Rain inconsistency

M

Michael Kruger

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I received a message to inform me that my account has been upgraded to the highest level available with Rain for a period of 3 months at no extra cost. No doubt this is good marketing but the following issues remain unresolved - while my download speed has increased the reliability of their service remains in question with ongoing dropped connections. I still need to refresh my connection often to address connectivity and at times having to reboot the router. I would prefer reliability with my current account rather than increased speeds (and higher costs).
Furthermore, lately my connection is lost for the duration of load shedding. I run off an inverter to retain connectivity and it's a recent development that I am unable to connect during load shedding. Perhaps the resident Rain representative can offer an explanation and provide a workaround.
 
Hi Michael,
yes it can be very frustrating. I can't reply for Rain but my own experiences might help you.

1) the first thing to check is the signal strength on your receiving end. If that is bad you will have problems. So one should start by checking that out. To make that possible I wrote an app in Python that polls the 5G modem once a second to retrieve the signal strength(RSRP) and signal to noise ratio(SINR). The app(called 5gtop) is on Github and here is the link
github.com

GitHub - pdo-smith/5gtop: Monitor the signal performance of Huawei 4G/5G modems

Monitor the signal performance of Huawei 4G/5G modems - pdo-smith/5gtop
github.com github.com

What I found appalled me. My signal strength was very poor. In retrospect that wasn't surprising since the nearest Rain tower is 3.1 km away and the view is blocked by a high ivy hedge..

Using my app to guide me I moved the modem around and eventually found one good spot. This was on the outside wall of my study just under the roof eaves. I trimmed the ivy hedge and that also helped.

This largely solved my problem, see the screen shot from 5gtop, below
1669540608643.png
I had to put a protective cover over my modem since it was outdoors and that works well. Though it rains(!) so seldom here in PE that I need hardly have bothered.

2) Load shedding still caused long signal dropouts, even though I switched to a backup 12V battery. I then made an adapter cable to directly connect the modem to the 12V battery instead or working through the inverter. The battery I permanently trickle charge at 13.15V. The modem is nominally 12V but it seems to tolerate 13.15 V without problems.

And this solved all my problems. I have a good signal with no more dropouts and high download speeds.
So why did this work?

1) Finding the optimum spot for my modem gave me good signal strength. My app made this tedius task quick and easy. The lights on the front of the modem are, in my opinion, a poor guide.

2) Keeping the modem on permanently by means of the 12V battery seems to be key.

3) The battery supplies a clean voltage without spikes or noise. I suspect, though I can't prove it, that our load shedding environment is causing a lot of electrical interference. Inverters normally do not supply a pure sine wave so this might add to the problem.

I hope this information is helpful. I am using a small 7.4 Ah 12 V battery which seems to be just fine for the job. I notice that you are on Apple so you won't be able to use either of the two binaries I supply. But you can still run it as a Python app. It just takes a little more work to set it up. I am not the fortunate owner of an Apple so have not been able to test my app in that environment.

Good luck.
 
To continue what I said above, I must add some caveats(of course)
1) When connecting the modem directly to a battery make really sure that you get the polarity right. Check and double check. Centre pin is positive.
2) The long term effects of running the modem at a slightly higher voltage(13.15V in my case) are unknown but may be unfortunate.
3) You may invalidate the warranty on the device. Manufacturers, as a rule, do not look kindly on people who tinker with their devices. And who can blame them. There are tinkerers and there are tinkerers.
 
What would be acceptable signal strength(RSRP) and signal to noise ratio(SINR) values?
 
Hi Real,
"What would be acceptable signal strength(RSRP) and signal to noise ratio(SINR) values?"

It is a judgement call but this reference gives what seems to be the majority opinion:

Understanding LTE Signal Strength Values | Digi International

www.digi.com www.digi.com
1669561457068.png
What they call "Cell Edge" is quite a poor signal. When I first received my modem I placed it on my study's window sill. It worked but was really dodgy. The RSRP value was -104 dBm. By moving the modem to a point on the outside wall just under the roof eaves this improved to -89 dBm, a marked improvement. When I trimmed my ivy hedge this improved to -86 - 87 dBm. But ivy hedges grow like crazy and I must get out and cut it down to size.

I think the figure to aim for is better than -90 dBm for RSRP. That gives me good results. -90 to -100 dBm is OK.

Right now I am experimenting with putting my modem at the focal point of a cylindrical hyperbolic antenna. I have high hopes for this and will publish my results in a few weeks time. There is one major problem with this approach, and that is that it very efficiently beams the WiFi signal straight back at the Rain tower, not what you want. Consequently I will have to use the Ethernet port on the modem.
 
Was getting good speeds, but experienced buffering while streaming BBC iPlayer with ControlD, last night.
 
psmith said:
Hi Michael,
yes it can be very frustrating. I can't reply for Rain but my own experiences might help you.

1) the first thing to check is the signal strength on your receiving end. If that is bad you will have problems. So one should start by checking that out. To make that possible I wrote an app in Python that polls the 5G modem once a second to retrieve the signal strength(RSRP) and signal to noise ratio(SINR). The app(called 5gtop) is on Github and here is the link
github.com

GitHub - pdo-smith/5gtop: Monitor the signal performance of Huawei 4G/5G modems

Monitor the signal performance of Huawei 4G/5G modems - pdo-smith/5gtop
github.com github.com

What I found appalled me. My signal strength was very poor. In retrospect that wasn't surprising since the nearest Rain tower is 3.1 km away and the view is blocked by a high ivy hedge..

Using my app to guide me I moved the modem around and eventually found one good spot. This was on the outside wall of my study just under the roof eaves. I trimmed the ivy hedge and that also helped.

This largely solved my problem, see the screen shot from 5gtop, below
View attachment 1430139
I had to put a protective cover over my modem since it was outdoors and that works well. Though it rains(!) so seldom here in PE that I need hardly have bothered.

2) Load shedding still caused long signal dropouts, even though I switched to a backup 12V battery. I then made an adapter cable to directly connect the modem to the 12V battery instead or working through the inverter. The battery I permanently trickle charge at 13.15V. The modem is nominally 12V but it seems to tolerate 13.15 V without problems.

And this solved all my problems. I have a good signal with no more dropouts and high download speeds.
So why did this work?

1) Finding the optimum spot for my modem gave me good signal strength. My app made this tedius task quick and easy. The lights on the front of the modem are, in my opinion, a poor guide.

2) Keeping the modem on permanently by means of the 12V battery seems to be key.

3) The battery supplies a clean voltage without spikes or noise. I suspect, though I can't prove it, that our load shedding environment is causing a lot of electrical interference. Inverters normally do not supply a pure sine wave so this might add to the problem.

I hope this information is helpful. I am using a small 7.4 Ah 12 V battery which seems to be just fine for the job. I notice that you are on Apple so you won't be able to use either of the two binaries I supply. But you can still run it as a Python app. It just takes a little more work to set it up. I am not the fortunate owner of an Apple so have not been able to test my app in that environment.

Good luck.
Click to expand...
Hi Peter, thanks for the effort you have put into researching this issue and for sharing it with fellow frustrated Rain subscribers. Unfortunately the incorporation of the 5Gtop app is beyond my level of expertise. I do however take your point that inverters do not supply steady voltage to the router and that connecting to a 12v battery might circumvent the problem with load shedding outages. I do have a trickle charger. Can you elaborate on how you created the adapter cable which you connected to the modem?
 
I suspect he just connected a cable with the appropriate jack connector for the router, to the battery (observing polarity). Connect trickle charger to same battery.
 
Feedback - I have attached a trickle charger to the external terminals of the inverter to recharge the battery and once again I'm able to remain connected during load shedding. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
 
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