WS-8-150-DC in, Toughswitch out

[CuninganReset]

Hello.

I am not a WISP, I work for a container Terminal and we use the towers to give connectivity to our moving cranes, we started with UBNT gear, Rocket M5 for APs and Bullets for the clients (Omni client because the moving crane can we in any position) and ToughSwitch as tower switch.

Not to long time after we started facing issues with Bullets clients and ToughSwitches, the Bullets do not have any roaming capability at all (they remain connected to one AP until it loss all the connectivity) and in every heavy storm we lost a ToughSwitch, the APs remains ON but the switch did not pass any traffic.

Later we discovered the double speed issue of the ToughSwitch.

For the crane clients we changed all the Bullets to Mikrotik Groove that have active roaming capability (best signal roaming) and this issue was resolved but we still had the double speed issue with the ToughSwitchs.

We read about Netonix in Ubnt forums and decide to try, Why not?

Our actual setup is a Traco Power Supply that have backup battery option and a ADAM 6050 to monitor the power supply and the battery status (Netnonix guys must think if the can add some digital inputs to the switch).
Netonix switches with DIN mount to power the APs and SFP uplink to CPD.

All central monitored by an SCADA solution that can read MODBUS (for ADAM 6050) and SNMP, for Netonix Switch and APs.

[sirhc]

Thanks for the kind write up.

Your boxes look very organized and well thought out.

But on the subject of losing a tower/ToughSWITCH in storms, one important thing is to make sure your AC service ground rods are bonded to your tower and tower ground rods to prevent ground current potential differences from tearing up your gear.

If you have not read our posts on grounding please read the posts below, it might help prevent equipment loss.

Here are some good posts on grounding:
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=1816
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=188
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=1429
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1786&start=30#p13447
https://community.ubnt.com/t5/airFiber/ ... rue#M31070


viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1786&start=30#p13447

When you draw power from another electric service that does not have its Earth Ground bonded to the tower ground system your mounting on you only want the HOT (WHITE) and NEUTRAL (BLACK) wire and then you use the ground from your tower.

[sirhc]

All central monitored by an SCADA solution that can read MODBUS (for ADAM 6050) and SNMP, for Netonix Switch and APs.

Speaking of SCADA and our switches. looking for people to assist in this development.

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW FULL SIZE

[CuninganReset]

Hello, thanks for your words.

I think that grounding is not the issue, I am grounded to mains earth, maybe I must ground to tower itself, must discuss that with my engineering colleagues and try.

I dismount all the ToughSwitches long ago and until now I was using ubiquiti PoE without issue (230AC)

About the MODBUS reading from the switch, can be a very very useful feature because SNMP normally is not supported by SCADAs, in fact I bought a special license for SNMP reading.

But the switch can be read using MODBUS o will act as MODBUS TCP to RTU gateway? To connect other gear?

[sirhc]

Please read the posts on grounding and look at the pictures I posted above.

If the tower has ground rods and you are using the Service Ground and they are not bonded then the Ethernet cable becomes the bond through the switch, cable, and radio.

GROUND IS NOT GROUND. - Every ground has a different potential. If the tower grounds have a better path to ground then the service grounds then anything on that electric service that clamps voltage/current to ground will flow across your cables to the better ground. It can also work the other way around, if the service grounds are better than the tower grounds then ESD and Static charges will try to get to service grounds through radio, cable, and switch. THEY NEED TO BE BONDED or only use 1 ground source as explained in the picture above where you only use the tower ground and not the service ground. If you have two different ground services and they are not bonded and you think it is OK because everything is grounded then you have lost the battle already.


If you have 2 separate grounds (Tower) and (Service) then there is a ground potential difference and the ground current will flow across the switch, cable, and radio to get to each other.

POE bricks are not switches, there is no real electronics in there to get zapped by ground current.

[sirhc]

Another thing that tears "passive" POE switches up is Ethernet Surge Protectors which are designed for "active" POE.

If your Ethernet surge protector clamps stray/excessive voltage to ground then you are creating a dead short which "active" POE switches and POE brocks can deal with but is deadly to "passive" POE switches.

[CuninganReset]

Thanks, i really did not understand all becuase the idiom is not my best ( i am Spanish and English is difficult to me ) i will disconnect the switch from service ground and connect it to tower ground.
About the MODBUS, we use MODBUS to monitor a lot of things here, when i make any invention i use PyMODBUS and works really good.

[CuninganReset]

Hello.

I have installed the earth wire to tower earth ground, bonding all together as you suggested me.
Hope to avoid any problem from now.