My old Wi-Fi antenna/extender from Ubiquiti has gone into dotage, rebooting every couple of minutes and becoming generally unreliable. I purchased the replacement system, a “Bad Boy” including their “unleashed” option which lets several devices connect wirelessly at Budget Marine yesterday and installed the system this morning. Actually, it is now just past noon and I’m taking a break but am not close to finished quite yet; but I’ve pulled the CAT-5 cable through the conduits to replace the old cable which had deteriorated quite a bit. The new POE (power over Ethernet) adapter is regulated, unlike my old one which could pump as much as 28.8V into a device designed to only handle 24V and a condition which most likely caused it’s demise. I’ve got the system tested and working but unfortunately all of the local connections are locked or require payment so I won’t be able to test this for a bit. The user front-end is much simpler than that of the original Ubiquiti and while the “Bad Boy” uses the same Ubiquiti hardware, they have written their own firmware to make installation and use simple.
It took until mid-afternoon to get all the wiring pulled and installed plus a trip ashore to get the back stay mount so that I could put the new antenna as high as I could reach rather than low on the rails. But in the end it all worked and I headed ashore for the 17:00 opening but only 4 boats came through (2 of them probably didn’t need to wait but could have fit under the bridge). Most of the big mega yachts are gone as well. Everyone has left for the “Bucket” race in St. Barths and I think I might do the same tomorrow.
