MY Outdoor/Waterproof Linksys WRT54G Routers **PICS** (no longer waterproof)

I’m making two outdoor wireless long range wifi stations. I took apart two Linksys WRT54G routers and stuck them inside a liquid tight enclosure. Check out my design. :D

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...s/PDR_0256.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...s/PDR_0260.jpg

Everything is sealed, including the feedthroughs using high quality o-ring seal design. The RJ45 feedthrough is packed with white di-electric grease to keep water out. Every edge of the feedthroughs were sealed with silicone. There is an ultra bright Red LED on the sides of the boxes that indicates traffic (and ultimently system power too) on the wirelses interface.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...s/PDR_0259.jpg

There is one high quality ball bearing fan and one large desiccant (silic gel) bag inside to help keep the air moving around inside of the box and turn any droplets of water that might accumulate into vapor that will then be absorbed by the silic gel. the silic gel can be seen glued to the inside of the face covers (big white bags)

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...s/PDR_0257.jpg

These routers will run at around 80-100mw output power. And will be mounted to a pole that is always in direct sunlight.

Do you think they might overheat on a hot sunny day?
It can sometimes get up to 120f here.
or do you think these routers pretty rugged?


I should have the antennas monday, and ill have them set up next week. I cant wait!!!

I wonder if you filled them up with oil then cooled them down in the dirt if it would stop them from overheating if they did.

Kidda like this
http://img.techpowerup.org/080419/wonder.jpg

Definitely going to get hot in that box, how hot I dont know. I guess you will find out if they quit working. Nice job...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DaMulta

I wonder if you filled them up with oil then cooled them down in the dirt if it would stop them from overheating if they did.

Kidda like this
http://img.techpowerup.org/080419/wonder.jpg

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That is some serious elaborate thinking. i dont think they are sealed to the extent of being filled with oil for any extended period of time.

they are submergable in a bath tub but i did notice a drop or two after i opended them up. but rain has no chance of getting in!

also i might add, one of these is going to be on the roof of my house.

throw a high powered DELTA fan in there... hey its outside right so who cares for the noise as long as your house windows absorb it hehe

whats the purpose of an outdoor router anyways?

Hmmm...

I saw similar setups without fans on roofs in AZ on the dd-wrt forum, never heard of problems. Im sure they will get hot... But it should be fine. Just dont overclock them. And you could always underclock in dd-wrt.. lol. thats crazy though.

attach heatsinks to the main ICs and make sure its not in direct sunlight and it sohuld be fine.

I think that it will overheat. My router is always warm.

How about a heatpipe cooler? You could run the heatpipes into the box through holes with the cooling fins outside the box. You could then seal the area where the pipes enter the box.

pretty sweet...yeah they'll overheat unless you take proper precautions

I'd suggest modding in a heatsink and attach the heatsink to the bottom of the router, such that the ground could be used to cool the system.
Also did you remember to ground the equipment for lighting strikes?

I'd just put an exhaust on the boxes. You can bend the exhaust so that it points to the ground, and put a good fan in the box blowing the exhaust out. That'll keep humidity out, and should keep the heat down to a decent level.

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Originally Posted by ARC1450

I'd just put an exhaust on the boxes. You can bend the exhaust so that it points to the ground, and put a good fan in the box blowing the exhaust out. That'll keep humidity out, and should keep the heat down to a decent level.

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you're saying to just use one fan to exhaust with no intake? i dont see that creating any flow...

i dont like hearing that this router will overheat, but i guess it will.
im not too sure if the humidity will affect much, so maybe some airflow wouldnt hurt.

i can cut two holes in the bottom and move that fan to exaust and the other hole as the intake, both would have some type of mesh filter to keep bugs out of corse.

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Originally Posted by Exahertz

you're saying to just use one fan to exhaust with no intake? i dont see that creating any flow...

i dont like hearing that this router will overheat, but i guess it will.
im not too sure if the humidity will affect much, so maybe some airflow wouldnt hurt.

i can cut two holes in the bottom and move that fan to exaust and the other hole as the intake, both would have some type of mesh filter to keep bugs out of corse.

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you do realize you don't need to make holes to conduct heat away right?
just use metal to conduct the heat way.
Heck you can even use metal spikes to drop the heat into the dirt...

It creates negative pressure in the box. I can tell you right now, the box isn't perfectly sealed (since you can get water into it), so you'll get airflow, even if it's crappy. The thing to remember is that hot air expands, so when that box is hot and in the sun, the air in it will take up more volume than the air around it. Venting and having an exhaust will naturally create something resembling air flow that can keep it cool.

And of course, as mentioned, you can drop metal rods to the ground to try and dissipate the heat, with the added benefit of the boxes being grounded in the case of lightning (even though they're plastic, they can still hold a static charge).

Just something I'd do IMHO. Then again, though, I wouldn't put a wireless router outside. :P

Ok, so i fugure that a little moisture wont do nearly as much damage as a lot of heat could. so i moved the fans and cut some more holes. but i lost my water tight seal in doing so :shakes:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...s/PDR_0262.jpg

as you can see everything is filtered. i have a mesh filter on the top of the intake pipe and a screen under the fan

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...s/PDR_0264.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...s/PDR_0266.jpg

the flow is setup so that no rain drops cant make their way into the enclosure, they would have to travel up the pipe and through the filter in order to make it in. and any rain that gets near the fan should be blown away. plus no bugs can make it through the screen filter.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9.../airflow-1.jpg

I may put a small and cheap inline temperature switch set at around 100F. just so the fan doesnt run all of the time and so the inside of the box stays heated by the router and cant get cold enough to create condensation...

oh and btw the poles are grounded with 6awg ground wire incase of lightning strikes ;)

again, whats the purpose of an outdoor router?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hecktic

again, whats the purpose of an outdoor router?

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I'm Attempting to have the lowest signal loss due to cabling and the highest signal output to the antenna.

These routers will be mounted to a pole with a parabolic antenna above them. I need a long range (2 - 3 mile) connection.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Exahertz

I'm Attempting to have the lowest signal loss due to cabling and the highest signal output to the antenna.

These routers will be mounted to a pole with a parabolic antenna above them. I need a long range (2 - 3 mile) connection.

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ahh interesting...

Why not buy a decent high power antenna? it'll be watertight also if you get one for outdoor usage, and we tested one ourselves here near us, gets a 1Km range by default in the city with it being mounted inside,so thats a good .... 0.8 miles or so. nowhere near your 3miles needed/wanted but getting 3 miles on a normal lowpower router is gonna be a PAIN, you either need to use amps, which create more heat, more power usage, or get yourself some decent kit.

Sounds good. How a bout sealing it AROUND the heat sink ? So the heatsink is outside of the enclosure but touching the vital IC's. Then you can put a delta on it or have it Rain Cooled ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Entity_Razer

Why not buy a decent high power antenna? it'll be watertight also if you get one for outdoor usage, and we tested one ourselves here near us, gets a 1Km range by default in the city with it being mounted inside,so thats a good .... 0.8 miles or so. nowhere near your 3miles needed/wanted but getting 3 miles on a normal lowpower router is gonna be a PAIN, you either need to use amps, which create more heat, more power usage, or get yourself some decent kit.

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Would a decent active antenna be bi-directional? i am only trying to minimize cable length to improve my distance. i hope this works.

check out one of the stations:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...ennaground.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...ys/antenna.jpg

If you need it to be fairly immune to water yet still breath I'd consider some form of conformal coating on the board.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by G H Z

If you need it to be fairly immune to water yet still breath I'd consider some form of conformal coating on the board.

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my father and i also had that idea. the only issue i see is that the coating might insulate the board which could increase the temperatures in the board.

it might not be that bad though,and i can always add some small heat sinks ware needed. what would you suggest using? would a laquor clear coat work?

This is cool and all, but why reinvent the wheel? Plenty of these boxes online that work perfectly. My parents have one on their tv antenna. 8months and not one downtime.

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Originally Posted by WesM63

This is cool and all, but why reinvent the wheel? Plenty of these boxes online that work perfectly. My parents have one on their tv antenna. 8months and not one downtime.

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do they have an actual router up there or a bi-directional amp?

because i was thinking of buying a 1watt bi-directional amp that i can put up on the poll and just putting these routers down in the shade under something so they dont get wet. but im still trying to keep cable length down

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Exahertz

do they have an actual router up there or a bi-directional amp?

because i was thinking of buying a 1watt bi-directional amp that i can put up on the poll and just putting these routers down in the shade under something so they dont get wet. but im still trying to keep cable length down

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Its actually a bridge. No amp, just whats built in, its only shooting ~2miles.

a one watt amp? what is the gain of that antennae? with a 1 watt amp, a 6dbi antennae is the limit as 4 watts is the limit for omni directional 802.11 networks. now ptp networks have 3 to 1 exemption

Quote:

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Sec. 15.247 Operation within the bands 902-928 MHz, 2400-2483.5 MHz, and 5725-5850 MHz.

(i) Systems operating in the 2400-2483.5 MHz band that are used
exclusively for fixed, point-to-point operations may employ transmitting
antennas with directional gain greater than 6 dBi provided the maximum
peak output power of the intentional radiator is reduced by 1 dB for
every 3 dB that the directional gain of the antenna exceeds 6 dBi.

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so basically, for every 3db you boost on one ap, you have to reduce 1 db on the other, effectively getting one AP above 4watts. i think.:eh:

You said they'll always be in sunlight right?
You should get solar panels to power them. :)
[/ecofriendly]

you should put some small heat sink on them IMO

Quote:

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Originally Posted by the

a one watt amp? what is the gain of that antennae? with a 1 watt amp, a 6dbi antennae is the limit as 4 watts is the limit for omni directional 802.11 networks. now ptp networks have 3 to 1 exemption



so basically, for every 3db you boost on one ap, you have to reduce 1 db on the other, effectively getting one AP above 4watts. i think.:eh:

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these antennas are spected out at 60 watts max. now at 60 watts i might have the FCC knocking on my door :D

1 watt should be more than enough to reach 3 miles. and the 1 watt bi-direction amps are less than $100. plus they are engineered to withstand outdoor conditions!

sounds perfect for my application :up:

thats a little different, 60 watts into the antennae, isn't 60watts EIRP; effective isotropically radiated power. 1 watt into a 6db antennae is ~4 watts eirp. 100 milliwatts into a 17db antennae is ~5 watts EIRP, so you see antennae gain plays a large role, if you got 1 watt into say a 15 db antennae, your up around 30 watts EIRP, so you gotta choose your output to the antennae, and your antennae gain. now if you ask me what i would do (and have done many times) is leave the AP inside, run a cable up to the house with a 250 mw all weather bi-di amp mounted on the antennae pole, have a 12 db parabolic antennae with a bout a 30 degree beam width at both locations. then if i needed throughput with security, i;d get two cisco 1800 series and seup a vpn between the two, i;ve had 22 meg encrypted throughput on short runs with that very setup. HOWEVER, i'm kinda likin what i see that you've done so far, and i think it'll work great. and even though its illegal you can *probably* bend the rules a little bit on the 802.11 EIRP laws. im not telling you to, im just saying that i;ve seen it done before with no issues

so the question is, what db gain are these antenna's?

Are you kidding me !!! WOW with those huge antenna you can steal WIFI from 10KM away, COOOOOOL IDEA :D

Don't you think that cold air will make water inside the box and blow the router ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by the

thats a little different, 60 watts into the antennae, isn't 60watts EIRP; effective isotropically radiated power. 1 watt into a 6db antennae is ~4 watts eirp. 100 milliwatts into a 17db antennae is ~5 watts EIRP, so you see antennae gain plays a large role, if you got 1 watt into say a 15 db antennae, your up around 30 watts EIRP, so you gotta choose your output to the antennae, and your antennae gain. now if you ask me what i would do (and have done many times) is leave the AP inside, run a cable up to the house with a 250 mw all weather bi-di amp mounted on the antennae pole, have a 12 db parabolic antennae with a bout a 30 degree beam width at both locations. then if i needed throughput with security, i;d get two cisco 1800 series and seup a vpn between the two, i;ve had 22 meg encrypted throughput on short runs with that very setup. HOWEVER, i'm kinda likin what i see that you've done so far, and i think it'll work great. and even though its illegal you can *probably* bend the rules a little bit on the 802.11 EIRP laws. im not telling you to, im just saying that i;ve seen it done before with no issues

so the question is, what db gain are these antenna's?

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24dbi gain
Focused at 8 degrees
Vertical polarization

Cool explanation too. From what I read these antennas are rated to handle no more than 60 watts to the feed element. From what I understand the feed element is AKA the radiation resistor. So any more than 60 watts and the feed element/radiation resistor gets too hot and fries :shrug:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by computerking

Are you kidding me !!! WOW with those huge antenna you can steal WIFI from 10KM away, COOOOOOL IDEA :D

Don't you think that cold air will make water inside the box and blow the router ?

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Thanks, yea they do look pretty cool in person too. I was totally amazed with the quality of these antennas that cost only $50.
I've got a pigtail cable to connect from the N-type male to the MMCX on my Senao 2511 (prism 2.5 chipset) wifi card. I'm going to use that card and Netstumbler for alignment purposes. But I still can’t believe how many networks I can see.

From ground level using my 7dbi omni-direction antenna I can see about 10-15 routers. When I use the parabolic (and rotating it slowley in 360 degrees) I accumulate well over 100 routers! So the antenna works quite well!
However I’m sure the antenna can do better, the pigtail I’m using has 10 feet of RG174 coax which has some pretty high attenuation in it (at least 6-8 db lost just through the cable). I would have liked to have got a pigtail with some LMR coax which is almost the same size cable but half the attenuation.
The patch cable I’m using between the antennas and routers is RG214 and only 18 inches of it.

Oh and BTW, even though I have cracked a few WEP keys in the past (purely in my own lab setups)... I have no intention of haxing with this setup. :nono:

And as for the cold air/condensaton comment, I did mention some ware in this thread that I wanted to use a temperature switch so the fan is on during hot days and off during cold, rainy, foggy days. Plus someone had a pretty good idea of coating the board as well. But the heat from the router inside of the box should be enough to keep condensation to a minimum on cold days.

that's quite a bit of gain, if you put a 1 watt amp on those, you'll be at 251 watts EIRP, quite a load, and pretty dangerous. remeber you're working with microwave here. if you stick with just the WRT's output (28 mw last i remember) you'll be at 7 watts. that alone should be enough to get you that distance. IF any more power is needed, i;d suggest flashing those wrt's to ddwrt, that lets you select more output if you need it, with those antennae, and amp definitely isn't necessary.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by G H Z

If you need it to be fairly immune to water yet still breath I'd consider some form of conformal coating on the board.

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How about this stuff?

TechSpray's
Fine-L-Kote SR
Silicone Conformal Coating Spray

Recommended for harsh environments, Fine-L-Kote™ SR has excellent moisture and fungus resistance and allows for vibration, movement and rapid changes in temperature. Contains Opti/Scan™ black light indicator for inspection purposes. Non-ozone depleting.

Product Information
MSDS Sheet

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Exahertz

24dbi gain
Oh and BTW, even though I have cracked a few WEP keys in the past (purely in my own lab setups)... I have no intention of haxing with this setup. :nono:

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OHHH yeah :rofl: :ROTF: Are you kidding me :shocked: You are building a WIFI City stealer lol ! MAN That is big ass station, Keep your self safe from FBI if they see that Antenna :p: I don't believe you when you say you don't have intention to hax :ROTF:

I like it, Keep it going and show more updates :shakes: :up:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by computerking

OHHH yeah :rofl: :ROTF: Are you kidding me :shocked: You are building a WIFI City stealer lol ! MAN That is big ass station, Keep your self safe from FBI if they see that Antenna :p: I don't believe you when you say you don't have intention to hax :ROTF:

I like it, Keep it going and show more updates :shakes: :up:

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Screwing with other peoples internet is not quite as fun as some may think it is. They allways have some crappy slow basic cable package or dsl, and like 1 computer on it. Nothing exciting is ever on those computers, and i hear its illegial.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ZOMGVTEK

Screwing with other peoples internet is not quite as fun as some may think it is. They allways have some crappy slow basic cable package or dsl, and like 1 computer on it. Nothing exciting is ever on those computers, and i hear its illegial.

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Pffffft. . .

As if legality has ever stopped anyone before. :rofl: :shrug:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ARC1450

Pffffft. . .

As if legality has ever stopped anyone before. :rofl: :shrug:

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:yepp:

LOL I don't mean that he will screw people, But maybe if he can get his hand on a 100GB LINE :rolleyes: he will not use it ? hell no he will.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by G H Z

If you need it to be fairly immune to water yet still breath I'd consider some form of conformal coating on the board.

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The boards now have a Conformal silicone Coating on them. and they look and still work good!

Thanks for the idea G H Z!

Update!

I coated the boards with a silicone conformal spray, and i cleaned them very through
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...ys/coating.jpg

I added some chipsinks to the broadcom chip, switch and a larger heatsink to the radio (if you look closly you can see the temperature switch mounted to the radio's heatsink) the fans come on when that heatsink hits 140F but im thinking of lowering that to 90-100F
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...tempswitch.jpg

And this is the final product
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9/laserskys/done.jpg

I have both stations wired and i am able to download on the web at 13mbps from over 1 mile away! :D

you might want to consider some sort of duct for the inside. the way it looks right now, i think the air will just come in and go right back out without circulating.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by moto211

you might want to consider some sort of duct for the inside. the way it looks right now, i think the air will just come in and go right back out without circulating.

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very good point!

i'll try to run a tube from the intake up to the top so as to try to draw hot air from the top down and out of the exhaust.

thanks ;)

btw, everything has been working ROCK SOLID at 84mw output, even on a clear 80 degree day with the sun pounding down on the boxes (and in a heavy rain/wind storm) no problems to report.
i also ordered some new temp switches that are only 113F instead of 140F. that should help to keep things a little cooler inside.

13mbps download speeds well exceeds any expectations i had when starting this project, and is really freaking fast (by my standards)! :up:

Yeah more airflow would be good, my router is in it's own special housing too :)

WRT54G with DD-WRT
http://aycu10.webshots.com/image/486...5054413_rs.jpg

I just took some pictures of both stations and here they are:

Station 1
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...s/Station1.jpg

Station 2
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...s/station2.jpg

These picture are from yesterday, so both stations are finished, running and connected. :D

Use a bigger enclosure to cover the outside, leave some space between the router on the inside using bolts and washers. This way your box will never be direct sunlight, heat from the sun can escape, and it's waterproof so you can vent the router box some more.
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/705/temphv5.png

^hmm... :idea:

maybe find something in aluminium so it would reflect a lot in infrared.

but i could just see something making a nest or hive up inside of there...

I was also thinking, it doesnt even have to cover all 5 sides, even a simple "U" shaped aluminium sheild covering only 3 sides would help against most of the sun if the boxes where turned in the right direction.

thats good and i like that idea! its cheap, easy and a very effective fix! thanks!

Just an update.

As of today I am completely impressed with the performance of these routers! They have withstood the high heat of direct sun in the hottest of summer and just kept on chuggin along. They have also withstood the outermost parts of a hurricane with 50mph gusts and heavy downpours without interruption. the link has never dropped below 10mbps, but is normally >20mbps!!!!!

Downtime has been minimal and their always easy to get back on-line with a simple power cycle (id say they need to be cycled once a month).

Now comes the test of winter! Ill report back with updates or season related issues as the months keep counting.

But so far the WRT54G is AWSOME OUTDOORS!!!!!!!!

You guys should put up a how-to for guys like me who know nothing about configuring the router to do this..

I've been working on accumulating parts to do this for myself for a long time... but I cant configure the routers for crap lol.

awesome job there

really impressive stuff. would it be possible to add a whirly bird or something to it to keep temps down?

VERY cool stuff. I'm bookmarking this in case I ever do anything similar.

I’m glad all of you find this interesting! :D

Maybe if I have some time I’ll explain how I configured the routers to work as a bridge using the Alchemy firmware, Version: V1.0 v3.37.6.8sv

But I’ll start with a few pointers that drove me nuts for a while.
------------------------------------------------------------
First off don’t use DHCP, everything must be statically assigned addresses!!

You must use WEP (not just for security but it helps make the connection a little more stable, I’m not sure why)

Select 802.11g only, if either one of these routers see an 802.11b router (from any ware) they will run at b speeds (and with antennas like this they will see a b router!

The wireless network names (SSID) must match on both your main router and your client router.

Due to only having a single antenna I had to configure RX and TX on the same channel (eg. left and left)

On the router side (connected to the internet) you must configure it as an AP
On the router side (connected to the internet) you must connect the Ethernet cable to the WAN port.

On the client side (the other side of the bridge) you must configure it as client
On the client side (the other side of the bridge) you must connect the Ethernet cable into a switch port
On the client side (the other side of the bridge) you must use the MAC address filter to make a stable connection, Permit only main router's MAC address

And those are just a few of the more important thing I found... If anyone wants a copy of the configuration backups from both of my routers I can send them to you. If you flash two V1.0 wrt54g routers with the Alchemy-V1.0 v3.37.6.8sv firmware, load these backups into the routers and connect the cables in the right ports you should have a working bridge just from that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by STEvil

You guys should put up a how-to for guys like me who know nothing about configuring the router to do this..

I've been working on accumulating parts to do this for myself for a long time... but I cant configure the routers for crap lol.

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QFT. ( +1)+

BTW: your project is really gorgeous :)

Just an update.

This morning we had an ice storm. Network went down, status> Wireless> Site survey showed no networks. I got up on the roof and cleaned all of the (1/4" thick) ice off of the parabolic antenna and instantly 20 networks where showing with good signal strength again.

So be advised that ice will temporary kill your antenna!

Have you tried an old DirectTV dish for an antenna? I've heard those work very well.

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Originally Posted by gillbot

Have you tried an old DirectTV dish for an antenna? I've heard those work very well.

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O RLY? no i haven't considered that. do you have to modify the feed element in any way???

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Originally Posted by Exahertz

O RLY? no i haven't considered that. do you have to modify the feed element in any way???

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I don't recall, but when I looked into it there was info readily available about doing such a mod. I'm sure google would provide the answers.

I was looking for a solution to reach ~5 miles and many were using the old dishes successfully for distances over 10 miles I believe. I just never got past the planning stage as I ended up moving.

Just added some more pictures:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...ys/Orion-1.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...kys/moon-1.jpg