CTR350 EVDO Router runs for 3.5hrs on 4xAA batteries

RednBlk · EVDO Newbie Joined: 06 Feb 2008 Posts: 4

So I decided to pick up a Lenmar LiIon battery pack while I was at Fry's Electronics. They were on sale for 24.99, and came with a wall to USB adapter and a Cigarette Lighter to USB adapter as well as a few tips (None which work on the CTR350) package says it is rated at 7.8 WaHrs

I then purchased the "n" size coaxial power plug (5.5mm OD X 2.5mm ID) from Radio Shack (pack of 2, $2.99) and I went to the Only 99 cent store and got a retractable USB A to USB A cord which I promptly hacked off one end and soldered on the plug (center Positive BTW)

Got everything hooked together, and the lights on the CTR350 started flashing 2 outer one inner...hmmm....so I press the power/battery check button on the pack, and lo and behold, I have power.

That was at 6:15pm last night. My wife and I were both using our laptops heavily... me watching video, and her surfing ebay. My neighbors were also online chatting. At 8:30pm we lost connection to the router. I unplugged the power pack and plugged in the AC adapter.

I went back to the site I was surfing, and got prompted for the password from the router. My password didnt work so I tried the default password. After logging in to the router I noticed averything had been reset to factory defaults.

I was wondering if anyone else had similar issues when running on batteries. I am using version 2.0 of the firmware.

Hardware · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 07 Dec 2007 Posts: 147

Hmm...I've never seen that, but I don't run my CTR off battery much. Though I have off a setup I used with a friend.

The CTR isn't built as a battery pack unit, maybe your battery is providing inconsistent voltage or amperage or something, I'd hook your battery up to some diagnostic gear if you can and find out what it's +/- is on voltage and amperage.

I know I've read somewhere that the CTR has an over-voltage protection on it that gives it some tolerance to adding too much power to it. Maybe you're exceeding that and causing some problems.

strollin · Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:08 pm Post subject:

When running my CTR350 from battery power, I found that running it until the batteries got so low that the router died made it so I needed to do a reset of the router before I could log into it again. I now try to switch over to fresh batteries before the router dies. It's a lot easier now that I am running with 4 "D" cells. I have 2 sets and can easily run 14 1/2 hours on the first set before needing to switch to the second set of batteries.

Dev H'dazero · EVDO Newbie Joined: 18 Feb 2008 Posts: 7

Just put together a version with an old four-cell holder that I had lying around and a Radio Scrap "N" Adaptaplug. Thanks for the suggestion. Works great!

/dev/hda0

brecklundin · EVDO Newbie Joined: 25 Dec 2007 Posts: 5

brecklundin · EVDO Newbie Joined: 25 Dec 2007 Posts: 5

well, I flashed back to 1.7.1 and the issue went away. I not am posting over the CTR350 running on the MP1550.

It seems something may have been screwed with in terms of voltage tolerance in order to add all those phones to the device.

Anyone with the issue might try the same thing I did. One thing I will point out is I did still have to reset the device to undo whatever bit was flipped in the hardware from the last go under FW 2.whatever.

v1.7.1 works and I am leaving it at that...I get so tired of these companies and they squirrel cage wheel of "upgrades" for perfectly working products. Only to have them break something to "improve the user experience" gawds I hate that phrase...it only came about when business majors invaded high tech...along with lawyers about 10million of them at the bottom of the ocean is also a good start.

Alex · Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 7:22 am Post subject:

strollin · Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 11:47 am Post subject:

I guess I am one of the lucky ones. I haven't experienced any issues after upgrading the firmware in my CTR350 to v2.0.

tvBilly · EVDO User Joined: 02 Dec 2007 Posts: 30

I haven't experienced any problems either. Updated my CTR-350 to version 2.0.0 (from 1.7.3) and all has been well. I have used it with the Franklin CDU-680 with great success, and I even tested it by plugging my WAN connection in and testing the fallback features, which worked fine too.

I have used it (the CDU-680 plugged into the CTR-350) twice on battery power since I updated, and that all worked fine as well. I am using the Tekkeon MP1550 with 2000maH low self discharge NiMH batteries too. My CTR-350 likes the N connector though, not the L.

Not sure why you're having problems, but all works fine for me.

Bill S

tz1 · Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 2:02 pm Post subject:

I experienced a similar problem - if the power is interrupted or weak during bootup it can lose the config settings - though not recently since I've beefed up the connections so they won't be loose and never run my batteries down entirely.

The problem seems to be caused when it boots up, but doesn't complete the process before power is cut, or if power sags so it doesn't quite power the unit during the process.

And I don't think the new releases are a bad thing. There are quite a number of fixes from the earlier versions - I want the LAN port and am awaiting an official bounce-page fix.

winger · EVDO User Joined: 04 Jun 2006 Posts: 33

I've used my new 4 AA's (2700mah) pack a few times only, but only about until the laptop died (less than 2 hrs). Tonight I finally did a draiin test run w/ the 4AA's pack w/ the laptop plugged in. The 2700mah batteries were fully charged last weekend, so one week sitting in the drawer.

I started at 5:45PM and with moderate use (email outlook looks for email every 4 mins, little streaming video, website browsing, several speed checks, dormant time where I was just reading sites, etc.) the unit started to reboot (acted like it) at 4 hours, 20 minutes. Not too bad

AscenXion · EVDO Newbie Joined: 17 Mar 2008 Posts: 1

I have a Zap Portable Power Pack that provides power to my ctr 350 and cdu-680 through a usb to dc cable. A y-splitter cable came with the cdu-680,and I had the idea to use it as power. I connected one male to the power pack, one male to the usb port of the router, and the female to the modem. It seems to work just fine, but I'm not an electrician, so I was wondering what anyone who knows more than me thinks about this.

Thanks for any help in advance.

JoeCHecht · EVDO Junkie Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 409