Made Hunts Cantenna to spec but not working?

oakley2000sel · 08-08-2005

Hey guys,

I made the hunts cantenna to spec on the (http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/antennas/hunts.html) site and hooked it up to my Senao Engenius NL-2511CD Plus EXT2. My friend lives across the street from me and we are trying to hook up. Well I hooked it up and pointed it at his house outside from mine in plain site with NS running and NOTHING! I then enabled my internal wifi card in my notebook and it picks up the AP right away but not a good enough signal to connect. This is the cable I am using from my Senao card to the Cantenna. ( http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...MEWN%3AIT&rd=1 ). It is very thin. Could it be the wire? Please any help would be great to get me on the right track without jumping on me please.

Thank you!

Israel Torres · 08-08-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by oakley2000sel

My friend lives across the street from me and we are trying to hook up. Well I hooked it up and pointed it at his house outside from mine in plain site with NS running and NOTHING!

Chances are if the pigtail is connecting correct it works fine. Break out an ohm-meter and make sure your connections are correct. Chances are you messed up on the soldering and ended up with a cold solder joint making your cantenna useless. Take it all apart after checking the circuit's continuity from the pigtail to the copper element.

I've built this baby over several times and it works once you get it all pieced and soldered together correctly. make sure you don't have any shavings from the can that is grounding out the element.

lastly even though it sounds fine realize that if your pal is too far for your signal to reach him until you can do it with a cantenna then you have the same chances that his signal won't be able to reach you meaning he may need a working cantenna to extend his range back to you so that the both of you may communicate correctly.

good luck

wrzwaldo · 08-08-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by oakley2000sel

This is the cable I am using from my Senao card to the Cantenna. ( http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...MEWN%3AIT&rd=1 ). It is very thin. Could it be the wire?

http://www.sky2web.net/wbc_100.pdf

You are losing 2+ dB with that pigtail. It also looks like that coax has the same specs as LMR-100A (considered the standard for MC and MMCX pigtails).

stunutt · 08-14-2005

Israel, I don't know much (yet!) about WiFi, but I have been playing with RF for more years than I care to rememebr (ugh!)

The principle of reciprocity applies to antennas. "If it has gain when transmitting, then it has the same gain when recieving."

So a gain antenna at one end of the link helps the same inn BOTH directions. Of course, a gain antenna at both ends helps twice as much!

Stu

Israel Torres · 08-14-2005

Hi Stu,

I read my post over again and then noticed the time stamp

It is possible that I was thinking that there may have been a preamp involved from a previous conversation. I've been playing with RF for a while now myself and know when excuses dont' help any. Thanks for the correction, glad to see someone caught it.

stunutt · 08-14-2005

I made a cantenna for our "community internet connection", it looks pretty much to spec. When connecting it straight to the antenna socket on the linksys router (via only a pigtail) it seems to give me about the same signal strength as the standard antenna (more checking yet to do)

Will post back when I know what's happening there after we check it on a decent distance (about 200 metres)

Israel Torres · 08-14-2005

Here are a few cantenna calcs that are pretty well known:
online
http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html
http://kioan.users.uth.gr/wireless/cantenna/
http://flakey.info/antenna/waveguide/#calculator
downloadable
http://www.lincomatic.com/wireless/s....html#cantenna

Personally I've used cantennas with decent results, except I've only used them attached to a pcmcia card not the AP itself. You may want to try and wave it around a little and see if your results change depending on where you point it.

stunutt · 08-15-2005

Results today:-

Made a 6-foot wooden "tower" to go on the flat roof of my place (all buildings single storey). Put AP (Linksys WRT54GS) on a 2-foot mast on top of that. Cantenna on another mast a foot away.

My laptop (Acer 290 Centrino with in-built WiFi) at the far end of the row of houses. Netstumbler reported "maybe" 2 dB increase when I removed one of the Linksys antennas and plugged in the cantenna. No significant improvement by bending the driven element a bit forward of back (in case I didn't have the feed point quite right. Havenot reid "waving it about" yet, but I didn't think the beamwidth was that critical (??) and it's pointing roughly at the furthest required link (the pest has his "study" at the wrong side of the house!)

Not related to the cantenna, I have a Linksys WUS54B54G on his (Vaio) laptop, with a USB extension cable (total about 15 feet) on the USB and the Linksys outside the house on a short pole (so it can "look over" the roof). With his computer the link goes on and off, but good signal when on! - sometimes a set of 4 pings will give 2 good, 3 to 5 mS returns and 2 time-outs. Monitoring him from the AP he's going on and off intermittently. He's using Win ME and I'm wondering if he has some conflicts on interrupts or whatever? Can't go check now as he and his wife will have gone to bed!

More from the cantenna when I've played about a bit more!

Stu

streaker69 · 08-15-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by stunutt

Results today:-

Made a 6-foot wooden "tower" to go on the flat roof of my place (all buildings single storey). Put AP (Linksys WRT54GS) on a 2-foot mast on top of that. Cantenna on another mast a foot away.

My laptop (Acer 290 Centrino with in-built WiFi) at the far end of the row of houses. Netstumbler reported "maybe" 2 dB increase when I removed one of the Linksys antennas and plugged in the cantenna. No significant improvement by bending the driven element a bit forward of back (in case I didn't have the feed point quite right. Havenot reid "waving it about" yet, but I didn't think the beamwidth was that critical (??) and it's pointing roughly at the furthest required link (the pest has his "study" at the wrong side of the house!)

Not related to the cantenna, I have a Linksys WUS54B54G on his (Vaio) laptop, with a USB extension cable (total about 15 feet) on the USB and the Linksys outside the house on a short pole (so it can "look over" the roof). With his computer the link goes on and off, but good signal when on! - sometimes a set of 4 pings will give 2 good, 3 to 5 mS returns and 2 time-outs. Monitoring him from the AP he's going on and off intermittently. He's using Win ME and I'm wondering if he has some conflicts on interrupts or whatever? Can't go check now as he and his wife will have gone to bed!

More from the cantenna when I've played about a bit more!

Stu

This might help ya out with this project.

http://members.netjunkies.net/streaker/Enclosures.asp

08-08-2005	#1 (permalink)
oakley2000sel Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 1	Made Hunts Cantenna to spec but not working? Hey guys, I made the hunts cantenna to spec on the (http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/antennas/hunts.html) site and hooked it up to my Senao Engenius NL-2511CD Plus EXT2. My friend lives across the street from me and we are trying to hook up. Well I hooked it up and pointed it at his house outside from mine in plain site with NS running and NOTHING! I then enabled my internal wifi card in my notebook and it picks up the AP right away but not a good enough signal to connect. This is the cable I am using from my Senao card to the Cantenna. ( http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...MEWN%3AIT&rd=1 ). It is very thin. Could it be the wire? Please any help would be great to get me on the right track without jumping on me please. Thank you!

08-14-2005	#4 (permalink)
stunutt SandDunes Wireless Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: SandDunes of the Middle-East Posts: 8	Reciprocity Israel, I don't know much (yet!) about WiFi, but I have been playing with RF for more years than I care to rememebr (ugh!) The principle of reciprocity applies to antennas. "If it has gain when transmitting, then it has the same gain when recieving." So a gain antenna at one end of the link helps the same inn BOTH directions. Of course, a gain antenna at both ends helps twice as much! Stu

08-14-2005	#5 (permalink)
Israel Torres Log Them All... Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: California Posts: 209	Hi Stu, I read my post over again and then noticed the time stamp It is possible that I was thinking that there may have been a preamp involved from a previous conversation. I've been playing with RF for a while now myself and know when excuses dont' help any. Thanks for the correction, glad to see someone caught it. __________________ The Chronicles of a Wardriver Log Them All... ... Let WiGLE Map Them Out * WiGLE 200K Club Member! * Tools: [ macitup / router configuration / FTard Decoder Ring / SuCKLE/ CheckNS1 / NSQSelect ]

08-14-2005	#7 (permalink)
Israel Torres Log Them All... Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: California Posts: 209	Here are a few cantenna calcs that are pretty well known: online http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html http://kioan.users.uth.gr/wireless/cantenna/ http://flakey.info/antenna/waveguide/#calculator downloadable http://www.lincomatic.com/wireless/s....html#cantenna Personally I've used cantennas with decent results, except I've only used them attached to a pcmcia card not the AP itself. You may want to try and wave it around a little and see if your results change depending on where you point it. __________________ The Chronicles of a Wardriver Log Them All... ... Let WiGLE Map Them Out * WiGLE 200K Club Member! * Tools: [ macitup / router configuration / FTard Decoder Ring / SuCKLE/ CheckNS1 / NSQSelect ]

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08-14-2005	#6 (permalink)
stunutt SandDunes Wireless Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: SandDunes of the Middle-East Posts: 8	I made a cantenna for our "community internet connection", it looks pretty much to spec. When connecting it straight to the antenna socket on the linksys router (via only a pigtail) it seems to give me about the same signal strength as the standard antenna (more checking yet to do) Will post back when I know what's happening there after we check it on a decent distance (about 200 metres)

08-15-2005	#8 (permalink)
stunutt SandDunes Wireless Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: SandDunes of the Middle-East Posts: 8	Results today:- Made a 6-foot wooden "tower" to go on the flat roof of my place (all buildings single storey). Put AP (Linksys WRT54GS) on a 2-foot mast on top of that. Cantenna on another mast a foot away. My laptop (Acer 290 Centrino with in-built WiFi) at the far end of the row of houses. Netstumbler reported "maybe" 2 dB increase when I removed one of the Linksys antennas and plugged in the cantenna. No significant improvement by bending the driven element a bit forward of back (in case I didn't have the feed point quite right. Havenot reid "waving it about" yet, but I didn't think the beamwidth was that critical (??) and it's pointing roughly at the furthest required link (the pest has his "study" at the wrong side of the house!) Not related to the cantenna, I have a Linksys WUS54B54G on his (Vaio) laptop, with a USB extension cable (total about 15 feet) on the USB and the Linksys outside the house on a short pole (so it can "look over" the roof). With his computer the link goes on and off, but good signal when on! - sometimes a set of 4 pings will give 2 good, 3 to 5 mS returns and 2 time-outs. Monitoring him from the AP he's going on and off intermittently. He's using Win ME and I'm wondering if he has some conflicts on interrupts or whatever? Can't go check now as he and his wife will have gone to bed! More from the cantenna when I've played about a bit more! Stu