MaximumSignal Update?

[Dutch_12078]

Good deal. Please keep us posted on how it performs for you.

 

Yes, please do let us know!

[fly2low]

It is not in my nature, but I have sure tried to be patient. A little longer I guess

[Dutch_12078]

It is not in my nature, but I have sure tried to be patient. A little longer I guess

 

My thoughts exactly! I'm really hoping Gord's MaxAmp will blow the socks off the WeBoost Drive 4G-M we're using, especially on the inside coverage.

[Jack Mayer]

I have a production unit - the RV model - headed my way. I have a weBoost -M that I can test against. Soon as I set it up testing will start....

[Max Signal]

Should have more cases beginning of next week

[Dutch_12078]

I have a production unit - the RV model - headed my way. I have a weBoost -M that I can test against. Soon as I set it up testing will start....

 

That's great, Jack! I look forward to seeing your report.

[Jack Mayer]

 

That's great, Jack! I look forward to seeing your report.

Got my equipment. But we are having major snow here.....so any testing is going to be delayed until I can safely access my roof, without a foot of snow and ice on it. Probably sometime next week. We are supposed to have snow through Sunday.

[Dutch_12078]

Got my equipment. But we are having major snow here.....so any testing is going to be delayed until I can safely access my roof, without a foot of snow and ice on it. Probably sometime next week. We are supposed to have snow through Sunday.

 

Yep, no point in breaking your neck over it!

[Max Signal]

Embarrassing up date . Blue = Green . Just found out that my head engineer made an embarrassing mistake when programming first set of boards . The LED glows blue instead of green when everything is good. Red still means that the amplifier is not working properly and you have to separate antennas further. He got the 2 product lines mixed up . Another line we are releasing in the future will be Blue - Red . . This only effects the first 500 units in this production rum . And will be Green - Red for future runs.

[Jack Mayer]

No problem....the red is the important color !!!

[Biker56]

Got my equipment. But we are having major snow here.....so any testing is going to be delayed until I can safely access my roof, without a foot of snow and ice on it. Probably sometime next week. We are supposed to have snow through Sunday.

High here in Florida is 87º today and low to be 70º. Plan on heading North next Thursday. Last few days I have needed to turn the second AC on in the afternoons for a short time.

[Smitty77_7]

I got unit 10 from Gord and gang! RV is in the shop for maintenance activity, so it will be sometime late next week before I get to do the install.

 

I went with Gord's recommended External 13" Magnet Antenna with 25' feed. Everything else is the standard kits couplings, extra 15' of antenna cable (I'll use it with the internal antenna.), Internal antenna, omni about 4" tall, off white to match closer to many coaches vinyl ceiling tops, 120V and 12V power feeds, and the plastic box amp itself.

 

Now guys, those of you who know me from my posts, beside them always being 'crisp', know I'm not a techie kind of guy. I consider myself a semi informed and very interested student of all things wireless and cellular. (You know, the kind of guy the real techies have to put up with... and talk r e a l slow l y to:)!)

 

So after the above confession and disclaimer, let me share some 'Just playing.' info.

 

Location

-My Garage

 

Setup

-External antenna, after a few qualifying calls with Gord, and getting an understanding of the Blue light, was on a metal dustpan for ground plane, and set up on the rain gutter of the side of the garage. For sure not an ideal location, and being within 4' of the main power coming into the home, as well as the lower roofs solar panels system to. And, the dustpan was not level. So the 180 degree of clearance was 'at an angle' with the rest of the roofs raised structure blocking the back 180 side.

-Internal Omni Antenna, was blue painter taped to the bottom of a wood shelf on the back of the garage, at very close to the height of our RV's ceiling.

-Separation of the External and Internal antennas was about 3' vertically, and 16-17' horizontally, with the stucco garage wall and roof in between them.

-Simple connections in/out of the amp, and the unit plugged into the 120 power supply wart. Blue light (Green as Gord explained), meaning all good to go.

 

Note: Our nearest tower, Verizon, is just up over the crest of a hill, about 1 mile away. Using bars, we see 1-2 bars on the ground floor of our home. With 3-4 after climbing up the stairs to he second floor. The crest of the hill, just blocks the signal enough to make it almost a deadline on our lower floors. (ATT on my wife iPhone, is even weaker downstairs, with that tower very close to the Verizon tower.)

 

Equipment

-Samsung S6, using Signal Pro for all readings. This is the unit on Verizon.

 

Readings (With all of these readings from the same location, about 5' away horizontally, and 3' lower vertically.)

 

Before Amp Powered On

LTE700

RSRP -110 to 116 dBm (18 ASU) (Over a one minute time span.)

RSRQ -14dB SNR 1.1

 

 

After Amp Powered On

LTE700

RSRP -107-108 dBm (19 ASU) (Same over one minute time span.)

RSRQ -16db SNR 5.3

 

Note: After doing the same position After recording. I picked up the phone and walked around inside of the garage at up to 15-20' away from the Internal Omni antenna. Very little change to those readings above, they remained pretty constant. With a bit more when i walked to the other side of our car, and held the phone down next to the door. So the full car was blocking the 'ripple/cone' signal coming off of the Omni antenna. While lower, still not much of a change.

 

Note2: Non controlled test area for sure. And as I moved around, including being to the back other side of the car, I was also closer to the opened garage door.

 

Conclusion: None. As stated, this was a non controlled test. From an amateur for sure. So who knows how valid any of this really is:)! But, that being said. I was impressed that the walking around in the garage with the phone on the After Amp powered on, seemed to have very little change in the Signal Pro numbers. This same exercise about 20 minute earlier during the Before Amp On, had much more variations in the signal, with gains the closer I got to the open door, but always less then any values seen with the Amp Powered on.

 

 

OK - So some Speednet sharing date. Using three different tests, repeated one after the other over about a two minute timeframe for each reading. And the same server site link, in New Mexico from San Diego. Probably a total of 7 minutes overall, between Before and After Amp Powered On tests. And yes, in the San Diego region, with no way of knowing what the traffic congestion was at any given point of the test. (And of course, that is the way it is with any informal testing in this 'non controlled' environment. But, it is what I had to run with:)!

 

All test via the Samsung S6 Hotspot, and Speednet test over my MacBook Air.

 

Before Amp Turned On ----- After Amp Turned On

Test 1

82MS 96MS

4.16 Mbps Down 6.46 Mbps

.14 Mbps Up 3.57 Mbps

 

Test 2

95 MS 78MS

2.28 Mbps Down 8.09 Mbps

.19 Mbps Up 4.12 Mbps

 

Test 3

89 MS 93MS

2.03 Mbps Down 3.9 Mbps

2.28 Mbps Up 3.34 Mbps

 

(Just to be clear, the Before three tests were done back to back. And the After were also done back to back, just listed this way for ease of seeing.)

 

 

End conclusions and perceptions?

 

Well first, congrats to Gord and Maximum Signal on getting production units out!!! It's been a long tough road for them, and I salute their tenacious follow thru to this point of time!

 

I found the packaging to be good. The equipment all seems to be of good quality. The amps cabinet box/casing is solid, not near as flimsy as many electronic cases seem today.

 

If I have any concerns at all, it is on the Internal Omni Antenna. Not on functionality, we'll see how that sorts out. But I'm trying to come up with away of installing this to the ceiling of our coach, that will not have the thinner cabling wire showing. Perhaps vinyl tape, or wire moulding of some kind. We prefer to not make a penetration to the vinyl ceiling material, so that we can remove this and take it with us in the future.

 

As mentioned, I'm not a professional. And the directions to install, took me a few times to read to understand. And this was after Gord was nice enough to talk over instal options on our coach. We'll do some trial runs when on the install of the equipment pieces when we get the coach back from the shop late next week, and then finish the install.

 

Looking forward to some real world usage in the coach.

 

Also looking forward to Jack's snow melting, and reading a more astute observation of how the Maximum Signal Amp testing goes for him.

 

Wish all of you, and Maximum Signal, all my best,

Smitty

 

(Note: I had plan to not take one of the earlier units, wanting to see how things shook out. But as luck would have it, our Trucker 39" antenna just broke off. And, we're getting ready for an extended trip. So when Gord called, I said YES!)

[skyking]

Got mine in today. I do not know when I can get it installed with some health problems and planning cruise to Alaska on the 18. I am a complete novice at this, so will follow setups on here.

Congratulations Gord, hope this really pays out for you. Good luck and best wishes to you.

[Jack Mayer]

For those testing:

 

• While it is important to note the gain from the device(s) that is not really what you are looking for. But it IS important ancillary data.
• IMO, the more important measure is the speed of the data connection. That really shows well what the device is doing.
• When testing data speeds, FIRST find a reliable server. It does not matter which one, but you should see pretty consistent speeds from it (even if slow) before selecting it as your server. Some of this is judgement. Then do all tests with that server. If you want to select a secondary server that also seems reliable then that is a bonus and gives more confidence in your findings.
• Do tests from various distances from the internal antenna. That is VERY INTERESTING. One of the things that potentially differentiates this setup from the competition is the distance where benefit is derived. Most of the competition requires a pretty close distance from the internal antenna. That does not help with voice (although there are ways around it - mostly unsatisfactory). The ability to position your equipment where you need to, and then have the antennas optimally separated and still get significant speed gains is important. In RVs it is often the case that the two conditions are mutually exclusive - you may HAVE to position the router/cellular device in a location that does not allow close positioning of the internal antenna - because of spread requirements.
• Do groups of tests - I use five - with and without the amp/antennas. I usually do 5 with/5 without and then repeat that grouping at least 10 times. I've found that gives you pretty reliable data.
• Do your testing on NON BUSY times on the tower. Otherwise you will not get consistent and meaningful results. This can seriously skew things.

[PatoNegro]

Hola. I ordered a MaxSignal unit about a week after pre-orders were announced. I have been closely tracking the progress and posting updates on the MIA forum. Even though I have been an Escapee since 2012 I had never looked at this forum. Thanks to Smitty for pointing out it to me in a recent MIA posting. Reading all the postings here has given me more confidence and hope that the MaxSignal product is real and, based upon initial testing, looks promising.

 

I bought a Bengal Tiger Adventure Vehicle in 2011 - http://www.tigervehicles.com. It is built on Ford F-350 extended cab with the FX/4 package. It is similar in length to a slide-in. However the camper shell is welded to the frame with a pass thru to the cab. I am planning to take a group 4x4 trip in July from New Mexico to Montana via the continental divide. That is why I am interested in the MaxSignal booster.

 

I am a retired electrical engineer and computer programmer. My wife and I passed all three HAM radio tests and received our Extra Class licenses in January. With this background I understand most of the technical aspects of a cell phone booster.

 

I am still waiting on my unit. It will be a hybrid - a car/mobile amp with a mag mounted antenna plus the RV indoor antenna. Being a short, class C vehicle I don't have the separation required for an RV amp. The amp will complement the Icom ID-5100 VHF/UHF radio I recently installed.

 

Below is a photo I took in September while waiting for sunrise at Old Harry Beach, Îles de la Madeleine, Canada.

[Technomadia]

We're very excited for Gord and crew, and for the RVing community that this long awaited product is finally shipping. Congrats on this major accomplishment, and happy to see positive results right out of the box!

 

We covered the shipping here: Maximum Signal’s Max-Amp Mobile: Finally Shipping

 

 

We've sent Jack our Wilson Mobile 4G from our personal testing arsenal to test against the RV MaxAmp edition, and look forward to the results.

 

Gord had communicated with us back in February that he would be shipping us the automobile version for our smaller RV setup to test, which we will integrate into our testing against the weBoost 4G-X as soon as we can. Hopefully that is still the plans from Maximum Signal (believe the automobile edition comes out after the RV still?), as they've not replied to our direct inquiries yet.

 

- Cherie

[Smitty77_7]

Hola. I ordered a MaxSignal unit about a week after pre-orders were announced. I have been closely tracking the progress and posting updates on the MIA forum. Even though I have been an Escapee since 2012 I had never looked at this forum. Thanks to Smitty for pointing out it to me in a recent MIA posting. Reading all the postings here has given me more confidence and hope that the MaxSignal product is real and, based upon initial testing, looks promising.

 

I bought a Bengal Tiger Adventure Vehicle in 2011 - http://www.tigervehicles.com. It is built on Ford F-350 extended cab with the FX/4 package. It is similar in length to a slide-in. However the camper shell is welded to the frame with a pass thru to the cab. I am planning to take a group 4x4 trip in July from New Mexico to Montana via the continental divide. That is why I am interested in the MaxSignal booster.

 

I am a retired electrical engineer and computer programmer. My wife and I passed all three HAM radio tests and received our Extra Class licenses in January. With this background I understand most of the technical aspects of a cell phone booster.

 

I am still waiting on my unit. It will be a hybrid - a car/mobile amp with a mag mounted antenna plus the RV indoor antenna. Being a short, class C vehicle I don't have the separation required for an RV amp. The amp will complement the Icom ID-5100 VHF/UHF radio I recently installed.

 

Below is a photo I took in September while waiting for sunrise at Old Harry Beach, Îles de la Madeleine, Canada.

 

 

Welcome to the forum:)! Nice looking, robust looking too, rig! Great way to see some country...

 

Best,

Smitty

[Ronbo]

Received a call yesterday. Mine is on the way. May take a while to get it installed as the DW is not willing to climb on top of the RV.

[fly2low]

Mine is on the way as well. I truly did not know I had this much patience

[coachmac9]

Patonegro, welcome to the forums and I love your Bengal Tiger!! I've never heard of them, but will definitely be checking them out!

[jperry29]

I placed an order for a 4G/LTE amplifier today. The guys at Maximum Signal said that they will be building kits this weekend and that mine should ship on Monday 5/9/16. I had to call and do the order over the phone as the web site listed the RV kit as "Out of Stock". After all the false starts and legal wrangling that has been going on for the past year I am not holding my breath for the Monday shipment but I do think it will get to me soon enough. I have high hopes for this new technology, sure hope I don't get disappointed. Stay tuned, I'll post how it performs for me.

[Dutch_12078]

If you look back up the page, you'll see that there have been a number of new posts about the MaxAmp shipments recently. I'm still waiting for my call from Gord, but some folks do already have them on the way.

[jperry29]

Sorry Dutch,

 

When I opened this discussion it would not show me anything newer than August of 2015. As soon as I entered my post suddenly there was posts from a lot more current time. I immediately went back to edit my post but you were so on top of it you got your post in before I could get the edit done.

[Dutch_12078]

No apology needed... I just wanted you to be aware of the more recent posts in case they might be useful to you.

[Ronbo]

Received mine today. Great job shipping. Maybe my SIL can help me install it this weekend.