MiMo Antenna - keep one wifi antenna inside?

[Tony68000]

About to fit Teltonika RUT955 router, with a Poynting MiMo 'fin' antenna. 2 x wifi, 2 x LTE, 1 x GPS.

(Thanks for everyone for the advice given so far about the practicalities of doing this!)

My latest question: should I use both external Wifi antennas, or use one of the external antennas and one internal one? I don't think these are beam forming antenna's, so splitting them should work fine, I might lose some external Wifi connectivity, but I suspect I'll be on 4G most of the time and not hot spotting to site wifis.

I don't want the roof to shield the wifi signal internally, even though I'm only 3-4 meters away from it, so should I keep one wifi antenna inside?

 

[Hettie's Crew]

It’s my understanding, I maybe wrong, that the aerials are for picking up the signal, not putting it out. The OUT signal that you pick up on your phone/pad/pc etc comes from the box.
I fitted my Teltonika RUT950 with both WiFi and mobile cables attached and everything is working brilliant.

 

[Guyadria]

Likewise my Rut955 is fitted with all 5 cables attached to the MIMO aerial. As prior post the wifi antennae can be used for repeating and amplifying a weak local on site wifi signal following instructions detailed by Teltonika. BTW with the 955 you can create a Tracker for your van using "Mapmypos".

 

[Martin How]

I think the other contributors are correct/The WiFi antenna in the mimo is for connection to an external hot spot.

We have this antenna on the roof of a metal skin Hymer and the Wi-Fi in the van is very strong. That is with a RUTX11 but i think the principle is the same

 

[Martin How]

It looks like Mapmypos has been discontinued: from Mapmypos.com:

Show where you are!​

Important note:
From November 1st, 2021 the MapMyPos APP will be removed from the Google Store and deactivated!
MapMyPos then only serves internal, private purposes.
The position display for Teltonika routers is retained indefinitely.

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[Raul]

What I think, it may be wrong, but:
When the router is in 4G cellular mode, the wifi antenna is used for range. I have tested distance 180m with two bars signal receiving wifi on the phone. When on hot spot mode , it will use the antenna to pick up wifi signal. My route is in top cupboard PVC, all cables connected to the outside mimo.

 

[mofurt]

If you want to geek out on this, there's the FCC report here:- https://fccid.io/2AET4RUT955V with teardown photos etc.

The RUT955 has only one set of dual band WiFi hardware, it doesn't have internal antennas in the case or a specific local hotspot transceiver. The correct thing to do is put both WiFi sockets onto the roof antenna; you may well find that the MIMO doesn't work properly if you have one inside and one outside and you significantly reduce your range to the site hotspot. Inside the van, you're close enough that even the biggest palace on wheels shouldn't have issues with connecting to your rooftop antenna even through a metal PVC roof.

The same antennas (and transceiver silicon) are used to both connect to the site WiFi and share it as a local hotspot for you.

Obviously if you are using LTE, then the LTE antennas are used for your wide area networking, and the WiFi ones then are only used for your hotspot.

This does mean that on a site, you could be connected to your own hotspot as you wander around as you are connecting to your own rooftop antenna.

 

[Martin How]

I get about -db in the van, about -58db in the house 20 m away from 4G/SIM this compares to -72 to -86 db from the various Wi-Fi repeaters on house on broadband.

Shielding from the roof is not a problem whatever mode the router works in.

Strengths plotted on Xirrus Wi-Fi inspector, a safe, useful and free download

 

[Guyadria]

It looks like Mapmypos has been discontinued: from Mapmypos.com:

Yes the App has been discontinued but the PC web access is still functioning.

 

[autorouter]

It’s my understanding, I maybe wrong, that the aerials are for picking up the signal, not putting it out

Both mobile phone and wifi radio communications are two-way, both receiving and transmitting. TV terrestrial broadcast and most satellite TV is one-way receiving only. Some satellite systems are two-way, but tend to be expensive.

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