As I mentioned in my battery pack review, I am fortunate to rely on our field engineers and partners when it comes to predictive design validation, wall measurements and AP on a stick surveys. Having said that, I enjoy going on site a few days a month and staying close to our projects. Which leads me to yet another blog post from the “affordable series”;-)
This time I tested 3 tripods. Key factors I considered were value for money, build quality, and suitability for outdoor surveys ability to hold anything from an indoor or outdoor AP to a camera.
Unstable, too light, loose locking mechanism, unsuitable for holding APs
Great value for money, rock-solid, tall, heavier
Summary
I decided for tripod (C). It is high enough for outdoor surveys, rock-solid, and very stable. I also built an adapter that allows me to easily mount any outdoor Cisco AP (Catalyst, Aironet or Meraki MR). Here is more about my outdoor Meraki MR universal tripod adapter. Stay tuned for the Aironet and Catalyst one.
The only downside is its weight. Also, watch out for packaging. The first one I ordered arrived with the bottom of the box open and the head, where you insert the 1/3″ and 3/8″ adapter, was damaged. So, it took one return to get an undamaged one.
All three tripods are supplied with 1/4″ to 3/8″ adapter.
Neewer 4-meter tripod in the wildEven the replacement one had some extra tape applied, fortunately undamaged this time
Since I don’t survey every day, I could not justify the purchase of a full-blown battery pack. My goal is to get a universal battery pack, which would allow me to survey for 5 hours and provide power to my laptop or USB device (like the WLAN Pi) at the same time.
The 2 built-in fans kick in when AC device starts drawing more than 20 Watts. Below this threshold, the fan is off. With the fan on, it actually becomes annoyingly loud (watch this video).
The AC inverter seems to operate with 82% efficiency
MacBook Pro 61 Watt power brick charges the battery using USB type C port
It powers USB devices and 230V AC devices (power injector in my case)
Capacity of 99.9 Wh
Things I like about this battery pack:
It is universal and power USB and AC devices
Its size and capacity are great
Things I don’t like:
When AC load exceeds 20 Watts, the 2 fans become generate significant noise
The adapter from its AC socket to UK socket is really poor, does disconnect very easily and cuts power. This is a huge downside.
AC power automatically switches off when the connected device draws less than 8 Watts or so. If you need to power a very low power device, use the USB port or plug one more device in to increase total load.
Battery life tests
I tested a few access points powered by a PoE+ 802.3at injector:
Cisco Catalyst 9115 in site survey Embedded Wireless Controller mode stays powered for 6 hours and 24 minutes and draws around 13 Watts.
Cisco Aironet 1560I (in 2SS only mode) in Mobility Express site survey mode stays powered for 5 hours and 28 minutes and draws around 15 Watts.
Formula to estimate battery life
Cisco Aironet 1540I draws around 8 Watts (measured by a smart plug) and estimated battery life is:
Run time = Battery capacity in Wh * Battery inverter efficiency / Power drawn by device in Watts = 99.9 * 0.82 / 8 = 10.2 hours
Tested devices powered by AC power
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports) powered using MacBook 61W USB-C power adapter connected to the battery pack charged the laptop with no problem. The only annoyance is the battery fan noice. I can’t imagine using this in an open plan office as it would disturb others. Charging while on site or in a car is not a problem.
I was able to power Cisco WLC 2504 and 3504 with no problem at all and they drew around 25 Watts. You can use the above formula to calculate estimated battery life.
Cisco Catalyst compact switch WS-C3560CX-8XPD-S is not able to be powered by this battery, the battery goes into overload mode and cuts power. I suspect the AC wave output of the inverter is far from “perfect sine” and it prevents some devices to be powered. A different battery pack with better filters would be my suggestion if you need to power a device like this.
Another Cisco Catalyst compact switch WS-C3560CG-8PC-S works perfectly fine and draws about 17 Watts with no Ethernet ports connected and no PoE provided to its downstream devices.
Maximum AC load test
It tried connecting as many devices to the battery pack and power them using the inverter. These devices can be powered concurrently just fine:
Cisco Meraki MS220, Cisco Small Business SF100-08P switch, Aironet 3800 AP, Catalyst 9105AXI AP, Aironet 1800S Wi-Fi active sensor, Aironet 1560I, MR32 AP, MR20 AP, Aironet 1815W, a Bluetooth speaker and Raspberry Pi 4
How I fixed the supplied AC adapter issue
As I mentioned, the provided power adapter is a joke and not fit for purpose if you want to connect a device using a UK power plug. Just the weight of the power cable itself pulls the adapter from the battery pack socket and stops power supply to the connected device.
I decided to keep the battery pack as everything else works quite well and I replaced the provided adapter by a power cable with European plug and IEC C14 to UK socket “UPS” power adapter. This on its own stays connected in the battery inverter’s socket quite nicely and I added a couple of velcro straps to keep it securely in place at all times.
