@Unknown420: All electronic devices produce heat. When engineers design products, part of the process is to do a “thermal analysis” and then testing to ensure that the heat doesn’t build up inside the enclosure, creating a safety hazard, or allow a device (think chip) to get hot enough to malfunction and quit working or perform marginally. To port the heat away, the mechanical packaging can employ active measures like the fans in your computer, or passively using convection of air through the housing as is the case with the T-Mobile gateway. Having said that, there’s the always the possibility of a component failure causing dangerously high temperatures inside the enclosure (as in fire). So when you say “extremely hot”, don’t discount this possibility and err on the safe side by exchanging the gateway for a different one.By way of an update, I’ve been running my gateway for over a month, mounted atop a muffin fan forcing room temperature air in through the base of the unit without seei
@ Stary, Thank you. Do you have any sense of whether the original window location was receiving more direct sunshine than the second location? T-Mobile’s installation instructions cautions customers not to place the unit in direct sunlight, which of course translates to increased temperatures.
Great, Smoky, this is exactly the kind of documentation we need. Now if you could do one more thing: Take the fan away, set the tower up like it was when it was losing connection and see how long it runs without needing a reset. It would also be helpful if you can verify that the extra airflow is the only thing that changed, that is, you didn’t move the gateway to a new spot, etc.
I’m having to update my post here as the edit function doesn’t seem to exist.IMPORTANT: To reboot, use the power switch; power off for 30 seconds and then power back up using the switch. If you attempt a reset by unplugging the AC adapter a portion of the modem will remain powered by the battery. I’m not sure you can get an effective reset by using that method.
@jtheiss Thank you for the reply. I’ve started a new thread to collect information from users like us who have experienced degradation after some period of operation. If you’d care to participate it can be found here:
I understand. Many have commented on it and I haven't read them all. I was just thanking you for bringing my own attention to it and for posting a particularly cogent description. Cheers!
@jlillard I’ve created a new discussion on the heating issue you steered me to atI Thought I’d post it under your thread as others might look here. Thank you for first tipping us off on the thermal connection.
@jtheiss I like your suggestion that we document our experiences on one thread in as detailed a way as possible. One idea would be for users using additional airflow to record the mean time from reboot to failure both with and without such airflow. I'm convinced its a heat issue, but know from experience that trying to get action on this through bottom tier tech support in Mexico is futile. Nothing speaks louder than hard data, and the possibility of exposure through a major publication. I intend to make this case to T-Mob management directly, and it will be very helpful to have a user group compiling this data to point to. Thank you for your efforts.
@jtheiss - I’m curious to know if both the gateways behaved identically. That is, were you running the cooling fan on both of them? Same exact failure mode, etc? Even if not, there are enough variables in any design that if the problem is with a voltage regulator, for example, many other components “could” be affected differently due to varying component sensitivities to low voltage conditions. This could lead to a difference in failure modes in something as complex as a combination gateway / wireless router. The fact that a Tech Support person offered the fan solution and was surprised that it didn’t fix the problem is significant. I’ve worked in companies where products have known and fixable design issues and management decided to ignore the issue after a cost / benefit analysis. And of course we’ve all heard the horror stories about the auto industry. Thanks for your input.FJ
@jlillard, I didn't phrase that well and see no edit function here. Rather than pushing the hardware at higher speeds being a “symptom” of a heat issue, what I meant to say was that if the gateway performs better/longer when you offload some function like wi-fi routing or slow down the data transfer speed, this can be indicative of a heat problem with the hardware.
Jlillard, like you, I've found heat buildup to be a big (and maybe the main) issue. I've posted a description of that on another thread but will paste it below for convenience. In my case I simply placed the gateway on an A/C vent. To what you've said here, I would add that offloading the wi-fi to a separate router, avoiding 5g speeds, minimizing number of supported devices and concurrent usage, problems during big file transfers, can ALL be symptoms of a thermal problem. Add to that the fact that ambient temperatures are on the rise this time of year and….well you obviously get it. Thank you for posting some of the best info I've seen here. Following is that referenced post:I think it's a thermal issue, and that's likely why T-Mob hasn't fixed it. My gateway had required a reboot almost daily. It behaved similarly to other accounts here in that my connection speed would drop to almost nothing (say 400kbps down) which to a person used to over 50mbps would look like a hard crash, but I
I think it's a thermal issue, and that's likely why T-Mob hasn't fixed it. My gateway had required a reboot almost daily. It behaved similarly to other accounts here in that my connection speed would drop to almost nothing (say 400kbps down) which to a person used to over 50mbps would look like a hard crash, but I haven't seen that yet. My best speed is 60mbps down and I'm delighted if I can sustain 10. Per speedtest, when the problem manifests I see a slight increase in latency but a massive increase in packet jitter, sometimes approaching a full second. Rebooting the gateway clears this condition. Now, thanks to a couple of astute posts here, I decided to test the heat theory. Placing a hand over the unit during normal operation I didn't detect much heat coming out, but when I placed it over an A/C duct directly beneath the sill it had been on, I felt a gush of almost hot air come out the top. This is extremely suspicious and tells me that the convective cooling the EE's had counted
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