Not disagreeing with you at all. One challenge we always seem to have is about how to keep up documentation on how to configure the device for specific radios and what voltages work with which radios, and how to do this in a way which doesn't bite someone in the rear when the radio manufacturer changes something without us being aware of it.
Take for example the airfiber product line. Originally they were all 48VDC, all 4 pair, Then they released the AF-5X, and it could only do 25V max, until they changed it at a certain mac address and now they do up to 54V again. Some of them will do positive or negative power. Some of them don't care which pins they're on and some do. Some are isolated ground. Some aren't. And this is just with one product line - you probably have 6 different configurations with just that one set of radios. Add all of the radios that someone might want to plug into the RackInjector and you get the idea of the scale of the challenge. I'm (still) working on some solutions which may resolve this issue, but I've also been down various paths trying to solve this issue several times and nothing useful has come from it. I've tried getting this information from radio manufacturers and in many cases it is like pulling teeth - for some it seems like how to power their radios safely is a trade secret or something. I've tried reverse engineering radios on the bench here, but that is expensive since I end up having to buy a copy of each various radio to do this. I've tried obtaining information from customers about what works, but that has proven to have it's own set of issues including greatly varying quality of information. And so on. I believe I might have a technical solution here which involves a piece of custom test equipment which I can ship to customers to gather the correct information, but this is going to need some relatively minor engineering, and the Base 3 is pretty much consuming 100% of the engineering time at this point, for at least another few weeks. In relation to docs in general, I really would like to just hire someone who takes care of all of this for me, but that's been it's own challenge (I've hired or attempted to hire at least 5 different people/contractors/firms of various qualifications, and none have produced useful docs). I'm working on a possible summer intern from one of the schools who have a technical writing program, but that may or may not work out just because of the timing of WISPAMERICA and another show we're attending being right on top of the interview weeks at the local colleges. In case you sense you've touched a bit of a frustration for me, you're right. Since I know this *has* to be fixed, and so far I haven't figured out how to fix this particular issue, and the fact that I've tried several times and failed isn't making me very non-grumpy about it. The good news is that once I get the Base3 cleared off the plate, we can circle back to this and hopefully figure out a solution this go around. On Wed, Feb 19, 2020 at 4:24 PM Tyson Burris <t...@franklinisp.net> wrote: > We blew two radio ports today on the old style gear. Hopefully the > documents clarify things better moving forward. > > Love the product but honestly the lack of current and accurate documents > is the main shortcoming that cost us a tower climb. > > > > > > > > *Tyson Burris, President* > *Internet Communications Inc.* > *739 Commerce Dr.* > *Franklin, IN 46131* > > *Office #* *317-738-0320 * > *Cell/Direct #* *317-412-1540 * > *Online: **www.surfici.net* <http://www.surfici.net> > > > > [image: ICI] > > *What can ICI do for you?* > > > *Broadband Wireless - PtP/PtMP Solutions - Mesh Wifi/Hotzones - IP Cameras > - Fiber - Towers - Infrastructure.* > > *CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail is intended for the* > *addressee shown. It contains information that is* > *confidential and protected from disclosure. Any review,* > *dissemination or use of this transmission or its contents by* > *unauthorized organizations or individuals is strictly* > *prohibited.* > > > > *From:* AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> *On Behalf Of * Forrest Christian > (List Account) > *Sent:* Wednesday, February 19, 2020 4:59 PM > *To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <af@af.afmug.com> > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Rack Injector power question > > > > The manual is out of date. The current revision (B0) boards don't > care. I've got a lot of documentation work to catch up on starting right > after the Base3 starts shipping. The documentation changes are pretty > much all things like this which just make things easier for people instead > of things which they *have* to do differently. > > > > The only thing which needs positive power is the old-style canopy sync > board, since canopy sync pretty much requires positive power to operate. > > > > The return connection on each input is tied together and should be the > grounded conductor, if you are grounding a site at all. If you're doing > the DC to DC output thing, your -48VDC input should be hooked to the > rackinjector such that the -48VDC is on the Vin pin and the return (or + in > this case) is on the return. On the DC - DC converters, you tie the - > output of each converter to this same point (the +/return on the -48VDC), > and then you end up with +24VDC or +48VDC. So the +output goes to Vin > and the - output goes to return, and the 'ground' side of everything else. > > > > > > > > > > > > On Wed, Feb 19, 2020 at 11:04 AM Adam Moffett <dmmoff...@gmail.com> wrote: > > From the manual: > > "Important: At least one of the power sources must be of positive > polarity – the current revision of the RackInjector control board needs > at least one positive voltage in order to operate. If multiple positive > power sources are available, it will pull power from the input with the > highest voltage." > > Should I take that to mean a negative terminal needs to connect to > ground for some reason? > > I intend to connect a rectifier (-48V) and Meanwell RSD converters to > other voltages. The RSD's don't have a ground reference on the output > side if I recall correctly. I can add a connection from neg to ground > on the 24V converter, but is that really what they mean by positive > polarity? > > > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > > > > -- > > - Forrest > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > -- - Forrest
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