Howdy,

A ham friend mentioned he read on the internet about the neat networking system.. Broadband-hamnet.
We've enjoyed networking via AX25 and Linux many years ago, but it fell to the wayside due to life
and other reasons. I've recently talked him into Ubuntu Linux on his RaspberryPi.

Anyway, I researched this Broadband-Hamnet and discovered it to be exactly what we were trying to
accomplish back in our AX25 days. For another networking project, I had purchased a couple of Ubiquiti
AirGrid M2 HP systems, but the project never seen completion and were laying around. I already had
a Linksys WRT54GL router. So, curosity got the better of me and I downloaded the firmware for the
WRT54GL and the AirGrid M2 HP. Both firmware uploads went flawlessly.

I have a Dell 2850 server running Zoneminder security camera system with six cameras and wview
weather station running Davis WeatherPro system. After understanding what capabilities Broadband-Hamnet possesed, my goal was to set up a system with access to the Dell 2850 server, Zoneminder and wview.

The AirGrid M2 HP was Cat5'd to the Dell 2850 via eth1 and the WRT54GL was Cat5'd to my laptop via eth0. Both systems came up as expected via direct dotted addressing or via localnode.local.mesh:8080,but could not access either or. I set up the addressing for linking to Zoneminder and wview. No linking worked. I started with "direct" first then experimented with "nat". After three days, frustration started setting in.

The "dumbest things" part of this post... I decided to revert back to basics and started "pinging"
addresses. All addresses pinged just fine except... to the LAN port of the AirGrid M2 HP. The ping
started out ok, but then dropped out, then came back, then dropped out again. I thought "this is weird".

The path between the WRT54GL and the AirGrid was no more than 40ft. I figured the path would never
be and issue in such a short distance. I was WRONG! I had the AirGrid (without the grid reflector)
laying flat on a book. During my pings, I noticed the red led on the AirGrid going on and off. Laying
flat meant a "horizontal" polarization. I thought, "what the heck" and situated it in the "vertical"
position and to my amazement... EVERYTHING... stated working perfectly!!! I was able to link into
the Zoneminder system as well as the wview weather system via the Broadband-Hamnet system. FANTASTIC!!

The "direct" default system does work straight away. But, sometimes... the "dumbest" things prevent
success. ( smile )

Thanks to everyone involved with putting together this very capable system. I'm on our local VHF repeater
getting other hams in our area interested. Now that I can absolutely claim "IT WORKS", interest will
surely grow in NE Oregon.

Thanks again...

73
Mike, N7KMJ

P.S.  I'm getting a !!!! UNTESTED HARDWARE !!!! banner on the AirGrid M2 HP link page. Clicking
on the link displays a !!!! UNSUPPORTED DEVICE !!!! and suggests to file a ticket with my
experience. The AirGrid M2 HP seems to be working just fine. How do I file a ticket or do
I just need to update something?

Ah that little red led works again :)

It has become a diagnostic tool on my bench when testing to know if I broke something or not. Funny enough I never meant to use it as much as I do, it's one of the first things I look at when I can't get a connection.

Polarization has quite an effect ( you can see why horizontal is recommended over verticle to git rid of local noise)

In regards to the banner warning: if the board is is "0xe242" I was made aware of it the other day and proper full support should be in the next major release (planning to ship to beta soon).  If it is a diffrent ID than the procedure listed http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/hsmm-mesh-forums/view-postlist/forum-37-ubnt-firmware/topic-759-help-us-gather-info-on-ubnt-devices.html would be appreciated.

Expect some issue with wifi control (power/antenna selection) but otherwise mos all other features should work normally.

We're finding out Ubiquiti has a lot of model IDs out there and many have slight differences requiered to support correctly but we are commited to adding them in as we receive them.

Hi Conrad,

I believe it was a discussion you were having with someone else that provided me the heads up on the red led of the AirGrid M2 HP. I appreciate the tip during that discussion as it was primary in discovering what was creating my situation. 

Yes, my AirGrid M2 HP has the 0xe242 boardid, so I will keep an eye out for the update. Thank you for the info regarding this. I have a second AirGrid M2 HP as well as a NanoStation M2 and a Bullet 2HP to experiment with.

Now that I have a "working" system, I can reread a lot of the info over again to gain a different perspective as to how best to design a system and be able to share with others in our area with some of the more difficult information that needs to be digested. I now have a better understanding of how fickle the RF paths of these things can be.

The forum here has been very helpful.

Mike, N7KMJ