Wi-Fi Ranger Trivia

[uncle_bob]

Hi

The 12V to 24V converter on my Wi-Fi Ranger died ( in warranty ). The one they sent me to replace it is ... err ... different

The old one was what you would get on eBay searching for the lowest cost device to do the voltage conversion. The new one is much more substantial. It's a Mean Well RSD-30G-24. It will take in 9 to 36V and put out 24V at 1.25A.

https://www.trcelectronics.com/View/...D-30G-24.shtml

Assuming you get the "real thing" Mean Well is a pretty good brand. Yes the link above is a pug for TRC. They are the biggest US distributor for Mean Well.

I have no idea what the Wi-Fi Ranger official line is for non-warranty replacements / repairs. They don't list the 12V to 24V adapter as a separate item on the web site. It's a much more robust device than the cigarette lighter plug in they do list .... The only difference between what you would get from TRC and Wi-Fi ranger is that the Wi-Fi ranger one comes with the cord to plug it into the main unit. ( = you don't have to cut the cord off the old / blown out adapter).

Yes, it's trivia....

Bob

[joshjack]

Mean well is definitely good. We used to build them into some industrial UPS units

[SilverHouseDreams]

Depending on which kit you are using from WiFi Ranger, they are repackaging Mikrotik's Routerboard products. Most Mikrotik products have a pretty wide voltage range they can work off of, the one on my lap says "8VDC-30VDC"...and most of their products will operate on 10V-30VDC. While the common POE voltage is 24VDC, I wonder why WiFi Ranger adds this extra complexity when you could very likely just run the hardware directly off of your 12V power system. Avoiding additional power waste in any voltage transitions that are unnecessary, and reducing failure points.

It is only the SkyPro pack that I don't know what hardware they are using, I don't recognize the hardware that is used for the external unit in the SkyPro...though it is possible it is also a Routerboard just in a custom enclosure.

In the case of the Elite AC it is a Mikrotik Megal AC 52 (retail $119) and probably a hAP AC (retail $50)...but WiFi Ranger is bundling it with software that is a lot more user friendly to configure for this use case than the default Mikrotik platform. This is mostly informational, not trying to badmouth WiFi Ranger as they do add value in that they make this far easier for someone to use.