I started cadding up a mount, then realized where i want the antenna is where one of the speakers lives.
Unfortunately I have the mobile board so that hole is in use on mine
how secure is that? It’s supposed to be held in place with that nut on the antenna side.
It should be, I’ve got another of the official antennas on a different CM4 case and there the nut holds it firm to the enclosure as it fits from the inside and the nut screws in from the outside.
But looking at that pic from @caffinepwrd it does seem to be mounted from the outside instead so it won’t be bolted correctly.
I’m still trying to figure out how to mount mine.
Yeah the 3.5mm hole was only large enough for the cable when i was messing with this same idea. There also wasnt enough space between the face plate and the edge of the blank PCB for the section of the antenna that would normally be on that side of the hole if mounted properly. Both of these issues could be fixed by using a modified plate with a bit of a bulge in that spot and a slightly bigger hole.
Or just glue it in place. Im not the police.
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It’s not ideal how I did it. Clearance is a big issue with the antenna I bought. But it is secure enough.
That’s what I figured. I’ve also thought about taking a dremel to my speaker plate, since I don’t have the 4g module, but I don’t know where the speaker lines are.
I think I have a fix for me, not sure if others will want to do it though. Requires tearing apart an antenna. Printing a test print now.
that’s much better.
Working on the cover now.
Clockwork Pi uConsole external antenna mount. by Barry | Download free STL model | Printables.com
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Hey all, I got the R-01 uConsole and swapped in my A06 from my devterm. Like a lot of folks I experienced the really terrible Wi-Fi range and being unable to connect unless next to the router, if at all.
Tonight, I was installing my sim card in the uconsole when i realized i had gone full cable management on the wifi antenna. I pulled it out loose and let it drape over the edge of the core instead of snaking down past it below and the wifi is more than usable now. It had connected before i could even check it.
I bet at least some of us made the same mistake forgetting that you dont manage an antenna the same way you do a power or data cable. Wanted to share this because it’s $0 to try and I’ve been watching this thread and the solutions folks have come up with and was ready to try one. The most annoying thing was just finding my alan key again.
Really hope this helps at least one other person, I’m now enjoying my uConsole far from my router and relieved things are working as I hoped they would
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@ oscillot I honestly didn’t understand what you wrote, but I took a hint from it and repositioned the antenna on my own.
It’s still not as good as DevTerm at the same location, but it’s better than not being able to connect at all.
I tried repositioning my original antenna like what you show. iwconfig shows a 5dBm improvement on my work’s guest wifi, from -72dBm to -67dBm. That is a good improvement for just repositioning the cable, but this is still nearly unusable as im sitting about 20ft away from the access point in clear line of sight with no obstructions. Ill be getting a PCB antenna to try soon, ordered it today.
Ordered this one from Adafruit: 2.4GHz Mini Flexible WiFi Antenna with uFL Connector [100mm] : ID 2308 : $2.50 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits
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I have no received my Uconsole yet, but I wonder If I can put this kind of antenna on the top of the device? Maybe I can drill a hole on the top, and hide the antenna near the power button?
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It could be possible if you got the WiFi only uConsole and remove or modify the blank PCB, but keep in mind that’s how you get your speaker output. On Glbr_Hanson’s image above in post number 33 you can see the green light under the power button on the left of the image and the blank PCB on the right. caffinepwrd and myself have been playing with the same idea but on the side using the EXT slot cover. See post 22 and 23 above for images of how that looks.
That’s basically the same antenna I used, I just took the plastic shell off so it was shorter.
I am interested to see what difference y’all get
I noticed the recommended bootconfig parameter for the external antenna makes this worse.
By default on my CM4 dmesg shows the external antenna is selected by default, i am getting -64db on 5ghz about 18ft from the AP.
My antenna cable is routed between the left most usb ports (looking at it opened) and the CM4, at no time does it pass over the cm4 module.
I went from less than a megabit to the mid-twenties megabits.
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Thanks.
I have done more testing (all in same location, close to the same AP)
Internal antenna gets -45db
External antenna no antenna connected -75db
External antenna with antenna connected - 55db
so yes the dtparam=ant2 does make a difference on my unit, it’s just the external antenna is appalling / broken?
i have several replacement antenna types inbound so i can test a few