Outdoor WiFi access for iot devices

[jhv]

My pool cleaning robot connects to the internet by using wifi only from its control box. This control box is in the far corner of my back yard and it frequently experiences dropouts. I have two ASUS routers connected in AiMesh mode with the main router centrally located in the house and connected to the internet, and the node router located by a window at the rear of the house facing the back yard to help improve wifi signal in the yard and also provide indoors for that part of the house. The indoor wifi signal is now strong all over the house with no issues however the pool robot still experiences occasional dropouts.

I am currently in the process of trying to learn how to improve our home network by creating various networks using VLANs to control the way each device can connect to the internet and be isolated from the main network. I have started another thread to ask about isolating networks here.

There are currently 3 devices in the backyard that need better wifi signal. The pool robot, an ip camera that only has wireless connectivity and a wifi only irrigation controller. The irrigation controller is in a metal shed and with the shed door closed there is almost zero wifi signal inside. The camera is mounted on the outside of the shed and the pool robot control box is at the opposite end of the back yard about 15-20m away. There is an existing unused underground conduit leading from the house to the shed which I installed when building the shed years ago for a possible future need to run a lan cable to the shed. My thought is to run a lan cable from the house to the shed and inside the shed I can use an old router in AP mode to serve the irrigation controller and camera. Even though the AP will be inside the metal shed, I could mount it right behind where the camera is located so they can be as close as a few cm apart, so hopefully the camera would still have a pretty strong signal. The problem is getting a reliable wifi signal to the pool robot. There is a power outlet right next to the robot control box where it is plugged into. This wiring to the robot power outlet is on the same circuit as the shed. I could use a powerline adapter setup with one device connected to the shed AP by Ethernet and the second device plugged in to the outlet next to the robot box to act as an AP for the robot. In theory I believe this would work but it seems messy. Also I haven’t found any powerline adapters that are rated for outdoor use. One possible solution is to mount the adapter in a waterproof enclosure, but probably not ideal. I have never used powerline adapters before so don’t know how much heat they generate, especially if inside a sealed enclosure. The old router I have is a Billion 7500G which has two antennas. Not sure if it’s possible to replace those antennas with outdoor antennas on a lead so I can mount one on the outside of the shed and one inside. The 7500G might favour one antenna over the other or maybe not work at all, either way not achieving what I want.

I also have an AVM FRITZBOX router and a TP-link ISP supplied router that could be used as an AP. The tp link is one of those isp only models which I don’t want to use at all, it’s still in its box. The FRITZBOX from memory is a 7390 model, not currently at home to check. It used to be our main router when we had a dsl connection but I think the modem part got damaged during a storm one time. The rest of the router still worked which is all I would use in AP mode if it’s worth using. The billion or FRITZBOX would be part of one of the vlans and not have access to the rest of my home network.

 

[tgl]

This might all be overcomplicating matters. The first thing I'd ask is how old is that window the node is sitting behind? If it's at all recent then it might be made of low-E glass, which is remarkably effective at blocking wifi. You might not have to do more than move the node so it reaches the back yard through a wall not the window --- counterintuitively, the wall may well be more wifi-porous than the window.

 

[jhv]

This might all be overcomplicating matters. The first thing I'd ask is how old is that window the node is sitting behind? If it's at all recent then it might be made of low-E glass, which is remarkably effective at blocking wifi. You might not have to do more than move the node so it reaches the back yard through a wall not the window --- counterintuitively, the wall may well be more wifi-porous than the window.

The house is about 20 years old, brick veneer construction. I live in Australia, don’t know what low-E glass is, but I don’t think there is anything special about our windows. The windows are fairly large, pretty much floor to ceiling and there are also some glass folding doors (4 sections) at the back part of the house. The exterior walls have fibreglass insulation batts between the outer bricks and inner gypbrock. Oh, the windows and glass doors all have aluminium frames which “might” affect the wireless signal, but probably not much. There is definitely wifi signal outside the house. The camera on the shed is only about 4m from the router in a straight line which connects to the wifi no problem. The pool robot is at the opposite end of the back yard and is the only device that needs wifi access in that area which is why I was thinking of some sort of outdoor rated powerline adapter if it exists. The irrigation controller is even closer to the node than the camera is, but it is inside a metal shed with no windows so receives next to no wifi signal, so some sort of wifi access device is needed inside the shed which led me to consider one the old routers in AP mode for the outdoor wifi.

Maybe an outdoor AP, something like this (TP-Link EAP110-Outdoor), would work? It has PoE so installation is easy only needing a single Ethernet cable connected to it and can be mounted on the outside of the shed which would hopefully be physically close enough to the irrigation controller inside the shed, so the signal inside the shed isn’t attenuated too much for a reliable connection. The pool robot would be about 15m straight line from this outdoor AP with nothing in between besides air. Could one of these outdoor AP’s have the opposite problem of having too strong of a signal? I live in suburbia and don’t really want my wifi too far reaching that it interferes with my neighbours’ networks.

The main problem I see with the current node, even if it can be relocated for better outdoor wifi signal, is that I plan to connect the outdoor iot devices to a different network than the main home network so they can’t access computers, phones, tablets, etc. The node is an ASUS DSL-AC68U and I don’t know if it’s possible for it to handle any vlan networks when it is in mesh mode. I currently have one of the guest wifi networks enabled for the ip cameras as a temporary solution but I don’t think that will work in the long term after adding an NVR because the guest network doesn’t allow devices within its network to talk to each other while restricting access to the main network. Still learning about vlans and how to set them up with my existing hardware (ASUS RT-AX82U - main router, DSL-AC68U - aimesh node with wireless backhaul. Wired backhaul is not an option for this model because it only has a DSL WAN port. Maybe Merlin firmware has a way to assign one of the LAN ports as WAN while in mesh mode?). I found this thread, which I will need to read through again, that may offer a solution to at least set up the isolated networks and use my existing hardware with the exception of maybe buying a couple vlan compatible managed switches.

 

[degrub]

As long as the switches will pass VLAN tags, then they can be cheap unmanaged switches.
For the metal shed, you will have to put something inside, perferably you can use LAN cable to connect to the controller rather than wireless inside, since it is so small. Otherwise, maybe have a project to put a window in the shed ? If the walls are corrugated metal sheet, you could substitute a fiberglass version, i think, as that should be RF transparent. Or can a remote antenna hung under the eave work ?

To reach the pool robot, an outdoor AP under the roof eave of the house , POE powered from a switch or by using POE injectors would work well and cover the rest of the backyard. i assume the IOT devices are only using 2.4 GHz band, so make sure the AP device config will allow reducing power on that band, perhaps at the IOT device and at the AP.

Some folks have had luck direct burying CAT 5e cable for short distances. The powered device at the other end needs to have the same earthing point as the power for the house though, at least in the US. Consult local electrical codes. Otherwise can get into a ground loop issue.

 

[jhv]

Don’t really want to put any windows in the shed and the irrigation controller only has wifi connectivity, no lan port.

I just learned of the existence of tiny routers like the Mikrotik MAP Lite or TP-Link Nano router which look very promising. The mikrotik can also be powered by PoE which is perfect for the pool robot. One of the Amazon reviews I read, the person enclosed one of these mikrotik devices in a weatherproof box with only the lan cable entering the box for PoE and data to the device which then created a local wifi connection to a doorbell camera on a gate. Instead of a camera, I’d be connecting the pool robot, otherwise their setup is almost exactly what I want to achieve. Running a lan cable to the pool robot is a bit of work but not impossible. For the shed, I think I’ll try setting up one of my old routers as an AP and experiment with its location inside the shed to see what kind of signal strength the camera on the outside receives.