WiFi Hound: 2.4 & 5 GHz Spectrum Analyzer
A full-featured wireless network/RF Spectrum Analyzer at an affordable price. This unit lets you IDENTIFY potential problems quickly, SEE & ISOLATE radio interference, DOCUMENT the problems, and BUILD your tech-prowess brand. This sophisticated tester also lets you create custom-branded, high quality, detailed, full-color reports for your clients with the click of a button!
- Designed for Live Environments
- Ideal for Smart Homes & Businesses
- Data Visualization & Reporting
DOWNLOADABLE
USER MANUAL
A full-featured WiFi Troubleshooter/RF Spectrum Analyzer at an affordable price. Triplett’s WiFi Hound is a 2.4 GHz & 5GHz spectrum analyzer designed to help you troubleshoot and isolate problems that impact the quality of your wireless networks. No Engineering degree needed! With its user-friendly display, you will properly analyze the wireless environment and successfully troubleshoot. This perfectly portable device is the ideal solution for field techs and wireless professionals.
- IDENTIFY potential problems quickly
- SEE & ISOLATE radio interference
- DOCUMENT the problems
- BUILD your tech-prowess brand
- CREATE CUSTOM REPORTS with a click of a button.
What is a spectrum analyzer?
Spectrum analyzers, by definition, measure the phase of a signal. A spectrum analyzer allows you to analyze a device’s signal and circuit performance. Additionally, it displays received signals with respect to amplitude vs. frequency.
The main use of a spectrum analyzer is to measure the power of a signal’s various frequency components like radio frequency and audio signals. Because of how powerful a spectrum analyzer is, it’s practically owned across all engineering labs for design development and testing of engineers’ devices. If you need to see the frequency make-up of your signals a spectrum analyzer is a great tool to have.
Spectrum Analyzer vs Free APP. If you think, “my phone can do that”… NO, no it can’t.
First, there is more to troubleshooting than channel management. Nowadays, the wireless environment is so heavily saturated with IoT equipment that doesn’t play nice with each other. Most apps are good for channel management, but nothing more.
A spectrum analyzer, like Triplett’s WiFi Hound, shows everything that is happening in the spectrum, regardless of what is creating the signal. You will often see free apps people use on their phone or tablet that show other Access Points that are broadcasting in the area. However, those Apps are not able to show EVERYTHING in the spectrum, and it’s all that other stuff that is often causing problems. That is the fundamental difference between those “free” apps and this Tester. Those free apps will only get you so far; they are not true Spectrum Analyzers.
Your average phone app provides only basic information. These apps only show you the other wifi networks that are broadcasting; it can’t even show you a simple Bluetooth earpiece, or the guy next door’s wireless security system that is likely messing up your wifi network. It can’t help you track down that interference, or show your client and their neighbor what is happening.
WiFi Hound Spectrum Analyzer: Troubleshooting Smart Homes
Our WiFi Troubleshooter is designed for live environments and thanks to its Zigbee capabilities (802.11.15.4) this tool is a must for home & business automation systems. The WiFi Hound helps you isolate problems that impact the quality of your wireless networks. Especially interference from non-Access Points or competing for wireless networks. As a Spectrum Analyzer, it displays everything in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio spectrum; including signals broadcasted from Wireless Networks, Bluetooth, Zigbee devices, external radio signals, machinery signals and more!
Site Survey: Installing a new WiFi network
You can use the WiFi Hound during your initial Site Survey at a new location to quickly optimize channel & power settings on your Access Points, and see what other things may cause problems. For example, let’s say you go in to meet with a new client. They have received prices from two other contractors, but both of those contractors quoted the client on 2.4 GHz Access Points. You whip out your WiFi Hound, and instantly see there is Bluetooth interference on the 2.4 GHz spectrum due to a wireless security system next door. You then quote the client on 5 GHz Access Points, and show them the WiFi Hound analysis and explain why they need a 5 GHz AP instead of a 2.4 GHz AP.
Recommended Best Practices for Technicians using Triplett’s WiFi Troubleshooter:
- Perform and document a Site Survey
- Set up a regular process. (For example, enter the door, and go left to each extreme of the room, taking snapshots as you go.)
- When you arrive at the location for troubleshooting, or
- When you have completed an initial installation or finished the necessary repairs/changes on a Trouble Call.
- Show the customer their wireless environment, and explain in simple terms what they are looking at.
- Don’t let the customer get mired in the “What’s that? And that?” game. There will always be RF that cannot be identified. Stay focused on the big picture.
- When you go back a year later, pull up your original report and show the client a comparison between then and now. This will almost always show major changes in the wireless environment.
Let’s discuss what the WiFi Hound is not – it is NOT a mapping system to tell you where to place Access Points in a home or office. Our WiFi troubleshooter is a spectrum analyzer that allows you to see all of the RF activity that is happening in the environment. This Tester is far more sophisticated than the free apps you get on your smartphone. The WiFi Hound has a full set of features for the Field Technician, which we will get into later. Some basic information… this model covers both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless spectrum, including Zigbee. Before you ask, yes, we will have another model out soon that will cover Z-Wave. Z-Wave operates in a different part of the wireless spectrum, and thus requires different hardware. In the works!
FEATURES
- Spectrum Analyzer: for 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz, including Zigbee
- Adjustable Refresh Rate
- Advanced filters include:
○ Select specific wireless channel
○ Adjustable RSSI View Range
○ Focus in on a single AP by Mac Address
○ Show Broadcast Type (n, g, ac, etc.)
○ Show Channel #
- Snapshot Feature instantly shows you:
○ SSIDs detected
○ APs detected
○ Channels
○ Non-overlapping Channels Open
- Table View includes:
○ Custom sort and hold functions
○ Type of AP (e.g., Ruckus, Ubiquiti, Cisco, etc.)
○ Screen capture to add data to your reports
- Document Your Findings
○ Capture photos and record video of the screen
○ Data Logging capabilities for troubleshooting intermittent problems
- Create Custom Reports
○ Full-color, custom-branded to your company
○ Include captured data, clients & location details
○ Send completed reports to your clients instantly!
○ No need for subscribing to a cloud software or connecting to a computer
SPECIFICATIONS
- Spectrum Analyzer:
○ Frequency Range: 2.4 to 2.495 GHz and 5.15 to 5.85 GHz
○ Frequency Resolution; 2.4 GHz: 333 KHz, 5 GHz: 1.665 MHz
○ Amplitude Range: -95 to 0 dBm
○ Amplitude Resolution: 0.5 dBm
○ Antenna: Internal 2 dBi
○ Real Wave Visualization
- SSID Scan:
○ Frequency Range: 2.4 to 2.5 GHz and 5.15 to 5.85 GHz
○ Amplitude Range: -100 to +10 dBm
○ Amplitude Resolution: 1 dBm
○ Scan Rate: Live, 10, 20 & 30 seconds
- SSID Table Visualization:
○ Mode (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac)
○ Color-coded Strength Indicator
○ Security Type
○ SSID, RSSI, MAC Address & Frequency
- Hardware:
○ Operating System: Android 7.0
○ Storage: 16 GB
○ RAM: 1 GB
○ Screen Size: 10.1 in
○ Aspect Ratio 16:9
○ LCD Multipoint Capacitive – Touch Screen
○ Resolution: 800 x 1280
○ Camera: 2.0 MP
○ Bluetooth: BLE 2.0
○ Built-in 0.8 W Speaker
○ 3.5mm standard headphone jack
○ Mini-HDMI
○ Micro-SD Card Slot
○ Micro USB OTG
○ Built-in Battery: LiPo 6000 mAh
- Dimensions:
○ LxWxH: 12 in x 7.75 in x 1.5 in
○ Weight: 2.10 lbs