RB433

Hardware MikroTik hardware general
1

Hi,

I have an oportunity to get RB433 (for 50$) with 2x 2.4 GHz cards for project of replacing existing equipment on site. My question can RB433 be configured as a client on one card and as access point on another card?

2

Although I have never used an RB433, any MikroTik with more than one radio can have the radios configured completely differently, so yes.

3

thank you :grinning_face:

4

I think it would be good to note that even in cases where you only have one wireless radio installed in a device you are able to make virtual wireless interfaces so the device can act as a repeater, although it will not work as well as when you have 2 :slight_smile:
Id recommend checking the Wiki as it has some nice information regarding the repeater function:
https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Interface/Wireless#Repeater

5

The 433 is pretty old.
Even if the price was $1 ( or free) , I think I would still pass.

6

It’s still capable of doing some good, if you don’t require too much. MikroTik still supports it with updates. For $50 it’s not exactly cheap, but it depends on market.

7

A general observation: when setting up a dual radio device as wireless repeater, it is important to have separation between both radios:

  • use (directional) antennae oriented so that main antenna beams don’t overlap
  • make sure both used frequency channels don’t overlap at all

The main reason is that when these two radios operate independently (that’s the idea of using two radios, right?), it can happen that one is transmitting while the other one is receiving. Due to extremely low distance between antennae attached to both radios the receiving antenna will receive extremely high signal level from the transmitting one … effectively deafening it. If using well designed antenna so that their beams don’t overlap, the problem is largely reduced. Making both radios operating on entirely non-overlapping frequencies helps even further.

Note that the second bullet (operating on different frequencies) doesn’t help if the first one isn’t there. The reason is that input filters are wide to cover entire 2.4GHz wifi band. And receiver’s pre-amplifier works on whole band. At the same time it’s using automatic gain control (AGC) which makes sure that receiver amplification is fine for highest received signal (if amplification is too high, output is distorted). Even if it’s not the one digital part of receiver is interested in (this is the way also professional radios work). So it’s essential to keep unwanted signal as low as possible which is not an easy task with another transmitter co-located.
This is the reason why Audience, which features two independent 5GHz radios, has limitation on frequency selection on both (one operates in lower part of 5GHz band, the other one in upper part of same band … with quite large gap between both band parts). Since limitation is hard coded, it is possible to construct appropriate band-pass filters so that lack of implementation of first bullet doesn’t exactly kill the radio performance.

8

Thanks, this old RB433AH needed some maintenance so I replaced 2 of leaked capacitors.
For 50 USD, got the routerboard and 3x PCI cards with pigtails.
One of the cards is connected to a pannel antenna (client) while the other one is connected to a small omni antenna (AP), third card is removed since it’s not needed.
I’ve reseted RB to factory defaults with /system reset config but there are no bridge, firewall nor any other setup. I’d like to set Client card (panel antenna) to connect to near AP for internet access and AP card (omni antenna) to broadcast signal in the garage. Any examples or guidance how to do it?

9

Managed to configure it :slight_smile: