Added an antenna

Upon buying my acer aspire one i replaced the internal wifi card with a Dell 1390 Wireless card. ( This was for os x ). I quickly discovered even doing this the wireless kept dropping out and the signal was about the same as my Macbook Pro ( meaning it didn't pick up the wireless in the furthest room in the house ). I saw how someone with an eepc had attached an aerial to his laptop and had it coming out the side of the laptop. I had one lying round and i have routed in through the locking port as you can see in the picture. I am going to make the hole a bit bigger tomorrow so it can fit in perfectly as right now blu-tack is holding it on securely as you can see!!!!

Anyway....my point is, the reception is now unbelieveable. I haven't had a laptop that has such a range in my life. I can now not only receive my wireless signal in my living but i can for another 100metres from that room! I am picking up all my neighbours wireless networks from across the street now! Truly amazing, well worth it!!

 

The antenna is pretty sweet and a good idea. It would be great if you could get the antenna to lay flat on the side or down the back side.


cheers

 

Sorry for the noobish question. But you have the antenna pluged into the AC power input? Is the antenna not connected directly to the card?

 

I thought that too for a while and was buggered out by it. But if you look at the keys and the logo placement, you can tell that it is a mirror image.

I also think this is a pretty great idea, could you provide a guide? and maybe comment on the sturdiness of your construction?

Thanks

 

Ahh, I see what he did there. It would be cool if he could fit a little antenna like this one on there. I can't seem to find a source where to purchase the antenna though.



*** Ok, I see in his original post that the antenna is going through the locking slot. Hmmm, I need to ponder this. A DIY would be great if you could post more pictures.

 

Hi again, sorry, yes it is a mirrored picture as it was taken with my macbook pro webcam heh.

I had an old belkin wireless router with two antennae lying round, broken. I simply detached those aerials. Opened up the laptop and saw that it was connected with two antennae of the same connector. I uncoupled one of the internal ones, plugged in the antenna and then just routed the cable through the lock to the right.

I can post pictures and instructions if necessary though it's not too difficult. I wish i had some actual data to present to show performance increase. I will get some in the next few days when i re-open the case to install a 1gb of ram. But the performance increase has been substantial to say the least.

No, the aerial is not powered by an external AC source either . I was thinking about installing a second antenna but it may just look a bit silly with two sticking out...and the gain might be minimal. Still i will give it a go, find out and report back

 

I have decided to make a further improvement to this modification. As you can see from the original picture, blu-tac was being used to keep the aerial upright and in place as it doesn't actually "slot" in through the power slot.

Well today i got round to fixing that. I have made the power slot big enough by drilling a hole. As you can see from the pictures the antenna fits in very snug and as such retains any position i move it without the need for blu-tac!! I wish i had not tried used a soldering iron before to melt the plastic as cosmetically you can see the blemishes.

But either way, now it holds its position great and can even be put down as you can see

 

I needed a longer range of a few miles...

 

That is a really good idea!
I got inspired and the result was:





EDIT: fix'd deleted images(good thing i've got a personal server )

 

Where did you find that 8dbi antenna?

 

It's just a wire inside the antenna, right? Perhaps a small load?

Why not just mount that inside the case instead of drilling holes?

 

I would lose the Omni directional capability, besides, the wire is in a coil(and you can't bend it, the reception would suffer) and wouldn't fit in the case.

 

I'm looking at a 5dbi antenna from Quatech ( ACH2-AT-DP004 ). Mouser and Digikey have them in stock at just over $10 each and they have the U.FL connector so they should plug right in.

More info:
http://www.quatech.com/catalog/accessories.php
http://www.quatech.com/pdf/AB_antenna_family.pdf
http://www.quatech.com/catalog/images_b ... _DP004.jpg
http://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%20She ... -dp004.pdf

[attachment=1:1imoydwo]Quatech ACH2-AT-DP004 - 5dbi 2.4Ghz U.FL flying lead antenna_1.jpg[/attachment:1imoydwo]
[attachment=0:1imoydwo]Quatech ACH2-AT-DP004 - 5dbi 2.4Ghz U.FL flying lead antenna_2.jpg[/attachment:1imoydwo]
[attachment=2:1imoydwo]ACH2-AT-DP004.jpg[/attachment:1imoydwo]
[attachment=3:1imoydwo]wifi_antenna_DP004.jpg[/attachment:1imoydwo]

 

This is the setup that I am going with;
http://www.jefatech.com/product/RV245RD ... tenna.html
Has a more finished look, on my black case.

 

Wowsah, some serious antenna you got there.

 

Holly crap! With an antenna like that the AAO would be the ultimate war driving machine....

/thinks immoral thoughts :twisted:

 

ha.
Butchered AAO

 

These are awesome. I just want something like what the OP did, but I have no access to a spare external antenna. Also, you had to take the connection from the new wireless cards antenna port to the side of the laptop...where did you get that extenstion cable, and the female connector that the antenna connects to? I would like to do almost exactly the same thing, using an Intel 5300 card, and putting the external 2.4GHz antenna on the right side of the laptop, wher the Kensington lock is. I am having trouble locating the antenna extension lead with a right angle that will hook to the Intel 5300 on one end, the a the female connector for the antenna on the other end. Anyone know how long of a lead I would need, or where to get such parts?

 

Search Ebay for "U.FL RP SMA cable".
The "U.FL" is the 90 degree end which attaches to the wireless card and the "RP SMA female" end accepts a screw on antenna. I like the one which have a flange.

 

I ordered said recommended cable w/flange from eBay. Total damage was $10 shiped. Anyone have a line on a decent, right-angle capable 4"-5" antenna? Probably looking for omni-directional, 5dB gain or so.

Also, interesting question: You guys are using the external antenna to boost the range/reception on the 2.4GHz side, right? does anyone know which antenna connections on the Intel 5300's are 5GHz, and which are 2.4GHz? Are do both radios talk out of all antennas, using a diversity mode? Is there an antenna connector on the Intel 5300 that I should attach the planned external antenna to, in particular?

Thanks, in advance.