Airgain Connect AC-HPUE User manual

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AirgainConnect®AC-HPUE™
Installation Instructions

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Safety Warnings
• SEVERE DAMAGE WARNING. The AC-HPUE must be powered by the Ethernet
Injector (AC-EI) or an ISO 7637-2 compliant power conditioner when connected to
a DC power source. Direct connection to the vehicle’s battery or electrical system
is prohibited and can signicantly damage the AC-HPUE – damage resulting from
improper power supply is NOT covered by the warranty.
• HOT. Do not touch the antenna-modem while operating. Power it off and allow it to
cool down for 30 minutes to a safe temperature after use before touching it.
• MAINTAIN A SAFE DISTANCE. Stay 20 cm (8 inches) or more away from the antenna
modem during normal operation.
• FUSE. Use an inline 5A slow blow fuse for over-current protection.
• GROUND. Never connect the black ground wire directly to the battery terminal.
FCC RF Radiation Exposure Statement
To comply with the FCC RF exposure compliance requirements, this device and its
antenna must not be co-located or operating in conjunction with any other antenna or
transmitter. This equipment complies with FCC radiation exposure limits set forth for an
uncontrolled environment. This equipment should be installed and operated with min-
imum distance 20 cm between the antenna and the nearest person during normal use.
Furthermore, the FCC Consumer Guide provides the following information regarding
exposure the RF elds from vehicle-mounted antennas:
“Vehicle-mounted antennas used for wireless communications normally operate at a
power level of three watts or less. These wireless antennas are typically mounted on the
roof, trunk or rear window of a car or truck.”
Studies show that, in order to be exposed to RF levels that approach the safety limits
adopted by the FCC, it would be necessary to remain very close to a vehicle-mount-
ed wireless antenna for a signicant amount of time. Studies have also shown that the
metal body of the vehicle can effectively shield occupants. Proper installation of a vehi-
cle-mounted antenna to maximize this shielding effect is a good way to minimize expo-
sure. Some companies recommend that antennas be installed either in the center of the
roof or center of the trunk of a vehicle. In response to concerns expressed over the com-
monly used rear-window mounted wireless antennas, a minimum separation distance of
1-2 feet has been suggested as a way to minimize exposure to vehicle occupants.
From data gathered to date, properly installed, vehicle-mounted, personal wireless anten-
nas using up to three watts of power result in maximum exposure levels in or near the ve-
hicle that are typically well below the FCC’s safety limits, assuming that the transmitting
antenna is 6 inches or more from vehicle occupants.”
For more information on consumer issues, visit the FCC’s Consumer Help Center at www.
fcc.gov/consumers.

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Installation Instructions - Overview
1. Installation Tools ...........................................................................................................................................4
2. Electrostatic Discharge Protection.....................................................................................................5
3. Prior to Installation ......................................................................................................................................6
4. Installing the AC-HPUE .............................................................................................................................7
5. Installing the Ethernet Injector ...........................................................................................................10
6. Conguring your Router .........................................................................................................................15
a. Cradlepoint .......................................................................................................................................15
b. Sierra ....................................................................................................................................................16
7. Setting MTU ...................................................................................................................................................18
8. Connecting Directly to a Router that Supports USB WAN ................................................19
9. Customer APN ..............................................................................................................................................21
10. Setting Bridge Mode ................................................................................................................................23
11. Static IP Address ........................................................................................................................................24
12. Troubleshooting .........................................................................................................................................25

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1. Installation Tools
AC-HPUE Mounting
• Electric drill/driver
• 1 inch metal hole saw
• Torx Screwdriver: 2mm hex
Ethernet Injector Mounting
• Multimeter
• Fasteners
• (Optional) Metal le or heavy sandpaper

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2. Electrostatic Discharge Protection
• The Ethernet Injector and the internal components of the AC-HPUE are ESD
sensitive.
• Please take precautions handing the Ethernet Injector at all times and when
handling the AC-HPUE while the SIM door is removed.
• It is recommended that work is completed on an anti-static workstation and that
the technician is grounded using an anti-static wrist strap.
Figure 1 Figure 2

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3. Prior to Installation
• Perform a bench power up and pair with the deployment router
• It is much easier to troubleshoot on a bench prior to installation
• It is highly recommended to connect the AirgainConnect to any router it may
be deployed with and verify the conguration
• Ensure a proper data connection to a device directly connected to the Ethernet
port on the Ethernet Injector
• Verify the gasket is correct for the vehicle/location
• The AirgainConnect can be paired with multiple mounting gaskets for specic
vehicle types.
• Ensure that the supplied gasket supports the deployment vehicle
• Determine the mounting location on the specic vehicle
• Ensure that the roof location is at least 18 inches away from other antennas
• Verify that the mounting location of the Ethernet Injector is within 3 feet of a
grounding point such as the vehicle chassis

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4. Installing the AC-HPUE
An installation video can be found here: AirgainConnect® AC-HPUE™ Installation Video
on Vimeo
Installation:
• Drill a 1 in (2.54 cm) diameter hole where the center of the antenna-modem
housing will be located on the vehicle. Verify the hole will not interfere with headliner
mounted accessories, such as dome lighting.
• Clean the mounting surface with the provided alcohol wipe to remove dust, dirt, and
oil. Allow surface to dry

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• Insert the cables through the hole.
• Removing the backing on the bottom of the housing exposing the adhesive pad to
permanently mount the AC-HPUE to the vehicle roof. DO NOT remove the backing if
temporarily mounting to a magnetic or suction mount.
• Position the housing and adhere it to the vehicle using rm hand pressure.
• Place the plastic thermal washer on the threaded lug and then install the nut on the
threaded lug. Tighten the nut two turns after contact to inside surface. Attach the

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Wi-Fi and GNSS cables to the vehicle router Wi-Fi and GPS ports
Notes:
• The Installer may encounter various obstacles with individual vehicle designs that
may require different placement, routing of cables or drilling of holes to complete the
mounting procedure.
• Mount the housing on the roof of the vehicle
• The housing must be mounted horizontally, parallel to the ground (not mounted on a
vertical surface).
• The housing must be mounted to a at, clean dry surface. Avoid mounting the
housing near panel seams or rivets so the foam pad can seal properly.
• The housing should be installed with a minimum distance of 18 inches from existing
antennas, light bars or obstacles protruding from the roof or trunk lid of the vehicle.
• The antenna must be mounted at least 18 inches away from any other
communication antenna to maintain specied performance and limit interference to
other in-vehicle communication systems.
• When routing cables, do not pull on the connectors. Pulling directly on connectors
may cause damage and loss of the signal at the radio receiver, GPS, or modem.
• When mounting, make sure that the surface temperature where the housing is to be
mounted is between 85°F to 100°F (30°C to 38°C). Cooler surface temperatures may
cause improper adhesion to the surface.

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5. Installing the Ethernet Injector
1. Record the Serial Number and Password from the back of the Ethernet Injector along
with a unique identier for the vehicle. Save for your records.
*The serial number is required for software upgrades.
*The password is required to access the conguration interface of the Ethernet
Injector.
2. Locate a spot in the vehicle where the Ethernet Injector can be securely mounted.
The Ethernet Injector is an ESD and EMI sensitive device. Placement is important for
proper operation.
a. Do not mount on other electronics
b. Do not mount on carpet
c. Do not use velcro
3. Orient the Ethernet Injector so that the status LED can be viewed post installation
4. Follow either of the 2 recommended grounding methods
a. Method #1: Grounding via the supplied ground wire (Figure 3)
1. Use the provided grounding wire or an equivalent with terminated
connectors matching assembly requirements; 14AWG or thicker gauge
and a max length of 2 feet. Conrm that the grounding wire is attached
to the screw in the Signal Conditioner.
2. If needed, add the grounding wire by removing the screw then sliding on
the loop terminal
3. Locate a grounding point inside the vehicle within reach of the grounding
wire
4. Secure the loose end of the grounding wire to the vehicle chassis
5. Use the supplied screws to secure the Ethernet Injector through the
mounting tabs

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b. Method #2: Grounding via the Ethernet Injector mounting tabs
1. Mount AC-EI on a sturdy surface. Preferably a metallic surface with good
electrical connection to chassis ground.
2. Use the provided grounding cable or an equivalent with terminated
connectors matching assembly requirements; 14AWG or thicker gauge
and a max length of 2 feet. (Figure 4)
3. Locate a grounding point inside the vehicle within reach of the grounding
wire
4. Secure the loose end of the grounding wire to the vehicle chassis (Figure 5)
5. Secure the Ethernet Injector to the grounded surface using stainless steel
bolts passed through mounting tabs. Use a tooth locking washer to
penetrate the chassis coating. (Figure 6)
a. Alternately, scuff the protective coating on a mounting tab on the
Ethernet Injector using a metal le or heavy sandpaper. Avoid power
tools due to the possibility of ESD.
Figure 3
Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6

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5. Verify that the Ethernet Injector case is now grounded using a multimeter. Set the
multimeter to the continuity test setting (Figure 7)
a. Set multimeter to continuity test
b. Unplug the 4-pin power cable from the Ethernet Injector
c. Follow directions for setting your specic multimeter (e.g., How to Test for
Continuity with a Digital Multimeter | Fluke)
d. Place one lead on
1. Any of the Ethernet Injector chassis screws or
2. The scuffed surface of the Ethernet Injector tab
e. Place the other lead on the vehicle chassis near the grounding point
f. If the test does not pass:
1. Check the grounding connections at all points
2. Ensure that the mounting fasteners are made from a conductive material
3. Ensure that the connection point to the vehicle chassis is conductive (no
rust, paint, etc)
4. If grounding method #2 is used then ensure the mounting tab is
sufciently scuffed
6. Use an inline 5A slow blow fuse for over-current protection.
7. Connect the following (Figure 8):
a. Red wire to +12VDC that is always-on, even when the ignition is off
b. Black wire to ground (not directly to the vehicle battery)
Figure 7

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c. Orange wire to the vehicle ignition or accessory circuit. For applications where
the device is always on (non-vehicular applications), connect the orange
ignition sense wire to the red +12VDC wire.
d. Never connect the black ground wire directly to the battery terminal
8. Connect USB data cable and 2-pin power cable from the roof-top antenna-modem
housing to the ethernet injector (Figure 9)
View
Item
Description
Rear
Power In
Connects to vehicle power, ground, ignition sense, and
router USB sleep sense
Rear
Ethernet LAN connector
Connects to the router WAN port
Front
Power out
Connects power to the modem housing
Front
Modem
Connects LTE data over USB to the modem
Front
Status indicator
Displays operational status
Front
Reset switch
Press to reset the ethernet injector
Figure 9
Figure 8
Connections to a Cradlepoint
IBR900 Router
Connections to a Sierra
Wireless MG90 Router

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9. Ensure power has been terminated to vehicle power system as reviewed in step 7 of
this installation guide before terminating 4 Pin power cable to ethernet injector
a. Route the cables securely through the vehicle with enough slack so that they
will not be accidently tugged when placing and removing items in the vehicle
trunk
10. Connect the Ethernet cable from the Ethernet Injector to either the vehicle router
WAN port or directly to user equipment requiring Internet connectivity (e.g., laptop)
11. If your model of AirgainConnect includes Wi-Fi and GNSS then attach those coax
cables to the appropriate vehicle router ports.
12. The multi-color LED on the ethernet injector indicates operational status. After at
least 1 minute, the LED should turn solid green (Figure 10)
State
Indicator Color
Description
Power off
& sleeping
Off
The LED is off when the power is off, or the device is sleeping
Booting up
Blue
Solid blue while booting up
No SIM card
Red
Solid red after bootup when there is no valid SIM card
No signal
Red/Green/Blue
Blinking red after bootup when there is no cellular coverage signal,
followed by blinking green, followed by reboot solid blue
No USB
connection
Red
Blinking red after bootup when there is no connection to the
antenna-modem
Connecting
Green blink
Blinking green while connecting to the cellular network
Connected
Green
Solid green when connected to the cellular network
Figure 10

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6. Vehicle Router Conguration
AC-HPUE provides high performance LTE coverage compared to a conventional modem
in the vehicle router and therefore should be the primary LTE connection. Below are two
examples of how to set the router WAN port as the primary LTE connection.
Cradlepoint IBR900/IBR1700/R1900 Conguration
• Select the Connection Manager tab
• Click on the Ethernet-WAN up/down arrow icon.
• Drag and drop the icon to the top to make Ethernet-WAN the primary mobile net-
work connection.
• Click on the internal modem up/down arrow icon.
• Drag and drop the internal modem icon to just below the Ethernet-WAN to make it
the backup mobile network connection.
• Check the WAN port setting and conrm it is set to DHCP. The router will get an IP
address from the Ethernet Injector via DHCP. The IP address from the mobile net-
work will be passed through to the router.

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Sierra Wireless MG90 Conguration
To congure the WAN port (Ethernet 5) a higher priority than the internal modem, do
the following steps:
1.
2.
3.
To congure the internal modem priority, do the following:
1.

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2.
3.
Check the link status. In this example, the WAN port and the internal modem are both
up. The trafc will be routed over the WAN port only which is represented by it being
highlighted at the top of the status list.

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7. MTU Size
Most router WAN ports, regardless of interface type, are set to a maximum transmission
unit (MTU) default size of 1500 bytes, which is larger than cellular networks can handle
without fragmentation. Some payloads will fail in the IP network if fragmented. Others
will suffer delay due to fragmentation in the network.
Always set the MTU size in the router to 1342 to avoid IP network performance issues.
An example of where to set it on the Peplink BR1 ENT router is shown below.
On the Dashboard, click on the USB or WAN (the one to which the AC-HPUE is
connected) Details button.
Then under Physical Interface Settings, select custom and set the value to 1342

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8. Connect Directly to a Router via USB
The AC-HPUE antenna-modem can be connected directly to a router if the router sup-
ports USB modems. This allows the router’s ethernet WAN port to be used for other
purposes, such as a satellite uplink or ber backhaul.
Peplink Pepwave Max BR1 ENT
The Pepwave Max BR1 ENT and other Peplink routers that support USB modems can
be directly connected to the AC-HPUE. However, the AC-HPUE still requires the
Ethernet Injector to provide power conditioning to the HPUE modem when used in
vehicle installations.
The Max BR1 ENT software version which supports the AC-HPUE modem via USB is
8.1.0s038 build 4965. This build also supports the HD4 model. The rmware can be
found here.
For other Pepwave router models, please see this post in the Peplink support forum to
nd or request the appropriate rmware version.
Follow the steps below to connect the router USB interface.
• While the power source is off, connect the antenna-modem power cable to the
ethernet injector.
• Connect the ethernet injector power input connections as described in Section 5
above.
• Connect the antenna-modem USB cable to a USB port on the router
\WARNING! The power to the AC-HPUE modem must be off when connecting or dis-
connecting the USB cable from any device.

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• Connect the antenna-modem USB cable to a USB port on the router.
• Turn on the power and ignition sense input to the ethernet injector. Allow the
antenna-modem 60 seconds to boot up.
• Set the router’s USB port MTU size to 1342.
• On the Dashboard, click on the USB or WAN (the one to which the AC-HPUE is
connected) Details button.
• Enter the MTU size of 1342 in the Custom eld.