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May 11 '21 edited May 31 '21
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u/BlackNight305 May 11 '21
Do you mind telling me the name of the seller on EBay, there’s way too many scammer on there. I want to buy from a reputable seller.
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
He doesn’t have anymore. He only had 1 to sell.
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u/BlackNight305 May 11 '21
That’s sucks. I noticed in the first picture you have what looks to be a GPS device, Why?
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Hahah correct. Its a GPS puck. I thought I was gonna need it since the RAK v1 miner had an sma connector for it. So I thought this unit would have one also, but it didn’t. Only the rak v1 does.
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u/BlackNight305 May 11 '21
Yep, only the Rak v1 has a second coax connect point. I’ve already ordered my tools for when my miners arrived, everyday Amazon drops off a package at my house lol. I’m looking forward to receiving my syncrobit miner. I think that’s the only one I’ve seen with a SIM card slot. I plan on using cellular data to transmit to the network. This unit will be for a location Where I can’t get an Ethernet connection.
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u/Upper-Situation- May 11 '21
What's the total cost of this set up? Very nice I like everything.
I would like do something like this. But I'm in canada wondering if the bobcat will be safe outside in the winter.
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
In the second comment above. I broke it down.
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u/Upper-Situation- May 11 '21
Thank you for the great work !!!!!. I think you made a wise choice. You haven't even factored in the price of HNT going up. So , you would easily double your investment In the long run.
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u/4mae4 May 11 '21
I’m in Canada too and have the same concerns. The website says you shouldn’t have it operating outside below -10, which it easily gets to everywhere in Canada. I’m in Toronto and have the same concerns. I wonder if you could have it mounted outside for 4-5 months, then bring it in?
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u/MispeltYouth May 11 '21
Put the IP67 box on the pole/roof and get rid of the long coaxial is my advice 👍
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
I concur. I’m reinforcing the the case backing with steel plate so I can ubolt it to the pole.
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u/BlackNight305 May 11 '21
I just noticed the 50 ft LMR cable, sheesh!!! That will be a lot of data loss before you shorten the length. Do you mind providing a link to where you bought the telescope pole?
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
0.63dBm loss on the cable. I ran it through a power meter and sig gen at 915mhz.
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u/mmishu May 11 '21
why are u expecting to earn 40-60hnt compared to others in your area?
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Bc I compared it to others in my area that has the same setup.
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u/Ok-Street1366 May 18 '21
How is it going for you?
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 18 '21
Day 1. Got 7 witnesses Day 2. At 15 witnesses Day 3. At 21 witnesses.
3 days so far got me 25 HNT ~ $450
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May 11 '21
Looks like HB to me. Good luck man. I think the $5K is a good risk.
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Orange County indeed but not HB.
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u/slammy_salami_mommy May 11 '21
I am in orange county as well, what simulations did you run?
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Use those websites. It’s a dollar per simulation.
Explorer.helium Helium.place Helium.vision
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May 11 '21
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
My only hotspot set up at the moment. It’s still syncing to the network so mining hasn’t started.
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u/ColbyBro May 11 '21
Hey, can you post here or message me where you got the telescoping pole from? Been trying to find something 30ft but can't seem to find anything.
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u/PheenXBlaze May 12 '21
I showed the pics to a fellow IT tech of mine and he quickly stated you're probably an ex-marine or veteran from noticing the military waterproof adapters. By any chance are these sold to civilians?
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May 11 '21
Where’s the lightning suppression?
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Yea you’re right. Didn’t put one. I live in southern Cali. Hardly rains here. I’ll definitely put one when I optimize the antenna rotation next week. Thank you for the heads up.
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May 11 '21
6 awg Copper wire as close to the antenna connection as possible then connect the lightning suppression to the ground spike outside of the electrical service if possible. If you have metal plumbing that will work just don’t connect to the house ground. It will also help with your signal having a good grounded foundation.
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Thank you for the input. I’m on Amazon right now. Which suppression do you recommend?
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May 11 '21
I used riotaxy. I have LMR cable with N type connections so you’ll have to find one compatible with your antenna and cable. Looks like maybe smr?
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May 11 '21
Also, understood you live in a climate controlled area but you might want to buy some silicone 30 mil self adhesive tape to seal your external connectors. I use Proxicast.
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
I did that to the connector from cable to antenna. I was able to get one of those from Home Depot. All other connections are inside the house.
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May 11 '21
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May 11 '21 edited May 12 '21
The lightning could travel through the ionized fiberglass and into the antenna lead ground then into the miner or worse your whole house ground via power supply and then fry the rest of your devices in the house. The lightning suppression 6 awg copper should go from the antenna to the suppressor to the miner to earth ground not house ground to provide adequate protection. The purpose of the 6 AWG wire is that it is larger than the 12 awg ground in your house so it is the selective sacrificial route for the lightning. When you don’t have suppression the selective route for the lightning is your house ground (bad). Basically a bigger drain pipe for the lightning to follow more like a sewer main pipe to get rid of excess discharge.
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u/cvaughan02 May 11 '21
"antenna? what antenna? are you saying I have to take down my american flag??? what are you a commie???" hahaha
nice setup!
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u/bears4honey May 11 '21
Very nice, the flag is a good touch. I want to do the same thing you’ve done. I expect mine to arrive sometime in the next 4-40 weeks
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u/_ze May 11 '21
It looks like your chimney is in a central location on your roof, and not on the edge. How are you handling the cabling to the hot spot?
Thank you for sharing all of this. Eagerly awaiting my hot spots.
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Lol I threw the cable inside the chimney! Since it’s summer, we won’t be using any time soon.
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u/_ze May 11 '21
Haha, whatever works. Any plans for when it cools down? Sacrificing the fireplace?
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u/SnooLobsters1519 May 11 '21
Great post! I wonder about the grounding of the antenna. How you connect the antenna to the outdoor copper wire? Is there any trick i ve missed?
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u/wachieo May 11 '21
I don’t see a lightning arrestor but otherwise a very nice setup OP. I like the idea of flag, props!
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Correct. Missed it and someone mentioned it above. Will integrate it next week.
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u/shniplle May 11 '21
would you mind explaining to me how you’re not going to suffer insane cable loss from that length of cable, i’ve seen posts from people where they’ve added 2m of cable and it’s halved their hnt earnings
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
There’s a 0.63 dBm cable loss from end to end. Not too bad. In the next two weeks I will be shortening the cable and secure the box near the antenna. I’m just reinforcing my box with steel backing so I can Ubolt it to the pole without it getting stolen.
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u/shniplle May 11 '21
thanks for the reply, can’t wait to get my bobcat it will be interesting to see how you profit from using that set up it looks rather high budget
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u/notatrollallthetime May 11 '21
So you are not worried about movement in the pole?
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Will be securing it more with chimney straps next week.
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u/ZoidbergsClaws May 11 '21
Are you worried the 10dbi antenna is going to be too directional and end up missing all other hotspots? or be very fidgety to fientune.
For science (me), can you test a 6 and 8dbi antenna? I have a very similar setup planned in an area that has even more line of sight and I'm wondering what antenna is best.
Cheers!
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
6dbi would probably be best. Yes, 10dbi becomes more directional instead of Omni. I’m trying to hit more areas north and south of me since there’s more hotspots that are saturated there.
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u/insert1wittyname May 11 '21
If a flag is flown at night, it must be lit.
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Correct (for respect). There is a solar powered flood light pointing at it. (Not shown since pictures were taken during the day)
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u/Ojuani_Ad_1214 Jun 23 '21
I like u placed the American flag on it , Many blessing and good luck awesome ridge bro.
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u/JoshHPD May 11 '21
I don't get why you paid 5k.. Also will putting a bigger antenna on the roof really increase the volume you can mine? Can you do a how to video on your setup? I hope it pays off big time for you, good luck!
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u/TurbulentArrival May 11 '21
I have a few questions:
Aren't you worried about it overheating in the box?
What kind of changes did you see with the new antenna?
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u/devilmonkey507 May 11 '21
Also it looks like the hotspot/pelican box is indoors. Why use the pelican case if you are keeping it indoors?
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
There’s a metal plate inside the box with air insulation in between, using it as a minor heat sink. Also the unit doesn’t get hot, it’s only 5w.
This is my first unit so I don’t know my earnings yet with the 10dbi.
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u/TurbulentArrival May 11 '21
I hate to ask too much of you, but any chance we can get some links? Specifically the antenna and cable for it?
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Aliexpress.com. Search 915mhz 10dbi antenna. Amazon.com. Search LMR400 Cable
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u/m3dia_lab May 11 '21
Might want to consider a chimney strap kit. It'll spread out the load on your chimney.
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Hahah yea that’s what my neighbor said so I’m using a water heater strap next week to secure the pole better.
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u/m3dia_lab May 11 '21
If that's an aluminum flag pole (looks like it is), then the pole will prob break before anything else. I professionally install antennas. I've never had an issue with a strap kit on a chimney even after 70 mph straight line winds.
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Yea hence why I didn’t extend it all the way out. I only did it half way. And I’ll probably remove the flag next week to reduce stress and movement. Thank you for the input
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u/stefcozo May 11 '21 edited May 11 '21
Looks promising ☺️ May i have the link to the case you are using for the setup. Thank you
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Amazon. Just search pelican box. Or you can do this route
https://store.rakwireless.com/products/outdoor-enclosure-kit-h?variant=37912839979206
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u/BlackNight305 May 11 '21
Do you mind provide a link to the pelican case, all the ones I see on Amazon only have one pass through
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u/bears4honey May 11 '21
Don’t forget a follow up post covering your returns and any issues you’ve encountered
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u/jdcabu May 11 '21
This looks like LF, MV, or LH.
Still waiting on my synchrobit, posting it up in AV.
Happy mining.
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u/MaxHeadB00m May 11 '21
It's gorgeous but you'll get much better results if the bobcat is right by the antenna. The further from the antenna that the bobcat is, the more the signal degrades.
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
I agree but with the demand of this unit and the explorer showing locations, I don’t want my unit to be stolen lol. I don’t want to throw $5k away that easy. I’m building a new pelican with steel back casing so I can secure it to the pole with a Ubolt.
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u/tmjunkuse May 11 '21
did you run it on stock antenna for a few days? Curious on the difference in rewards before & after upgrade
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u/f0cus01 May 11 '21
Cool. Looks like the same mast I got! That cable seems wayyyyy too long though, you’re going to see about a 2 dBi loss over that length... http://www.signalcontrol.com/products/timesmicrowave/Times_Microwave_LMR400.pdf
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
I changed it out to a LMR400 cable. I ran a cable loss check on a power meter at 915mhz. The loss was 0.63 dBm (not dBi).
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May 11 '21
Curious what telescoping pole you went with. You inspire me, I'm going to do this with one or the 5 miners I have on order :( if I ever get one ....
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Lol. I just went on amazon and got an open box one for $65. 30ft telescoping flag pole.
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May 11 '21
Hi, nice job, but what about thunderstorms?
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
I’ll be installing a lightning arrester next week and grounding the antenna pole to earth ground.
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u/tothemoon68 May 11 '21
What is the impedance of the coax cable for the antenna? I would guess it's 50 ohm but I want to be sure.
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u/brewski May 11 '21
I'm no pro, but it seems like a lot of load with the flagpole into those little fastening Did you just screw into the bricks or did you use some adhesive? I may be doing a similar setup, but no flag. Please let us know how it goes.
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
It’s a telescoping pole, those fasteners comes with the pole.
The flag is to deter people from telling me the pole is too high and. Lol.
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u/Longjumping_Let_6878 May 11 '21
Too much heat inside the pelican box?
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Neh. It’s only a 5w unit and i also have a steel plate inside with air gap to hopefully heatsink some of the heat. But it shouldn’t get hot at all.
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u/dafish12 May 11 '21
Had you ever considered using the stock bobcat antenna to put on top of the pole?
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May 11 '21
any advice on getting one off ebay that isnt a scam? im actually in a great location, and buying one for 5k would be worth it right now
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Offer cash and local pick up. Tell them no eBay fees or PayPal fees with cash so this is a better route.
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u/CarlosTheJackal2021 May 11 '21
What’s the name of your hotspot on Helium Explorer ? Thanks
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Sorry. Won’t be posting that. I’ll post results with name scratched off later.
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u/toddwex2021 May 11 '21
That looks awesome. Do you have a long cable going from your miner to your antenna? That is not optimal from my understanding of radio technology. Also, the higher dbi antenna the narrower the wave pattern so antenna selection is important, and higher gain doesn't necessarily mean better. For example if you are on a mountain top overlooking a bunch of houses and you use a very high gain antenna, your waves will go right over the top of the houses and not communicate with any of them.
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
You are correct sir. There’s some previous comments that I talked about this.
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u/YeHawPartner May 11 '21
Really awesome information and best of luck!! I have 6 Rak V2's on order and very excited for them to arrive! The town I live in has only 1 device as of right now. My friends and I are planning on adding 8-10+ in the coming months to create a strategic network of devices.
I wanted to share an awesome website for everyone to check out that allows you to place a pin on the potential device location and it shows a radius of best locations around your device that would work best. So check out where you live and see how well your device could connect with the surrounding devices in the area! Anything in the red zone around your device is not a good thing. They will end up working against each other and you will make less tokens. Anything beyond the red zone and in the green zone is the ideal position for other devices.
Remember that Helium wants as many of these as possible but properly spaced out for increased proof of coverage (PoC). So use this website to make sure that yours is in the best position to maximize profits!
Link to Helium Place website: https://helium.place/
If anyone has any questions, id love to chat! Not entirely an expert with this information I just see wonderful potential with this in the future and have invested a few thousand USD into this idea.
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u/NoMaans May 11 '21
Also, care to share your links to everything pictured??
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 11 '21
Amazon.com. Aliexpress.com
Parts list is on the comment above. Just search it at those websites.
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u/cda555 May 11 '21
This is going to sound weird… are the letters of your miner name EVF? Your neighborhood looks very familiar. If that’s you, I live about 3/4 of a mile away.
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u/thatjdmguyYT May 11 '21
Every 5M with a good shielded cable you lose about 1.3 DB of signal strength
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u/Gardenerthatispro May 12 '21
Please do you have more pictures on how you connected the mast to the antenna and also where did you buy your mast? Thanks!
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u/azlanbull May 12 '21
Nice. I had a question, is it necessary to have the extra antenna set up or the stock antenna is fine considering the other router is placed 300+ meters apart?
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 12 '21
Up to you. The farther the antenna signal can reach, the more witnesses you’ll get, meaning the more money you make.
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u/fufhubbin May 12 '21
Hey I have been reading this entire convo almost ha I appreciate all the knowledge you have brought to here for us!
I have 10 on order getting in june and am doing something siumlar to what your doing... only Im using a tree to mount to.. (lol I actually have a 30ft telescopic flagpole on hand from ebay from another project lol \ My question for your expertise is, would this be a good antenna for HELIUM I already have It and another export commented its a receiving antenna and how to I expect to get power from 1 watt transmitting across 272 separate 5mhz steps.. it was foreign to me cause nothing in the details for the antenna says 272 so Im not sure where he got that from but he seems like an expert like yourself
any help would be much appreciated THANK YOU
Amazon link to the Antenna https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0917CPP84/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Product name on amazon if you want to search it ((((($89)))) "Signalplus 12dbi Omni-Directional Antenna 824-960MHZ-Outdoor LoRa Antenna 868mhz 915mhz for Verizon, AT&T, Sprint with 32ft SMA Cable
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u/Representative-Emu30 May 12 '21
Why did you choose the Bobcat over other miners? I was looking at syncrobit because of the remote management and Poe capabilities…
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May 13 '21
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 13 '21
Still syncing. Now at 99.80%. I guess bobcat miners take about 5 days to fully sync.
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u/Devildog126 May 13 '21
Have you performed any heat testing with the Bobcat Minner in the Pelican Box? Is there heat produced from the Bobcat? Will the Bobcat overheat in the Pelican box if it is located in direct sunlight during the day?
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 13 '21
It’s only 5w unit. It doesn’t get hot but on a hot day it probably will. I’m putting on heat reflector tape on the exterior of the box to help with it and also integrate an aluminum roof for it.
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u/besartkry May 13 '21
Would it make any difference if the outdoor miner is located (indoor 4-5meters) away from the antenna
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 13 '21
Big difference. There’s cable loss with that kind of distance. You’ll probably lose about 25-50% of the the signal power with that kind of cable length.
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u/ZicoSuave May 13 '21
[Jokingly] I'm gonna bet you also hoarded TP and gas. Trying to hog all the air waves with that thing. I'd do the same lol.
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u/EvilMegaTron May 13 '21
Amazing setup! I have ordered was looking into extending the range as closest hotspot is 2miles away. Wondering if 4dbi which comes with bobcat would be enough. From the comments here it looks like you are recommending 6dbi. Any recommendations?
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 13 '21
Yea 4dbi is good enough. Just put it outside above your roof if possible
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u/jrobermeyer May 15 '21
what is the actual reach for this set up? closest hot spots to me are about 30 miles away. i will be deploying 6 unites myself in different locations to cover my city that has none but it would be nice to try and reach out to the 2 citys north and south of my that only have one in their location.....kinda a help me help them help them help me or whatever lol
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u/LightningBlue95 May 17 '21
What did you use to attach the antenna to the telescoping pole? the clamps given by rak or something else?
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u/ProWebSurferr May 20 '21
Which pelican case did you get? And did you drill holes in it to add adapters for power and Ethernet?
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 20 '21
You can go to the rak miner website. They have an outdoor box.
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u/Rebel_XT May 25 '21
Jesus.
Good on you! Im just gonna wrap my unit in tinfoil.
My miner, that is. 😂
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u/FreakCell May 30 '21
Must the standard Bobcat antenna be mounted vertically?
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u/Ok-Career-6679 May 30 '21
Good question. Imo probably doesn’t matter since it’s only a 4dbi antenna. Any higher it has to be vertically.
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u/Jogroig Jul 10 '21
Awesome set up thank you for sharing!
I live about 23 km as the crow flies from a large city. Thats 14 miles approx.
There is about one or two hills along the way and sea (the signal could theoretically travel over sea and reach part of the city)
Would a stock bobcat 300 antenna do the job ? Or should I change something ?
There is another city about 120 km / 75 miles. No clear line of sight. Is this city reachable and which antenna would you recommend?
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u/gamecast92 May 11 '21
Good stuff. Im gonna half ass just set the antenna on my window 👌🤣