I understand that the 532 can only support two 400mw cards. Has anyone tried to run 2 400mw cards + 1 cm9? Also, has anyone tried to run 3 400 mw cards just to see if it runs stable? I know that it is above spec, but it seems that much of the time specs are set low for the sake of worst case scenarios.
Eric
3 400mW cards wont work
What about 2 400mw cards and 1 cm9?
it is not stable solution you can choose 1 400mW + 22 CM9 like or 2 400mW stable.
this stable unstable comes - how much W all equipment uses. 2 high power +low power are on the edge so it might not work and probability that it might is the same.
for testing it is usable, for production - no
The answer might be “it depends”.
We have a couple of RB532 w/2 400mw cards (SR5) and 2 CM9 that have been up and running without a hiccup for well over a year. The main reason why this works is because the SR5 cards are working at over 24Mbps, which means that they’re not consuming the higher wattage they would at 24Mbps or less. The consumption of the cards falls sharply as the rate increases beyond 24Mbps as the amplifier on the card is derated for the duty cycle required for the upper rates. (check SRx datasheets for exact figures)
Shorter version: the combination will in fact work if you do not let the SRx cards transmit at full power either by rate selection or by manually configuring the cards to put out at less than 26dBm when working at lower rates.
The other reason (and one you don’t really want to depend on) is that while 2 SRx cards + 2 CM9 consume slightly more than the maximum juice available from the RB532 regulator, that’s only true when --all-- the cards are transmitting at their maximum power and continue to do so long enough to smoke the regulator.
All that being said, it’s best to respect the limits of the power supply by determining worst case consumption and then staying within the limits of the regulator unless you can be certain you’ve got parameters adjust to avoid fatally heating the regulator.
may users have not that knowledge and they will NOT read your post to the end and they will put 2 or more SR cards and come here and whine that RB hanging/burning/crashing and will go forum-bashing and will say that they will sell all MT equipment if problem is not solved in 2 hours or else… 
so better clearly state configurations that works:
1 hi +3 low
2 hi
4 low
add power at the end.
I can’t argue with that! 