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Forum Discussion
Replacement Battery for Nighthawk M1 (MR1100)
Where can a Nighthawk M1 (MR1100) be purchased? I believe the mobile hotspot device takes a W-10 battery? Thanks in advance Model: MR1100|Nighthawk LTE Mobile Hotspot Router
Hi MikeFl1,
I'm a little confused. Are you in the US? Are you using your hotspot at home for your internet service? If so, why use a battery at all? Just run the unit off of your QC2.0 charger. What band and signal are you getting?
That said, I've run my MR1100 on battery (mobile in the car, etc.) for more than 24 hours and the battery was still ~20% charged. But I did have decent signal strength and wasn't using the hotspot heavily.
You said you got a firmware update? That's the first in the US that I've heard of. What firmware versions are you running before / after the update?
Unfortunately, I tried the Netgear Mimo antenna, and it did almost nothing for my reception. In fact it may have made it worse.
-Jonathan
JSchnee21wrote:Hi MikeFl1,
I'm a little confused. Are you in the US? Are you using your hotspot at home for your internet service? If so, why use a battery at all? Just run the unit off of your QC2.0 charger. What band and signal are you getting?
Yes, I'm in the US on AT&T4G-LTE with 5bars showing on the signal strength. We are using the Hotspot as ISP from AT&T. Without battery, I'm not sure the Hotspot will provide uninterupted signal. I turned it off last night for two hours and got the battery to 100% and within 5 hours and plugged in to QC2 Charger it was at 28% charge.
That said, I've run my MR1100 on battery (mobile in the car, etc.) for more than 24 hours and the battery was still ~20% charged. But I did have decent signal strength and wasn't using the hotspot heavily.
We have several devices, including a range extender due to the Plaster Walls in our house. We are using about 3.5gb/day.
You said you got a firmware update? That's the first in the US that I've heard of. What firmware versions are you running before / after the update?
This morning the MR1100 said it had another Firmware Update to be installed. That is the second one since 02/28/18. Current firmware is 12.02.06.00
Unfortunately, I tried the Netgear Mimo antenna, and it did almost nothing for my reception. In fact it may have made it worse.
The MIMO antenna from Netgear has helped to get the signal propogation point for the MR1100 at a higher elevation and allows the Hotspot to be away from direct sunlight on it. It needs to be near a window since the Plaster walls in our house make a pretty efficient Farraday Barrier to the signals.
-Jonathan
Hi MikeFl1,
Many on the board have run the MR1100 without the battery on just the QC2 charger alone. Be sure you have a high quality QC2 or QC3 charger and USB C cable from a reputable company like Anker. When the Quick Charger is properly recognized you will see the words "QuickCharge" on one of the device status web admin pages.
My recommendation would be to disable the onboard wifi and connect your hotspot via Ethernet to one or more decent Wifi Access points (not routers) throughout your home. TPLink makes some decent ones that are inexpensive (EAP245) Ideally these AP's would be hardwired (Ethernet) to a common switch. Netgear makes some nice inexpensive ones (ex GS105NA). Since many of us (myself included) don't have Ethernet throughout our house, MOCA (IP over Coax) or Ethernet over powerline can be used as the backbone between the switch and the AP's. I have been using MOCA myself (Actiontec ECB6200K02) with very good success for many years, but some of the newer powerline adapters seem okay, too as long as you're not trying to run through power strips and daisychained branch circuits.
In the newest firmware version there is a setting to disable the Ethernet timeout. The default value is 2minutes. You'll need to use Chrome via the Web Admin page to adjust this setting. Additionally, you'll want to be sure your Ethernet device is plugged in before turning the hotspot on. Historically, if the hotspot did not detect an Ethernet link it would turn off this port to save power.
My suspision is that if you are using a Wifi repeater, all of the broadcast beacons and Wifi node to node chatter is keeping the Wifi radios on the hotspot busy and running down the battery. Though it is still very strange that your battery would be run down while the hotspot is plugged in an charging. I've never seen this.
There are other threads on the board about using Ethernet and dedicated AP's for the purpose I have described. Some have had good success and some have not. But it's been difficult to get to the root cause as many have had a wide variety of firmwares, settings, and procedures. Certainly there are several folks which use the MR1100 as a dedicated home broadband device.
-Jonathan
Ahhh,
I just remembered, some on this board have reported that the MR1100 is very conservative when it comes to device and battery temperatures. That is to say it will not attempt to charge the Li-ion battery if the temp is too high. Where high was a fairly low temp (~35-40C) as electronic devices go.
Device and battery temps are reported on the Admin page. Some are even running the device in fixed installations with battery and battery cover removed, elevated, with fans and heatsinks to keep it cool.
If you have multiple devices which do not seem to be properly charging the battery it is most likely 1) the charger, 2) charger cable, 3) temperature.
-Jonathan
JSchnee21wrote:Ahhh,
I just remembered, some on this board have reported that the MR1100 is very conservative when it comes to device and battery temperatures. That is to say it will not attempt to charge the Li-ion battery if the temp is too high. Where high was a fairly low temp (~35-40C) as electronic devices go.
According to the User's Manual, the cutoff point for high temperature during charging of the battery is 113F or 45F. On my MR1100, with an infrared thermometer on the Battery when at 94% charged, it shows 109.0°F (42.8°C) while charging. The FLIR Camera I have shows 109.2°F (42.9°C) on the warmest part of the battery and over the connector with the Anker USB3.0/USB-C cable from the Charging Port of the Anker Quick Charge 3.0 60W 6-Port USB Wall Charger and from the QC3 port there is a temperature of 130.7°F (54.8°C) on the connector, not the battery. In the Home page of settings under the Diagnostics tab, the Device temp shows 47°C and the Battery at 43°C. The In-Line USB meter I have shows 4,197mv and 0.730A and that the battery is on Quick Charge. It never went higher than 95% while charging, and now is showing 92% and a Battery Temp with the Flir of 87.0°F (30.6°C).Device and battery temps are reported on the Admin page. Some are even running the device in fixed installations with battery and battery cover removed, elevated, with fans and heatsinks to keep it cool.
Device and Battery temps are reported on the Diagnostic Tab of the Settings Tab on the NetGear/AT&T Windows App in Chrome. When I ran the MR1100 overnight without the Battery and the case sitting on the Window Ledge, this morning the device was off-line.
If you have multiple devices which do not seem to be properly charging the battery it is most likely 1) the charger, 2) charger cable, 3) temperature.
The Charger is an Anker 6-Port with one QC3.0 and 5 QC2.0 ports and the Cable is also an Anker, USB3.0-USB-C. The MR1100 is the only device plugged in so far and it is sitting on the Window Ledge of a window that is cool to the touch. It was 30°F overnight, just outside the window. It is only 66°F outside now, and the window glass is at 64°F. The window is in shade all day, under 3-60 feet Blue Spruce Trees.
Mike
-Jonathan
