October 3, 9:50 - 10:05
Replaced the dc power cable on the radiation mote at FAR. Yesterday, Chris jury-rigged a temporary cable.
Noticed that the local usb flash drive was not mounted at "near".
/var/log/isfs/kernel contains the following:
Oct 1 21:37:53 near kernel: usb 1-2: reset full speed USB device using isp116x-hcd and address 2 Oct 1 21:38:31 near last message repeated 4 times Oct 1 21:38:31 near kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: Device offlined - not ready after error recovery Oct 1 21:38:31 near kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled error code Oct 1 21:38:31 near kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Result: hostbyte=0x05 driverbyte=0x00 Oct 1 21:38:31 near kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: cdb[0]=0x2a: 2a 00 00 28 3b e1 00 00 18 00 Oct 1 21:38:31 near kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 2636769 Oct 1 21:38:31 near kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 329596 ...
On Oct 2, at 22:41 UTC, Chris unplugged/replugged the flash drive. It is a flash drive not a pocketec. After an automatic fsck, the file system was recovered.
We'll watch this flash, and replace it if necessary.
The WIFI has been working very well, with dependable connections between our data systems. The check_ap24.sh script on flux reports the following today, Oct 2 around 14:40:
check_ap24.sh local remote ( mac-addr) uptime ccq txrate rxrate rxsig snr #txpkts #rxpkts txretry rxretry txB/sec rxB/sec ap24 ap24-3@near (00:15:6D:20:01:90) 50:30:07 100% 54.0Mbs 54.0Mbs -63dBm 40dB 2337026 2169508 0% 0% 829 12328 ap24 ap24-2@rim (00:15:6D:10:1C:0D) 22:45:04 64% 18.0Mbs 18.0Mbs -87dBm 16dB 1459062 1446472 3% 0% 2107 14582 ap24 eanth@sodar (00:20:F6:05:24:85) 0:47:21 100% 11.0Mbs 5.5Mbs -57dBm 46dB 4124 4333 0% 0% 887 1031 ap24 eanti@far (00:20:F6:05:24:56) 0:00:47 100% 11.0Mbs 2.0Mbs -66dBm 37dB 170 170 0% 0% 217 1186 ap24-2 ap24@base (00:15:6D:10:3C:BC) 22:45:05 47% 18.0Mbs 36.0Mbs -79dBm 19dB 1465417 1440073 6% 0% 14582 2107 ap24-2 eantf@flr (00:20:F6:05:24:5A) 0:14:40 94% 11.0Mbs 5.5Mbs -46dBm 54dB 3251 3271 0% 0% 222 1493 ap24-3 ap24@base (00:15:6D:10:3C:BC) 50:30:09 97% 54.0Mbs 54.0Mbs -63dBm 36dB 2205848 2300696 0% 0% 12328 829
ap24 is as the base trailer. ap24-2 is at rim, ap24-3 is at near.
The connection between base (ap24) and near (ap24-3) looks very good, up 50 hours, with 40 and 36 dB SNR.
The connection between far (eanti) and base has also been solid, but the above shows only 47 seconds since the last association. Etherants seem to drop and re-associate fairly frequently.
eanth@sodar has been a bit problematic, requiring power-cycling of the etherant from time to time. Gary re-oriented it yesterday, and I think it has been more solid since then. The SNR looks good.
The connection between rim (ap24-2) and base has a low SNR of 16/19 dB, but has been up for 22 hours, at a lower tx/rxrate than the connection from near to base. This is probably low because the yagi on the rim tower is connecting to the back of the 180 deg yagi at the base trailer. To see if it improves things I just enabled the internal patch antenna on the ap24, which is pointing at the rim tower. I'll wait until the radios re-associate and see what the signal levels are. Both the internal patch and the eternal 180 degree yagi are access points for the SSID of ISFSext. I am also curious to see if that works.
10/2/13, TWH:
Cleaned krypton and radiometers.
Vmote.rad reported discharging, but battery properly wired and measures 12.2 V both at the battery terminals and the battery connector on the mote.
Unfortunately, there were a couple of wisps of smoke when I tested the voltage in the mote and afterword the mote was not sampling properly (based on lights).
Left site at 13:25.
Comment by Gordon: The radiation mote at far is ID16. Looking at the raw data I see that the data quit at 19:00:43 UTC (13:00 local) (with an Xbee-reset at 18:59), resumed for 2 minutes at 19:11 and then quit.
Later at 15:10 to 15:35 Chris and Tom raised the radiation dark horse to 2.02 meters, measured to the top of the horizontal rail. Radiation data should be discarded during this period.
Chris removed the GPS jumper from the radiation mote and it appeared to be sampling the data okay. When we got into radio contact with Gordon, however, he said that the radiation data were not coming in. We returned to FAR to replace the mote, guessing that the its radio had failed. We found that the power connecter on the mote was fused. Chris cut off the power cable at the mote and hard-wired it to replacement mote. Seems to be working now.
Tom at near tower, Oct 2, 2013
Arrived around 12:35.
Cleaned radiometers, which were pretty clean, with fingerprints on SPN1. See an upward spike in Rpile.in at 12:44.
Cleaned krypton, signal rose from 0.12 to 1.2 V by 12:48.
Installed pressure port. All P.2m.near data up to this time should be discarded.
Left at 12:50
Returned to NEAR to raise sawhorse, but Chris could not remove one of the stakes without a crowbar.
Gordon, Sep 30
Laura, Chris, Kurt and I instrumented the rim tower
The 0 end of the measuring tape was at the top of the tower, with the 40 meter indicator at the base plate. The first column contains the values read from the tape, the second column is then (40-x) or the height above the ground:
measurement (meters) |
height (meters) |
|---|---|
34.99 |
5.01 |
29.78 |
10.22 |
25.11 |
14.89 |
20.32 |
19.68 |
15.02 |
24.98 |
10.44 |
29.56 |
5.02 |
34.98 |
-0.29 |
40.29 |
Gordon Sep 30,
Laura and Kurt installed brackets on the near tower on Friday, Sep 27
Here are heights of the top of the brackets, relative to the ground, which is about 1 cm below the top of the base plate.
height (meters) |
|---|
2.95 |
10.03 |
15.12 |
20.06 |
25.03 |
30.05 |
35.04 |
40.10 |
44.98 |
49.04 |
Hopefully attached is a pdf that will likely be further updated as we go on. The word doc is in the usual project doc dir.: MoteOpsHints.pdf
METCRAXII “Mote” Hints
Contents
How-To Command/Interact with a Specific V2.4 Soil/Rad Xbee Radio Motes:1
METCRAXII: Rad/Soil Mote Commands V2.4:2
METCRAXII: Serial Forwarding Mote:3
METCRAXII: Power Monitor Mote:4
HOW-TO: Change Mote Xbee Radio’s.5
The Wisard ‘motes’ come in 3 flavors for MetcraxII: Soil/Rad-XbeeWireless data sampling; Serial-Forwarding for crater barometer/csat’s; Power Monitor. The basic command sets are shown below:
Mote Setting Defaults:
If the ‘eeinit’ command is used, the project defaults are reprogrammed into the eeprom which controls operating parameters.
Low Battery Voltage Monitor: disabled (vm=0).
GPS: disabled on the serial forwarding motes in crater (2baro’s and 2csats)
rad/soil gps sync rate=2hours (gr=7200), timeout=1min (gto=60), failed retry rate=30min (gfr=1800)
Primary Output Port pp=radio (pp=1)
Message Output wisard mode (mp=0) messages
Local Data Storage disabled (fsr=0)
Sampling Mode Self-Timed (md=0)…Don’t change this!
How-To Command/Interact with a Specific V2.4 Soil/Rad Xbee Radio Motes:
By default all commands are sent by a base station radio to all remotes. You can address a specific mote only by one of two ways:
1) Don’t Do This!: Reprogram the base Xbee radio (or equivalent) to only talk with your target.
2) Do This: #xxcmd where xx=moteID, and ‘cmd’ is one of the above commands.
For example: ‘#17dr’ or ‘#2xb=pl’ or ‘#4eeupdate’
FLR: >rs 2 ids = 1,2,17 Unless they’re changed!
NEAR: >rs 1 ids = 3,8,10
FAR: >rs 2 ids = 4,22
METCRAXII: Rad/Soil Mote Commands V2.4:
Note: Cmds with ‘=’ option can be reset with a new value
Note: All values are stored in eeprom and reloaded at runtime. If you change one or more and then ‘eeupdate’ they will be used both immediately and at any reboot. Exceptions are rxb,hb,st,jd and ‘on/off’
Sampling Rates: |
‘dr’ ‘dr=’ |
Data Sampling rate in seconds |
Operating Modes |
‘md’ ‘md=’ |
0=Self-Timed Mode (Default)1=Xbee-Sleep |
Local File |
fsON/OFF |
|
Batt Monitor |
‘vm’ ‘vm=’ |
vm=1 MonitoringON, vm=0 OFF |
EEPROM |
‘eecfg’ |
report current operating settings |
Xbee Radio: |
‘xb=’ |
Send specific command to xbee: such as ‘xb=pl’ for power. To reprogram a new value ex: ‘xb=pl2’ or ‘xb=dl12345678’ |
GPS / Timing: |
‘gpsON/OFF’ |
|
|
‘?’ ‘reset’ ‘reboot’ |
Print command list, reset cpu |
White-Button Use |
1 |
scan for any attached I2C sensors |
LEDs |
Startup |
Normally 3 blinks of either: green-led=output is radio, red=output is console; then 7 quick blinks before boot (sometimes other leds come on and when xbee is the output there is a delay period before ‘boot’) |
METCRAXII: Serial Forwarding Mote:
Note: Cmds with ‘=’ option can be reset with a new value
Note: All values are stored in eeprom and reloaded at runtime. Thus if you change one or more and then ‘eeupdate’ they will be used both immediately and at any reboot. Exceptions are rxb,hb and ‘on/off’
NOTE: by default ALL MOTE COMMANDS ARE DISABLED and it is in ‘pass-through’ mode. Thus when you connect, you’ll be talking with the serial sensor itself. To enable these commands use the hidden escape:
‘esc-esc-esc’ to toggle the command-mode on/off.
Sampling Rates: |
‘dr’ ‘dr=’ |
Data Sampling rate in seconds |
Operating Modes |
‘id’ ‘id=’ |
MoteID |
Local File |
fsON/OFF |
Any questions…? |
EEPROM |
‘eecfg’ |
report current operating settings |
Xbee Radio: |
‘xb=’ |
Send specific command to xbee: such as ‘xb=pl’ for power. To reprogram a new xbee value ex: ‘xb=pl2’ or ‘xb=dl12345678’ |
GPS / Timing: |
gpsON/OFF |
Any questions…? |
|
‘?’ |
Print command list |
White-Button Usage |
1 |
scan for any attache I2C sensors (limited use for forwarder!) |
LEDs |
Startup |
A long series of 1-sec blinks will last for the ‘delay’ time mentioned above. Then ‘roughly’ 7 blinks and the |
Because the Serial Forwarding Motes in MetcraxII are BlueTooth based radios, to talk with them individually, the command ‘#’ prefix shown above is superfluous. Instead the interaction is entirely up to the DSM virtual serial port connection. For that you must know what the friendly name of its BT-radio. With the DSM / Nidas software running, and logged into the DSM:
>rserial btspp:name This must be a known name in the config and in the radio.
METCRAXII: Power Monitor Mote:
The Power Monitor Board designed and built in 2013 was based upon a PIC18F2520, the same as used on the original Version 1 motes. For convenience the initial implementation of the command set was similar to V1 Motes, not the V2.4 soil/rad devices.
Note: Cmds with ‘=’ option can be reset with a new value
Sampling Rates: |
‘dr’ ‘dr=’ |
Data Sampling rate in seconds |
Operating Modes |
‘id’ ‘id=’ |
MoteID |
Calibration Offset/Gain Settings |
‘vbg’ ‘vbg=’ |
Battery Voltage circuit Gain, |
EEPROM |
‘ew’ |
write eeprom with current settings |
Xbee Radio: |
‘xb=’ |
Send command to xbee: ‘xb=pl’ for power |
Timing: |
‘st’ ‘st=’ |
Show/Set time of day ‘hhmmss’ |
|
‘?’ |
Print command list |
These motes in METCRAXII were initially setup with a wired link into a DSM port and are mounted in the battery boxes. They can be swapped over to Xbee radios by removing the rs232 module and swapping in a xbee radio pre-programmed to work with the base radio it will be interacting with.
FAR: >rs 7
NEAR: >rs 17 (low) >rs 18 (up)
RIM: >rs 14 (low) >rs 16 (up)
FLR: >rs 8
HOW-TO: Change Mote Xbee Radio’s
If a a radio goes bad, or more likely a mote/xbee need to be swapped in to a different BASE-Xbee receiver, then the xbee radio must be either swapped in or have its settings changed. In either case you need to know the Base Radio’s values (labeled on the box):
1) Serial number, low number: ‘sl’ in the base xbee, used in the ‘dl’ setting of the client xbee.
2) Channel number: ‘ch’
3) Node ID: ‘id’
All other parameters should be ready to go in our radios. The base broadcasts to all clients ‘dl=0000’ and the clients send messages to the base radio ‘dl=xxxxxxxx’.
If the radio is ok but the mote is bad: you can remove the xbee from the old mote and put it in the new one. If you do that the default eeprom ‘radio settings’ in the mote will probably be different but that is ok because the radio will already be setup correctly; just don’t use the ‘xv’ command!
Otherwise if you putting in a new mote with new radio (ie moving it) then you need to change the xbee and mote settings. This can be awkwardly done over the air but the best is to use the mote console port:
1) Connect console cable between Mote-PC. Start serial comm program (minicom,procomm,rserial): 38400bps = Rad/Soil Motes, 9600bps=SerialForwardingMote
2) Power Up Mote You should see 3 short green blinks indicating stdio is going to the xbee port.
3) 2x White Button Toggles stdio to the console port. You should see 2 quick org. blinks indicating it saw the 2 button presses.
4) md=2 If using minicom/procomm. This puts the mote in plain text mode so you can see the output. In rserial the md=0 ‘wisard’ mode is ok/best.
5) xbdl=xxxxxxxx where ‘xxxxxxxx’ is the BaseRadio’s low serial number (hex)
6) xbid=x where ‘x’ is the BaseRadio’s id.
7) xbch=xx where ‘xx’ is the BaseRadio’s channel number (hex)
8) xv The mote will reprogram the xbee radio with the above numbers and give you a status report.
9) id=xx Do this for the DSM injest if you’re swapping in a new mote. You must know the old mote number. The alternative when swapping is to change the dsm’s ‘xml’ for the new id, and all the associated adjustments in base, etc.
9) md=0 puts the mote in wisard output mode. If you leave the md=2 (or 1) then the next command will cause it to boot in the wrong mode and cause dsm problems.
9) eeupdate This stores the above values in the mote’s eeprom.
10) reboot Or press reboot button, or cycle power to restart with the new setting
11) Check the settings/results and that the dsm is still getting data, etc.
The xbee radio settings can be adjusted or viewed also by using the command ‘xb=yyy’ including ‘over the air.’ Be careful not to change one of the 3 values above over the air or else you will lose radio contact. Some examples
1) xb=pl shows xbee’s power level
2) xb=pl2 changes xbee’s power level.
3) sx reports various xbee status values
4) xb=sl shows xbee’s serial number
5) xb=dl shows xbee’s destination serial number
6) xb=xxxxxxxx changes xbee’s destination destination serial number (you can shoot yourself in the foot if using this over the air).<!-- /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable
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Hopefully attached is a pdf that will likely be further updated as we go on. The word doc is in the usual project doc dir.:BluetoothOpsHints.pdf
Following are Kurt's daily status reports during setup:
September 9
Travel from Boulder to Flagstaff
September 10
Penske 85% unloaded
NEAR sited in (anchors) and base plate installed
Base trailer sited
Tried to access FAR to install base plate and anchors, but way too wet, almost got stuck!
Gotta wait till it dries out - approx. 1/2 mile of submerged road (2 lane track) right around where the tower is supposed to go.
Talked to Brad Andes, he will get with me on Thursday.
Tomorrow is a busy day - set anchors for NEAR, and hopefully download all concrete blocks as well as generators and fuel bladders.
Very happy with progress so far, especially with the rain we are dealing with!
Talked to Ken as well; I told him to wait and see what progress we make tomorrow before coming up on thursday.
September 11
Base trailer is partially set up - leveled and generator hooked up, porch etc. all thanks to John and Laura.
Fuel tanks for ISFS and ISS in place.
Anchors set for NEAR, 449, and base towers
Concrete blocks staged for helicopter lift
Tomorrow we are set to install anchors at FAR, meet with Brad Andes and confirm anchor pull specs with Ken Shively.
We may even get to play with heavy steel......
September 12
Some good news and some bad.....
We got anchor verification for NEAR, BASE , and 449 today from Ken Shively, but FAR has one anchor we have yet to get to "hold". Will attack that anchor later in the week as we have other issues to attend to.
Met with Brad Andes today and went over the "no go zone" at rim and unfortunately, the NE anchor was in that zone. I will move the site accordingly and will keep you informed as to our progress.
Over all I feel we are on track and moving ahead.
The next few days will be spent on getting the platforms ready for the rim site and surveying how the tower will fit into the new approved "go zone".
September 13
Ok, we got the anchors installed at FAR thanks to Chris, John, and Tim.
Laura and I got the RIM site mapped out (looks better than I had expected), and the base plate installed.
Steel platforms are 99.9 % put together, just missing 3 bolts which we got in the nick of time in flagstaff - Fastenall stayed open for us till we were able to get there, otherwise we would have had to wait till monday morning.
Good news about the permit being in Steve Atkins hands - we may be able to go vertical sunday or even sat afternoon!
Dave W. will arrive sunday evening and stage on monday.
Got an email from Greg @ air west requesting I call him asap......
Hoping there is no bad news....will call him first thing tomorrow morning.
September 14-15
Saturday:
We staged a lot of gear at rim, and some at the base for the helo ops,then got shut down after noon by heavy rain.
Sunday:
We staged some more equipment at the base, got the lidar installed on the rim for the profiling group (heavy lidar!) then went vertical at near. we got to 40 ft by the end of the day.
Thanks to Steve Atkins who helped with the heavy lifting of the lidar!
Dave Whiteman arrived and is ready to stage all crater equipment on Monday.
September 16
Today was spent meeting with Dave Whiteman, Sebastian, and Brad Andes to determine helicopter ops which will begin at 7:30 AM tomorrow (tuesday).
All the staging was completed for the helo ops, and equipment was hauled to rim and near.
Attempts to continue going vertical at NEAR were thwarted by nasty thunderstorms in the area, so we gave help to Lou at the 449 site.
September 17
Helicopter ops went off without a hitch on tues. and we finished deploying all the caches by 11:15.The anchors at RIM went particularly well, and look fabulous!
Portable biffies were delivered.
We even had an opportunity to go vertical in the afternoon and have reached 70 ft high at NEAR.
September 18
Windy day so we didn't increase the tower height of NEAR, but we were able to plumb the 70 ft already in place.
Anchors were installed at FLOOR, and Ken was notified. He will inspect all remaining anchors on friday.
John and I went to Flagstaff urgent care. John has a fractured ring finger on his right hand, I have a strained ligament in my right foot. Nether aliment will hinder our work.
September 19
got to 140 ft today at NEAR
September 20
Anchors passed at FAR, RIM and FLR. RIM failed with base plate for tower but timbers were added to pass inspection.
Soil sensors installed at FLR while anchors were being checked.
September 21
The tower at NEAR is now finished, including AWM's , bird flappers, and beacon. We plumbed and tensioned it also.
Got a start on rim, but high winds prevented us from going vertical. Rim is staged and ready to build weather permitting.
Will attempt to put up some 40 ft towers tomorrow if we can't work on rim.
September 22
EXTREMELY windy today. FLR tower was erected.
September 23
Got to 110 ft on rim today - banner day - but I fear (know) I am working people to hard....
Tomorrow will be equally difficult but I can't let off because of high winds expected Wednesday and Thursday.
I plan to have an off day (or partial) on Wednesday to give a break to my crew.
I will continue by myself, or with Gordon on weds, etc. to get as much done as possible before weather (winds) abate.
September 24
We reached 140 ft today at rim and have tensioned 3 of the 4 guys. The fourth guys are in place (including the dreaded AWM's and bird diverters) but still need to plumb and tension those. Plan to complete that tomorrow, give Chris and Laura a much needed break and then continue on to soil sensors etc.
If winds are not too high we will consider a 40 ft tower at far (with a shortened crew).
I need to commend high praise to my crew for work completed so far. All are conscious of our deadline and willing to go the extra mile to make this all work out. Kudos to all who have participated in this setup!
September 25
Windy day! We were able to plumb the last 35 ft of RIM today and set up solar panels. Re-tensioning will be done before instrumenting the tower on friday, winds permitting.
FAR tower was installed during high winds, and soils and solar panels completed.
Higher winds expected on thursday. Hope to get base and 449 towers erected tomorrow as well as soils at near.
Chris and Laura have well-needed day off tomorrow.
If winds subside on friday as expected, will instrument as much as possible starting with rim.
September 26
50 mph gusts today. Chris and Laura had the day off.
Gordon and Kurt installed soil sensors at NEAR, set up the saw horse (ready for radiometers) and installed the 40 foot tower at 449 (we had lots of help there).
Too windy to attempt erecting the tower at base.
September 27
A calm day at last!
RIM is 95% complete. ( a poorly fitting sonic boom needs to be addressed.)
All boom mounts in place at NEAR.
September 28
Another banner day!
Kudos to my fabulous team, Chris, Gordon, and Gary Granger.
NEAR is instrumented except for a Krypton.
We also put up BASE and instrumented the 449 tower (wind head).
September 29
FAR was instrumented (needs pressure hose and grounding of dsm and soils turned on).
BASE was mostly instrumented (needs 10 m sonic and networking).
Networking was worked on at near and rim.
Solar and rad were worked on at near.
September 30
FAR is finished (installed dsm gnds, turned on soils mote and installed pressure port hose)
NEAR is finished (beacon pwr cable, kH2O installed, mote and battery and cables for the SPN 1 sensor, dressed tower cables, etc.
RIM is finished
Power and Ethernet installed for ASU lidar.
Chris: Our installation ops in the crater were very productive. These are the updates for the crater...
...Updates:
Met tower instrumented BUT had some complications:
-no power cable to solar panels
-no ethernet cables to UofU LIDAR
-solar stand (dark horse) is not in place
Pressure stands:
-all SSW, S, NNE and FLR pressures have been placed and checked by Sebastian.
-no sonic towers have been erected but the pressure transducers have been turned on for communication checks.
-Solar panels have not been brought to the sonic sites
PortaPotty
-PortaPotty has been installed on the Westside of mine fence
-Composting need filled for usage.
-Tied down for high winds
October 1
Chris has spent two days in the crater, and accomplished the impossible.
All at FLR is operational now. (minus the two outlying sonics which have a potential battery-charging problem due to little sun)
Kurt spent the day with the county building inspector, who signed the permits, and cleaning up around the base site.
Slight problem with the power for the ASU Lidar which is stuck in London. Transformer and 240 V extension cord are fried. We will just use a 120 V extension cord and possibly move the ASU Lidar closer to the ISFS base.
Chris:
FLR is complete. All instruments are communicating BUT sonics at SSW2 and SSW4. Towers are installed at those two sites for pressure but no sonics. Hardware and ECHO boxes are at tower sites for sonic install. Installed one 64W panel at each tower hoping to get enough charge. SSW2 seems to have good sun but not SSW4...extremely steep. Solar panel is resting on sonic box that is held up by piled rocks. DO NOT CLIMB THESE TOWERS! PortaPotty is ready for use. Need toilet paper.
Tom:
Dave and I worked with the STEM Journals filming crew most of the day. Dave was going to take them into the crater today.
General Notes
All the AP24's are configured as a bridge, so all IP addresses are on the 192.168.0 network.
WDS (wireless distribution system) is also enabled which enables the whole setup to appear as if it is one ethernet switch. I've set wds-ignore-ssid=yes, which as I understand it, allows WDS across different SSIDs. In order for that to work, all access points must be on the same frequency, and dfs-mode (dynamic frequency selection) turned off.
I've chosen frequency=2452 Mhz for testing at FLAB. In the field we can use "interface wireless frequency-monitor" at setup to find a quiet frequency.
Common settings:
- frequency=2452
- tx-power-mode=default
- dfs-mode=none
- wds-mode=dynamic
- wds-ignore_ssid=yes
TX power
Here's a useful FAQ for routers, such as the AP24's, using the mikrotik software, http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Wireless_FAQ.
What TX-power-mode is the best?
TX-power-mode tells the wireless card which tx-power values should be used. By default this setting is set to default.
default means that the card will use the tx-power values from the cards eeprom and will ignore the setting what is specified by the user in the tx-power field.
card-rates means that for different data rates the tx-power is calculated according the cards transmit power algorithm from the cards eeprom and as an argument it takes tx-power value specified by the user.
all-rates-fixed means that that the card will use one tx-power value for all data rates which is specified by the user in tx-power field.
Note that it is not recommended to use 'all-rates-fixed' mode as the wireless card tx-power for the higher data rates is lower and by forcing to use the fixed tx-power rates also for the higher data rates might results the same problems like in the previous question about tx-power setting. For most of the cases if you want to change the tx-power settings it is recommended to use the tx-power-mode=card-rates and it is recommended to lower and not to raise tx-power.
tx-power-mode=default seems to work well in the staging area. If it doesn't work in the field, we'll go with
- tx-power-mode=card-rates
- tx-power=(lowest setting that works well, in the range 13-26)
Access point at base with a single omni antenna
site |
WIFI |
antenna |
role |
ssid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
floor |
etherant |
internal, to rim |
station adaptor |
ISFS |
rim |
AP24-2 |
internal, to floor |
access point |
ISFS |
rim |
AP24-2 |
external, yagi to base |
station adaptor |
ISFSext |
base |
AP24 |
external, omni |
access point |
ISFSext |
near |
AP24-3 |
internal, to base |
station adaptor |
ISFSext |
far |
etherant |
internal, to base |
station adaptor |
ISFSext |
Dual antenna access point at base
If an omni antenna at the base cannot receive adequately from rim, near and far, then we could enable the internal antenna, as follows:
site |
WIFI |
antenna |
role |
ssid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
floor |
etherant |
internal, to rim |
station adaptor |
ISFS |
rim |
AP24-2 |
internal, to floor |
access point |
ISFS |
rim |
AP24-2 |
external, yagi to base |
station adaptor |
ISFSrim |
base |
AP24 |
internal, to rim |
access point |
ISFSrim |
base |
AP24 |
external, 180 |
access point |
ISFSext |
near |
AP24-3 |
internal, to base |
station adaptor |
ISFSext |
far |
etherant |
internal, to base |
station adaptor |
ISFSext |
AP24 at base
Here are the wireless settings if only using the external antenna:
Note:
- wlan1-Int-Ant is disabled
- ssid=ISFS
- wds-default-bridge=bridge1
[admin@ap24] > interface wireless print
Flags: X - disabled, R - running
0 X name="wlan1-Int-Ant" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:15:6D:10:29:B2 arp=enabled disable-running-check=no
interface-type=Atheros AR5213 radio-name="AP24-IntAnt" mode=ap-bridge ssid="ISFSext" area=""
frequency-mode=regulatory-domain country=united states antenna-gain=0 frequency=2452 band=2.4ghz-b/g scan-list=default
rate-set=default supported-rates-b=1Mbps,2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps
supported-rates-a/g=6Mbps,9Mbps,12Mbps,18Mbps,24Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps,54Mbps basic-rates-b=1Mbps basic-rates-a/g=6Mbps
max-station-count=50 ack-timeout=dynamic tx-power-mode=default noise-floor-threshold=default
periodic-calibration=default periodic-calibration-interval=60 burst-time=disabled dfs-mode=none antenna-mode=ant-b
wds-mode=dynamic wds-default-bridge=bridge1 wds-default-cost=100 wds-cost-range=50-150 wds-ignore-ssid=yes
update-stats-interval=30s default-authentication=no default-forwarding=no default-ap-tx-limit=0
default-client-tx-limit=0 proprietary-extensions=post-2.9.25 hide-ssid=no security-profile=isffwep
disconnect-timeout=15s on-fail-retry-time=300ms preamble-mode=both compression=no allow-sharedkey=yes
1 R name="wlan2-Ext-Ant" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:15:6D:10:3C:BC arp=enabled disable-running-check=no
interface-type=Atheros AR5213 radio-name="AP24-ExtAnt" mode=ap-bridge ssid="ISFSext" area=""
frequency-mode=regulatory-domain country=united states antenna-gain=0 frequency=2452 band=2.4ghz-b/g scan-list=default
rate-set=default supported-rates-b=1Mbps,2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps
supported-rates-a/g=6Mbps,9Mbps,12Mbps,18Mbps,24Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps,54Mbps basic-rates-b=1Mbps basic-rates-a/g=6Mbps
max-station-count=50 ack-timeout=dynamic tx-power-mode=default noise-floor-threshold=default
periodic-calibration=default periodic-calibration-interval=60 burst-time=disabled dfs-mode=none antenna-mode=ant-a
wds-mode=dynamic wds-default-bridge=bridge1 wds-default-cost=100 wds-cost-range=50-150 wds-ignore-ssid=yes
update-stats-interval=disabled default-authentication=no default-forwarding=yes default-ap-tx-limit=0
default-client-tx-limit=0 proprietary-extensions=post-2.9.25 hide-ssid=no security-profile=isffwep
disconnect-timeout=15s on-fail-retry-time=300ms preamble-mode=both compression=no allow-sharedkey=yes
AP24-2 at rim
[admin@ap24-2] > interface wireless print
Flags: X - disabled, R - running
0 R name="wlan1-Int-Ant" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:15:6D:20:01:9A arp=enabled disable-running-check=no
interface-type=Atheros AR5213 radio-name="ap24-2-internal" mode=ap-bridge ssid="ISFS" area=""
frequency-mode=regulatory-domain country=united states antenna-gain=0 frequency=2452 band=2.4ghz-b/g scan-list=default
rate-set=default supported-rates-b=1Mbps,2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps
supported-rates-a/g=6Mbps,9Mbps,12Mbps,18Mbps,24Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps,54Mbps basic-rates-b=1Mbps basic-rates-a/g=6Mbps
max-station-count=2007 ack-timeout=dynamic tx-power-mode=default noise-floor-threshold=default
periodic-calibration=default periodic-calibration-interval=60 burst-time=disabled dfs-mode=none antenna-mode=ant-b
wds-mode=dynamic wds-default-bridge=bridge1 wds-default-cost=100 wds-cost-range=50-150 wds-ignore-ssid=yes
update-stats-interval=30s default-authentication=no default-forwarding=no default-ap-tx-limit=0
default-client-tx-limit=0 proprietary-extensions=post-2.9.25 hide-ssid=no security-profile=isffwep
disconnect-timeout=15s on-fail-retry-time=300ms hw-retries=15 preamble-mode=both compression=no allow-sharedkey=yes
1 R name="wlan2-Ext-Ant" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:15:6D:10:1C:0D arp=enabled disable-running-check=no
interface-type=Atheros AR5213 radio-name="ap24-2-external" mode=station-wds ssid="ISFSext" area=""
frequency-mode=regulatory-domain country=united states antenna-gain=0 frequency=2452 band=2.4ghz-b/g scan-list=default
rate-set=default supported-rates-b=1Mbps,2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps
supported-rates-a/g=6Mbps,9Mbps,12Mbps,18Mbps,24Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps,54Mbps basic-rates-b=1Mbps basic-rates-a/g=6Mbps
max-station-count=2007 ack-timeout=dynamic tx-power-mode=default noise-floor-threshold=default
periodic-calibration=default periodic-calibration-interval=60 burst-time=disabled dfs-mode=none antenna-mode=ant-a
wds-mode=dynamic wds-default-bridge=bridge1 wds-default-cost=100 wds-cost-range=50-150 wds-ignore-ssid=yes
update-stats-interval=30s default-authentication=no default-forwarding=no default-ap-tx-limit=0
default-client-tx-limit=0 proprietary-extensions=post-2.9.25 hide-ssid=no security-profile=isffwep
disconnect-timeout=15s on-fail-retry-time=300ms hw-retries=15 preamble-mode=both compression=no allow-sharedkey=yes
AP24-3 at near
The AP24 supports a maximum bandwidth of 54 Mbps, whereas the highest I've seen on an Etherant is 11 Mbps. So the plan is to use the single antenna AP24 at the near tower instead of an Etherant.
[admin@ap24-3] > interface wireless print
Flags: X - disabled, R - running
0 R name="wlan1-Int-Ant" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:15:6D:20:01:90 arp=enabled disable-running-check=no
interface-type=Atheros AR5213 radio-name="AP24-3" mode=station-wds ssid="ISFSext" area=""
frequency-mode=regulatory-domain country=united states antenna-gain=0 frequency=2442 band=2.4ghz-b/g scan-list=default
rate-set=default supported-rates-b=1Mbps,2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps
supported-rates-a/g=6Mbps,9Mbps,12Mbps,18Mbps,24Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps,54Mbps basic-rates-b=1Mbps basic-rates-a/g=6Mbps
max-station-count=50 ack-timeout=dynamic tx-power-mode=default noise-floor-threshold=default
periodic-calibration=default periodic-calibration-interval=60 burst-time=disabled dfs-mode=none antenna-mode=ant-b
wds-mode=dynamic wds-default-bridge=none wds-default-cost=100 wds-cost-range=50-150 wds-ignore-ssid=no
update-stats-interval=disabled default-authentication=no default-forwarding=yes default-ap-tx-limit=0
default-client-tx-limit=0 proprietary-extensions=pre-2.9.25 hide-ssid=no security-profile=isffwep
disconnect-timeout=3s on-fail-retry-time=100ms preamble-mode=both compression=no allow-sharedkey=yes
Below is the calibration information for the kryptons to be deployed on METCRAX II
Sensor |
Path |
Kw |
V0 |
1101 |
1.3 |
-1.788486E-01 |
3.209190E+03 |
1392 |
1.3 |
-1.616296E-01 |
3.748417E+03 |
1394 |
1.3 |
-1.640959E-01 |
3.694515E+03 |
1525 |
1.3 |
-1.663684E-01 |
4.169524E+03 |
Following the SOAS project, we tested each sonic in a zero-wind enclosure within the EOL temperature chamber, measuring wind component offsets and sonic temperature errors over the nominal range -30 C to 55 C. The procedure is to warm the chamber up to 55 C and then slowly decrease the temperature linearly to -30 C, followed by slowly increasing the temperature back to 55 C. The zero-wind enclosure holds two sonic heads on their sides (with the v-axis vertical) and electronics, one above the other and separated with a horizontal layer of rigid blue foam. On the cool-down cycle, the atmosphere around the top sonic is unstably stratified (cold enclosure lid above warmer air) and that around the bottom sonic is stably stratified (cold enclosure bottom below warmer air). The opposite is true during the warm-up cycle. Both the wind component data and the sonic temperature data have significantly less variance when the air is stably stratified, and thus we use data from the bottom sonic during the cool-down cycle and data from the upper sonic during the warm-up cycle.
The following table shows wind component offsets as okay if the u and v offsets are less than +/- 4 cm/s and the w offsets less than +/- 2 cm/s. If the zero wind offset exceeds these thresholds, the table lists the temperature range of the over-limit offset and the largest amplitude of the offset. The plots of offsets versus temperature can then be examined to determine the exact nature of the offset.
The 8th column relates to the following project, METCRAX, in October 2013. The operating temperature range for night-time warm-air intrusions into the crater is on the order of -10 to +20 C. The last column notes whether or not the sonic is suitable for that temperature range.
10/4/13, twh: Added columns 9-13 for post-project EOL zero-wind tests
SN | Location | EOL Cal | CSI Cal | u | v | w | METCRAX? | CSI recal | EOL cal | u | v | w |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0536 | FLR 3m | 8/1/13 | 6/27/12 | ok | ok | ok | OK |
| 12/03b/13 | ok | ok | 35 - 53 C |
0537 | NEAR 3m | 8/1/13 | 6/21/12 | ok | ok | ok | OK |
| 11/26b/12 | ok | ok | ok |
0538 | NEAR 10m | 7/25/13 | 10/17/12 | 32 - 49 C | 46 - 49 C | 44 - 46 V | OK |
| 12/06/13 | ok | 40 - 47 C | 43 - 47 C |
0539 | FAR 3m | 8/2/13 | 6/20/12 | ok | ok | ok | OK |
| 12/09/13 | ok | ok | ok |
0540 | Rim 15m |
| 2013 recal |
|
|
| OK | 6/13/13 | 12/02b/13 | ok | ok | ok |
0671 | Rim 25m | 8/3/13 | 6/28/12 | ok | ok | ok | OK |
| 11/26/12 | ok | ok | ok |
0672 | NEAR 30m | 7/26/13 | 10/10/12 | 35 - 49 C | 36 - 49 C | ok | OK |
| 12/03/13 | ok | ok | ok |
0673 | RIM 35m | 7/25/13 | 7/18/12 | ok | 25 - 44 C | 20 - 50 C | OK |
| 11/25/13 | ok | ok | 41 - 46 C |
0674 | NEAR 40m | 7/29/13 | 8/13/12 | ok | ok | ok | OK |
| 11/22/13 | ok | ok | ok |
0677 | SSW4 | 8/2/13 | 6/17/12 | ok | 16 - 30 C | ok | Requires | 8/20/13 | 11/25/13 | ok | ok | ok |
0720 | NEAR 45m | 7/31/13 | 1/31/11 | ok | ok | ok | OK |
| 11/26b/13 | ok | ok | ok |
0738 | not used | 8/1/13 | 5/12/10 | 17 - 25 C | 10 - 45 C | 26 - 42 C | Returned to |
| NA |
|
|
|
0739 | RIM 5m | 8/1/13 | 8/18/10 | 46 - 55 C | ok | 48 - 55 C | OK |
| 12/04/13 | 43 - 55 C | 51 - 53 C | 51 - 53 C |
0740 | NEAR 50m | 7/31/13 | 8/28/12 | ok | ok | 26 - 36 C | OK |
| 12/05/13 | 39 - 43 C | ok | ok |
0800 | RIM 40m | 7/29/13 | 6/19/12 | ok | 10 - 35 C | 17 - 53 C | Requires | 8/19/13 | 12/03/13 | ok | ok | ok |
0853 | NEAR 35m | 8/2/13 | 6/21/12 | ok | ok | ok | OK |
| 12/03b/13 | ok | ok | ok |
0855 | spare | 8/3/13 | 9/12/12 | -13 - 1 C | ok | 44 - 49 C | Marginally |
|
|
|
|
|
0856 | NEAR 20m |
| 2013 recal |
|
|
| OK | 6/12/13 | 12/04/13 | ok | 25 - 53 C | ok |
1117 | NEAR 25m |
| 2013 recal |
|
|
| OK | 6/11/13 | 11/26/13 | ok | ok | ok |
1119 | spare | 7/26/13 | 8/9/12 | ok | 49-53 C | 1 - 44 C | Marginally |
|
|
|
|
|
1120 | RIM 20m |
| 2013 recall |
|
|
| OK | 6/12/13 | 12/05/13 | ok | 20 - 38 C | ok |
1121 | SSW2 | 7/26/13 | 12/8/11 | -14 - 24 C | -14 - 44C | -15 - 49 C | Requires | 9/5/13 | 11/22/13 | ok | ok | ok |
1122 | NEAR 15m | 7/26/13 | 12/8/11 | 28 - 53 C | 49 - 53 C | 48-53 C | OK |
| 12/06/13 | 47 - 53 C | ok | 43 - 53 C |
1123 | RIM 30m |
| 2013 recal |
|
|
| OK | 6/13/13 | 12/02b/13 | 38 - 43 C | ok | ok |
1124 | RIM 10m | 8/2/13 | 7/19/12 | ok | ok | ok | OK |
| 12/09/13 | ok | ok | 39 - 45 C |
| 1124b | 12/10/13 | ok | ok | 37 - 46 C | ||||||||
1244 | spare | 7/30/13 |
| -25 - 49 C | 11 - 30 C | 18 - 42 C | Requires |
|
|
|
|
|
The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) would like to have aircraft warning markers on the guy wires of our 40 m and 50 m towers:
"When guy wires are present, AGFD recommends attaching Bird Flight Diverters (BFDs) at spaced intervals along the length of multiple wires. At a minimum, four Aircraft Warning Markers (spherical or cylindrical, 36 inches in diameter) should be placed 10 meters below the apex and BFDs be placed at 10 meter intervals along the length of each outer wires."
In the following, I calculate the spatial separation between the sonics and a ball mounted on the guy wire closest to the sonics.
The sonic is mounted 73" or 1.85 m from the Rohn towers. The sonic boom is at an angle of 30 degrees with respect to the vertical plane containing the closest guy wire (VPGW).
Thus the sonic is 1.85 m x sin(30 deg) = 0.93 m from the VPGW and the horizontal distance of the sonic from the tower in the VPGW is 1.85m x cos(60 deg) = 1.6 m.
The ball is placed 10 m below the top of the tower and the upper guy is attached 5' = 1.5 m below the top of the tower. Thus the ball is 8.5 m below the top of the outer guy and displaced 0.8*8.5 m = 6.8 m horizontally from the tower. It is displaced 6.8 -1.6 = 5.2 m horizontally from the sonic in the VPGW.
Since the sonics are at 5 m height intervals, the best case is a 2.5 m vertical separation between the ball and a sonic. I could refine this with the exact heights of the sonics on each tower, but the spatial separation will be principally defined by the 5.2 m horizontal separation. Thus the best case (maximum) separation is sqrt(0.93^2 + 2.5^2 + 5.2^2) = 5.8 m. The worst case is for a sonic at the same height as the ball or sqrt(0.93^2 + 5.2^2) = 5.3 m. These only differ by 10%.
Wyngaard (JAM, 1981) calculated the flow distortion caused by a sphere with a potential flow (laminar) model. Note that for a turbulent flow, this model is adequate only upwind of the sphere. Downwind of the sphere, the turbulent wake complicates the flow around the sphere (not to mention periodic vortex shedding of the wakes). Upwind of the sphere, the distortion of the mean flow is on the order of (a/r)^3 where a is the radius of the sphere and r is the distance from the center of the sphere. Thus for a 36" diameter sphere, the flow distortion is estimated to be on the order of 6e-4 in the worst case and 5e-4 in the best case. These are certainly acceptable levels of flow distortion, but these estimates are only valid upwind of the sphere. For a 24", or 600mm, diameter ball the flow distortion is decreased by a factor of (2/3)^3 = 0.3.
The most desirable compromise would be to place 36" diameter balls only on the two guy wires 'opposite' to the sonic, i.e. those at 90 degrees and 150 degrees from the sonic boom. The next best would be to use three 24" diameter balls.
METCRAXII Communications Test Site Survey June 2013
Overview:
A site survey was conducted from 9-11, June-2013 in order to determine whether wireless operations could be conducted successfully within the crater for the field project in October. Intermittent Wifi connectivity during the first METCRAX field project in 2006 limited ISFS’s ability to reliably recover data between the crater floor and the base operations trailer located ~1km outside, raising concerns for the second campaign.
For METCRAXII wireless operations will consist of both Wifi and Bluetooth telemetry. Wifi will provide the primary link between a single “Flux-PAM” DSM in the crater bottom communicating through an access-point/repeater which will also bridge a “Rim-C” profiling DSM on the south ridge to the base operations trailer outside. Alternatively a fiber-optic cable could link Flux-PAM with Rim-C, and Wifi bridging to the base trailer only. Within the crator two Bluetooth access points on the Flux-PAM DSM will serve 6-1hz barometers and 2-20hz sonic anemometers located partially up the side-walls.
The test was conducted within the crater to determine the viability of the wifi link between the bottom and south rim router as well as 3 simulated bluetooth data streams from representative locations where the sonic/barometer sensors will be located.
Summary of Results:
The Wifi/Bluetooth test worked well enough so that reliable, simultaneous operations can be expected. In part this is due to a significantly reduced data requirement for METCRAXII vs the original experiment.
The fiber-optic cable option between the Rim-C to the floor Flux-PAM is an acceptable alternative to Wifi. Brad Andes, manager of the Meteor Crater Operations, said that we could spool a line from the south-rim to the bottom and hiking the route is ok with them. The route is steep near the rim and the cable might need to be slung with a rope to provide support. The distance estimate is >=2500’ without measuring it. This is based on 550’ vertical depth plus ½ of 4000’ rim diameter per Brad. We should plan on 3000-ft for adequate spare cabling and should avoid segmented joints especially on the steep upper portion of the crater.
Traversing the slope between barometer sites along the lower side-wall is difficult. This is because the wash areas are covered by tumble weeds and footing between rocks may be hidden.
Test Setup:
Wifi: An Alico AP24 was setup as an access point and was located on the south rim of the crater (its configuration is listed at the end of this blog entry). Placement on the rim appeared optimal, on a 5’ tripod at the edge of the slope with excellent view of the crater floor. The antenna was powered through its a/c p.o.e. injector run off an inverter solar charged battery. No noticeable external signals in the area based on WiSpy meter.
On the crater floor an EtherantIIILR was placed at the Flux-PAM site located per Dave Whiteman; roughly 100m nnw from the fenced area. It was powered from a ‘12.7vdc’ mote battery box. With clear skies the solar charged battery voltage floated well above 13volts. Although not the ideal 15v, it was more than adequate. The Eant was placed on the ground rather than on a mast and visually aligned with the rim AP24. The tilt of the eant was roughly set.
Gordon configured the Acer laptop pc with Linux and his DSM software. For the wifi tests, the Acer was connected via ethernet to the Eant. Static addressing was used for the pc and radios. Simple pings and ftp/get file transfers were run observing the throughput. The Eant web page served as a measure of the signal quality and strength. The ‘test’ file for ftp was ~7.6MBytes. For reference these were results in the office (there also is variation in these):
Bench: PC to AP24 via ethernet |
ftp/get 7.6MB ~= 2sec (3700Mbps) |
|
|
ping 64B ~= .75ms |
|
Bench: PC to Eant (solid/close connection – best performance) |
ftp/get 7.6MB ~=12.7sec (610kbps) |
Eant SNR=50, ‘small distance’ |
|
ftp/get 7.6MB ~=15sec (566kbps) |
Good solid link expectation |
|
ping 64B ~=2.4ms |
|
Bluetooth: For the bluetooth tests the Acer was connected via usb to a WT41 configured as an access point. The dsm ‘data-stats’ and ‘rserial’ routines were used to communicate with three motes placed at sampling sites along the side-wall selected by Dave Whiteman. Performance was monitored using linux hcitool. Data throughput was compared with ideal data rate settings, and were varied between 1-30hz. Motes were programmed to send 16byte ascii test messages to mimic sonic operations as well as normal mote power montoring values. Message rates were altered via operator commands issued from the laptop. Two of the motes were connected to a WT41 btradio with an omni antenna and set to maximum power (“set bt power 19 19 19”). These WT41’s were demonstrated to easily reach 800m during the SCP project so cross-crater signals were expected. The third mote was configured with a BlueRadios BT-XB-C40 radio. These radios are class 1, with ranges up to 100m/330ft, which is well below the distance between the Flux-Pam and crater side-wall locations needed for the barometers. However the desire was to determine whether a high-gain directional yaggi antenna (9db) would reliably overcome their range restriction (9db = 8x power) while narrowing the beam to avoid mutual interference. This mote’s radio was initially programmed with reduced power at 0db, versus its maximum power of +10dbm.
Conditions: the weather was very hot and dry as a heat wave was being experienced in the region. Humidities were around 10% and temperatures were around 100degF (a bit higher in the crater) with full sun on Monday and some scattered clouds on the 2nd day. Winds varied from calm to quite windy and variable especially on the rim and within the crater. These conditions probably stressed the equipment more than what can be expected during either September setup or October operations. RF noise does increase with temperature, reducing performane so this represented good timing for the survey.
Initial Crater Wifi Tests
In the crater, an rf-survey with the WiSpy meter showed no interfering signals. Initial power up of Eant-J had near immediate connectivity to AP24 per the leds indicating good connectivity. Initial power setting of the AP24 was 13dbm (range setting is up to 28) and Eant was on ‘small-distance’ between access points. The ftp/get tests varied between 16.9-24.4 seconds for the initial try.
Wifi: PC-EantJ to AP24 |
ftp/get 7.6MB multiple tests =16.9-24.4sec, data-rates 320--455 kbps |
AP24 tx-power=13, Eant SNR~41-44db, ‘small distance’ |
|
ping 64B ~= 2.4ms |
|
Boost AP24 tx-power |
ftp/get 7.6MB tests = 14.6-14.9sec, data-rates 520kbps |
AP24 tx-power=20, Eant SNR~47-48db, ‘small distance’ |
|
ping -s 2000B ~= 10ms |
|
Results were very encouraging noting some variability in the link. Solid connectivity during tests even with reduced power settings and trying different settings in AP/Eant including Eant ‘micro-distance’ to ‘large-distance’ (only 1 ap), and AP24 settings from 13 to 24dbm. The higher AP24 power settings were best and having the ‘small-distance’ appeared most optimal on the Eant. I made the mistake of issuing a ‘scan’ command over the wireless link to the AP24, preventing command termination without going to the rim, thus ending the tests. Test duration ~1.5hours on the air.
Second Crater Wifi with BlueTooth Test
Initial testing involved the bluetooth clients connected to their access point located at the Flux-Pam site. The first mote, with WT41 was placed and powered up along the trail at the height of where the barometer string will be. This is about >=300m away from where the access point was powered up at the Flux-Pam site. Communications between the Acer and this mote were established quickly and commands were easily received by the remote. It was set to 30hz message rate. The other 2 motes were powered up at the Flux-Pam site, connecting quickly without disruption of the first unit. Tim Lim then walked across the floor with them to the first sonic location up the side wall marked by Dave. Communications with the Acer remained good and all messages were received and commandability solid, including with the reduced power btradio mote which had a significantly lower rssi. The btradio mote was then traversed along the sidewall between the other two motes, roughly 200m and 400m between them. The rssi signals were: -7, -4 and -18 to the btradio mote. The motes were located roughly 90-degrees apart between the end units. The access point was power cycled and connectivity with the 3 motes was quickly restored. The DSM data stats indicated good message recovery at ~30 messages/sec from all 3.
After the bluetooth links were working well, the Wifi was turned on between Eant-J and the Rim-C site. Once again, initial power up of Eant-J had near immediate connectivity to AP24 on the Rim. The AP24 power setting was initially 20dbm, and Eant was on ‘small-distance’ between access points. The ftp/get tests varied and the Eant SNR reported values were significantly different than the first day, at ~35-37db. The bluetooth link was turned off to determine whether it was causing the reduced link quality. The Eant was also power cycled a couple of times.
Wifi: PC-EantJ to AP24 |
ftp/get 7.6MB multiple tests =25.7-34sec, data-rates 270--300kbps |
AP24 tx-power=20, Eant SNR~35-37db, ‘small distance’, motes running |
|
ping --s 2000B ~= 20ms |
|
Boost AP24 tx-power |
ftp/get 7.6MB tests = 20-25sec, data-rates 308-376kbps |
AP24 tx-power=28, Eant SNR~38-39db, ‘small distance’, motes running |
Turn Off Motes |
ftp/get 7.6MB tests = 15-16sec, data-rates 484-507kbps |
AP24 tx-power=28, Eant SNR~40-42db, ‘small distance’; note power cycled and examined Eant prior also |
Turn Motes Back On |
ftp/get 7.6MB tests = 14.4-15.9sec, data-rates 481-530kbps |
AP24 tx-power=28, Eant SNR~40-42db, ‘small distance’. |
Results were again very encouraging even noting some variability in the wifi links. One concern had been whether or not reflections/fading caused by the crater structure itself would degrade the wireless links. In addition were concerns whether mutual interference between bluetooth and wifi nodes would be problematic. A spectrum analyzer would have been an ideal tool to use for looking at the signal/noise environment at each location, but one was not available for use.
The bluetooth links remained solid throughout all tests and impressively during transport of the radios across the crater floor. This was also true even having a very weak power setting (0db vs 10db max) on the btradio mote while using the yaggi antenna. With full power setting the BTradios with yaggi antennas can provide a reliable link. The WT41 motes also provide good links as expected, although physical implementation with the motes required a second ‘white-box’ in addition to the mote box. However the pointing a
The wifi link at first appeared to be effected by the bluetooth radios, however the degradation was ultimately attributed to poor antenna alignment of the Eant with the Rim-C AP24. Several tests were again performed with different AP and Eant settings with good results. It appears that the wifi will have some variability but it definitely depends upon having a good antenna alignment and proper power settings. Note that the bluetooth and wifi antennas at the Flux-PAM site were less than ideal, whereas the AP24 location was very good.
During the field experiment the AP24 bridge/repeater will need to be raised roughly 20m above the tower base in order to get good visibility over the crater rim and above the low ridge between it and the base trailer location.
AP24 Configuration:
# jan/01/2000 00:03:42 by RouterOS 2.9.27
# software id = IH8C-3TT
#
/ interface wireless
set wlan1-Int-Ant name="wlan1-Int-Ant" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:15:6D:20:01:90 \
arp=enabled disable-running-check=no radio-name="AP24-IntAnt" \
mode=ap-bridge ssid="ISFS" area="" frequency-mode=regulatory-domain \
country="united states" antenna-gain=0 frequency=2442 band=2.4ghz-b/g \
scan-list=default rate-set=default \
supported-rates-b=1Mbps,2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps \
supported-rates-a/g=6Mbps,9Mbps,12Mbps,18Mbps,24Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps,54Mbps \
basic-rates-b=1Mbps basic-rates-a/g=6Mbps max-station-count=50 \
ack-timeout=dynamic tx-power=18 tx-power-mode=card-rates \
noise-floor-threshold=default periodic-calibration=default \
periodic-calibration-interval=60 burst-time=disabled dfs-mode=radar-detect \
antenna-mode=ant-b wds-mode=disabled wds-default-bridge=none \
wds-default-cost=100 wds-cost-range=50-150 wds-ignore-ssid=no \
update-stats-interval=disabled default-authentication=no \
default-forwarding=yes default-ap-tx-limit=0 default-client-tx-limit=0 \
proprietary-extensions=pre-2.9.25 hide-ssid=no security-profile=isffwep \
disconnect-timeout=3s on-fail-retry-time=100ms preamble-mode=both \
compression=no allow-sharedkey=no comment="" disabled=no
/ interface wireless nstreme
set wlan1-Int-Ant enable-nstreme=no enable-polling=yes framer-policy=none \
framer-limit=3200
/ interface wireless manual-tx-power-table
set wlan1-Int-Ant manual-tx-powers=1Mbps:25,2Mbps:25,5.5Mbps:25,11Mbps:25,6Mbps\
:25,9Mbps:25,12Mbps:25,18Mbps:25,24Mbps:25,36Mbps:24,48Mbps:22,54Mbps:21
/ interface wireless security-profiles
set default name="default" mode=none authentication-types="" \
unicast-ciphers="" group-ciphers="" wpa-pre-shared-key="" \
wpa2-pre-shared-key="" eap-methods=passthrough tls-mode=no-certificates \
tls-certificate=none static-algo-0=none static-key-0="" static-algo-1=none \
static-key-1="" static-algo-2=none static-key-2="" static-algo-3=none \
static-key-3="" static-transmit-key=key-0 static-sta-private-algo=none \
static-sta-private-key="" radius-mac-authentication=no group-key-update=5m
add name="isffwep" mode=static-keys-required authentication-types="" \
unicast-ciphers="" group-ciphers="" wpa-pre-shared-key="" \
wpa2-pre-shared-key="" eap-methods=passthrough tls-mode=no-certificates \
tls-certificate=none static-algo-0=104bit-wep \
static-key-0="656f6c33303334393738383032" static-algo-1=none \
static-key-1="" static-algo-2=none static-key-2="" static-algo-3=none \
static-key-3="" static-transmit-key=key-0 static-sta-private-algo=none \
static-sta-private-key="" radius-mac-authentication=no group-key-update=5m
/ interface wireless align
set frame-size=300 active-mode=yes receive-all=no \
audio-monitor=00:00:00:00:00:00 filter-mac=00:00:00:00:00:00 ssid-all=no \
frames-per-second=25 audio-min=-100 audio-max=-20
/ interface wireless connect-list
add interface=wlan1-Int-Ant connect=yes mac-address=00:00:00:00:00:00 \
ssid="ISFS" min-signal-strength=-95 area-prefix="" \
security-profile=isffwep comment="" disabled=no
/ interface wireless access-list
add mac-address=00:20:F6:05:1E:C7 interface=wlan1-Int-Ant authentication=yes \
forwarding=no ap-tx-limit=0 client-tx-limit=0 private-algo=104bit-wep \
private-key="656f6c33303334393738383032" comment="" disabled=no
add mac-address=00:20:F6:05:25:8B interface=wlan1-Int-Ant authentication=yes \
forwarding=no ap-tx-limit=0 client-tx-limit=0 private-algo=104bit-wep \
private-key="656f6c33303334393738383032" comment="" disabled=no
add mac-address=00:20:F6:05:26:D9 interface=wlan1-Int-Ant authentication=yes \
forwarding=no ap-tx-limit=0 client-tx-limit=0 private-algo=104bit-wep \
private-key="656f6c33303334393738383032" comment="" disabled=no
add mac-address=00:20:F6:05:16:CD interface=wlan1-Int-Ant authentication=yes \
forwarding=no ap-tx-limit=0 client-tx-limit=0 private-algo=104bit-wep \
private-key="656f6c33303334393738383032" comment="" disabled=no
add mac-address=00:20:F6:05:1E:D5 interface=wlan1-Int-Ant authentication=yes \
forwarding=no ap-tx-limit=0 client-tx-limit=0 private-algo=104bit-wep \
private-key="656f6c33303334393738383032" comment="" disabled=no
add mac-address=00:20:F6:05:24:5A interface=wlan1-Int-Ant authentication=yes \
forwarding=no ap-tx-limit=0 client-tx-limit=0 private-algo=104bit-wep \
private-key="656f6c33303334393738383032" comment="" disabled=no
add mac-address=00:20:F6:05:24:7F interface=wlan1-Int-Ant authentication=yes \
forwarding=no ap-tx-limit=0 client-tx-limit=0 private-algo=104bit-wep \
private-key="656f6c33303334393738383032" comment="" disabled=no
add mac-address=00:20:F6:05:24:85 interface=wlan1-Int-Ant authentication=yes \
forwarding=no ap-tx-limit=0 client-tx-limit=0 private-algo=104bit-wep \
private-key="656f6c33303334393738383032" comment="" disabled=no
add mac-address=00:20:F6:05:24:56 interface=wlan1-Int-Ant authentication=yes \
forwarding=no ap-tx-limit=0 client-tx-limit=0 private-algo=104bit-wep \
private-key="656f6c33303334393738383032" comment="" disabled=no
add mac-address=00:20:F6:05:24:4F interface=wlan1-Int-Ant authentication=yes \
forwarding=no ap-tx-limit=0 client-tx-limit=0 private-algo=104bit-wep \
private-key="656f6c33303334393738383032" comment="" disabled=no
add mac-address=00:15:6D:20:01:9A interface=wlan1-Int-Ant authentication=yes \
forwarding=no ap-tx-limit=0 client-tx-limit=0 private-algo=104bit-wep \
private-key="656f6c33303334393738383032" comment="" disabled=no
add mac-address=00:15:6D:05:24:7F interface=wlan1-Int-Ant authentication=yes \
forwarding=yes ap-tx-limit=0 client-tx-limit=0 private-algo=104bit-wep \
private-key="656f6c33303334393738383032" comment="" disabled=no
add mac-address=00:06:11:80:31:42 interface=wlan1-Int-Ant authentication=yes \
forwarding=no ap-tx-limit=0 client-tx-limit=0 private-algo=104bit-wep \
private-key="656f6c33303334393738383032" comment="" disabled=no
add mac-address=00:15:6D:10:29:B2 interface=wlan1-Int-Ant authentication=yes \
forwarding=yes ap-tx-limit=0 client-tx-limit=0 private-algo=none \
private-key="" comment="" disabled=no
add mac-address=00:0C:42:04:7B:F9 interface=wlan1-Int-Ant authentication=yes \
forwarding=yes ap-tx-limit=0 client-tx-limit=0 private-algo=104bit-wep \
private-key="656f6c33303334393738383032" comment="" disabled=no
/ interface wireless snooper
set multiple-channels=yes channel-time=200ms receive-errors=no
/ interface wireless sniffer
set multiple-channels=no channel-time=200ms only-headers=no receive-errors=no \
memory-limit=10 file-name="" file-limit=10 streaming-enabled=no \
streaming-server=0.0.0.0 streaming-max-rate=0