Deprecated FON Boards !

I succesfully installed La Fonera with an 8dB omni antenna.

Due to restrictions in radio communication I may not use more than 100mW effective transmit power. How do I decrease the transmit power of La Fonera to about 28mW?

Forget that, no one have interest for your small overpowed Hotspot.
Run it and god is.

DD6VD: Wow, I think that was a mean thing to say!

Pieter: I don't think the big antenna increase your transmit range, but it will increase your reception range. It may increase the effective size of your hotspot, but it may even decrease it due to the router being unable to handle the extra static it brings in. In either case, Fon has not given us a control for the transmit power. Perhaps it is possible with command line configuration.

If someone knows how this may be done, please follow up on this thread.

Hi there,

yes you can change everything. Short summary of what to check/do can be found here: http://www.easy2design.de/bla/?page_id=98#txpower

Have fun,

.martin

No one have interest for your small overpowed Hotspot.

Hey guys

related to this, does anyone know the max output of the Fonera + ?

I am thinking of unlocking the SSH just for this, as with my current configuration (la fonera +, la fontenna) I cover my whole house but the signal does not reach the veranda
If I could just push it 10mW up I believe that would do the trick. To do so though it would be nice to see the max output...

cheers

I'm uncertain of the precise answers to your questions, so here are the best sources I could find:

First of all, La Fonera Plus and La Fonera 2 are identical, except that LF+ is missing the parts necessary for the USB. La Fonera+ is labeled the "1.5" here:

The test results filed with the FCC show that LF+/2 has a very wide range of output power, depending on the channel selected:


These figures are not the whole story, as what we really want to know is what is the power output of the hotspot itself. But these figures of the output power to the antenna, place us in the right ballpark.

Interestingly, it would seem to suggest that we should all set our La Fonera +/2 models on channel 6 for the best output, and especially avoid using channel 1.

Unfortunately, the power output cannot be increased on command. It is either set to maximum allready, or commands have been physically disabled somehow.

To solve your problem of reaching the veranda, Fon would be delighted to sell you a Fontenna, or you can build a very simple parabolic reflector for under a dollar. There are plans for a couple of good ones in this blog post: http://elfonblog.fondoo.net/?p=80

Adding a directional antenna or reflector should not seriously affect the range of your hotspot indoors, since it simultaneously uses an internal antenna (bottom right of circuit board, in photos above).

Thanx Austin for your prompt answer. That was my next answer to the problem, I just wanted to see if it was worth unlocking SSH and changing the output of the fonera itself. Anw life is life

AFAIK, noone has figured out how to get the power boosted yet. And it would be big news if they had. The concensus with the first two La Fonera models is that it was impossible.

Hmm what to do. lets hope to expect some breakthrough.

In the meantime I boosted the fontenna with a homemade parabolic reflector and that seems to have done the trick... I can access wireless at some points of the veranda at least