I finally had the alignment of free time, parts, motivation, and remembering my project list, so today my EtherMesh-1W moved into its permanent home. I went with parts on hand, because I’m at that point in hobbies apparently, so the enclosure is massive, which worked in my favor when the ipex pigtail length and board placement on the backboard (which was its own thing) led me to flipping it over and maintaining bend radiuses that way. Crossing the streams is fine when its orthogonal, right?
Anyway, despite taking my time and gathering all the parts and looking at them real hard and thinking it through, I still managed to put BOTH penetrations in places that made it both awkward to get the back plate in (expected) and awkward to screw the backplate down (unexpected, but not really a big deal). I even measured the thickness of the wall to ensure both my bulkhead fittings would have enough threading… Oh well.
I went with some AliExpress smurf tube that claimed outdoor/UV safe and a matching waterproof fitting for the ethernet from the house to the enclosure, didn’t want to deal with exterior rated ethernet and all I had on hand was CMR. I have my doubts on the UV resistance long term, but it was cheap and I’ve been surprised before.
I was unable to deal with the complete misalignment of my backplane’s screw grid and the EtherMesh’s screw holes, but that’s a me problem and I solved it with the magnificent tolerances of nylon screws and standoffs. Nothing moves, not even the PoE magnetics daughter board, which I affixed with some 3M VHB double-sided tape… If it can handle my drone flying it can handle a pole mounted life.
Obligatory "Phew, blinkin lights" check at the top of the ladder
Well, its up on the roof, awaiting me figuring out where I want to more permanently affix it. Until next time!