Netonix Forums

If you're going to make cable ends you might as well make cable too!

It would be great to have gel filled shielded cat6. Toughcable is great, but tower sites really need gel filled cable. Non gel-filled cable always gets water in it eventually.

Ewwww....if you use it on tower it will soften in summer and make a mess in your box

We have decided if we do flooded cable it will be the dry powder.

I am thinking a cable very very similar to TC Pro for either $99.95 to $129.95 per 1000' spool or pull box?

Then MAYBE a flooded [powder] version with sealing tape for $149.95

Our Tower Switch will revolutionize the way we WISP's do towers and eliminate long tower runs except on the very sparsly populated towers.

If you get good flooded cable it will not leak out at the base of the tower. We have been using BBDGE and Primus shielded, flooded cat6.

I'd buy something like TC Pro for $99 or $129 a box--obviously $99 would be a lot better. I'd prefer a pull box.

Your tower switch sounds great but will be it priced in line with what WISPs can afford?

I feel the WISP switch prices are a bit high for a lot of WISPs...hopefully you can lower them with quanity.

keefe007 wrote:
I feel the WISP switch prices are a bit high for a lot of WISPs...hopefully you can lower them with quanity.

Really? Your joking right?

Our WS-24-400B is the same price as UBNT ES-24-500W and ours has features theirs does not for WISPs:
Powers airFIBERs
Passive current sensors
Tack monitored fans so you know if it is failing - QUITE named brand fans like DELTA and SUNON
Ours operates in temperatures below 0 and above 130F theirs caps out at 103F
Ours has a console port
Ours has passive POE current sensors

I think we did DAMN well at pricing and we made it in North America not China providing good paying jobs!

We also have 12 port version starting at $349.95 which is 12 ports + 2 uplink SFP ports you can use Ethernet or Fiber and is priced less than 2 ToughSwitch PRO's at $380 or their ToughSwitch Carrier at $425 which you only get 14 useable ports as you have to uplink each one and people have issues when they use all 7 ports for POE.

Why do you think my prices are high?????

Do you expect me to do more volume then UBNT and beat them in pricing?

I think we did damn good and we used all high temperature parts which cost us more.

For what its worth, a decent POE switch that will hold up with what WISPs throw at it, you are looking at close to $500. I hunted high and low when I started ....there just isn't much out there. I finally settled for a 4 POE port switch that also has fiber ports. It cost almost $600. O tried replacing it with tough switch, fail. I know mikrotik makes a cheap fiber POE switch, but I'm certain its, ummm, cheap.

I personally don't think the prices are high for my WISP. At some sites we used Cisco 4948's which cost $700-$900 used. I'm just saying I think some WISPs might think it is high. These WISPs also think Airfiber5 and Airfiber24 prices are high.

keefe007 wrote:I personally don't think the prices are high for my WISP. At some sites we used Cisco 4948's which cost $700-$900 used. I'm just saying I think some WISPs might think it is high. These WISPs also think Airfiber5 and Airfiber24 prices are high.

Ahh, yea, well those are the same ttpe of person that expects a 1 GB connection for their home for $50 per month UNLIMITED use.

These prices are pretty good with all the bells and Whistles I put in.
I could make a cheaper version without fan Tach monitoring, passive POE current, and use less expensive parts that are not ment to run hot.

Technically all the parts we used are rated above 70C including the PCB (most are rated for 85C) but we figured saying 55C+ was being conservative for longevity.

And using named brand fans like DELTA and SUNON is not cheap, cheap Chinese fans around $1.50 each, named Brand Fans $4 to $5 each plus shipping.
That means that we have around $18 in just FANS in the 24 port switch and $12 in the 12 port.
I could also have saved money not buying tach monitored fans.

But the fans are rated for over 60,000 hours and they are QUITE!!!!

I did not want a switch that sounded like it was ready to take off and fly around the room.

I personally don't like gel filled cable for most applications...it's just messy to work with, but I would use a gel filled direct bury cable on occasion.

+1 for gel filled direct burial and for dry tape above ground.