For the last 2 years my parents have used a Maxxter Wifi repeater in their appartment in Spain, mainly to get better reception of the Wifi signal sent by the router in the main lobby. It's a Maxxter ACT-WNP-RP-002-W wireless repeater/accespoint, which is also sold under the name Gembird WNP-RP-002-W. They only used the repeater during the wintermonths, as they live elsewhere the rest of the year. During those other months the repeater is plugged from the mains and stored in a drawer.
It's a 300Mbps 2.4GHz WiFi repeater with 2 internal antenna's and 1 LAN-port (10/100), configurable as accespoint, repeater or client. It has a Realtek RTL8196E @400MHz, Realtek RTL8192ER 2.4GHz B/G/N Radio, 16MB SDRAM (EM639165TS-6G) and 4MB Serial Flash memory (MX25L3206E). Power consumption is max. 3W.
During this 2nd winter last January from one day to another the repeater all of a sudden was completely dead. No LEDs or anything. Unplugging it from the mains for a few minutes or trying to do a reset didn't get it back to life.
They just bought another repeater there and after returning from Spain brought the Maxxter to me to have a look at it. Just one look on the small PSU board showed the culprit: a bulging 680uF/10V cap in the 5V powerline, making this Voltage drop (under load) to well less than 4V.
I replaced the bulging cap with a 1000uF/10V (didn't have a 680uF in stock), but left the other 3 caps on the PSU board for the time being. I may replace them later on. Reassembled and plugged the repeater in the mains. It immediately came back to life and worked again, with user config still intact.
From what I've read failing after less than 2 years of use is a common issue with this repeater, and it's always caused by this single one bulging cap. Such a shame many of them will just end up being thrown in the trash, where a 50c part could get them going again.
I'm curious how long the 3 remaining originally fitted caps will last. Chances are they will die too in only a few weeks. 2 of those are 4,7uF/400V ones, btw, so not exactly standard off the shelf. We'll see...
re-atari
It's a 300Mbps 2.4GHz WiFi repeater with 2 internal antenna's and 1 LAN-port (10/100), configurable as accespoint, repeater or client. It has a Realtek RTL8196E @400MHz, Realtek RTL8192ER 2.4GHz B/G/N Radio, 16MB SDRAM (EM639165TS-6G) and 4MB Serial Flash memory (MX25L3206E). Power consumption is max. 3W.
During this 2nd winter last January from one day to another the repeater all of a sudden was completely dead. No LEDs or anything. Unplugging it from the mains for a few minutes or trying to do a reset didn't get it back to life.
They just bought another repeater there and after returning from Spain brought the Maxxter to me to have a look at it. Just one look on the small PSU board showed the culprit: a bulging 680uF/10V cap in the 5V powerline, making this Voltage drop (under load) to well less than 4V.
I replaced the bulging cap with a 1000uF/10V (didn't have a 680uF in stock), but left the other 3 caps on the PSU board for the time being. I may replace them later on. Reassembled and plugged the repeater in the mains. It immediately came back to life and worked again, with user config still intact.
From what I've read failing after less than 2 years of use is a common issue with this repeater, and it's always caused by this single one bulging cap. Such a shame many of them will just end up being thrown in the trash, where a 50c part could get them going again.
I'm curious how long the 3 remaining originally fitted caps will last. Chances are they will die too in only a few weeks. 2 of those are 4,7uF/400V ones, btw, so not exactly standard off the shelf. We'll see...
re-atari
Comment