Powerline Adapter Ethernet to Observatory.

[Astro-Geek]

Success !!  🤓

Before deciding which advice (gratefully received) to follow, I thought I'd try something that was languishing in my spares box.

A year or two ago I bought a TpLink Re200 v2 wifi extender to be able to use my notebook in the conservatory.  It was a fairly simple and cheap one, and I stopped using it because it had a poor connection to my BT Home Hub 4.   Six months ago however, BT finally upgraded my phone line to fibre optic ( "fibre from the pole" ), giving me a 50mb Internet (woo hoo !!) and a Home Hub 5.

The wifi output from HH5 seems much higher than from the HH4, and I discovered that the tpLink booster now has a very solid connection to the main wifi hub, with 5ghz and 2.4ghz indicators  a nice steady green.

I then popped out to the Pod and switched on the NUC and found that it automatically connected instantly, and Broadband speed checker showed me 15mb download speeds, (as compared to the 50mbs in the house).  I'll certainly settle for that !

This photo shows  the Booster in the kitchen with the Pod in the garden through the conservatory.  It's only about 30 feet away, but though a cavity wall.

Thanks for all the replies I've had on this, some great suggestions that I would have certainly tried if this hadn't worked. 🍺

[Astro-Geek]

5 hours ago, merlin100 said:

Power Line Adaptors are the work of the Devil, if you happen to be a radio ham living in the vicinity! The amount of RFI they give out on HF, VHF and UHF is dreadful.😮  I could imagine it would kill the hobby for some radio hams, even more so if they do radio astronomy in the HF region of the radio spectrum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IW3FVhHR58

I thought it was bad enough that they appear to be flaky with different rings and spurs, but I never realised that they could be invasive to local Hams !

It's surprising that they are not more controlled, though approval standards do seem to have dropped, even with electrical safety, with all the ebay/direct imports from the Far East.

 

 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Astro-Geek said:

I thought it was bad enough that they appear to be flaky with different rings and spurs, but I never realised that they could be invasive to local Hams !

It's surprising that they are not more controlled, though approval standards do seem to have dropped, even with electrical safety, with all the ebay/direct imports from the Far East.

 

 

The problem is that the standards either aren't enforced or self certificate.  Most PLT adaptors have 'notches' to reduce the amount of interference inside the HF ham bands, but the problem is that they still generate high levels of interference.  Ofcom won't do anything about it because of the money coming in from ISP's etc.

Edited February 18, 2020 by Guest
grammar

[Kev M]

Next chance you get run a small pipe across to the observatory, it just has to be deep enough so you don't trip over it.

Run some external cat 5 ( less than a quid a meter...from a well known auction site ).

You can get connectors and crimp tool for pennies.

All problems will go away for ever.

 

[DaveL59]

2 hours ago, merlin100 said:

The problem is that the standards either aren't enforce or self certificate.  Most PLT adaptors have 'notches' to reduce the amount of interference inside the HF ham bands, but the problem is that they still generate high levels of interference.  Ofcom won't do anything about it because of the money coming in from ISP's etc.

I guess too that part of the problem is that they induce a signal in the big loops of house wiring which will radiate out to some degree. Tho the noisy so-called energy saving (and pocket emptying) bulbs can be as bad or even far worse at doing that lol

[Guest]

31 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

I guess too that part of the problem is that they induce a signal in the big loops of house wiring which will radiate out to some degree. Tho the noisy so-called energy saving (and pocket emptying) bulbs can be as bad or even far worse at doing that lol

Precisely! The ring main in the house acts like a giant aerial and radiates the PLT noise everywhere. The mains wiring wasn't designed to carry signals like that, just electricity. Because it's unshielded, it's very leaky when it comes to RF. 

The same goes for ADSL and VSDL in the overhead BT phone wires! 

[skybadger]

I've had no problems with tp-link eop adapters. Wi-Fi was spotty and unreliable over 30m. Eop has been fine. I'm not sure tha they are that noisy anymore.  They used to be.  ..

[Astro-Geek]

7 minutes ago, skybadger said:

I've had no problems with tp-link eop adapters. Wi-Fi was spotty and unreliable over 30m. Eop has been fine. I'm not sure tha they are that noisy anymore.  They used to be.  ..

To be fair,  I think I was pushing my luck to the limit with them,  the "transmitting" plug was adjacent to the router on the upstairs ring main, and the "receiving" plug was in the obsy, via a 13 amp socket, a double pole isolating switch, 15 metres of buied armored 20 amp cable, a 13 amp switched fused spur,  a dedicated 15 amp mcb in the garage consumer unit, the garage consumer unit's elcb, and a 15 amp mcb in the house consumer unit.

[Astro-Geek]

4 hours ago, Kev M said:

Next chance you get run a small pipe across to the observatory, it just has to be deep enough so you don't trip over it.

Run some external cat 5 ( less than a quid a meter...from a well known auction site ).

You can get connectors and crimp tool for pennies.

All problems will go away for ever.

 

I'd certainly have done something like that if the wifi booster hadn't worked.

It seems to be working really well for me now though, I've tested it for a couple of hours now, it connects automatically each time I switch the NUC on,  gives me fast Internet access and I can control the scope from the house with any of my windows apps (sharpcap, apt, stellarium etc) with no noticeable delay.

Fingers crossed......  🤓