This is a low tech project detailing how to make a dlink 900ap 802.11b wireless access point weatherproof. This will of course kill your warranty!
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The original unit is about the size of a modem with a small external dipole on the rear. |
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The circuit board is about half the size of the external case. I've shown it with an Australian 10c piece (about the size of a US/Canadian quarter) |
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Choose your case carefully. I started out with a few that were clearly solid but not weatherproof. Important features are the rubber seal around the lid and the stainless steel bolts. This one came from Jaycar |
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To pole mount the unit I used galvanised steel rod with rubber washers under nuts. There are lots of ways to do this of course. I'll come back to the electrics. |
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Rubber washers with silicone under them clamp the other outside of the case. |
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A few nuts and washers complete the story. The brackets came from Radio Parts |
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The cable entry gland came from an industrial electrical wholesaler. |
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The electricals are very simple. I used a TO-3 case 7805 linear regulator attached to the case for heat dissapation. There is enough capacitance on the pcb to not need any here. I was a little lazy, a capacitor on the regulator input is probably advisable. |
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The power socket was removed from the PCB and the output of the regulator wired to the bottom hole (positive 5V input). |
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A terminal block was glued under the lid. The blue/bluewhite and brown/brownwhite pairs from the cat5 cable were connected to the positive input and ground of the regulator respectively. The orange, orangewhite, green and greenwhite wires are all taken to separate terminals. |
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The RJ45 connector was removed from the board. The other ends of the orangewhite, orange, greenwhite and green wires are taken to pins 1, 2, 3 and 6 respectively. |
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Both the cable to the antenna connector and the internal antenna were removed. The internal antenna connector top centre was terminated with a 51 ohm surface mount resistor. The external antenna is connected directly though a short length of 50 ohm RG316 coax. This passes directly out the gland to the antenna. |
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The finished product is ready to seal up. |
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Done. |
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At the other end of the CAT5 the 12V is fed from a 12V 1A switch mode plugpack (the 900AP only needs ~400mA) via a 1A fuse into the blue/bluewhite and brown/brownwhite pairs, polarity as described above. The other four pairs are teminated onto an RJ45 socket with a patch cable to the hub or PC. |
