USB To 12 Volt Power Supply

A low cost "USB to 12V Step-up Power Module" can be used to run a 3G wireless router, from the USB socket of a laptop computer. This should work for other low power electronic devices, saving having to carry around several mains power adaptors and allowing devices to be run away from mains power from the laptop battery. It also allows running 12 Volt devices from the same USB mains adaptor used for 5 Volt devices.

The module is from  Canton Electronics, and is sold on eBay for US $5.45 (including international postage). The module arrived in Australia within two weeks of ordering.

The module consists of a small circuit board attached to a USB plug. The board has two screw terminations for attaching the supplied 5.5mm DC plug, via a short cable. The screws on the board are very small and I had some difficulty loosening one of them to attach the cable. It is very important to get the polarity of the cable correct (red wire for "+" positive terminal, for a positive tip on the plug).

First I tried the module wil a USB plugpack, as I did not want to risk damaging my computer. The module provided 12.2 Volts, with no load (measured with a multimeter).

Connecting the supply to a Huawei D100 3G Router showed a load of 160 mA without the USB Modem installed. With the Huawei E220 USB wireless modem installed, the router shut down. But this was not a problem with the module, but the plug-pack, which cannot supply enough power. Plugging the module into my laptop, the router with modem drew 200 to 330 mA.

I left the module running all night and it was working fine in the morning and did not feel warm to the touch. The module has no case, so I wrapped it in self-amalgamating tape, to protect it.

There are a few improvements which could be made to the module. One would be to supply the module with the cable already attached. Another would be a case for the module. Also the cable could be a bit longer (the one supplied is about 300 mm), I suggest 500 mm (the same length as the shortest commonly available Ethernet patch cables).

One question I have with the module is what it is actually for. The maker's description says "Home Automation Solar charger". This does not make a lot of sense, as a solar panel is unlikely to be putting out 5 Volts, nor have a USB socket . If this was instead described as a "USB to 12 Volt power supply", provided with a case and a slight longer cable, it could be a popular unit.

ps: It has taken me five years to find a USB To 12 Volt Power supply (an attempt to use a 9 volt one did not work). If setting out to do this today, a simple alternative is the TP-LINK Wireless-N Mini Router (TL-MR3020), which is powered by a USB cable and is only AU $49 RRP.

Multi-carrier Internet for ABC Classic FM Live Concerts

ABC Classic FM was unable to broadcast the "A Hundred Golden Autumns" concert from Canberra today, due to failure of an ISDN link between Canberra and Sydney. However, the concert was in Llewellyn Hall, which is on the campus of the Australian National University, which has a very high speed fibre optic link. The ABC could plug their router into the university network, so that could be used if the ISDN link failed. They could also have a wireless Internet connection via one of the mobile carriers, in case both wired links were lost. No special programming or configuration is needed for this, as the Internet is designed to route around failed links. The ABC just needs about $200 of extra equipment.

Femtocells for Wireless Broadband

Professor Mark Reed, Principal Researcher, NICTA, talked on "Next Generation Wireless: How can we solve the data crunch?" at the Australian National University in Canberra, this morning. This was timely as I was at a workshop with people from the Bangladesh government discussing "e-Government for Developing Nations". One key point is that wireless allows skipping generations of telecommunications technology.

Mark argued that Femtocells can provided greatly expanded broadband wireless and outlined research areas. However, it seemed to me the major issue was how this technology could be integrated into the business models of telecommunications companies (as illustrated by the lack of a business case holding up progress with the National Broadband Network). In other words the research question is: "How do we make money out of this?". As an example, one way would be for the customer who buys a femtocell to share in the revenue from others using the cell (this happens with some public WiFi systems).

Previously I suggested wireless be built into the NBN modems installed in homes. This would provide public femtocells and a very profitable supplement to the wired service.

One technical area for research is how to carry video efficiently. As Mark pointed out video is the major driver for wireless use. But video has very different characteristics to voice transmission and web access. It should be feasible to make video hundreds of times more efficient with a few simple protocol tweaks. Changes to the network topology would make it hundreds of millions times more efficient. Some changes are relatively simple, such as changing packet sizes and priorities, some will require hardware changes, such as putting caching in the cells. While there are many millions of videos which people might watch, there will be a relatively small number which most people will be watching at one time. Also the system can anticipate what people will want to watch and download it when there is spare network capacity.

Another issue is the use of mesh networks. With this arrangement, the consumer's handsets and base stations can communicate with each other, supplementing the fixed infrastructure. This could be used with intelligent and predictive caching.

Next Generation Wireless

Professor Mark Reed, Principal Researcher, NICTA , will talk on "Next Generation Wireless: How can we solve the data crunch?" at the Australian National University in Canberra, 11am, 25 November 2010. Wireless in one of the options for completing the National Broadband Network (NBN). This is a free talk, no need to book, just turn up:

Next Generation Wireless: How can we solve the data crunch?

Assoc. Prof. Mark Reed (NICTA)

APPLIED SIGNAL PROCESSING SERIES

DATE: 2010-11-25
TIME: 11:00:00 - 12:00:00
LOCATION: RSISE Seminar Room, ground floor, building 115, cnr. North and Daley Roads, ANU
CONTACT: charlotte.hucher@cecs.anu.edu.au

ABSTRACT:
With the forecast exponential growth of mobile broadband over the next few years and the availability of 3G mobile systems that are spectrally efficient, there remains a question of whether 4G systems will solve the key problems of coverage, throughput, and cost. This talk will discuss next generation wireless systems taking insight and input from commercial drivers and needs. It will explore the "data crunch" issue driven by smartphones and social networking and highlight that spectrum allocation and the deployment of 4G/LTE will not alone solve the problem. Interestingly, this initiates a lot of new and interesting research problems that havn't been explored in any depth by the research community, including small cell (femtocell) technology and self organising network (SON) technology.

BIO:
Mark Reed is a leading researcher in the area of WCDMA receiver and network design with more than 18 years of experience with positions in the USA, Switzerland, and Australia. He received his B. Eng. (Honours) from RMIT in 1990 and Ph.D. in Engineering from University of South Australia in 2000. He is an Adjunct Assoc. Prof. at the Australian National University and a Principal Researcher and Project leader at NICTA where he has been since 2003 and leads a team on a research-inspired commercial project. Mark pioneered the area of iterative detection techniques for WCDMA base station receivers and has more than 60 publications and eight patent applications. He has a mix of real-world industrial experience as well as research experience where he continues to put his techniques into practice. Mark has previously performed research and developed real-time world- first Satellite-UMTS and mobile WiMAX demonstration systems. Recently Mark has lead a team to realize a real-time WCDMA Femtocell modem working at RF and tested against independent equipment. This realization contains world-first advanced receiver techniques that significantly improve the uplink throughput and range. Mark is a senior member of the IEEE and from 2005-2007 he was an Associate Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY..

Wide Beam High Gain 3G Antenna

George Bray mentioned he has got good results using a G Spotter Antenna for 3G wireless access. This antenna costs about ten times as much as the Panorama Data Card Antenna I have and I wonder what is in the black box of the G Spotter.

3 make it difficult to buy products

Having destroyed my Huawei D100 3G Wireless Router I attempted to buy another one from 3. This has proved very difficult. I had assumed as I knew exactly the product I wanted and was to buy it from the same company as the previous unit, this would be easy. I imagined just waling in and saying "please sell me another one of these". The store I asked at had none and could not check with other 3 stores, as different types of stores are on different stock systems. I tried calling 3 but only their national number is listed on their web site and I then had to get through a voice response system which assumed I wanted a phone or Internet service. The operator I eventually talked to had never heard of "Canberra". I had to explain it was in the "Australian Capital Territory" which was abbreviated to "ACT". Theythen connected me to a phone line which did not answer. It looks like I have to visit each 3 Stiore and ask for the product.

Destroyed my router with netbook power supply

A few minutes ago I plugged the 20 Volt power supply from my Kogan netbook into my Huawei D100 3G Wireless Router. The router is designed to run on 12 volts and as a result no longer works. Can anyone suggest how to fix the router (it is possible just a component in the power regulator has been destroyed)? I know I am not the first to plug a Kogan power supply into this model router by mistake (one black plug looks much like another). More generally we need some standards for power plugs to stop this happening. One solution would be to USB.

Getting 9 Volts from USB

The "USB Mobile Phone Adaptor Kit" I ordered from Swamp Industries turned up in the mail the next day. The kit is impressive, with both car and mains USB adaptors to supply power and assorted plugs for differnet phones . However, the USB Adaptor, which boosts 5 Volts from a USB socket to 9 Volts, does not supply sufficient current to run my Huawei D100 3G Router and HUAWEI E169 3G USB modem.

The modem with the US wireless 3G modem plugged in uses about 270 mA, which should be just within what the USB adaptor supplies (300 mA +-5% at 9 Volts). However, the router uses up to 500 mA for a few seconds when it first starts up. When I turn the router on it starts to boot, then the green light on the USB adaptor turns red (presumably to indicate it is overloaded) and the modem goes off.

One good point is that the adaptor doesn't seem to be harmed by the overoad and is able to protect itself. So I did a quick calculation and decided that a 80 uF capacitor would store sufficient power while the router boots (the calculation involves Amps, Volts, Watts, Jules, and Farads). So, in theory, if I connect the capacitor (which will cost about $2) across the power terminals of the DC supply from the USB adaptor and wait a few seconds before turning on the router, the capacitor will be charged up with enough power to supply the router when it starts and it should then run fine.

If there are no more postings for a few days, that will be because my netbook has blown up, while trying this. ;-)

Powering a 12 Volt Router from USB

Connecting the HUAWEI E169 3G USB modem to the Kogan Agora Netbook is proving harder than expected. While there are descriptions on the web of simply plugging the modem in and restarting the computer, the Kogan does not seem to recognise the device. Some manual modifications of setting have not helped. So I decided to take a different approach: when plugged into the Huawei D100 3G Router the modem works fine with the Kogan. The settings for the modem are stored in the router. This has the added advantage of the firewall in the modem and that the device can be shared by several computers.

But the router runs on 12 Volts from and mains power supply. How would I use it when away from a power socket when the Netbook is running on batteries? My first thought was to run the router on the power from a USB plug of the computer. I found that the Kogan's USB sockets supply plenty of power, being able to run an external DVD drive or hard disk. With my previous laptop I had to use two USB sockets to get enough power for an external drive.

The catch is that no one seems to make a USB to 12 Volt adaptor (there are plenty of 12 Volt to USB adaptors). In fact there are numerous web postings saying this is not possible. It is possible, but needs extra electronics to turn the 5 Volts supply by the USB socket into 12 Volts.

Not being able to find a 12 Volt adaptor, I thought I would make the problem easier by trying a lower voltage. Most digital electronics actually run on 5 Volts or less. The 12 Volts supplied to equipment is converted down. So first I tried the router at 5 Volts, using the USB adaptor cable which came with the external DVD drive. This was after I checked the voltage and polarity of the power with a multimeter). This did not work, clearly more than 5 Volts was needed.

Previously I had run a router designed for 12 Volts on a 9 Volt supply, with no problems. So I tried this with the Huawei D100 3G Router and found it works fine on 9 Volts (it has been running for 12 hours this way).

So then I looked for a USB to 9 Volt adaptor. There were numerous queries about such devices on the web and replies saying it was not possible. But I found one about a "USB Power Supply for Video Sunglasses" which used a DC-DC converter (voltage converter) from a phone charger accessory kit described as a "9V Nokia Booster for Wireless Phone Charger".

The booster is a small black box with a USB plug on one end and a USB socket on the other. The device converts 5 Volts to 9 Volts at 300 mA and is designed for charging old Nokia mobile phones. The instructions warn this should only be used with a 9 Volt device: plugging a standard 5 Volt powered USB device into the unit could damage the device.

As I already had a USB adaptor from the DVD which plugs into the router, it should be a simple matter to plug the voltage booster into the Netbook, plug the USB adaptor cable into that and that into the router. But where in the world do I buy such an adaptor and how long will it take to get to Australia?

As the device was for a Nokia phone, I looked at the Nokia catalogue, which had a "Nokia Charger via USB port CA-100". However, this appeared to be for newer phones which use a lower voltage. I looked at Ryda, who sell a "Nokia CA-70 USB Data Cable with Intergrated Charger". This looked more than I needed and I was still not sure it would supply the needed voltage.

After more searching I found the "Charger Sony K750 W830c w958 Z558 M608 W300 J220 K310" offered on Ebay by Swamp Industries. This appeared to be the same adaptor kit as used for the video sunglasses. I checked to see the company details on the web to see how long this would take to import into Australia and found the company is based in Canberra (where I am). Also I found the kit includes an Australian mains to USB power adaptor, which would be handy. On the company's own web site the kit is described as "Universal USB Mobile Car Wall PC Charger Nokia, Blackberry" and was half the price on the company web site as on eBay. So I ordered one.

It will be interesting to see when it turns up. It is also curious that having searched the world online, I found the product I wanted offered by someone a few kilometres away. I was tempted to phone the company and ask to collect the unit in person, but this is probably a part time mail order company with no shop. I do have the satisfaction of having a name to put to the company, as when I paid via PayPal, the system gave me the person email address of who was getting the payment.

External 3G Data Card Antenna

My 3G wireless modem has difficulty connecting to the Optus network for the Virgin Mobile Broadband service from my desk (seems to work okay most other places in Canberra and Sydney). So I purchased a Panorama Data Card Antenna from Allphones for $AU29.95. This works very well. The hardest part was having the sales staff check this was the right antenna.

The antenna is about 120mm high and 10 mm in diameter. It comes with a 500mm cable and a plug for the HUAWEI E169 wireless USB modem. You flip up a small circular cover on the side of the modem and plug the antenna in. There is a small clip to attach the antenna to the screen of a laptop and an alternative desk stand is included. One clever touch is that the desk stand has a tab underneath to hold the laptop clip, so it doesn't get lost. The desk stand is a bit too lightweight and the antenna tends to tip over easily. But the is the only problem I have found.

This is more antenna than I need, and it is a shame they do not make a simpler unit which is just a whip with the plug on the bottom. This would work well when the modem is in the matching Huawei D100 3G Router. Alternatively there may be a way to modify the clip or stand so the antenna could be mounted neatly on top of the router, hiding the cable and plug.

Ruggedised cellular wireless routers

One of the exhibitors at APCOA 2009 is CallDirect with ruggedised cellular wireless routers. These do much the same thing as the Huawei 3G Router I have to connect to the Internet via a 3G mobile phone network. But the CallDirect equipment is designed for use in harsh environments.

Huawei D100 3G Router

According to reports on Whirlpool.net.au, the Huawei D100 3G Router sold in Australia by "3" as the 3 Wi-Fi Router for $129 will work with some Virgin Broadband USB wireless modems. The 3 web site says it is compatible with the: E220, E160G & E169G. The router has WiFi and an Ethernet port. So one computer can be connected via the Ethernet cable and several others can share the same 3G Internet connection at the same time via the WiFi.

The D100 got an okay review from Ross Catanzariti. UK Gadgeteer seem to suggest that the unit has the option of a 950mAh Li-Ion battery, which is not fitted to the units sold by 3.

La Fonera 2.0 Linux Wireless Broadband in Australia?

Fon offer a WiFi router which includes a community service in some countries. The idea is that you allow others to share some of your broadband connect via WiFi and in return you can share some of theirs when travelling. The latest version of the router has a USB port and there is an Wiki where applications for the Linux software are discussed. The idea is you can plug in Scanners, Webcams and Printers. But the applicaiton which interests me is to plug in my 3G USB modem, to make a small wireless router.

The Fon hardware is $US49.95, which is less than most 3G routers. 3G modems get a brief mention in the Wiki and there is mention elsewhere of some Huawei H200 and some Sierra modems working.However, Fon do not appear to be shipping to Australia. Also the software is current beta.