[MLB-WIRELESS] WRAP outdoor boxes

[Dan Flett]

http://socalfreenet.org/wrapbox

An interesting review of the new outdoor boxes for the PC Engines WRAP
board.

Here's my idea of the US Dollar price breakdown for a node built to the
Melbourne Wireless Project Specifications
(http://www.melbournewireless.org.au/wiki/?MelbWirelessRouterProject)

WRAP and Senao prices quoted from http://www.mini-box.com

WRAP-BOX 2A1E Enclosure                         US$60
WRAP.2C Board (1 LAN/ 2MINI-PCI)                US$119
2xSenao NL-2511MP 200mW MiniPCI 802.11b cards   US$128

PoE Injector and Power Supply				US$20
16Mb CompactFlash card					US$10

Antennas from http://www.fab-corp.com
SF-245 7.4dBi Omni, N-Male integral connector   US$59
13dB Panel Antenna					US$50

25m Outdoor cat-5					      US$10
30cm N-male to N-Male pigtail				US$10

						TOTAL:	US$466

At the current exchange rate, this equates to approximately AU$589, not
including shipping or import duty costs (which would be considerable if all
this gear was purchased in small quantities from the US).  A very rough
estimation of shipping and import duties for the above gear would be to add
%25 to the total cost - which would be approx AU$737.

I have been keeping a careful tab on all the materials I have bought for my
implementation of the MWRP, and the current design ends up being just on
AU$600 (this includes commercially-built antennas and my shipping costs).
My design is comparatively labor-intensive to assemble (I'm lazy and
time-poor), and being based on a MIPS processor means less flexibility and
upgradeability than the Pentium-class processor on the WRAP board.
 
I'm going to investigate the pricing of a WRAP-based node further and see if
I can get parts and shipping cheaper.  I'm not too interested in making a
business of it, as there are already people doing that - but I am interested
in nodes being as cheap and as functional possible for Community Wireless
people.  Basically this WRAP box makes using Pentium-based nodes-in-boxes
more attractive, but perhaps not quite cost-competitive at this point.  If
we can get it below a total of AU$675 for all materials and shipping, I
think I'd probably switch my allegiance from the WRT54GS to the WRAP -
although I'd still recommend a WRT54GS running Frottle and doing
LAN-WirelessWAN routing as a base for a client-only node.

Cheers,

Dan

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