So I’m getting some pushback on the rugged Routers as many of my customers are demanding M12 X coded connectors to suit their requirement. I don’t believe I’m the only one who is seeing this. In many of the environments I’m familiar with M12 X Code is basically the standard for ruggedness… . Standard RJ45 ports and plugs struggle in the heavy vehicle mining deployments we are exposed to…
The devices I’m mostly interested in are Peplink BR2 PRO 5G, Peplink BR1 Pro 5G and Peplink Mini BR1 5G essentially anything I’d put into a mining machine.
Thanks for sharing Alex. We have a large quantity of the Transit Duo Pro currently in use in our mining environment, will this hardware see an upgrade to the M12 connector? The only other thing is that the cellular modems in the Transit Duo Pro seem to fail if their supply voltage fluctuates during boot-up that can only be recovered by Peplink support, it would be great if a procedure was created so the customer can recover the cellular modem in this event and not have to rely on lengthy turn around times from Peplink support.
I agree with this, our Technicians constantly complain about dirt and dust build up in the Ethernet connector as well as vibration in heavy mining vehicles that can cause the odd dropout or unreliable connection. Have you had any issues with the cellular modems getting stuck in the ‘initialization’ state due to voltage fluctuations? It seems the cellular modules aren’t very resilient and it requires Peplink support to recover the module only via remote support, it cannot be recovered locally which is not a good thing at all.
@JP90 are you using any kind of DCDC converter on your machine installs…
For 12VDC based systems I’m using a Victron 12-24V isolated DCDC converter. This allows the cranking battery to drop all the way to 7VDC whilst still maintaining a 24V DC output.
The Victron 24VDC-24VDC galvanically isolated unit allows cranking battery voltage drop down to 16VDC. Suitable for CAT Dozers “with proper battery maintenance”
Ultra interested to hear if you’re still experiencing the voltage sags if using any of the DCDC contenders above. May have to crank out a Mini UPS design down the line.
Thanks for the reply Phil, at present we aren’t using any DC-DC converters, our Techs are installing them on a standard 24Vdc supply. The behavior seems very random, doesn’t matter if it’s a CAT Dozer, CAT Haul Truck or Hitachi Excavator.
Do you think a 24Vdc-24Vdc galvanically isolated unit will help protect it from voltage supply fluctuations? It’s such a random issue that’s hard to pin point, so even if we did that it would be hard to tell if it fixes the problem or not. Keen to give it a go however I can see there will be push back from our Technicians as they will ask why we aren’t using a vendor other than Peplink that is more resilient to these voltage fluctuations in the first place. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
