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Leaving hotspots connected via USB 24/7 is a no-no, and people put some effort trying to run them without a battery: - https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/tri

Leaving hotspots connected via USB 24/7 is a no-no, and people put some effort trying to run them without a battery: - https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/trick-the-hotspotphone-to-run-without-battery-directly-wired-to-psu/ https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/trick-the-hotspotphone-... - https://jibout.com/verizon-7730l-mifi-hotspot-battery-bypass/ https://jibout.com/verizon-7730l-mifi-hotspot-battery-bypass... - https://old.reddit.com/r/Calyx/comments/lorkrv/running_mifi_8000_without_battery/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Calyx/comments/lorkrv/running_mifi_... I feel like there's some liability on Netgear's part here: People can't be expected to know they can't leave it connected and a charging circuit should not constantly feed the battery. It's a shame there aren't more affordable connectivity options for projects like this. Hotspots with batteries tend to be a lot cheaper than battery-less routers and USB dongles. The latter of which isn't even available for 5G.

j45 3y ago
It might be better to buy a USB modem instead of a hotspot. Rocket sticks come to mind.
- worldofmatthew 3y ago
  In the UK, USB 4G LTE adapters are cheaply available 2nd hand. Plug that into a SBC and away you go.
wrs 3y ago
This just seems like a ridiculous consumer-safety violation. How is it legal to sell these things?
bityard 3y ago
I have a battery powered hotspot from my provider. Like a phone, it refuses to run off usb without a battery installed. But it yells at you and shuts down when plugged in for too long. I need to have it online all the time. I "fixed" it by plugging the charger into an old school mechanical timer. Every six hours, it runs off the battery for 30 minutes. Has been working great for 2 years.
Nextgrid 3y ago
> charging circuit should not constantly feed the battery To me this seems like a common misconception. I can’t see it being true - we’d see so many more battery fires out there if this was true, including in this very case (his setup would’ve burnt down within days in that case).
- hattmall 3y ago
  It's not likely to cause a fire but it will ruin the battery. Generally it causes swelling which physically damages the charging connection.
akira2501 3y ago
> It's a shame there aren't more affordable connectivity options for projects like this. There's tons of options, and the "professional" grade routers aren't much more expensive than that consumer grade AC800s. With the one I have I get a removable SIM, dual SMA antenna connectors for MIMO with the ability to have an external high gain antenna, 5 ethernet ports, and a box that runs a version of ddWRT that I have full control over. The AC800s is $200, my modem was $350.
- leohart 3y ago
  Oh? Any links?
  - akira2501 3y ago
    https://mofinetwork.com/ https://mofinetwork.com/
- HotGarbage 3y ago
  Used hotspots are $12 on eBay. The Franklin T9 is hackable and fun, but it would be nice to have Ethernet and OpenWRT for less than $100
  - SturgeonsLaw 3y ago
    I haven't used either of these personally but have seen them suggested before: GL.iNet GL-AR750S-Ext Wiflyer WE826-T
    - fy20 3y ago
      I have a ZTE MF286D that I picked up for €80 last year. Installing OpenWRT requires soldering wires to access the serial port, so I haven't bothered yet (the native OS works fine for what I need), but as I understand everything is supported.
      - Nux 3y ago
aloer 3y ago
Why is that such a problem if it’s apparently fine to keep phones and other small devices connected 24/7? Aren’t charging circuits standard parts? I would have expected them all to work more or less the same
- hattmall 3y ago
  It's not fine unless it has protection built in which is rare. After a few years battery will swell. I wrote a script that scrapes the hotspot web interface to turn off a smart plug when it's at 90% and turn back on at 60%.

j45 3y ago

It might be better to buy a USB modem instead of a hotspot. Rocket sticks come to mind.

worldofmatthew 3y ago
In the UK, USB 4G LTE adapters are cheaply available 2nd hand. Plug that into a SBC and away you go.

wrs 3y ago

This just seems like a ridiculous consumer-safety violation. How is it legal to sell these things?

bityard 3y ago

I have a battery powered hotspot from my provider. Like a phone, it refuses to run off usb without a battery installed. But it yells at you and shuts down when plugged in for too long. I need to have it online all the time. I "fixed" it by plugging the charger into an old school mechanical timer. Every six hours, it runs off the battery for 30 minutes. Has been working great for 2 years.

Nextgrid 3y ago

> charging circuit should not constantly feed the battery To me this seems like a common misconception. I can’t see it being true - we’d see so many more battery fires out there if this was true, including in this very case (his setup would’ve burnt down within days in that case).

hattmall 3y ago
It's not likely to cause a fire but it will ruin the battery. Generally it causes swelling which physically damages the charging connection.

akira2501 3y ago

> It's a shame there aren't more affordable connectivity options for projects like this. There's tons of options, and the "professional" grade routers aren't much more expensive than that consumer grade AC800s. With the one I have I get a removable SIM, dual SMA antenna connectors for MIMO with the ability to have an external high gain antenna, 5 ethernet ports, and a box that runs a version of ddWRT that I have full control over. The AC800s is $200, my modem was $350.

leohart 3y ago
Oh? Any links?
- akira2501 3y ago
  https://mofinetwork.com/ https://mofinetwork.com/
HotGarbage 3y ago
Used hotspots are $12 on eBay. The Franklin T9 is hackable and fun, but it would be nice to have Ethernet and OpenWRT for less than $100
- SturgeonsLaw 3y ago
  I haven't used either of these personally but have seen them suggested before: GL.iNet GL-AR750S-Ext Wiflyer WE826-T
  - fy20 3y ago
    I have a ZTE MF286D that I picked up for €80 last year. Installing OpenWRT requires soldering wires to access the serial port, so I haven't bothered yet (the native OS works fine for what I need), but as I understand everything is supported.
    - Nux 3y ago

aloer 3y ago

Why is that such a problem if it’s apparently fine to keep phones and other small devices connected 24/7? Aren’t charging circuits standard parts? I would have expected them all to work more or less the same

hattmall 3y ago
It's not fine unless it has protection built in which is rare. After a few years battery will swell. I wrote a script that scrapes the hotspot web interface to turn off a smart plug when it's at 90% and turn back on at 60%.