We have 9 units, 3 are now non-operational and we have been told they are discontinued. No product support offered, searching for confirmation on what recalls are out for this unit and why they are discontinued.
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Who said its discontinued? Its listed on Peplink’s website, its in-stock on various reseller websites, hmmm
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Periodically Peplink does hardware refreshes and also discontinues some units in favor of newer models. Makes sense. I am not aware of any “issues” with this model at all.
Our distributor used to notify us when models were discontinued but hat is no longer the case. However, I do not see this model on their current price list for Partners. You may be able to find replacements from Partners’ existing stock, however, if you don’t want to move to other/newer models. The firmware will be essentially the same between models so no “learning curve.”
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I have the same question - why are products not discontinued with a prior notice? The BR1 MK2 is not available over any distribution in europe. And there is no comparable product with the same certifications available.
The issue with the BR1 MK2 is the main SoC (System on Chip) has severe supply chain issue. As most of us are aware there has been a very serious shortage in semiconductor chips. We are unable to predict when we could receive the SoC needed in building the MK2.
We are launching the BR1 mini (HW3). It should be a good replacement for the BR1 MK2. As Rick-DC suggested, there should be no “learning curve” needed in migrating to BR1 mini (HW3).
I believe most certifications are completed or work-in-progress. If there is any certifications missing, please share with us and we’ll look into that.
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There are several certifications missing:
E-Mark
EN 61373:1999 IEC 61373:1999 : Shock and Vibration Resistance
EN 50155: Railway Applications
EN 61000: Electromagnetic Compatibility
These are work in progress… our certification team is working on it.
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In practice, my BR1 mini uses about 2W in normal operation. The spec sheet for HW3 says 13W nominal. Is this true? If so, this is a large increase in power consumption - for certain uses (e.g. a small camper van/RV) that’s a big difference in power usage.
Below are few quick measurement results we have done in our office:
BR1 Mini HW1 (MAX-BR1-MINI-LTE-E-T)
- idle (LTE connected, no Wi-Fi clients) ~2W
- Wi-Fi speedtest (~20Mbps download speed) ~5W
BR1 Mini HW3 (MAX-BR1-MINI-LTEA-W-T)
- idle (LTE connected, no Wi-Fi clients) ~4W
- Wi-Fi speedtest (~20Mbps download speed) ~6W
Notes:
- The HW1 version we used was CAT4, while HW3 was CAT6.
- This test doesn’t cover all the cases and it is more like a basic test only. But still, I suppose it is helpful as a reference.
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Thank you! those numbers are quite better than the “13W nominal”.
It would be helpful to have a config file converter between models.
This is usually are biggest complaint when switching models.
Also the partner balance convert only covers some use cases and doesn’t always identify a model as an upgrade.
I don’t think you can move between an mk2 and a br1 mini hw3 , but I could be wrong.
I know you can’t move from a br1 mini to a 20x for example.
It would be nice to have more compatibility moving between models.
Also does the br1 mini hw3 have the same wifi range that a mk2 has?
Does it have any issue with placing the br1 mini hw3 near another high power AP?
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The BR1 Mini HW3 has same/similar range as the BR1 MK2. The Tx power levels are basically same. Next about the issues next to the High Power AP. We havn’t notices similar issues with BR1 Mini HW3. I would like to highlight that HW3 is a totally different platform, starting from different CPU, Wi-Fi radio, etc. Just incase to be 100% we will double check on this, but as mentioned so far we haven’t seen such issues.
The certifications are still pending. It is now about 5 months since the BR1 MK2 was discontinued and the MAX BR1 Mini HW3 was announced. Please speed up the certifications.
How long are the certifications for the BR1 Mini HW3 going to take? It’s been months since the announcement!