sphreak wrote

Selecting the test mode is only possible in initial setup. Late change is not possible.

Wrong. Test mode always shows up if you have an old (V1.0) device:






Furthermore, test mode is disabled starting with CPE hardware version 1.1, no matter which firmware version is being used.

Hm, the thing regarding v.1.1 not supporting Test_Mode is probably not entirely true...

RTouris wrote

Hm, the thing regarding v.1.1 not supporting Test_Mode is probably not entirely true...

The exact model is important. I also have a CPE510 V1.1 sold in the EU, which still has test mode and region selection in any firmware version up to 2.0.0. But I also have EAP EU models where region selection suddenly disappeared from one version to the next.

The FCC and the EU regulatory authorities even discussed regulatory measures to force vendors to sign their firmware digitally, so that it will be impossible for users to replace the vendor's firmware by OSS firmware. Although they couldn't enforce this for the moment, it's probably still on their agenda.

IMHO the problem is: the more people ignore legal restrictions such as the maximum EIRP allowed in their country, the sooner such restrictions will be tightened for all of us in the same legal system.

Gioffry76: It's always good practise to educate thyself prior to purchasing equipment that needs to abide by local laws and legislation.

In this case regardless of the vendor's claims for the maximum bradcast power (dBm) the owner / installer is required to respect local legal restrivtions (EIRP / DFS usage) as is stated in the welcoming screen of the equipment setup. I'm not suggesting that there's not something sketchy here in terms of false advertising, but regardless think of it this way in terms of an everyday example: you buy a car that can do 250km/h, but you can only speed up to 130-140km/h (with the Autobahns being an exception in Germany) which is defined by local law. The manufacturer doesn't make any false claim since it's technicaly possible to do so (250km/h - 23dBm / no DFS / other channels), it's up to the owner / user to follow the law and stay within the limits imposed by the local legislation.

@gioffry76, my model is CPE510 Ver. 1.1, bought around September 2016 via Amazon. Yes, it still has test mode as RTouris noted. Did confuse this with CPE210, which probably disabled test mode in V1.1 as reported in another thread. What model is shown on your device's label? Does it show "EU"?

To clarify:

The CPE510 model with region Germany or Italy selected works in RLAN band II only (5470 to 5725 MHz). In both countries the maximum EIRP for RLAN II is 30dBm (1 Watt or 1000mW) if the device has DFS support. The CPE510 has DFS support. Antenna gain is 13dBi, maximum TX power is 17dBm, so total EIRP is 17dBm + 13dBi = 30dBm with following setting:






You might compare this with your device's maximum range of the TX power slider in the Wireless menu.

Maximum power this device can be set in test mode is indeed 23dBm (yields a total EIRP of 36dBm, which is 4 Watts). Since the RLAN II band is also used by weather radars and military radars (the reason why WiFi gear must support DFS), you better not use 4 Watts except if you want to risk getting into big trouble with regulatory authorities or if you want to fake the rain radar map shown on your favorite TV channel in some way. :)

The German and Italian TP-Link websites are not of much help, since they are full of errors about CPE510 TX power/EIRP. For example this is from the Specifications section on the german TP-Link website:





They obviously couldn't decide what to choose for maximum values and so did list two different values, 23dBm probably being the maximum TX power in test mode, but no idea where the 27dBm come from.

Ok, admittedly this TX power / dBm / dBi / EIRP stuff can be confusing. But luckily, it seems that TP-Link engineers did get it right if the specified antenna gain of 13dBi for a CPE510 is correct. ;)