Re: Replacement Battery for Nighthawk M1 (MR1100)

lpfleghardt · ‎2018-01-02

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

UK-based · ‎2018-01-02

Are you asking where to buy the MR1100 and also the battery, or just the battery? If you want to buy the MR1100 itself, from what I've read about it so far is that you need to buy it as part of a mobile internet package from one of the mobile network suppliers in the country where you'll be using it. The reason I've come to this conclusion is that the firmware upgrades for the MR1100 are not available on the Netgear website - they are automatically downloaded by the MR1100 via the specific mobile network supplier. My guess is that the firmware for the MR1100s provided by each supplier may be customised by Netgear for them.

Of course, I could be completely wrong but it may be wise to check this first before buying an MR1100 from another country.

pkdstuff · ‎2018-02-15

Nowhere on this forum or on additional Netgear and AT&T websites can I find information on how to get a replacement battery. So, does anyone know how a battery for the MR1100 might be aquired?

JasonN · ‎2018-02-15

Hi Ipfleghardt,

What provider do you have for your MR1100?

Hi pkdstuff,

If your MR1100 is AT&T then you can purchase a battery through AT&T. It will take around 3 months because I believe they are backlogged on the item. You can contact AT&T to confirm this.

- Jason N

JasonN · ‎2018-02-15

Hi everyone,

Adding on is that we do not sell the battery separately. If you are experiencing an issue with the battery then please contact your ISP.

- Jason N

pkdstuff · ‎2018-02-15

Yes, AT&T.

Thank you for ansering my question!

JasonN · ‎2018-02-15

Hi pkdstuff,

You're welcome!

I'm glad I was of help to you. :]

- Jason N

Pgirl · ‎2018-03-16

Have had problem with battery for nighthawk m1100. We have two devices. One works great! The other has had problems since the get go and turns out it is because if a defective battery. Att says they do not have any, that I would have to buy a whole new nighthawk unit with everything and have a 2year contract. If don’t want to do that to contact netgear to purchase battery. Netgear says to buy one on amazon or another 3rd party source because they do not sell to individuals. Cannot find one anywhere. Any suggestions?

JasonN · ‎2018-03-16

Hi lpfleghardt & pgirl,

Pgirl is correct. We do not sell the battery individually and that a whole unit would need to be purchased.

Thank you for explaining that for us. :]

- Jason N

JSchnee21 · ‎2018-03-16

Hello @Pgirl,

How old is your MR1100? If the battery is defective should't they (either Netgear or AT&T) replace the entire hotspot then under the original MFG warranty?

That said, I have no idea how long the hardware warranty is on the MR1100 -- 90 days? 365 days? The whole produce line is less than a year old, it only came out on Telstra last Spring.

Are you sure the battery is defective and not the charger? The oem charger in the box (aka wall wart) seems to be pretty subpar. Most of us have replaced them with a quality QC2 or QC3 rapid charger.

Which carrier do you have Telstra or AT&T? Make sure you have the latest firmware as (if Telstra) as some of the early firmware versions had battery charging related issues.

-Jonathan

MikeFl1 · ‎2018-03-21

I too have a brand new MR1100 Nighthawk ATT Router that has been having battery charge issues. Currently, I am on the second Router with the exact same issue of a battery that I have to remove the SIMM from for a couple of hours to get it to charge to 100% and 6 hours later it is already at 28%. I just today updated the firmware. Another Router (#3) is currently enroute for warranty replacement of #2. Third Router in less than a month! I found in the MR1100 Manual that it is possible to Quick Charge the battery, so I replaced the original charger with a QC2 2.4A Charger and that still doesn't keep up, so I was hoping to find another OEM battery to be able to charge and swap every 24 hours or so. Dissapointing to find out that NetGear doesn't sell accessories or replacement parts. Fortunately, I found an external antenna on Amazon that is a NetGear accessory (Netgear 6000450 MIMO Antenna with 2 TS-9 Connectors) that has helped a little with signal strength. Unfortunately, the W-10a NetGear Battery is not available from ATT or Netgear. It's specs are 3.85V, 19.78Wh, Capacity 5040mAh.

JSchnee21 · ‎2018-03-21

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

MikeFl1 · ‎2018-03-22

@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

JSchnee21 · ‎2018-03-23

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

JSchnee21 · ‎2018-03-23

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

MikeFl1 · ‎2018-03-23

@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

mdgm-ntgr · ‎2018-03-25

@JSchnee21 wrote:

Hi @MikeFl1,

If so, why use a battery at all?

Depending on how badly a battery has failed there could be a problem. The battery does need to be installed and have sufficient charge to be allowed to install a firmware update.

gpndavid · ‎2018-05-04

My Nighthawk MR1100 has worked well for four months. Yesterday it turned off and showed low battery power. I reset it by removing the battery and SIM card. Now it only works when the battery is removed. As soon as I put the battery in, the device is non-responsive, powers down and will not do anything. Remove the battery and it is fine working on the charger. As noted on this string, I cannot find a replacement battery. Any suggestions?

JasonN · ‎2018-05-08

Hi gpndavid,

Thank you for posting your issue on the community. I will be looking into this issue and finding a solution for you.

On a normal usage, did you leave the battery fully charge in the device while using the AC power supply? Is your firmware up-to-date with the most current version? Have you done a factory reset?

What version of the MR1100 do you have? (Telstra // AT&T // etc.)

Please provide those answers so it will help us find a resolution.

Thank you. :]

- Jason N

MikeFl1 · ‎2018-05-16

The only way I found to fully charge the battery is to power down, remove the AT&T SIMM card, plug back in the USB cord with device off and then when the battery is full charged, verify power off, unplug, remove fully charged battery. Then if I need to use the MR1100 away from home, I can take it with me and have a fully charged battery for mobile use. I have it hooked up to a ANKER Power Port +6 with 1-QC 3.0 outlet since the MR1100 accepts and can utilize Quick Charge. When not charging a battery, the battery is removed and the MR1100 is powered by the ANKER PP+6 with Anker Quick Charge USB-C cable.I have been told that neither Netgear or AT&T will sell replacement batteries to end users as their policies. I found a Wireless Construction Supplier that had many "on the shelf" and I was processing an order when asked if I was an end-user and I was told they couldn't sell it to me. AT&T has helped a lot to help me find a solution that works for me. I can also power the MR1100 in the field with a USB Power Bank after the battery runs down.

pkdstuff · ‎2018-05-16

MikefI1,

The only reason I was originally looking for a replacement battery was because I like to have spares of things. I usually have two or more batteries for my cameras. I guess this is a habit I should break since unused batteries have lousy shelf life. I appreciate all of your (and others) good advice. I may purchase a device that will allow me to run the device without a battery. I don't understand AT&T's and Netgear's policies on this (not selling replacement batteries).

landglow · ‎2018-05-31

I find a replacement battery here, I hope it can help you.

Netgear Nighthawk M1 battery W-10 308-10019-01

MikeFl1 · ‎2018-05-31

Thank you!

Unfortunately I don't recognize the language the witbat dot com webpage is in, and it returned no results to my English search terms. I have been using the Hotspot with no battery, powered by an Anker USB Power Supply and a cooling fan running on it. I am using it tethered to a Router with WiFi disabled. When I need to use it away from the router I have the originally battery fully charged for two or three hours.

DragonheartFL · ‎2018-08-15

If you look on ebay they offer M-10 replacement batteries for $19.00 but you'll need to be prepared to wait a lil bit because they ship from china.