Outdoor WiFi

I took the plunge recently in installing an outdoor wifi repeater at my house.  I have a Pioneer VSX-1122 receiver that can do AirPlay hooked up to our outdoor speaker system.  That was great but if you can't get a wifi signal while you are at the pool, it limits the usefulness of the system.  My wife's primary usage of the system was expected to be with her phone, while sitting out at the pool.

I chose to install an Amped Wireless SR10000 along with their outdoor antenna kit.  I finally got around to installing it a couple of weeks ago and it worked out perfectly: what I intended to do actually worked.  Here's how it went.

I have a set of outdoor flood lights (note the Feit LED bulbs) on the back corner of my house, right near the pool, like so:

Normally, this wouldn't necessarily be too helpful.  In this case, there were two reasons why it was:

1. The light box had screw plugs that would leg me attach a standard PVC conduit to it.
2. I knew that there was a hot wire in the box.  I knew this because I was going to install a z-wave switch on the box, but couldn't due to the fact that there was not power at the box.  If power wasn't at the switch, it had to be at the box.

My plan was this:

1. Use an old extension cord from my garage door automation project.  The cord had the female end intact, but the male end was cut off.  Perfect.
2. Buy a plastic outdoor (cable) box and put the SR10000 in it.  I forget where I found this online.
3. Use PVC conduit to connect the cable box and the electrical box.
4. Hang the antenna to the side of the roof.

It turned out well and our new backyard network is up and running and at a good strength.  Here are some more pictures:

Here's a view of how everything will fit into the box when its all set up.  I did have to drill a hole in the bottom of the box to get the antenna wire out.  Some putty is due to seal that up.

This is a view of the box attached to the underside of the overhang of my roof.

The same electrical box, this time with a PVC conduit coming out the back side.

Some perspective of the box's orientation to the floodlights.  The antenna is hanging freely; it is my intention to nail or staple that down at some point.

A view from a little farther away, showing the antenna.

And even farther away, showing the mounting to the roof.  Its not terribly long, but it works well!