Cost Tables
Scenario 1: Indoor USB Wireless solution (distance < 50m)
A simple cheap wireless LAN USB device can be bought and the mesh software can then be loaded on the computer. This setup is ideal for short range communication between a distrubuted cluster of houses that you find in a town house complex.
| × | Item description | Supplier | Supplier Stock Code | Quantity type | Cost | Quantity | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11Mbps Wireless USB Adapter | MIRO | SL2511UB4 | EACH | R262.20 | 1 | R262.20 |
| TOTAL | 262.20 |
Scenario 2: Outdoor USB Wireless solution (distance < 3km)
Using a stick USB WiFi adapter, it is possible to plug a USB cable extender into a computer at one end and the USB WiFi adapter at the other end. The maximum distance allowed on such a USB cable is 5m unless a hub is used in between the devices. The USB adapter can then be mounted inside a tin can to help boost the gain.
| × | Item description | Supplier | Supplier Stock Code | Quantity type | Cost | Quantity | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | USB WiFi Stick Adapter - b/g | MIRO | SUB316 | EACH | R222.30 | 1 | R222.30 |
| 2 | USB Type A Fem to Type A male 5M Active Extender | XX | XX | EACH | R120.00 | 1 | R120.00 |
| 3 | Tin can (free - just drink lots of coffee first) | XX | XX | EACH | R0.00 | 1 | R0.00 |
| TOTAL | R342.30 |
Scenario 3: Outdoor: Use old PC as dedicated Wireless router (distance depends on antenna and power of wifi card - can be up to 30km)
If you have an old unwanted Pentium lying around in the garage - this is an attractive option to build a low cost outdoor wireless router. You will need to purchase a PCI WiFi card, plug it into the old PC, place the old PC in the roof and then run an RF cable from the PC to an external Antenna.
| × | Item description | Supplier | Supplier Stock Code | Quantity type | Cost | Quantity | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Old PC >= Pentium I with >=200Mb HD >=64Meg ram (hopefully you have one of these) | xxx | xxx | EACH | R0.00 | 1 | R0.00 |
| 2 | Sonoa PCI Adapter b/g - 108Mbps | MIRO | SL3065PCI | EACH | R456.00 | 1 | R456.00 |
| 3 | PCI Ethernet adapter | PC Palace | xxx | EACH | R78.66 | 1 | R78.66 |
| 4 | SMA to N-Type pigtail | MIRO | JACK-N-SMA-M | EACH | R85.50 | 1 | R85.50 |
| 5 | RF cable (3M LMR400 N-Type male) | MIRO | CUSTOM | EACH | R182.40 | 1 | R182.40 |
| 6 | Antenna (12dBi Yagi) | MIRO | PAE-12-YAE | EACH | R273.60 | 1 | R273.60 |
| 7 | Ethernet cable (20m) | Compu Cable | xxx | METERS | R2.80 | 20 | R63.84 |
| 8 | Ethernet connectors | Compu Cable | xxx | EACH | R1.48 | 2 | R2.96 |
| TOTAL | R1142.96 |
Scenario 4: Indoor Wireless router (distance < 300m)
A wireless router is a dedicated WiFi box which is capable of handling all the routing and networking issues of the mesh network. They usually come with an internet port, a built in switch with extra LAN ports and an external antenna. Once the mesh software is uploaded to the device, all that is required is to connect your PC to one of the LAN ports to be linked into the mesh network. We use the Linksys WRT54G becuase there is a lot of opensource software available for it.
| × | Item description | Supplier | Supplier Stock Code | Quantity type | Cost | Quantity | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Linksys WRT54G wireless router | MIRO | LS-WRT54GL | EACH | R515 | 1 | R515 |
| TOTAL | R515 |
Scenario 5a: Outdoor Wireless router under eaves (distance depends on antenna - can be up to 30km)
If you want to extend the range of scenario 4, you will need to mount an external antenna. Simply running a long RF cable from the wireless router antenna connector to the roof of your house will incur large RF losses on the long RF cable that will be required. The solution is to move your wireless router to a point as close as possible to the position where your mast will be mounted on the side of the house under the eaves. The power to the wirless router can be injected into the ethernet cable using a power over ethernet injector on one side and extracted using the same device on the other side.
| × | Item description | Supplier | Supplier Stock Code | Quantity type | Cost | Quantity | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Linksys WRT54G wireless router | MIRO | LS-WRT54GL | EACH | R515 | 1 | R515 |
| 2 | TNC(RP) to N-Type pigtail | MIRO | JACK-N-F-TNC-M | EACH | R70.00 | 1 | R70.00 |
| 3 | RF cable (3M LMR400 N-Type male) | MIRO | CUSTOM | EACH | R182.40 | 1 | R182.40 |
| 4 | Antenna (12dBi Yagi) | MIRO | PAE-12-YAE | EACH | R273.60 | 1 | R273.60 |
| 5 | Ethernet cable (20m) | Compu Cable | xxx | METERS | R2.80 | 20 | R56.00 |
| 6 | Ethernet connectors | Compu Cable | xxx | EACH | R1.48 | 2 | R2.96 |
| 7 | POE injectors | MIRO | 12V-POE | EACH | R90 | 2 | R180 |
| 8 | Power jacks | XX | XX | EACH | R2 | 2 | R4 |
| TOTAL | R1283.96 |
Scenario 5b: Outdoor Wireless router in waterproof box (distance depends on antenna - can be up to 30km)
If you can't find a waterproof spot for your wireless router in your eaves (for example, people with flat roof houses), then you will need to mount your wireless router in a waterproof box which you moun on the mast. You will need to run the ethernet cable through a waterproof gland on the outside of the box and run a pigtail from the wireless router to a N-Type bulkhead connector on outside of the box.
| × | Item description | Supplier | Supplier Stock Code | Quantity type | Cost | Quantity | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Linksys WRT54G wireless router | MIRO | LS-WRT54GL | EACH | R515 | 1 | R515 |
| 2 | TNC(RP) to N-Type pigtail | MIRO | JACK-N-F-TNC-M | EACH | R70.00 | 1 | R70.00 |
| 3 | RF cable (3M LMR400 N-Type male) | MIRO | CUSTOM | EACH | R182.40 | 1 | R182.40 |
| 4 | Antenna (12dBi Yagi) | MIRO | PAE-12-YAE | EACH | R273.60 | 1 | R273.60 |
| 5 | Ethernet cable (20m) | Compu Cable | xxx | METERS | R2.80 | 20 | R56.00 |
| 6 | Ethernet connectors | Compu Cable | xxx | EACH | R1.48 | 2 | R2.96 |
| 7 | POE injectors | MIRO | 12V-POE | EACH | R90 | 2 | R180 |
| 8 | Power jacks | XX | XX | EACH | R2 | 2 | R4 |
| 9 | Weatherproof box | MIRO | ENCL-IP65 | EACH | R90 | 1 | R90 |
| 10 | Weatherproof gland | MIRO | GLAND | EACH | R15 | 1 | R15 |
| TOTAL | R1388.96 |