Build your own devices, routers, relays, IoT etc.

[lynyrd65]

Got some bad news. While visiting the location this weekend, we saw reliability issues and unfortunately it's as I suspected, the temperatures are too high. I was seeing 88C temperatures at the modem which is outside the LM960's max operating temperature of 85C 😔

So I had to revert to the old setup with the modem inside the house and connected to the top two antennas in a 2x2 MIMO configuration with the two old 35ft LMR400 cables I'm glad I left in place.

Thankfully speeds haven't taken too much of a hit since I can still hit 90mbps downlink.

I'm thinking I will take the panel antenna with its components to my parent's house and use it there for 4x4 MIMO in their attic which hopefully won't see nearly the heat but I'll have to make sure to watch it.

[belusnecropolis]

On 7/26/2020 at 3:42 PM, lynyrd65 said:

Got some bad news. While visiting the location this weekend, we saw reliability issues and unfortunately it's as I suspected, the temperatures are too high. I was seeing 88C temperatures at the modem which is outside the LM960's max operating temperature of 85C 😔

So I had to revert to the old setup with the modem inside the house and connected to the top two antennas in a 2x2 MIMO configuration with the two old 35ft LMR400 cables I'm glad I left in place.

Thankfully speeds haven't taken too much of a hit since I can still hit 90mbps downlink.

I'm thinking I will take the panel antenna with its components to my parent's house and use it there for 4x4 MIMO in their attic which hopefully won't see nearly the heat but I'll have to make sure to watch it.

Did you try putting a visor over the box to deflect heat from the Sun?

[belusnecropolis]

On 7/14/2020 at 9:05 PM, ingenium said:

Ooo that sucks. Is it a regular T-Mobile plan, or their home internet plan? I didn't think they checked the IMEI for normal lines?

Regular phone line. They waited until the merger to start the IMEI list. It is OK, I will have a fix for it soon similar to the sierra wireless IMEI rewrite. The home internet box has been IMEI locked out of the gate.

[ingenium]

Regular phone line. They waited until the merger to start the IMEI list. It is OK, I will have a fix for it soon similar to the sierra wireless IMEI rewrite. The home internet box has been IMEI locked out of the gate.

Hmm, let me know when you have a fix, I'm curious what you come up with. So far I've been sticking with my MC7455 solely because of the IMEI rewriting just in case ATT decides to implement that policy on postpaid.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[belusnecropolis]

1 minute ago, ingenium said:

Hmm, let me know when you have a fix, I'm curious what you come up with. So far I've been sticking with my MC7455 solely because of the IMEI rewriting just in case ATT decides to implement that policy on postpaid.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
 

I feel that I have a 5G Mobley.

[charlesrg]

Been following your thread, can't find a place to get a EM20-G thinking of using an RM500 instead.  Looks like it cover all bands that the EM20-G has.

Quectel RM500Q-GL	5G	n1/n2/n3/n5/n7/n8/n20/n28/n41/n66/n71/n77/n78/n79
	LTE	B1/B2/B3/B4(66)/B5(18/19/26)/B7/B8/B12(17)/B13/B14/B20/B25/B26/B28/B29/B30/B32/B38/B39/B40/B41/B42/B43/B46/B48/B71

EM20

LTE

1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/14/17/18/19/20/25/26/28/29/30/38/39/40/41/42/43/46/48/66

 

[belusnecropolis]

1 hour ago, charlesrg said:

Been following your thread, can't find a place to get a EM20-G thinking of using an RM500 instead.  Looks like it cover all bands that the EM20-G has.

 

 

EM20 is end of life so they will become rare over the next month or two. They have replaced it with the EM160-GR. I have one, it is a pretty sweet card. More will be coming off the boat over the coming weeks. I have been waiting since April for a second run engineering sample of the RM500 and RM510. They have been in customs for a week and *almost* were returned because the importer needed some info but I got em in time and should be here next week.

I have built a bunch of routers with the RM500 and it is a great LTE performer so far. I would get one of those if you get the oppurtunity.

I also have the Sierra Wireless EM9190 coming in tomorrow. Exciting times ahead.

[charlesrg]

16 hours ago, belusnecropolis said:

EM20 is end of life so they will become rare over the next month or two. They have replaced it with the EM160-GR. I have one, it is a pretty sweet card. More will be coming off the boat over the coming weeks. I have been waiting since April for a second run engineering sample of the RM500 and RM510. They have been in customs for a week and *almost* were returned because the importer needed some info but I got em in time and should be here next week.

I have built a bunch of routers with the RM500 and it is a great LTE performer so far. I would get one of those if you get the oppurtunity.

I also have the Sierra Wireless EM9190 coming in tomorrow. Exciting times ahead.

How's the Sierra EM9190 ? Can you play with imei on it ? That looks like a good choice to be 5G ready

[Thomas L.]

Hello all,

I was wondering if someone would be able to help me. I have a Coolpad Surf from a Mobile Citizen reseller that I use for internet, and it's been fine, but, as a teacher, now that I'm teaching online with Zoom all day, it would really help to have a device with carrier aggregation and that I can use for multiple devices more effectively. It is of course IMEI locked, technically, but I have noticed that if I have a non-Sprint device that supports Sprint bands, the SIM card will work if I use the right APN settings. I am pretty tech savvy, but I don't have a huge amount of time right now to figure out a custom build. Is there any guide that would facilitate my building of my own router solution, preferably one that would allow me to use 5G if/when it becomes available for Mobile Citizen reseller customers?

I am very appreciative for this thread and thank you in advance for any guidance you might be able to offer,

TL

[lynyrd65]

Any idea why an LM960 wouldn’t work in a WE 826?

I decided to try upgrading my MoFi 4500 with one of these and after swapping the firmware to the latest GoldenOrb it’s still not detecting the card.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[PJG]

 

belusnecropolis .. I just ordered another LM960 for my PepWave router. I need some MHF4 to U.FL Pigtail Adapters. In the past, I purchased these from LTEFIX and the quality was great.

https://ltefix.com/shop/cables/pigtail-cables/mhf4-to-ufl-pigtail-adapter/

I need a quantity of 4. 

Where's a good place to source these pigtail adapters now? 

Edited September 4, 2020 by PJG

[Thomas L.]

On 3/19/2020 at 2:58 PM, notsrealinc said:

Hey everyone, I wanted to share something that I've been working on. I bought a Fibocom 850GL from eBay (the HP version) for about $30. My original intention was to create a DIY Portable Mobile Hotspot with a Raspberry Pi acting as the router and a TP Link WR902ac for a fast WiFi AP. I got two Cradlepoint antennas (I didn't trust any cheap ones on eBay/Amazon) that is rated to pickup 2.5 GHz and put the modem in an enclosure that converts from M.2 to USB 3.0 with a SIM slot.

You can see it all together held by rubber bands (there is also a 20,000 mAh battery underneath it all):

It worked great! I installed OpenWRT on the RPi and configured it to get a cellular data connection. I used it for a few weeks taking it around town and it was stable. However data speeds weren't as fast as it should be (about 42 Mbps). I initially thought it was the antennas but after some digging around I figured out a way to fix it. To keep it brief, abrasive on GitHub figured out how to change USB modes with an AT command. I tried changing the USB mode to 7 which allows it to work in Windows using CDC MBIM (before it wouldn't work in Windows). To my surprise it worked, and without any drivers! Best of all, I'm seeing much better data speeds almost upwards of 120 Mbps download. The modem supports 3xCA on B41. 

 

From here, I haven't gotten much further. I'd like to put this modem in a real router using PCIe instead of USB but I'm unsure about compatibility and drivers when looking some up. Now why this modem? You can activate it on Sprint as a "tablet" which costs $15/month after auto pay (the HP version only) for unlimited data.

Also as a side note, right now I deactivated it. Should I reactivate it again because of the merger and the plan not being available? I don't need this but it's pretty cool to have. 

Would you be willing to share what the enclosure is that you had that had a SIM card slot? I'm thinking about trying to figure this out and this seems like a great possible solution. Also, are you familiar with a similar enclosure that would provide ethernet connectivity? There seem to be several Fibocom 850GL versions, will they all work if the LTE band support is there? - Thank you!

[notsrealinc]

On 9/5/2020 at 7:07 PM, Thomas L. said:

Would you be willing to share what the enclosure is that you had that had a SIM card slot? I'm thinking about trying to figure this out and this seems like a great possible solution. Also, are you familiar with a similar enclosure that would provide ethernet connectivity? There seem to be several Fibocom 850GL versions, will they all work if the LTE band support is there? - Thank you!

I would not recommend this modem for use in a router, it's just too finicky. I got the enclosure from eBay from a private seller and there isn't any information as to what model it is. It's just an M.2 to USB 3.0 adapter with an additional power input. 

That being said, an update from my original post is that I was able to get OpenWRT to use the Fibocom modem in MBIM mode. This allows for much faster data speeds (100+ Mbps). I actually used GoldenORB Rooter Project, a modded version of OpenWRT. Make sure that you get the HP version of the module if you want to use it on Sprint. Plus all my experiences with it may not translate to the other variants (Lenovo, Dell versions). Another note, I left the Sprint tablet plan for AT&T's as the Sprint one was too aggressive on throttling. 

Edited September 8, 2020 by notsrealinc

[belusnecropolis]

On 9/2/2020 at 8:20 AM, charlesrg said:

How's the Sierra EM9190 ? Can you play with imei on it ? That looks like a good choice to be 5G ready

lol it will not power on. Who knows it is new. 

On 9/3/2020 at 10:36 AM, Thomas L. said:

Hello all

Hello fren, I can help you.

On 9/4/2020 at 12:30 PM, lynyrd65 said:

Any idea why an LM960 wouldn’t work in a WE 826?

I decided to try upgrading my MoFi 4500 with one of these and after swapping the firmware to the latest GoldenOrb it’s still not detecting the card.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The LM960 may have to be put in USB 2 mode. AT#USBSWITCH=1 will do it. Do you have a sled you can use to talk to it with a PeeCee?

On 9/4/2020 at 2:30 PM, PJG said:

 

belusnecropolis .. I just ordered another LM960 for my PepWave router. I need some MHF4 to U.FL Pigtail Adapters. In the past, I purchased these from LTEFIX and the quality was great.

https://ltefix.com/shop/cables/pigtail-cables/mhf4-to-ufl-pigtail-adapter/

I need a quantity of 4. 

Where's a good place to source these pigtail adapters now? 

They will be open again next week. Super pumped. I can reach out to one of their admin to make sure they have them.

[PJG]

Thank you..

[belusnecropolis]

10 hours ago, PJG said:

Thank you..

Sure thing fren

[belusnecropolis]

 

Sierra Wireless EM9190. 

[Thomas L.]

@belusnecropolis Thank you! From what I'm seeing it doesn't look as difficult as I thought. I was considering following the advice of someone who mentioned they go a modem and an enclosure for it... Is there a modem that allows you to play with your IMEI and can be put into a router perhaps? Would you be willing to share about antennas and general construction? Thank you again.

[ZanSai]

Hello belusnecropolis,

I messaged you on the ROOter forum a week ago I guess you have busy and missed it. So I signed up here to ask if you could help me get the firmwares for LM960 & LM960A18. Could you get this "Telit LM960 Multi Image Firmware Updater V.32.00.0x1 (Generic and AT&T) for Windows host systems" for the old LM960 and the new firmware for new version LM960A18? I have both and the LM960 is missing the generic carrier profile (only has AT&T and Verizon) and LM960A18 only has AT&T config. I had tried to get the sales rep from semiconductor to provide the latest firmware for LM960A18 but he has ghosted me simply because he didn't know where to get them and kept providing me publicly available files and not the files restricted to vendors only. You seem to have all the latest firmwares already. Could you post somewhere for me or others to update? Thanks in advance.

P.S. I have Sprint so my sim isn't working in LM960A18 and only 2CA (B41) on LM960 when I know my tower supports 3CA and confirmed with phone.

Edited September 12, 2020 by ZanSai

[belusnecropolis]

4 hours ago, Thomas L. said:

@belusnecropolis Thank you! From what I'm seeing it doesn't look as difficult as I thought. I was considering following the advice of someone who mentioned they go a modem and an enclosure for it... Is there a modem that allows you to play with your IMEI and can be put into a router perhaps? Would you be willing to share about antennas and general construction? Thank you again.

Message me a good number and time to reach out to you this weekend.

 

3 hours ago, ZanSai said:

Hello belusnecropolis,

I messaged you on the ROOter forum a week ago I guess you have busy and missed it. So I signed up here to ask if you could help me get the firmwares for LM960 & LM960A18. Could you get this "Telit LM960 Multi Image Firmware Updater V.32.00.0x1 (Generic and AT&T) for Windows host systems" for the old LM960 and the new firmware for new version LM960A18? I have both and the LM960 is missing the generic carrier profile (only has AT&T and Verizon) and LM960A18 only has AT&T config. I had tried to get the sales rep from semiconductor to provide the latest firmware for LM960A18 but he has ghosted me simply because he didn't know where to get them and kept providing me publicly available files and not the files restricted to vendors only. You seem to have all the latest firmwares already. Could you post somewhere for me or others to update? Thanks in advance.

P.S. I have Sprint so my sim isn't working in LM960A18 and only 2CA (B41) on LM960 when I know my tower supports 3CA and confirmed with phone.

Busy indeed. You made the effort so have one LM960 stuffs  

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15HPMvqtyZw0bNEsAb_9yAZUNNwfa6Bni?usp=sharing

The file for your reggie, non A18 LM960 is the 4th one. The Telit WHQL etc.

[ZanSai]

17 hours ago, belusnecropolis said:

Busy indeed. You made the effort so have one LM960 stuffs  

Thank you! Now my reg LM960 doesn't have the Verizon version. Do you happen to have the firmware with Generic, Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T all together in one? The reg LM960 firmware wiped out my Verizon version

[lynyrd65]

They will be open again next week. Super pumped. I can reach out to one of their admin to make sure they have them.

 

It turned out being another one of those weird situations where it just fixed itself on its own [emoji3061]

 

I plugged it back in after giving up on it after a while to try this command along with another suggestion from LTEHacks and it just..... worked? I didn’t run any commands or change anything, it’s just working now [emoji848]

 

No idea if it just needed a couple restarts or the modem needed to run an update or something. I’m happy it’s working now though.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[belusnecropolis]

On 9/12/2020 at 7:03 PM, ZanSai said:

Thank you! Now my reg LM960 doesn't have the Verizon version. Do you happen to have the firmware with Generic, Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T all together in one? The reg LM960 firmware wiped out my Verizon version

I never saw a version of that card that had all 4 carriers on it. I do not have any other firmware for it,

[ZanSai]

Ah ok. I will try to see if my rep will respond to me this time and provide me the latest firmware for the regular LM960. I will post here if I am able to get it if it's different than yours with other carriers and updated CA Combos with more 4x4 MIMO support for other bands.

[belusnecropolis]

On 9/10/2020 at 11:35 PM, belusnecropolis said:

 

Sierra Wireless EM9190. 

Kind of surprised I have not had any questions about this yet.