back on and move the antenna stand a bit. When I powered it back on, it did not show any radio cards installed. I rebooted. Same result. I took the cover off and installed the other SR5. Nothing detected. I took out the SR5 and put the 5354 back in. Everything came up fine. I read something on the MikroTik forums about a guy with a similar problem (http://tinyurl.com/dqha7). It ended up being caused by a bad pigtail. I put the SR5 back in but left the pigtail unplugged. It came up fine. A couple of reboots for testing… everything still ok. Plug the pigtail back in…nothing. Odd that that pigtail works with the 5354, but hey, I’m willing to do whatever works. I switch to a different pigtail and power on again. Everything comes up fine, it sees the card, and once I adjust the settings, my other access points register. I set a continuous ping, leave the board running and walk over to put the cover back on the case…return to my monitoring laptop and…(almost) NOTHING! It still sees the card but none of my other AP’s will register with it. Take the cover off the case and reboot. Still sees the card and still nothing will register. The Ethernet port is being flaky now too. What the heck?! What was supposed to be a quick upgrade has been frustrating me for hours now. I pop the 5354 back in and once again everything works great
So whats the problem? It sounds like classic power issues, but I am using a good power supply and there is only one radio in the box. Has anyone else had such problems? I’m really beating my head against the wall here.