Team 3309 SuperRouter (TM)

[DonRotolo]

Is Joke.
Must Be.

"Overclocking" will mess up data timing (based on the system clock, right?) causing instant and complete loss of any communication.

If they modified the router for more power, I wouldn't want to be the one to give the FCC the evidence on a public forum. Might want to check the dollar amounts on the NAL (fine) for doing such things. Lots of zeros in that number.

Conclusion: Must be joke.

[Trent B]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

"Overclocking" will mess up data timing (based on the system clock, right?) causing instant and complete loss of any communication.

This intriques me as I attached a photo of the Overclocking frequencies for my router. I have toyed with it in the past and I never noticed any communication issues.

Going to bump it up from 228 to 252 mhz for a few minutes and see if I notice a lot of dropped packets.

Edit: Didn't seem to notice any performance difference.

[David Dawson]

I'm pretty sure the FCC wouldn't bother anybody that is abusing the 2.4 ghz band. They only go after people interfering with private licensed bands.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Trent B

Edit: Didn't seem to notice any performance difference.

Thinking about it, I can't imagine they'd base the data on the clock without compensating for a frequency change that's done in software.

Originally Posted by David Dawson

I'm pretty sure the FCC wouldn't bother anybody that is abusing the 2.4 ghz band. They only go after people interfering with private licensed bands.

For the most part. This has more to do with voiding type acceptance than with interference. Also enforcement actions are usually based on complaints they receive.

The NJ State Police also don't stop you for doing 67 in a 65, but that doesn't mean they can't or won't.

[Dave Flowerday]

Originally Posted by Friarbots

This particular router doesn't support the "overclocking" feature of the DD-WRT firmware, we should have been more clear in that we set the TXPower to a higher setting and modified the afterburner preferences.

This is not a joke.

You are likely violating FCC laws by doing so, FYI. The router is tested & certified at the settings as shipped; modifying it invalidates that certification.

{edit} It's also quite common to burn things out after a while on these routers by maxing the TX power. Just because the setting is there buried in firmware doesn't mean the hardware can actually handle it.

{edit again} I see Don already pointed out the FCC angle but it doesn't hurt to repeat it. He's not kidding about lots of digits in the dollar amount if you're caught & fined.

[dcarr]

Post #5 on this thread was not accurate information and was posted by another team member who didn't understand the gist of this thread. This is all done in jest so should be considered a "joke"

Just to clarify-this was a project embarked on for fun, not for actual use in the competition or in any real-world applications.

This router has provided poor performance overall in our testing (which happens primarily outdoors) and as it's worth only $29.99 we decided to embark on some experimenting with DD-WRT

We increased the Tx Power which did improve ping times but reliability is not perfect. As we are not using this router for any actual applications (replaced with a couple of WRT54G's, completely stock, which work very well) FCC violations shouldn't be relevant and we'll make sure to keep this thing out of production environments.

I hope somebody got a few chuckles out of this Perhaps we should have waited until April Fools!

Good luck at your competitions everyone!

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Friarbots

We increased the Tx Power which did improve ping times but reliability is not perfect. As we are not using this router for any actual applications (replaced with a couple of WRT54G's, completely stock, which work very well) FCC violations shouldn't be relevant

sigh.
If you modify a type-accepted device you have voided (as in nullified, removed) its type acceptance.
Allowing a non-type accepted device to emit Radio Energy* outside a screen room is cause for FCC action (in the USA). It does not matter if you use the equipment or not.

Will they catch you? Unlikely.
Will they fine you if they do catch you? Probably not
Is the potential fine above $100,000? Yes.

Your call.


* (Specifically, energy above a certain level, which is measured as a field strength at a certain distance. A microwatt from an 802.11 device exceeds this threshold, that's well over 1/1000 of normal power)

I'm just trying to tell you that you're breaking the law, and you should stop.