Bluetooth Antenna

I will be getting an AAO in the near future, and one of the first things I'm going to do to it is install a bluetooth adapter inside it. Now I have heard of signal strength problems when installing something like this internally as the inside of notebook cases will sometimes have shielding. I had this thought that you could just attach a small length of wire to the antenna built onto the pcb to help with reception, and then I though, why not have an "engineered" antenna attached in a similar fashion. Could you take a piece of packing tape and lay the wire out on in it a specific zig-zag or wave pattern that will help with reception. I don't know enough about radio communication to figure this out though. I'm sure someone on here can take this idea and run with it and post instructions and pics on how to do this.

 

Original bluetooth receiver also have aerial inside of laptop/netbook. Don't worry about signal strength - will work if you place BT dongle near plastic top cover. I did two mods this way and never had any problems with signal...

 

Maybe the AAO works fine with the internal bluetooth mod, but a friend of mine did the same thing with his full size gateway notebook so that he could use a BT mouse. The only way he could get the mouse to talk with the BT module is to have the mouse sit right on top of the case directly above the BT module, so it was basically useless. So although, the AAO may not have a problem, is there a fix for this for other system that have decent shielding inside of the case. I ask because I'd like to add an internal BT to my 17" aspire and am afraid of reception problems similar to what my friend experienced.

 

In any laptop there must be a place where plastic is not shielded inside. This place can be used to install internal BT... I don't know enough about other laptop types to talk about them but I'm sure after opening them you'll see what I'm talking about... Look for any not screened place close to edges of laptop...

 

I will keep that I'm mind. I know the shielding is usually a metallic paint, so I will just look for an unpainted area. My 17" aspire goes out of warranty in a couple of days and I will be tearing into it as soon as I can. I have already opened it once, but didn't do any mods to it yet cause of the warranty, and if I remember correctly, there are two sets of unused USB solder pads on the board that I can use for the BT. Now I just hope I can find an inexpensive 17" touch screen for it.