I installed the Turris Omnia for my parents house with LTE-card, because otherwise there is only a very bad copper cable available.
I did some speedtests/signal tests and the best would be to mount it outdoors on the balcony.
It`s under the roof and a power source would be available.
Did someone install the router outside?
Are there some temperature ratings for the hardware?
Does it need some insulated case to stay alive during winter (max. -20°C during the nights)?
Thank you!
Better would be just to take LTE antenna outside and leave Omnia inside
The official specs don’t accomodate temperatures below zero: https://www.turris.com/en/omnia/specifications/
But as long as it will be constantly running, I think it’s not likely it would freeze (the CPU usually reaches about 60-90 °C). But I’d be very careful about moisture. As AreYouLoco suggests, the optimal way would be buying an antenna extender and using that with Omnia residing inside the house.
I have tested it outside but inside a metal electrical pillar (box).
All work well except of the Lte sim card which stops below zero. Not the sim itself or the modem just the sim card holder. Maybe you could buy a minipcie adapter with sim card slot with industrial grade temp specs.
All the other parts work even at minus 7 degrees Celsius outside temperature that I have seen so far (latest case one month ago).
Also you need to consider adding surge protection if the cables are longer than 10m.
Thanks for all the replies and details.
Antenna-Extension would be great, but my parents don`t want to drill an additional hole for that…
I think I will go for an insulated box then with the power supply inside.
Could take some time to finish it, but I will add some pictures here then.
Poynting do some external antennas that you can “stick” to the inside of a window using suction cups, eg the 4G-XPOL-A0001 cross polarised omni directional antenna.
Here’s a detailed article at ISP Review about choosing an antenna https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/04/how-to-choose-an-external-4g-or-5g-mobile-broadband-antenna.html
Hope that helps.
James Cattell
@jaCattell
Did you build the insulated case?
Don’t know where you are physically located, but normally its not only about considering low temperatures but also about cooling. Even if you are using stock Wi-Fi-cards, you might get difficulties with the WLE900VX as it tends to shut itself down when getting too hot (Wi-Fi SSIDs then simply disappear).
I was wondering if using a alloy case (German example) + thermal conductivity pads could solve this problem.
Do you still use it in this box outdoor? How was behaviour during hot summer? Did you reach temperatures below that -7°C?
Hi, I do not use it outdoors no more. Minus 7 degrees Celsius is the lowest temp that i recorded. I had no problems during the summer even at 40 degrees Celsius air temperature.
Regarding this part: to add surge protection, which parts of the board or chassis would I use to attach a crocodile clip?
Just add ethernet surge protector at the ethernet port(s) that the cable exeeds 10m. Chinise devices have ususlly lower protection standards. I use ubiquity surge protector whitch then needs to be grounded (usually through the holding screw of the protector)
Good idea. Unfortunatelly my devices will be connected via 2,5GBE and there doesn’t seem to be a surge protector with that speed available.
But there should be a some port on the board/chassis, that could be connected to the neutral, right? For Omnia I used to attach a crocodile clip to a slightly released srew, but this might only dissipate very low static charges? On Mox there is no metal chasis, therefore I do not have such a screw to attach the clip to. Would it be wise to attach the crocodile clip to the metal surrounding of a ethernet port instead?
(Background: I will have for the first AP ~40m of Cat7-cable and for the second ~90m. Therefore I absolutely need to add surge protection in both cases.)
I can find on the internet at least one with 2.5 Gb specification. I have never used this. Though, there are 2 different versions, one for surge protection and one for ESD protection. If our cable runs in the ground, you probably need also ESD protection.
Or you could consider using optic fiber rather than Cat7-cable.
Enclosure heater helps in colder weather, pretty common in industrial enclosures.
That would be the better solution for sure. Unfortunately when I drew the cables (in underground cable ducts), I didn’t think of fibre, so I only have Cat7.
Anyways: I found a solution - DEHNpatch class EA (Dehn 929161), which is suitable for up to 10GBit (500MHz). Price is crazy (~120€ with shipping), but there doesn’t seem to be another option available.