EAP225-OD antenna radiation patterns
I am wondering if anyone can provide the antenna radiation patterns for the EAP225-OD. Specifically I am looking for the patterns with both antennas vertical and both antennas at 45 degrees (per instructions). I would also like to know if there is any benefit in changing the orientation of the antennas when positioned at 45 degrees? I am broadcasting to a marina from the EAP225 and need to concentrate a 90 degree radiation pattern not 360 if possible.
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unfortunately I have no antenna pattern for EAP225-OD, but if you need 90º coverage and if you're willing to restrict the EAP's wireless signal to the 5 GHz band only (turning off the 2.4 GHz radio), maybe the Pharos sector antenna TL-ANT5819MS (5 GHz only) can provide that angle. It has an antenna beam width of 120º @6dB / 90º @3dB.
EAP225-OD once was announced by TP-Link as useable with Pharos antennas, it should even fit into the antenna's mount:
But please note that I did not try this and I have no idea whether this would improve coverage at your place, so use on your own risk.
I'm crazy enough to give such experiments a try, but the sector antenna is still somewhat too expensive to just buy one for a test with the risk of an unforseeable result.
When I have some time, I will test EAP110-OD with Pharos antenna TL-ANT2410MO and if the TL-ANT5819MS will become cheaper b/c it is already approaching EOL, maybe I will buy one to test it with an EAP225-OD.
As for benefit of changing orientation of the omni antennas included: yes, it can have a (small) effect, e.g. if the EAP is mounted high enough. OTOH, EAPs should not be mounted too high since the signal at the edges can become weaker. I usually mount EAP-Outdoors at a height of 2m to 3m with both antennas positioned straight upwards.
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unfortunately I have no antenna pattern for EAP225-OD, but if you need 90º coverage and if you're willing to restrict the EAP's wireless signal to the 5 GHz band only (turning off the 2.4 GHz radio), maybe the Pharos sector antenna TL-ANT5819MS (5 GHz only) can provide that angle. It has an antenna beam width of 120º @6dB / 90º @3dB.
EAP225-OD once was announced by TP-Link as useable with Pharos antennas, it should even fit into the antenna's mount:
But please note that I did not try this and I have no idea whether this would improve coverage at your place, so use on your own risk.
I'm crazy enough to give such experiments a try, but the sector antenna is still somewhat too expensive to just buy one for a test with the risk of an unforseeable result.
When I have some time, I will test EAP110-OD with Pharos antenna TL-ANT2410MO and if the TL-ANT5819MS will become cheaper b/c it is already approaching EOL, maybe I will buy one to test it with an EAP225-OD.
As for benefit of changing orientation of the omni antennas included: yes, it can have a (small) effect, e.g. if the EAP is mounted high enough. OTOH, EAPs should not be mounted too high since the signal at the edges can become weaker. I usually mount EAP-Outdoors at a height of 2m to 3m with both antennas positioned straight upwards.
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@Fae Thank you so much for providing this, it is extremely helpful. Would you be also able to confirm what distances are represented in the circle? The heat map seems to show 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180, however it is pretty fuzzy and hard to read. Are those in feet or meters? Thank you!
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@R1D2 Thank you, I appreciate the thorough response. I did look at that antenna, but I am shying away from it for the reasons you mention. The previous WiFi setup for the marina was 2.4 GHz only, with two high gain Omni antennas with two (burned out) Sunhans 2.4 GHz amplifiers off a cheap Asus home router in repeater mode. If I cannot get the stock EAP225-OD antennas to work adequately, then I will disable 5.0GHz altogether, get two new 3000mw 35DBi amplifiers, and use the old antennas with the EAP225-OD feeding the amplifiers. Since the old (and non-functional) system reached the entire marina, I am quite confident I can do better with the EAP225-OD on either the stock or amplifiied setup.
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Precison23 wrote
The heat map seems to show 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180, however it is pretty fuzzy and hard to read. Are those in feet or meters? Thank you!
It's not a heat map, but an antenna pattern describing the radiation in H and V directions. The unit of measurement along the circle is degrees (º) and from outside to inside it's the attenuation in dB. You need to imagine this in 3D to get an idea of the radiation pattern. For EAP225-Outdoor's 2.4 GHz radio it looks pretty much like a donut with four »bumps« on every side, while for the 5 GHz radio it looks like a four-winged butterfly with three heads »pumped up« like an oval/flat balloon.
When you asked, I did wonder what you might discover on the pattern for omni antennas which radiate almost (H) resp. nearly (V) equally in 360º direction? Such patterns are mostly helpful for directional, sector, yagi etc. antennas to identify the main, side and back lobes and the nulls in between.
To create a heat map you need to deploy the EAP and use a tool such as NetSpot or Ekahau heat mapper, which both can show a heat map of the EAP's spatial extension as well as the actual signal level (RSSI) amongst many other parameters such as interferences etc.
For example, this is a heat map of the signal level inside a building for an EAP225-Outdoor mounted outside (on the bottom right, the red square is a steel beam that is in the way causing a small dead zone in the middle bottom area of the big room):
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@R1D2 On the diagram, the last column shows "Mapped 3D" which I mistakenly called a heat map, I just saw the colors and went there in my brain. On each of those for 2GHz and 5GHz, there appears to be distance indicators, that is what I was asking about. I totally get the radiation patterns and what they mean, just looks like there might be distance infomation on the last column.
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@R1D2 I found another antenna that looks promising, what do you think of this?
UniFi AC M Dual-Band Antenna
SKU: UMA-D
https://www.ui.com/unifi/unifi-mesh-antenna/
Looks like this might be exactly what I need, has the 90 degree pattern and much higher gain (15dBi) than the included antennas with the EAP225-OD (3dBi & 4dBi). The Unifi AP is almost exactly the same as the EAP225-OD, so should be a match IMHO.
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@Precison23, IMO it's the V angle.
The UI antenna looks pretty cool, yes!
Has pretty much similar radiation pattern for 5 GHz like TL-ANT5819MS, but fewer lobes (which is good).
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Hi @Precison23,
How long are those piers? Are you hoping to cover that entire area and all of the docked vessels with one in the bottom right hand corner of your diagram?
-Jonathan
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@Fae,
Has TP-Link done any testing with regard to the EAP225-OD with regard to the stock antenna angle/orientation? Purists will argue that MIMO and antenna diversity is enhanced by mounting the antennas 90 degrees with respect to one another (e.g. 45 degrees from vertical) -- as you have shown.
But when the AP is mounted to a flat surface (like a wall, large cylindrical mast, etc.) and is within 2 or 3 meters of the ground, I'm wondering if keeping both antennas vertical or one vertical and one horizontal would provide better performance / range?
I'm thinking keeping both vertical would provide the best range and limit attenuation from the ground.
-Jonathan
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