MR44 wall mounting with standard kit

[JEIO]

hello,

In the documentation it is mentioned that you can mount the AP in ceiling or wall mount with the same kit. So does it mean that the coverage do not change in both AP position ?? I know it exist special mounting kit for the wall but I would like to know without those special kit if wall mounting the AP is OK

Thank you

Jean

[KarstenI]

You can mount it on the ceiling and the wall, but the radiation pattern will change. If you look at the datasheet you see that the radiation is slightly different in all directions. You have to take this into account when planning your WLAN.

[JEIO]

thank you

[DarrenOC]

Are you asking if you can mount the AP without using the mount that the AP ships with?

If so, it’ll work fine! Just as long as you’re not hammering the device to the wall 😁

[EJN]

You can mount it in the wall or ceiling. You use the same bracket, and anchor to wall or ceiling according to your surface. The radiation pattern will change. Depending on your room size / coverage area, this may or may not matter. For example, I have one in each classroom. Some are wall mounted and some are ceiling mounted. Due to the size of the classroom, coverage wise it makes no difference for our needs/use case.

[NolanHerring]

You could always just use this:

https://ventevinfra.com/product/wi-fi-right-angle-wall-bracket-with-lid/

[GIdenJoe]

Hey.

If you mount an AP directly to the wall the signal will not travel far behind it.

So if that wall is an outer wall, this usually is not a problem.

The reason right angle brackets are used is because in case of lighter inner walls you can still mount the AP on the ceiling and have coverage 360 degrees around the AP instead of just 180 degrees from left to front to right.

[cmr]

@GIdenJoe I'm not sure what you are referring to, most current Meraki APs have coverage in a ball shape so it really doesn't matter what orientation you mount them in.  It's only the models with dipole antennas that need to have them pointing vertically.

[GIdenJoe]

I'm talking about behind the AP, behind the metal mouting plate.
If you mount vertically on an internal wall, you will have poor coverage behind it.

As you can see even without the metal plate, behind the AP is a 5 to 10 dB drop from the highest gain of the AP.

[cmr]

From the datasheet for the 5GHz the 30°, 150° and 210° all are about the same and although there is a bit more coverage in front I'd argue that in real world conditions it won't make a huge difference.

 

[GIdenJoe]

Well they are not accounting for the metal mount plate AND for every 6 dB loss you halve the distance...

[cmr]

To be fair I haven't tested it myself so you may well have a point there!