• After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.

    I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.

    For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.

    From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.

    Sincerely, Jeff D.

Cradlepoint running hot?

Mark Blue

Mark Blue

Former owner (RIP)
Joined
Feb 19, 2007
Messages
3,158
Location
Colorado
Has anyone experienced issues with their Cradlepoint router running hot and thus adversely affecting their data connectivity in the field? I had some issues last year and am thinking about purchasing a USB powered fan to blow air across the router to aid with cooling, but thought I'd weigh in to see if anyone has any better ideas.

I keep it in the back of our Murano near the DC power and it just seems to run hot at times. When my internet connectivity goes south I can feel the router and it's hot to the touch. Let me know if you have experienced similar issues and possible solutions.

This is what I am pondering as a solution: http://bit.ly/9v59wK
 
Interesting post. I have a cradlepoint 1000 I have been using this year. There have been times it wasn't giving me the data although the status indicator showed connectivity. I did pick it up and it seemed warm, in fact Im using it now and just checked it and its warm.

I have never connected the two though. Overheating making it not work. Something I will have to pay closer attention to.
 
By the way, it's a CTR-500 with the latest firmware installed (I doubt firmware has any impact on temperature). It always seems to happen in the afternoon on hot days. I can go into the web based utility and reboot it, but it only helps for a matter of minutes if at all. I guess the a/c just doesn't make it all the way to the back as well as it should.
 
I have the Cradlepoint PHS-300 and have not had any issues with it getting hot. I do keep it in a cup holder in the back of the Expedition so it gets great ventilation. I hope this is not a problem that develops over time.

Let me say that this is my first year to have a Cradlepoint in the vehicle and honestly I think it's one of the coolest pieces of technology for chasing I've come across in a long time.
 
I have this exact issue with my CTR-500. I have it installed in the back of my car with a 12v computer fan on it and that seems to help but it still runs pretty hot and seems to drop connection from time to time. Cycling power seems to bring it back up. I have been closely monitoring this to see if its really the heat that is causing the issue or if it is some other hiccup. in mointoring the status page of the router i see this error when I drop my connection.

XML Parsing Error: no element found Location: http://192.168.0.1/wan_connection_status.sxml Line Number 1, Column 1: ^

I upgraded to the latest firmware a couple days ago and have not had this problem yet, granted this is in very little use.

I will keep updating as I dig deeper. I should email cradlepoint with that error and see what they think
 
I've had issues with my CTR350 getting too warm and restarting itself. This was mostly when I left it on my dash last year. Black box in the sun = hot.

This year I've left my air card and router under my passenger seat, and have not had a problem at all.
 
I ordered the fan that I posted a link to above. It's kind of strange, but when you go to the Cradlepoint Support website and type the word "hot" into the Knowledge Base search box a couple of predefined searches come up.

1. Router gets hot (45)
2. Why is the router hot (44)

These two searches both show there are 44 and 45 articles that address this issue, yet there isn't anything in the support articles that even so much as scratch the surface of the issue. Apparently someone else has had this issue as the word "hot" shows up in the results, but the topic doesn't seem to be addressed from what I can find.

I'll let you guys know how the fan works. I have a cigarette lighter plug that has a USB slot in the end, so I'm going to power it up that way and blow air on my router. If anyone comes up with any better ideas let me know. If the fan doesn't work I'm going to submit a support ticket to see what the boys at Cradlepoint have to say. They seem to genuinely care about their products so maybe I'll have some luck!
 
My CTR500 also runs hot, although I haven't had any specific problems with it. But what should help with either is to mount it vertically on a side or end. This considerably improves the airflow to the top and bottom surfaces. In the case of the CTR500 I just tried it using a spare mounting base intended for a portable USB HDD, with the mini USB jack in the base sticking rather neatly into the card slot. I can now see the function lights and all the plugs and USB aircard are oriented vertically.
 
Here's an update to the heat issue after using the fan I mentioned above over the last several days. So far the issues have been completely resolved and the fan has worked like a champ.

The other thing I did is to remove the plastic covering from the top of the router because this was also contributing to the problem. I thought I'd leave the plastic cover on there to reduce scratches, but I think it was aiding in heat retention as well, so the plastic is now history. In any event, the problem is solved. Please see the link above if you are interested in purchasing the fan I am now using.
 
I have another update on this as well. I had a suspicion that my express card modem was running hot and causing the issues I was having. I tried out a friends USB modem for a day and had zero issues. I have since picked up a USB modem off of ebay and have chased several days with not a single problem.
 
Brad Goddard said:
I have another update on this as well. I had a suspicion that my express card modem was running hot and causing the issues I was having. I tried out a friends USB modem for a day and had zero issues. I have since picked up a USB modem off of ebay and have chased several days with not a single problem.
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity, what was the outside temperature on the day you used the USB modem and had no issues? Most of the problems I've had in the past were on days when the temperature was above 90 degrees on any given day.
 
Mark Blue said:
Just out of curiosity, what was the outside temperature on the day you used the USB modem and had no issues? Most of the problems I've had in the past were on days when the temperature was above 90 degrees on any given day.
Click to expand...

It was in the upper 80's lower 90's. I would definatley have more issues on hot days as well.
 
Hmmm, I have not had a problem with it shutting off, or disrupting the connection. Sometimes after a long period of time, it becomes a little warm, but not hot. Then again, mine is sitting directly in front of the air conditioning vent in front of me. I have mine set in the black power caddy holder accessory/add on for my ram mount, so it sits in there, and the air conditioning is sometimes blowing on it.

http://www.gpscity.com/ram-mount-plastic-laptop-tray-power-block-caddy.html
 
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