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MikeyJ
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Chateau LTE12 - external antenna not working at all

Sun Jan 23, 2022 8:32 pm

Hi folks,

as much as I love Mikrotik's products (have couple of them and I'm perfectly happy with them and recommend them everywhere), I just have to share my "frustration" with Chateau LTE12 (which I wanted to be a perfect replacement for my otherwise working LTE12 modem from another vendor - but I wanted the Mikrotik experience instead because of the convenience / features we all love from RouterOS).

I have literally tried every single step / tutorial / workaround I've been able to find on the web to get the external antenna work on the Chateau LTE12 just like the antenna works with my current LTE12 modem. With my current LTE12 modem and a Poynting Xpol-2-5g antenna pointed directly on top of a building to a visible cell tower in a nearby village (no obstacles whatsoever), I am able to connect to BC3@20Mhz (1800Mhz) bands and get surprisingly high download / upload speeds (on average 80/40 mbps).

I have thought that Chateau LTE12 will behave the same (if not better) - like a drop-in replacement for my current modem, but no matter how, the Chateau LTE12 will connect only to the BC20@10Mhz (800Mhz) bands and will not even see any BC3 LTE FDD band via Cell Monitor. Cell-Locks to different phy's will not help either - download speeds are extremely low (ranging from 2-5mbps), whilst upload seems sufficient (20-30mbps) - obviously there's something going on (???). The SMA pigtail connectors were sufficiently fit / secure on the Chateau backplate. Have tried several External Antenna modes (auto, both, ...), but it behaves still the same. Sometimes the External Antenna Selected field doesn't show anything.

I've been testing all this with RouterOS stable 7.1.1, modem firmware upgraded to the latest version (as told from WinBox interfaces dialog). Have not bothered to try latest testing RouterOS version (7.2rc*). Also, have not bothered to try internal antennas, as the LTE coverage signal in our village is below average for literally everyone (circa 15/15mbps) - that's why I've opted for external antenna placed on top of our house.

I still have couple of days left before I can return it for no return fee (do not want to), but if somebody has similar experience how to get this working (i.e. Chateau LTE12 + external antenna -> BC3 LTE FDD bands visible and connectable), I'd be happy to give it another try. (Or maybe the modem just doesn't like this particular antenna, who knows).

Cheers,
Mikey
 
MikeyJ
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Re: Chateau LTE12 - external antenna not working at all  [SOLVED]

Wed Jan 26, 2022 1:36 am

Ok folks, problem solved, stupid me :lol: Did two things to get it working:

1) rewired DIV_INT + MAIN_INT to external pigtails + all others disconnected
2) explicitly specified LTE Band 3 as the only band to connect to :shock:
EDIT:
3) as a bonus, upload speeds are much stable (single connection) and also little bit higher than with previous modem :-P

Will be testing it for the next few days, but so far it seems like I will keep it :-)
Last edited by MikeyJ on Wed Mar 16, 2022 1:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
MikeyJ
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Re: Chateau LTE12 - external antenna not working at all

Wed Jan 26, 2022 3:08 pm

Another bonus - Carrier-Aggregation suddenly started to work when I explicitly selected bands 3+20 with subsequent Cell-Lock. The speeds have not changed that much but overall responsiveness is better - i.e. latency and jitter is lowered. Really happy with the Chateau so far :-P
 
infabo
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Re: Chateau LTE12 - external antenna not working at all

Wed Jan 26, 2022 10:15 pm

ROS 7.1.1? What uptime you reach?
 
MikeyJ
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Re: Chateau LTE12 - external antenna not working at all

Tue Feb 01, 2022 11:07 am

Regarding LTE connection uptime, it's been pretty stable for the very last week (I've got very good RSSI + RSRP + SINR + RSRQ), but since I preventively restart the interface daily at midnight via scheduler, I can only say that so far it stays online for 24hours a day ;-)
Regarding ROS 7.1.1, it seems stable but I'm still waiting for an UPS to be delivered to ideally make the Chateau hardware online as much as possible (there are heavy winter storms occurring right now in our area and occasional power outages are no exception).
I'll try to update this thread after a couple of weeks.
 
MikeyJ
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Re: Chateau LTE12 - external antenna not working at all

Wed Mar 16, 2022 1:30 pm

ROS 7.1.1? What uptime you reach?
Well it's been pretty stable and up for 27days now (could have been more ;-) due to power outages here). Overall I'm really happy, no problems whatsoever, Chateu LTE12 seems rock solid to me on 7.1.x.

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