I recently bought several GL-AR150 units and they all have a power calibration that limits the power for 802.11n rates to 12 dBm. (b rates @ 16 dBm and G rates at 15 dBm) This is much lower than a group of GL-AR150 units I bought last year that allows 18 dBm for B and the lowest N rate (MCS0).
Was this an intentional change for regulatory or other reasons? It doesn’t look like a per node calibration since all of the new batch have the same restricted values and all of the older batch have the same higher values. Is there anything I can do to increase the power of the higher 802.11n modulations?
alzhao
March 10, 2017, 1:21pm
2
Hi Luke,
Thanks for reporting this problem. This bring to our attention and we put this in high priority to solve.
Can you tell me where you order the new ones? How many did you order? If possible give me your order number. You can send order number to our email service@gl-inet.com
All were ordered through Amazon. There were 4 last year with the 18 dBm setting, then another batch of 4 (one of which had the 18 dBm setting and the other three with 12 dBm), and finally a batch of 10 (8 have been examined and all 8 have the 12 dBm settings). I have easy access to the MAC addresses if that helps.
Example of 12 dBm calibration from /sys/kernel/debug/ieee80211/phy0/ath9k/regdump
0x00a3c0 0x1e1e1e1e
0x00a3c4 0x181a1c1e
0x00a3c8 0x20200020
0x00a3cc 0x20202020
0x00a3d0 0x18181818
0x00a3d4 0x1a181218
0x00a3d8 0x00000000
0x00a3dc 0x00000000
0x00a3e0 0x1e201e20
0x00a3e4 0x1a1a1416
0x00a3e8 0x00001416
Note register 0x00a3d0 giving the power for MSC0-5 of 0x18=24=12dBm
Thanks,
alzhao
March 12, 2017, 4:51pm
4
Hi Luke,
We find the problem. We are very sorry that in a production run (2k units) the calibration process set wrong parameters so the max txpower was set to 16. There were hundreds of units went into retail channel.
The wrong settings caused a little performance drop when the distance is far.
Please contact cs @ gl-inet.com and we can replace these units for you.
kzqc
March 14, 2017, 3:02am
5
Does this affect the AR-300M units as well? If yes, how do I check it to confirm? Thanks.
alzhao
March 14, 2017, 3:27pm
6
No. It doesn’t affect other models.
can you explain why AR150 had the lowest power and weakest link of all tested devices? another calibration process error? my units came with 18dBm
alzhao
April 11, 2017, 4:59pm
8
Actually AR150 is 18dbm and all the other modules is 20dbm.
But AR150 is the most stable one so it is our best model for business.
If I order an AR150 off Amazon, is there a way to know if I’m getting one with the correct power config?
alzhao
August 9, 2017, 11:59am
10
Actually this problem is long time ago and we think the problem has all fixed.
You can refer to @lkoleszar’s post for technical examination.
psyborg
September 12, 2017, 5:05pm
11
these even had completely different regdump range:
why no 0x00a3c0 offset?
0x000000 0x00000000
alzhao
September 14, 2017, 11:59pm
12
I am not sure what you mean. Pls specify.