wi-spy followup

Now that it has been a few months, how have people found the WI-SPY to
be?

I emailed the WIFI folks regarding the external antenna version - here
is their reply:

"We are hoping to have the external antenna version available in 3-4
months; it will have an SMA (or reverse SMA) connector.

We will most likely ship with a small SMA antenna so that Wi-Spy can be
used out of the box, but users are welcome to attach any antenna to the
Wi-Spy (for directionality, gain, etc).

Due to changes in the plastics and higher manufacturing cost this
version will likely sell for [for somewhat more money -- they aren't
100% sure of the price, so I'm not posting their proposed price, as per
their request].

If you need the directionality of the external antenna I would suggest
waiting, otherwise the current version is fine for troubleshooting
wifi."

(E-Mail Removed) hath wroth:

>If you need the directionality of the external antenna I would suggest
>waiting, otherwise the current version is fine for troubleshooting
>wifi."

Or, you can build one of these:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/antennas...ish/index.html
It works with any USB dongle wireless device. Not much gain (I
haven't measured it) and fairly directional. Good enough for
sniffing.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Cool...

Any directions or at least the name and size of the parts?

Does this connect or is it held over the dongle?
If the latter, how do you manage to balance everything while walking
around?


Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> (E-Mail Removed) hath wroth:
>
> >If you need the directionality of the external antenna I would suggest
> >waiting, otherwise the current version is fine for troubleshooting
> >wifi."
>
> Or, you can build one of these:
> http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/antennas...ish/index.html
> It works with any USB dongle wireless device. Not much gain (I
> haven't measured it) and fairly directional. Good enough for
> sniffing.
>
> --
> Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
> 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
> Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
> Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

"Jeff Liebermann" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> (E-Mail Removed) hath wroth:
>
> >If you need the directionality of the external antenna I would suggest
> >waiting, otherwise the current version is fine for troubleshooting
> >wifi."
>
> Or, you can build one of these:
> http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/antennas...ish/index.html
> It works with any USB dongle wireless device. Not much gain (I
> haven't measured it) and fairly directional. Good enough for
> sniffing.
>
> --
> Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
> 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
> Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
> Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

I went to the hardware store and got the fittings per Jeff's photo, but I
found an old beat-up photoflood reflector at a flea market that looked
closer to a parabola (if you ignore the dents), and that seems to work okay.
The fittings are nice in that they can go into a lot of different reflector
types.

I don't know if Wi-Spy people will read this, but I did notice a couple of
things they could do better with the software. You can put the cursor on any
of the three traces, but the dB readout on that cursor still bounces around
with the instantaneous trace - - it would be better if it followed the
actual trace the cursor was assigned to. The auto-scaling of the average
trace is nice, but why can't there be something that tells what the new
scaling is? - - dB per division, maybe. If the peak trace goes to flat top
limiting, is the electrical peak truly limited, or is it just the display
that limits. If the electrical peak isn't limited, then perhaps the average
trace is still valid through what looks like overload signals. For judging
antenna performance differences, the average trace would seem to be more
meaningful. I set a D-Link router to a beacon interval of 3 milliseconds to
increase the average energy readout in an antenna study, and the average
trace became quite useable. But when I went to beaconing at 1 millisecond
intervals, I think the transmitter overheated, judging by the way it lost
symmetry in the channel it was assigned to.

I find the device to be quite useful, and with further enhancements it will
really be a valuable item for antenna, router and bridge optimization and
troubleshooting - - looking forward to whatever they can come up with.

Chuck W6PKP

On 23 Mar 2006 10:54:44 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>Any directions or at least the name and size of the parts?

Well, it's a stainless steel salad bowl I picked up at the hardware
store for about $8. Unfortunately, I drilled through the bar code
label. I recall that it was made in India. It's NOT a parabola and
could easily be improved. Meanwhile, search Google for "stainless
mixing bowl" and you'll find a collection of possible bowls. Try to
get one with a flat bottom as they're easier to drill and punch.

See:
| http://groups.google.com/group/alt.i...a34f5ca82b2ef4
thread for some discussion on the design. Bashing the 1 3/8" D hole
should be done with a chassis punch and NOT a circular hole saw, which
makes a mess.

If you don't wanna deal with the mixing bowl, then a flat plate or
corner reflector will work. Make the flat part 1/2 wave diameter, and
bend the edges up to form the corner reflector. Sorta looks like a
parabola but it's really a corner reflector. Kinda like a solar
cooker reflector.

>Does this connect or is it held over the dongle?

You shove the dongle into the 1" PVC pipe with a USB extension cable.
It takes some effort to find the optimum focal point. The nice part
is that it requires no modifications to the dongle.

One change I wanna try is to through drill the two PVC electrical
joints so that the 1" pipe can be shoved all the way through them in
one piece. I'm digging through a large pile of ancient end mills as
we speak but managed to cut my fingers. Oops.

>If the latter, how do you manage to balance everything while walking
>around?

Balance? It hardly weighs anything. Not a problem. Use your
imagination for the back piece of 1" PVC. You could install a PVC "T"
connection, which would form a pistol grip handle. Drill it for a
1/4-20 bolt and mount it to a tripod. Be creative.

One of my non-geek friends saw the salad bowl antenna in my truck and
commented that it was nice that I was building a bird bath or
fountain. Sigh.

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 (E-Mail Removed)
# http://802.11junk.com (E-Mail Removed)
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

Chuck -

Why don't you email your software suggestions to the Wi-Spy people --
or post on THEIR forum?
Then you'd be sure that they could see them.

Thanks....

Hmmm, chassis punches seem to be about $50... A bit steep for one time
use
(especially considering Wi-Spy will be updated shortly).
I'll ask some handy neighbors, but I doubt they'll have one either.

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> Thanks....
>
> Hmmm, chassis punches seem to be about $50... A bit steep for one time
> use
> (especially considering Wi-Spy will be updated shortly).
> I'll ask some handy neighbors, but I doubt they'll have one either.
>
The Greenlee punch isn't that rare - - any electrician would have a set of
conduit punches including the one for the 1" fittings that Jeff showed in
the picture. I don't think I paid more than $40 for my set of 4 Greenlee
punches at the flea market. The 1" punch is also stamped 34.6mm and I
measured mine at 34.5mm, so that's pretty close to the actual hole size.
Ebay looks like a good source for the 7235BB 1/2" to 1 1/4" set.

Another way to make this hole would be to use a nibbler. I think Radio Shack
sells a nibbler of sorts, and there is also the venerable Adel Nibbler that
has been around for ages, but the price has ballooned with all the
inflation. I also found an excellent compound tin snips that cuts left, made
by Midwest in USA (Wiss is not as good), and this would do the job, too. The
final method, and the least desirable due to all the work involved is to
drill a bunch of holes with very little metal between them in a circle, and
then snip through the separating metal with diagonal cutters, and file the
rough edges smooth.

Chuck

Chuck Olson wrote:

> The Greenlee punch isn't that rare - - any electrician would have a set of
> conduit punches including the one for the 1" fittings that Jeff showed in
> the picture. I don't think I paid more than $40 for my set of 4 Greenlee
> punches at the flea market. The 1" punch is also stamped 34.6mm and I
> measured mine at 34.5mm, so that's pretty close to the actual hole size.

34+ mm????? I sure hope you read that wrong. 1" = 25.4mm. I can
understand a little bit of difference, especially since US/Imperial
measures tend to be "nominal", but a 30% error seems extreme.
--
derek

"Derek Broughton" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:tqqdf3-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Chuck Olson wrote:
>
> > The Greenlee punch isn't that rare - - any electrician would have a set
of
> > conduit punches including the one for the 1" fittings that Jeff showed
in
> > the picture. I don't think I paid more than $40 for my set of 4 Greenlee
> > punches at the flea market. The 1" punch is also stamped 34.6mm and I
> > measured mine at 34.5mm, so that's pretty close to the actual hole size.
>
> 34+ mm????? I sure hope you read that wrong. 1" = 25.4mm. I can
> understand a little bit of difference, especially since US/Imperial
> measures tend to be "nominal", but a 30% error seems extreme.
> --
> derek

I agree, the size labels for conduit and fittings are pretty far from their
actual size.