I just went through a round of doing this exact same thing. In the end, I'm not sure it was worth the time. I think I'll just buy new units from now on. As they say YMMV! -RickG
On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 3:26 AM, Matt Larsen - Lists <[email protected]>wrote: > I've spent the last two days going through my "left for dead" pile of > Tranzeo CPQ/5a/SL5/SL2 radios in the shop. Out of 41 radios, I have > been able to get 35 of them resurrected, which was very surprising. > > To be fair, about 6 of them didn't appear to have any problems at all, a > firmware update and a signal level test took care of them. > > One of the most common failures is the dead ethernet port. In some > cases, the port was legitimately dead. However, a bad radio card will > also make the ethernet port look like it is dead and cause the board to > malfunction. I had a box of old CM9 cards that had tested out okay, so > I started dropping them into the "dead" boards and they came right back > to life - and are also now 5/10/20mhz channel capable. I marked the > bad boards and wireless cards and threw them away. > > Between the units that had dead cards (with good boards) and dead boards > (with good cards) I was able to combine the working parts into several > good units. > > 4 of the units had blown ethernet on Port A, but not on Port B. The 5A > and TR-6000 series radios have two ethernet ports, and if the main one > is blown out, the secondary one will often still work. I marked the > dead ports, upgraded the firmware and put them back in the usable pile. > > A couple of the n-connector units had broken pigtails internally. That > was easy to fix. > > Two radios had bad ethernet jack/jumpers to the board. Those were also > easy to fix. > > Units manufactured after 2006 or that have spent time in a really hot > climate (like Texas) come apart a lot easier. I have two indispensible > tools, a long flathead screwdriver and a roofing knife that has one > short sharp hooked edge and a longer sharp cutting edge. I can usually > pry an edge open with the screwdriver, and then just drive it on down > the sides until it splits open. The cutting knife will easily cut > through the newer units, but needs some help from the screwdriver on the > older units. > > Putting them back together is pretty simple, although I purposely make > them slightly ugly. We have used several different types of sealant to > "glue" the plastic front to the metal backplate, and a choice had to be > made. Some types will seal together great, but are nearly impossible > to get back apart later without tearing the plastic up. Others will be > fine for a while, but lose their stickiness and then the face plate > falls off. I decided to keep the maintainability and also keep the > faceplate on by laying down silicone sealant on the plastic face, and > then drilling four holes on the corners and putting a small > bolt/washer/nut in the corners. This makes them look somewhat > "Frankensteinish" which is probably appropriate - but they are easy to > maintain with this setup. > > Some of the shells/antennas are going to have different boards put in > them. Some are going to get WRAP boards with StarOS and a pigtail and > will become repeaters. Some are getting WAR1 boards with StarOS and > high powered 2.4 cards and will be used as CPEs for difficult installs > or power users. Some are getting Mikrotik RB112 boards and 2.4cards > and will be used as CPEs - but apparently only in places where we aren't > running 10mhz channels since Mikrotik seems to have problems in CPE > mode. I really hope that there is a resolution to that Mikrotik problem > soon. > > After dissecting a bunch of them, I have a lot of respect for the > Tranzeo units. At least 60% of the failures were bad cards, and those > were easy to fix. Most of the board failures had something to do with > lighting or power surges, which I would not expect many to survive. > Only one of the units showed any kind of water damage, and that could > have been an installer's fault. They are tough units that survive both > hot and cold temperature extremes, and the enclosures are decent. I > still have another 45 or so to go through. Should be fun. > > Matt Larsen > vistabeam.com > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
