wAP coverage -- picture included

I don’t seem to get good coverage from this wap.

Everything I’ve been able to find says it has “360 degree” radiation in a “near spherical” shape.

Anyone see anything wrong?

I wonder if the metal building is killing it.

As in the name, it’s a “wall acces point (wap)”, so it is designed to be used against a surface. While the radiation pattern is roughly spherical, the best antenna gain is to the front.

Ah, so that’s the meaning of initial letter in names of “xAP” devices … so “cAP” means “ceiling AP”. @Normins, do you mind explaining meaning of “h” in “hAP”? And are there any “pAP” (pole AP) devices?

hAP - home AP
wAP - wall AP
cAP - ceiling AP
wsAP - wall socket AP
mAP - mini AP
ltAP - LTE AP

Dont forget:

CRS: Cloud router switch

… which doesn’t really belong into xAP family of devices, does it? And generally doesn’t provide wireless coverage at all, does it? In case you missed: this thread was about wAP and @Normis tried to explain that wAP (due to being wall AP) doesn’t really have spherical radiation pattern. And then I extended question to meaning of acronyms of other AP devices.

I would suggest a NetMetal ax with 2x HGO-antenna-OUT

Well, we do have a drawing:
https://fccid.io/TV7WAPGR52AX/Test-Report/Antenna-specification-7634095

I think we can define the pattern as “ball with flat bottom”::
https://www.brunnershop.com/en/One-Shot/Double-Moulds/Ball-with-flat-bottom.html
:laughing:

Well, then you did not understand my intention. It is about this: Normis based his answer (quote: “As in the name, it’s a “wall acces point (wap)”, so it is designed to be used against a surface.”) on the product naming.

And all I said is: “CRS stands for Cloud Router Switch”. An we all know, at least some devices of that series is more a SWITCH and no ROUTERS. Many times discussed in the forum.

So basically: I would not bet my last shirt on: “product name matches product usage category”

This is great to know – thank you.

I think we can safely describe the pattern as “highly directional” and not “360 degrees.” It appears that, when in oriented in the vertical position, it has a usable maximum beamwidth of ~120 degrees (but probably more like 90*).
.
wap-pattern.png

OMG!

I had no idea this product existed.

This appears to be exactly what I need.

Ugh, and I just ordered a wAP AX.

Thank you!

@infabo
Maybe we should rename to:
CSS->CASS (Cloud Actually Switching Switch)
and
CRS->CARS (Cloud Almost Routing Switch)

@flynno
Maybe stupid question, but aren’t the two HGO-antenna-OUT directly mounted too near to each other to do any good?
I know it is even on Mikrotik official pictures:
https://cdn.mikrotik.com/web-assets/rb_images/2351_hi_res.png
but it looks somehow “wrong” :confused: .

Principle use of NetMetal ax is to attach good antennas to the RP-SMA connectors. The image with antennas attached shows secondary use, from product brochure:

If necessary, you can adapt the NetMetal ax for lower range use with such antennas as our HGO-antenna-OUT screw-on omni antenna unit.

The mentioned antennas are not “tiltable”, so they can’t be arranged at 90° angle. Which means that yes, layout on the picture is almost useless (my estimate is that it works approximately at 1.1x1.1MIMO). But I’m sure one can get similar, but tiltable, antennas on-line … and when arranged at ±45° tilt, they allow for proper 2x2MIMO operation.

Does it come with antennas?

If so, are they for long range (i.e, high gain) and omnidirectional coverage?

Are there different models?

It is always a challenge to identify exactly the correct MT device to purchase.

No, the device comes without antennas.

The photo on Mikrotik store is more explicit :wink:

The top cover has two passages so you would normally use two external antenna connected with a (short) piece of cable, like:

which seems BTW to me like a much better protection against rain/snow/etc. with the straight antennas and without cover, the connectors are essentially exposed, and cannot say how waterproof/sealed are them, they look like normal connectors with a nut.

Got it – thank you.

When I go to mikrotik.com and click BUY, I get a list of distributors. Is there a MT store?

When I go to the hardware page, and find the Netmetal AX, I see 5 pictures but not what you provided.

It would be nice is there were an easy way to identify and source various options for cables and antennas that are definetly compatible also.

I see the “HGO-antenna-OUT” and the “Flex-guide” cable, but I only suspect (versus know) that these are the associated devices by previous posts. I don’t know if there are any alternatives.

First —> Decide if you want OMNI antennal (360deg), sector antenna 90/110/120/140 degrees, point to point antenna ( narrow sector)

Second → Figure out what type of connectors does the device have…

Third → Google BEST wifi/wisp antennas 2024, with connectors of type Y, with sector width a degress to b degrees.

The posted picture comes from:
https://www.mikrotik-store.eu/
https://www.mikrotik-store.eu/de/mikrotik-l23ugsr-5haxd2haxd-nm-netmetal-ax

First – there is no such thing as a “type Y” connector (joking!)

Second – these units have two antenna ports and I don’t believe that just any dual-band (2.4/5ghz; or even tri-band 2.4/5/6ghz) will work because of the dual antenna ports.

See:

https://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/spring19/cos463/papers/dummies.pdf

Sure, anything East of the Atlantic ocean gets the good stuff, eh?