41
Two nodes with different antenna gains? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/meshtastic@mander.xyz
12 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Has anyone tried a similar abomination? The main node I use has a 2dBi antenna. A 5dBi antenna performs worse for connecting to most of the nodes in my vicinity. It does however connect to some nodes further away. So I decided to try adding a separate 5dBi node. That way devices close by could choose to route via either node, whichever seems better. Or traffic could jump between the two taking local traffic from the 2dBi node and beaming it further via the 5dBi node at the expense of an extra hop. Thoughts, experiences?

Outdoor antenna installation mounted on a pole against a textured, light gray concrete wall. The setup includes a tall white cylindrical main antenna, a smaller black antenna, and a gray rectangular device (likely a wireless router or modem) attached to the pole, with cables and black zip ties securing the components.
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (7 children)

I think this sounds like a really good idea, the only thing I could think of to change might be to separate the two nodes a bit more. I don't know if this is as much of a problem on 915mhz since the wavelength is so short but generally you would want to keep two antennas farther apart to prevent interference, from having metal near by or from potential cross-talk

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 7 child comments
    •
  • [–] [S] 4 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    I'm thinking about mounting two radios in a single box with one antenna sticking out of the top and one from the bottom. Like a light sabre.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Rule of thumb is to keep the antennas at least one wavelength apart. On the 915 MHz band, that's 33 centimeters. So that should be the distance between the two antennas at minimum.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah, I think that would definitely do the trick! I'm thinking about doing a similar setup to make a big meshtastic repeater node for my house that I can use with smaller handheld nodes so that I can get connected to the farther away networks in the city

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    CLIENT_BASE, not repeater or router

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] [S] 3 points 10 months ago*

    I concur, do not use REPEATER/ROUTER roles unless you know what you're doing (have a very high mast, hill, high building roof, etc. read the doc) as it's very likely you'd be harming the network instead of helping. Using a device configured as CLIENT/CLIENT_BASE extends the network without risking harm.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent