AR150 Router constantly drops out on charity project

TukTukCharity · 2020-01-20T08:05:25.233Z

Hi All,

I have 4 GL-AR150’s installed in 4 schools. They all have an identical setup. For 2 of them, after about 3 or 4 days, you can no longer connect to them. They need to be restarted before you can connect. The schools are remote and it is not easy to restart them due to the installation location. (for security they are mounted high on a wall and in a secure box.) My questions are;

Does anyone know a solution for the router so that it doesn’t constantly need restarting?
The router is connected to a Raspberry Pi. Is there some hardware that we can buy that will shut down the raspberry Pi and router overnight every day? (This would also help with power consumption)

More on the Project!
We are creating solar-powered servers in schools where we host educational content for the teachers that aligns with the government curriculum. We have already installed in 3 schools and one in our office. This is the hardware that is currently connected;

Raspberry Pi 3B+
DRF Robot solar controller - [url]not_found
120W solar panel
65 Ah lead-acid battery
GL-AR150 Mini Smart Router - [url]White (GL-AR150) Mini Smart Router | Pocket-sized | VPN | Travel-friendly– GL.iNet

rp201rp · 2020-01-20T09:14:28.461Z

questions. do you have power or is it only battery and solar power. assuming you cant connect to them means it has some internet access. if so how, through local wifi or perhaps a 4g hotspot device running off the battery and solar also?

rp201rp · 2020-01-20T09:22:46.225Z

fyi plug a gl-usb150 into the pi. you’ll thank me later.
single power source.
less wires.
the usb150 becomes an ethernet adapter to the pi and ehe wan connectivity for the pi over wireless.

gl-inet.com – 10 May 18

GL-USB150 / microuter

The smallest and smartest VPN travel router. Slip it into your pocket and take it with you on the go, perfect for business trip or on vacation.

TukTukCharity · 2020-01-20T10:57:08.109Z

It is only connected to solar power.
This is a stand-alone server. It is not connected to the internet. What I mean is that we can not connect a smartphone or laptop to the router. When you look for the wifi network from the AR150, nothing appears. If we restart the router, then we can find the network again and connect.

Interesting point on the USB model. The reason that we chose the AR150 is that it has an external antenna. We need to get maximum signal strength to be accessible from multiple classrooms. You are right that it would be less wires, possibly less power consumption also.

In your opinion, does the USB version have a comparable reach for the network?

TukTukCharity · 2020-01-20T11:01:26.666Z

Thanks for your help by the way. I really appreciate it.

rp201rp · 2020-01-20T11:06:49.680Z

TukTukCharity:

In your opinion, does the USB version have a comparable reach for the network?

lower power cossumption and no external antenna should equate to less distance. you never know till you try

sfx2000 · 2020-07-27T01:05:31.058Z

rp201rp:

fyi plug a gl-usb150 into the pi. you’ll thank me later.

Pi cannot deliver enough current for USB-150 by itself with most MicroUSB adapters powering the PI

WIth AR150 - good USB backup battery is good - look for units that do pass-thru…

16550 can deliver enough juice overnight on a lightly loaded AR150, but I would do two…

rp201rp · 2020-07-27T01:56:03.510Z

so sorry, I diddn’t read that carefully. you have a 3+ I have a pi 4. it works flawless with a pi4 except that the pi boots up way faster than the gl-usb150. One good thing about the pi is that it powercycles the usb ports on a reboot. or it may be a bad thing because that it would be ready and able when the pi reboots. . maybe you can lower the antenna transmit power of the gl-usb150 without losing the distance you were actually looking to gain.