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Thread: CelFi Go signal amplifier but slow download rate

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    Quote Originally Posted by Frog3tree View Post
    Thanks for that, i will have to log into my account to see if the IMEI is locked or not. I have opened a ticket with Celfi to try and get to the bottom of this as the information clearly states it will amplify weak signals and 'increase data speed dramatically"

    Let us know how you go
    But i would think a 4 times improvement will be considered "dramatic" when you explain your findings to them
    If u want to go on an expedition get a Land Rover, if u want to come home from an expedition get a Landcruiser!

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    Quote Originally Posted by oceanboy View Post
    Let us know how you go
    But i would think a 4 times improvement will be considered "dramatic" when you explain your findings to them
    You could well be correct, I am starting with something very low and expecting miracles. Once the connection is made the browsing is slow but borderline acceptable, however if the site has a high graphics load or macros, it seems to suffer and at some times the website crashes out. I will let you know the outcome for sure,appreciate your thoughts. Phil

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    This is where you you are going wrong you expect the increase in signal strength to "clean" the signal up to make it useable all you have succeded in doing is to amplify the shit signal there is no way this will work regardless of how much you amplify it as you are amplifying all the received signal noise and quality . Its not the fault of the phone or the amp the fault lies with the signal strength from where it not where ever you are getting it from ?????? If its not strong enough to be useable its not .Your problem is that you have bought a device that is a local amplifying device when you need a stronger signal into it . Your data speed depends on the cleanliness of the input signal not the bars on the phone . Perhaps you could draw a block diagram of what you are doing and you may get the idea
    1 transmitter tower
    2 other transmitter tower
    3 campsite
    4 work site
    5 amplifier site
    6 donga site
    7 your phone
    draw lines between the sites as you understand it you will see that the line between your phone and the amp is last on the line , therefore bad signal ????

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    Well, as you say, not a total loss, you have your Cell Fi unit for your 4WD when needed.

    The best you can do is find out the exact frequencies used by the Mine Site tower and your phone.
    I think you can do this while at site and using the correct Cell Tower App, hopefully it will tell you what radio is being used to receive said signal, both Tx and Rx.

    With this info, you could purchase a band specific directional antenna (this should help filter out any other noise)
    Mount that in the best location back at camp, run your CelFi as close to the directional antenna as you can
    Then run the repeater antenna further away and never in line of sight of the main antenna, hopefully facing in the opposite direction.

    Its all about the right equipment and best RF isolation

    All depends how badly you want this and what time and money you are prepared to part with
    In saying that, you have already spent the biggest chunk buying the CelFi

    Any hills between the Mina and Camp?

    This is the type of set i'm meaning
    Last edited by ol' boy; 17-04-19 at 02:44 PM.
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    been having a think on this one !!!!!you obviously have a need to understand the system . so here goes this is a video of how to set up the amp, as you are using it on a temp basis I would suggest that you take a drive around with your phone in view and find a place that has at least three bars on it between the mine site and your camp /donga or the such like this is the location to place the amp then go back towards the donga to see if its going to work when its all connected remote-ing the amplifier is not a biggy as they normally operate of 12vdc so you can hook it up to a battery and leave it out there when you want to use it remember height is might with all rf works so the higher off the ground the better you will find a place that gives you a clean signal into the amp and you will be surprised how far it will go instead of using a blanket coverage output system I would suggest that a directional antenna could be purchased or if you are handy make one your self there are plenty of yagi designs on the web for 700mhz bands then pointed at your donga we can give you plenty of help in this regard if you so desire regards don

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    Quote Originally Posted by oceanboy View Post
    Well, as you say, not a total loss, you have your Cell Fi unit for your 4WD when needed.

    The best you can do is find out the exact frequencies used by the Mine Site tower and your phone.
    I think you can do this while at site and using the correct Cell Tower App, hopefully it will tell you what radio is being used to receive said signal, both Tx and Rx.

    With this info, you could purchase a band specific directional antenna (this should help filter out any other noise)
    Mount that in the best location back at camp, run your CelFi as close to the directional antenna as you can
    Then run the repeater antenna further away and never in line of sight of the main antenna, hopefully facing in the opposite direction.

    Its all about the right equipment and best RF isolation

    All depends how badly you want this and what time and money you are prepared to part with
    In saying that, you have already spent the biggest chunk buying the CelFi

    Any hills between the Mina and Camp?

    This is the type of set i'm meaning
    OK guys, appreciate the fine tuning of this for me. The landscape is essentially flat, you can see the mine from the camp in some parts, but where I am located. I am going to make enquiries about mounting a yagi style antenna like is shown in the link. I am sure there will be 1000 reasons why it cant happen as the place is full of blockers, but I might strike it lucky. I also am going to upgrade the phone to see if I can get the 4G signal as well as the 3G. Its a total 3G coverage area but there is the 4G cluster at the minesite that some people can pick up. Regards signal 'density' for want of a better term, its basically zero on 3 and 4G around the period everyone returns to camp, but improves after 8pm when most are in bed.

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    Quote Originally Posted by oceanboy View Post
    Let us know how you go
    But i would think a 4 times improvement will be considered "dramatic" when you explain your findings to them
    What is interesting is that it can take 20 minutes to establish a link between the phone and the computer. The computer will show the phone is connected and connected to the internet, but the websites simply time out or drop offline at times, then other times the signal is strong and fast for browsing - more after 8pm when the user volume decreases. Unfortunately I am also keen to get to bed by then as days start at 4am.

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    What method do you use to connect iPhone to Laptop?

    P.S. I've had issues with iPhones and Internet sharing, hence why i moved to Android years ago.
    (But my issues were around the Carrier not allowing Hotspoting to other devices on the plan i was on)

    Do you have any other handsets you can try with?
    There is also iPhone Apps you can get for setting up a sharing hotspot
    Last edited by ol' boy; 18-04-19 at 05:34 PM.
    If u want to go on an expedition get a Land Rover, if u want to come home from an expedition get a Landcruiser!

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    Quote Originally Posted by hinekadon View Post
    been having a think on this one !!!!!you obviously have a need to understand the system . so here goes this is a video of how to set up the amp, as you are using it on a temp basis I would suggest that you take a drive around with your phone in view and find a place that has at least three bars on it between the mine site and your camp /donga or the such like this is the location to place the amp then go back towards the donga to see if its going to work when its all connected remote-ing the amplifier is not a biggy as they normally operate of 12vdc so you can hook it up to a battery and leave it out there when you want to use it remember height is might with all rf works so the higher off the ground the better you will find a place that gives you a clean signal into the amp and you will be surprised how far it will go instead of using a blanket coverage output system I would suggest that a directional antenna could be purchased or if you are handy make one your self there are plenty of yagi designs on the web for 700mhz bands then pointed at your donga we can give you plenty of help in this regard if you so desire regards don
    Thanks for this, I quickly started looking at it at work, fly out of here in an hour and the phone has not stopped, so will have a look at home. Regards leaving something out here in the bush, joints full of theives and they will take your shadow if you don't watch out! Anyway will have a look and see what I can glean from it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by oceanboy View Post
    What method do you use to connect iPhone to Laptop?

    P.S. I've had issues with iPhones and Internet sharing, hence why i moved to Android years ago.
    (But my issues were around the Carrier not allowing Hotspoting to other devices on the plan i was on)

    Do you have any other handsets you can try with?
    There is also iPhone Apps you can get for setting up a sharing hotspot
    I am using an apple cable with the mini to suit the phone and USB on the other end to laptop. Had a huge issue getting a connection last night,gave up after 30 minutes.

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    Maybe scrap the USB connection and just go for WiFi Hotspot

    Another idea, would be to buy a Telstra 4GX Cell Modem and put your SIM card in that
    It allows for the fixed external antenna connection... I am not sure how friendly they talk to the CelFi units

    Might work happily with out it
    That is how i have many customers set up

    Im sure someone at camp would have one, they are common as.
    If u want to go on an expedition get a Land Rover, if u want to come home from an expedition get a Landcruiser!

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    OK, changed the phone to one lying around at home, its the iphone 6, but works on 3g/4g. The 4g signal to my donga is 1 bar without amplifier on, 5 bars when on. I tried to connect laptop using the 4g service and latest message is now 'access denied to this service' - what the hell is that about? I have seen a youtube clip about connection issue with win10 and 4g, so will check some settings tonight, if I can get a connection that is. Right now the entire site at the mine and the village is struggling to get reception - has become a safety issue now, so unsure where this going to end as the mine has a projected lift of ten yrs, so cant see either telstra or the company spending money unless forced to.

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    You need to set up the 4g phone as a WiFi hotspot and connect the laptop to the phone via WiFi.

    Make sure celfi is switched to 4g.

    Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

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    Quote Originally Posted by hoe View Post
    You need to set up the 4g phone as a WiFi hotspot and connect the laptop to the phone via WiFi.

    Make sure celfi is switched to 4g.

    Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk
    Thank you, total success, connected in minutes and easy fast browsing on 4G

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    OK, further update based on a couple of nights operation.

    4G connection, boosted download speed 39mb/sec, up from unboosted of 7.1mb/sec, and upload boosted rate 9.3mb/s up from 2.1mb/sec unboosted, all at peak time of 6.30pm when most of the population has landed at camp and demand goes up. Internet connection is now trouble free and browsing is comparable to what we get at the site with hard wired connection. Signal strength is 5 bar boosted and 1 bar unboosted on 4G, same as 3G connection, however the effective range of the boosted signal from the internal antenna is about 1/4 on 4g to what I get on a 3G signal on the phone, so 100m radius on 3G and 20 - 25m on 4g. Happy with outcome, and looks like this may be a wider solution for other areas in the camp as a Telstra fix is approx 800K.

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    For anyone one who finds this site searching - cel fi units are primary used for voice - they don’t do MiMo so carriers like Optus suck big time for data.

    If your looking for data buy a 4g router with Mimo external antennas and setup. Don’t use cel fi for data

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    Quote Originally Posted by renames View Post
    For anyone one who finds this site searching - cel fi units are primary used for voice - they don’t do MiMo so carriers like Optus suck big time for data.

    If your looking for data buy a 4g router with Mimo external antennas and setup. Don’t use cel fi for data
    You're missing one important point.

    If someone needs a cel-fi unit, it's because just an antenna is not sufficient, they need amplification, which is what the cel-fi unit is... an active carrier amplifier/interface.

    If you can get sufficient signal, sure, mimo is great.... providing the signal is strong enough to begin with.

    The later cel-fi units do 4GX (called various things depending on the network) which is primarily the 700MHz band.

    This is primarily for data... and also provides voice.

    The older cel-fi models were 3G, optimised for voice.

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    I just did a trip from Kalgoorlie to Adelaide in my ram with a new celfi 3g/4gx unit with a high gain 6.5db 'truckers' antenna instead of the supplied one.

    We had signal most of the way with only a couple of sustained dead spots.

    Telstra phones obviously....

    Note, they will only work with one carrier at a time and must be set up initially when registering them on the network.

    Internet is a bit slow , but usable.
    Spotify worked fine at all times we had signal.

    I am very impressed with it and would recommend one to anyone who does a lot of travelling out of town.



    Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

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