Tag: 12dbi antenna

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Boat Wi-fi – Long Range Antenna

After arriving in Toronto we decided to finally sort out a proper Wi-Fi antenna on our boat. While sailing in the Caribbean we met lots of boats with WiFi boosters for connecting to the marina or other free WiFi while on anchor.

I ordered most of the parts from amazon and they were delivered to us at the marina.

  • Ubiquity Bullet M2
  • TP-link 12dbi 2.4Ghz omnidirectional antenna
  • Tender WiFi Router
  • POE (Power Over Ethernet) injector
  • 25ft Ethernet Cable

Aside the bought components I designed and 3D printed brackets for mounting the antenna on the mast.

In this blog post I am just going to run through the physical installation. There are lots of other resources out there on setting up the Bullet and connecting to WiFi hot spots. Having said that I will give a brief description of the setup at the end.

 

I designed the mounting bracket on paper first. It is much easier to take down all the dimensions and measurements on a simple sketch and then work from there.

The bottom of the Antenna has a really nice fitting for mounting it with a 25mm thread. I based my mast bracket around this feature.

Even though the Bullet is weather proof i felt it would be better to keep it covered if possible so I added a section that I could fit a PVC pipe over as a cover.

After sketching it up I opened Fusion 360 and drew up a CAD model so that I could 3D print it.

Our local Library has a great 3D printing Facility

The antenna mount also has two hooks that allow me to attach it to the front of the mast on the boat.

I used the first mount I printed to mount the top of the antenna.

After attaching the Bullet and the ethernet cable I slide the PVC pipe over the mount.

This is where the ethernet cable from the Ubiquity Bullet M2 Plugs into the Power Over Ethernet Injector and then the Tenda M301 Router.

Connecting to the Tenda and the Bullet

  1. Power up the Bullet and the router
  2. Connect a laptop to the router with a Ethernet cable.
  3. Go to the Default IP address for the Tenda, mine was 192.168.0.1 set up your AP setting. ( *Chrome dose not like going to these addresses, you willhave to select advanced and procced to “web address” )
  4. Go to the Default IP address for the Bullet M2, Mine was 192.168.1.20. set it up according to the video below.
  5. All set. If you are connecting to a public hot spot you will probaly be ased ot sign in on the first device that connects through your AP after powering everything up.

3D Printer files (STL) Download them from My Mini Factory Page

PDF setup for Bullet M2: http://dl.ubnt.com/docs/M_Series_Beginner_Guide.pdf

Video Guide:

 

Amazon links: