RF armor ends not working with Cambium gear

[gunther_01]

I posted this in Cambium Facebook group (no official) to get some extra insight. I'm pretty convienced this is an issue with both RF armor and Cambium.

Cambiums radio port is not a regular size, and doesn't have enough relief cut in to the bottom of it for the tab to move down enough to allow a positive lock to happen with a RJ-45.

Likewise, RF armor at some point redesigned their ends. What we are seeing is that ends that NOW have numbers on them are a bit thicker, and have a slightly larger gap between the tab, and the area that acts as the sear point for the end to lock in. Previous, or maybe now new ends without numbers on them, are thinner, and don't have this issue. We will not be able to purchase any more RF armor ends until this is fixed, and back to previous specs. Likewise, I will be pushing Cambium to fix their radios to have the larger relief cut needed to accept more ends properly. Photo included shows (i know) a non RF armor end that is unshielded, next to a RF armor end that is. The size difference in the tab area is the same between RF armor numbered, and non numbered. Likewise, I am providing a picture of a POE with proper relief and the CAmbium force 200 that doesn't not have the proper relieve.

Buyer beware on both parts I guess. It's a real problem for us.

[sirhc]

To my knowledge we have not changed the ENDS?

In the picture below are 2 ENDS
The one END I just went and retrieved from my EMERGENCY tower backpack for when I am on call and I stocked those ends over a year ago.
The other END if from current stock I just got out of a NEW box in warehouse.

I do not see any differnce in them?

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW FULL SIZE

[gunther_01]

Do either of those ends have numbers on the tab?

I had some older ends that did not have numbers and they fit fine. What I believe are a newer batch, or at least a newer order for us, have numbers on the tabs, and they do not lock in to those radios. They will lock in to other devices though.

[sirhc]

Neither have numbers on the TAB/TANG

And the newest one i pulled is from the latest batch we have in the warehouse and the one from my emergency truck backpack is from over a year ago?

[gunther_01]

Got at least a whole box full of numbered ones. The sizing issue is the tab itself. The distance from the face of the tab,to the top of the latch is greater. Combined with some extra plastic on the radios connector in that area,and they cant click.. its hard to see with a picture.. but u can see it

[sirhc]

I will spot check some boxes as we ship them over the next week and see if any of the boxes have the tang like you show.

I have never seen a tang like that.

[gunther_01]

Well they came in the Netonix box.. So, IDK either. There are no other forms of ID on the box for me to say what the batch number was or what not either. So....
All I do know is they suck with Cambium right now. Mainly the Force 190s that we use a lot of.

[gunther_01]

My last order was from BalticNetworks on Aug 6 2018. I got 3 boxes of them back then.

[sirhc]

Well if anyone else finds ends with the number on the tang please chime in.

I will also as I said look and see if I can find some with the number on the tang but so far I have not seen this?

[sirhc]

So after further discussion with factory in China this is what I found out.

All our END's ordered prior to the last shipment had the number on the tang.

The last shipment was the only order with the ends without the number on the tang.

So the factory that installs the ESD shield on the RJ45 ENDs changed suppliers of the RJ45 plastic ends for that order as the other plastic ENDs were in short supply.

So the ENDs in my emergency bag must NOT have been a year old as I thought, maybe one of my guys changed them out as I have them update config files and such in the emergency bag periodically.

The factory says both ends are certified to work in standard RJ45 jacks, do not get me wrong I am not saying you are not having issue with that one Cambium radio you probably are.

UBNT had used a RJ45 jack in several runs of the AFX radios that did not like some ends and the cables would come out. And our OLD WS-8-250-AC which is now EOL also had RJ45 jacks that did not like some ESD ends.

So our current inventory in warehouse are ENDs without the number on the tang but the new order which is on the sea right now does have the numbers on the tang again.

I need to hunt around and find a box of ends with the number on the tang and order in some radios then do some testing to see which END's work best all around. That way I can order those END's in the future.