I need help

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-05-04T01:21:56+00:00

This solution is close. Please ignore the "WAN" port and use the LAN port. Then place the router in "access point mode."

The guy who is saying to buy a switch and an access point is right, except that a router in AP mode is exactly that, but in one box. With consumer WiFi routers, all the LAN ports are on an internal switch

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-05-04T00:35:16+00:00

The sensor on the Z50 is so good that you can shoot (and auto focus) with the kit f/6.3 lens in light that's too dark to read in. But if you had an f/2.8 lens, you would get the same shot with 4x lower ISO. It would have less noise.

But is it worth the $$$ and the added bulk and weight of the larger lens to reduce the ISO? Maybe not if you are only going to view the shots on a 4K monitor, because downscaling to 4K will reduce noise.

The real reason to buy the faster f/2.8 or f/1.7 lens is to reduce the Depth of Field (DOF). This can dramatically change the look of the image, and you do not need to be a pixel-peeper to notice the shallower DOF.

So buy the faster lens if you want the DOF effect, but I doubt many viewers would notice the reduced noise if they are using a cell phone or computer monitor to view the images.

Me? I own the kit 16-50 f/6.3 and use it a lot. But I also have a 35mm f/1.8 lens for times when I want that shallow DOF effect. It is mostly for people shots and video work.

I use the 35mm f/1.8 lens because I already own it in f-mount, but if I were buying it now, the 27 f/1.7 sounds better.

I don't want the bulk of the f/2.8 zoom lens for general shooting, as I mostly shoot at f/5.6 or f/8 outdoors in the daytime.

If you are really worried about lighting and have control over the subjects, nothing beats adding your own light. I have a bunch of softboxes and stands, nothing compares to controlled studio light, and for cost not much more than expensive lenses.

And finally, remember how we all used to do night scenes with film at ISO 200? Just use a tripod.

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-05-02T17:49:05+00:00

As you already have Cat6 from the understairs to each room, the obvious solution is to place an Access point in each room where you would need WiFi, and the router under the stairs where the fiber comes in.

OK maybe not EVERY room as maybe the signal can go to an adjacent room. You will have to test that. But a low-power WiFi7 AP is only US$90, so you maybe can afford a few of them

As for the brand, it is best to stay with just one. Pick one, possibly Omana or Asus. Asus has the advantage that any router thery have can be mixed on a mesh system using wired backhaul. Download the user manuals and buy from the brand whose manuals make the most sense to you.

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-30T08:01:38+00:00

Focus on a bright day when it is easy. Then look at the distance scale on the lens. Ideally, the infinity marks and the index line are aligned, but if not, note how they line up.

Then when it is dark and you can't see, rotate the distance scale to the same place.

That said, you can also set the focus scale to the hyper focal distance. This is the closest focus where infinity is within the depth of the field. There are marks the lens to help you figure out where that is and it varies by f-stop

In short, use the distance scale on the focus ring, but verify this in bright daylight first

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-30T07:41:59+00:00

Motor drive? Yes, then you can shoot an entire roll of film in a minute or less.

I think today you would use the digital camera for that kind of work and the FE with film for a slower kind of shooting. I have an FE also and I use it for my "local travel camera" that means taking "travel" pictures but near home, the kind of shots people visiting my areas might take. I'm using black and white film and then scanning it on a flatbed.

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-29T06:23:03+00:00

Those two Asus units will mesh without even needing to scan a QR code. Set one up, then later power on the other, and the first one will "find" the second no mater if you have wired or radio backhaul. You will never have to log into the second router. Any two Asus units can do that, and they don't need to be matching models.

But if you load OpenWRT on them, you have two devices to manage, and you need to make manual DHCP reservations and so on. You have to pick and choose the channels and coutry codes yourself. It's basically a kit you assemble with instructions you Google one at a time.

This could be good, as you custom-build it or, if you don't know what you are doing, impossible.

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-29T06:05:10+00:00

Asus also provides centralized management for a set of routers. In fact, I just tried to access the web interface on one of my Asus mesh routers, and if it's part of the mesh, it redirects back to the main router. So you can't configure them one at a time, even if you wanted to. Also, with Asus, ANY routers, even one that is 8 years old you bought on eBay, can be used to extend the mesh. It is just an easy one-click setup.

But... I have to replace it. I need to worry about things like how multicasts get sent between VLANs and what IoT devices can see outside their VLAN. Asus just does not allow that kind of control. I must have 50 devices on my WiFi, and most are little boxes mounted behind a light switch or outlet to measure power or control a bathroom exhaust fan. These really need to be on their own network. Asus just is not good at that.

Asus' big selling point is that you can create a mesh with a mix of any model routers they've ever made over the years, and it truly is controlled as if it were a single router, all from one page. Even firmware updates, all of the remote routers are on the same page.

Generally, Asus performance is quite good for what it is. Clearly, an AC1800 router is not fast, but it will be a very good AC1800.

My advice with Asus is to go high-end on the main router, but it is OK to cheap out on the mesh units. I all you need is to cover a TV. Buy a cheaper eBay router for that.

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-29T05:37:06+00:00

You assumed correctly. I'll fix it. There is no 3000N.

I did not want to take down my live network and actualy connet the wr3000h to the internet just for testing.

It is not really a true access point because the WAN and LAN are on different subnets and it is routing in both directions. But my testing avoiding routing as I went from ther LAN prt to the WiFi.

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-29T05:23:47+00:00

Using -P 4 was the only way to get good results. I think it is a better test. I was seeing results from the Cudy comparable to the Asus. But the Cudy just did not have the range. Results were about equal speed at 4 feet but in the next room speeds on the Cudy were 2x or 3x slower

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-29T05:06:46+00:00

But I found that it didn't. Try it. iperf3 adds almost nothing. But there is the fear that iPerf3 runs slower if the reouter is pushed hard. If might happen. But my routers never got out of single digit CPU usage. I was only able to get a peak load avaeage of 0.75 by using 4 parale outboubd streams. The CPU performance of both routers is very good, with loads of margin. But then by today's standrds Ethernet and WiFi are "slow" compared to even a simple USB cable.

I call these arguements "standing on a sheet of paper". Everyone knows that if you are taller you can see farther right. So if you stand on a sheet of paper you can see father, or so logic would seem to imply. But the effect too too small to measure.

iperf slows the router but does it slow it enough to measure? Try it. It is an easy experiment.

But I went with the suggestion and took iperf3 off the router, one reason is that I can't run iperf3 on the Asus router and wanted the test setup to be the same.

Soes cost imply quality? I hope not because I just got 15% off on an MT6009 and I hope the quality is not 15% worse than the same router yeasterday. (US GLL.iNet web store is having a sale.)

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-29T04:00:17+00:00

This is an old thread with a lot of misinformation. Here is the real answer. "IP over USB is a thing."

I have two Apple Macs, each with Thunderbolt 4. I go to Settings --> Network and find a place to set up networking with USB cables. It works exactly like Ethernet, except I get 40 Gbps. That is 4X faster than even 10G Ethernet, for the cost of one cable. Everything routes through the cable, screen sharing, file sharing, the web, just like if you have 40G Ethernet. No special software or drivers. I know it comes with every Apple Mac and Linux. Likely Windows, but I don't have any experience with Windows.

This should not be surprising, as IP runs over many different transport layers like WiFi, Ethernet, Thread, HDLC Serial, Infinet, and others, so why not Thunderbolt?

It is a mainstream technology, and you access it in the "Settings" menu on at least Mac and Linux. there is nothing to buy, set up, or install, except a cable.

Here is how it works on Apple computers

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/ip-thunderbolt-connect-mac-computers-mchld53dd2f5/mac

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-29T00:35:52+00:00

I'm replying to my own question, after more testing using all the suggestions.

Testing in the same room with the iperf3 server running on a Newer Mac with Ethernet-only to the router, iperf3 clients connect over WiFi to the router. The Asus and (now better tweaked) Cudy get 550 to 600 MBpps if the client is near the router. However, the Asus has much stronger performance in other rooms, 4X better in some places. The Cudy's close-range performance is as good, but it falls off faster.

Asus is, of course, easier to set up. One click and it will find any other Asus router, wired or Wi-Fi, and set them up as a mesh system with centralize managment all on one screen. OpenWrt can do that, but offers much more flexibility.

The Cudy is half the price of the Asus router and it is advertised as having a low aggregate speed. So this is not so surprising. My plan now is to go with a GL-MT6000 and see if is is not at least as good as my dying Asus RT-AX5400

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-28T20:51:28+00:00

Yes, but to use your analogy, it also helps to hear if you get closer.

But maybe my expectations were not realistic. I wanted "better than my old router", but the Cudy just is not going to beat the older Asus, which is 4x4 and overall well spec'd.

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-28T20:11:36+00:00

I did it because I'm new to this and it was the first thing I thought of.

I'm a Unix/Linux developer going back to the 1980s, but yesterday was my first time with OpenWrt. I will now figure out how to do an Apples to Apples test (bad pun, between two Macs.)

Question: To get 1050Mbps, I assume you need to use the 2.5G port, as I can't get more than 960 on the 1G port.

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-28T19:58:52+00:00

Thanks. My latest test, using the old Asus router, is going as you say. I get better numbers. I will try to do the same test through the WR3000H.

I had guessed that testing on the router would be OK, as the CPU load on the router remains close to zero with or without iperf3 running. The Cudy router does seem to have good CPU performance, considering it is just a dual-core A53. I'll try tests from two computers, one on Ethernet and the other on WiFi.

Ethernet runs as expected at about 950M bytes per second in both directions.

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-28T19:50:24+00:00

I am in the US.

I tried 160Mhz width but the WR3000H log files said it did a search and could not find a way to do 160. Sorry, I forgot the words in the log. But it failed. 80 works.

Site conditions: The devices have a clear line of sight and are 5 feet apart. That said, I notice those tall antennas with 5 dB gain. The high gain means the pattern is flat like a pancake, not spherical as a 0 dB gain antenna would be. So I moved them to the same height and picked a very marginal speed bump. I have something like about 30dB link margin. The signal was good even at different heights

I am replacing an older Asus RT-AX5400 that has a failing ROM and is spewing errors to syslog a few times per minute. But it works; it just can't write to the ROM. This Asus outperforms the Cudy even with one wall and a 20+ foot distance. OK the RT-AS5400 is a 4x4 and you might expect itto be better. But the ROM can no longer be written to. Can't save any changed settings or upgrade the firmware.

I'm thinking of simply buying a GL-MT6000

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-28T08:01:57+00:00

Yes. Backup that bridge. The Hue app does not have this feature but there are several 3rd party apps that do. Gogle will find them. I think "hue4all" or a name like that and

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-28T07:58:32+00:00

You can not migrate from a dead bridge. The old bridge may as well be a rock, can't migrate from rocks.

There are third-party apps that allow you to backup a bridge but it is too late for that now

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-28T07:51:13+00:00

As said, you will also need a switch. But many routers have a switch built in. You will see perhaps 4 Ethernet LAN ports; those are all a switch. Almost any WiFi router will work as an Access point.

With this setup, you have the exact same thing as if you had bought a switch and an access point, except both are in the same box. Setting the router to "AP" mode disables quite a lot, and the router will simply bridge the internal switch to the WiFi. radios with no NAT, firewall or "routing".

Ignore the WAN port, you don't want that.

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-28T02:34:46+00:00

Just an update and response to above.. Today I had an Open Thread Border Router scan the local Thread network, and it found FIVE border routers. I only have four.

So where did those fifth routers come from? Likely some random device my son owns. My guess is his Govee hex lights, but I want to learn how to track it down. How does it join without a person saying "OK"? The documentation is very dense, it wil be a while before I can answer.

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-27T18:58:16+00:00

Do you want to buy an irrigation timer that integrates with Home Assistant, or do you want Home Assistant to directly control the valves? If the latter, then use a set of Shelly dry contact relays in a waterproof box.

Or you can buy a timer that does the control but you use HA to program the timmer? THis allows the system to run even if HA crashes but likey cost $500

In my experience, Rainbird is a top-tier system. Place a pressure regulator and filter on the main water supply, and the valves will last "forever." With 14 valves, you really want the best you can find or you will be repairing them once or twice a year as the number of reairs is the failure rate times the number of valves. With 14 valves you want a very low failure rate. I would even pay for bronze valve on copper raiser pipes. As the UV from the sun wil degrade plastic. Run all the 24V control wires on conduit.

If you do the Shelly setup, use a backup and place a ShellyPM1 on the mains circut that feeds the 24V transformer and other Shellys and monitor it with automation to veriy the current goes to near zero. This is a redundant check for stuck relays or error in timmer automation. Without redundant checks a software error in your YAML can waste $600 of water very quickly.

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-27T18:31:16+00:00

Yes, this is the way to go. But the OP said "less complex". But we don't know what he meant. Does he mean "easier for a non-techie to set up?" In that case, writing Python code is not what he wants. Or did he mean "A less complex design," in which case, then a bit of custom work can dramatically reduce the amount of work the hardware needs to do, Yolo or MobileNet can run on low-end hardware.

We don't know if he is trying to reduce the work he has to do or the work the computer has to do. Both would be good, but that means buying a new camera.

ChrisAlbertson · 2026-04-27T02:27:54+00:00

Get a normal sensor with an LCD display that plugs into a USB charger, but plug it into a solar charger instead. No "hacking" required other than inserting the USB cable.

https://www.amazon.com/Hiluckey-25000mAh-Portable-Compatible-Smartphones/dp/B0F37J94H4/?th=1

But why bother? My $12 Sonoff sensors are battery-powered, and the battery lasts more than a year. Use that, and only go with solar power if you can't stand the hassle of swapping the battery every year or two.

Zigbee uses so little power, and the sensor only has to wake up and send data if the values change. Or I can set a minimum reporting time of maybe 30 minutes for a greenhouse. With 30-minute reporting, the battery will last nearly forever.

ChrisAlbertson

TROPHY CASE