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Anyone ever use one? If so, what do you think of this?
http://bestcelldist.com/htc_thunderbolt_antenna_combo_em_removal.html
Not interest in saving my brain, but in extending my 3G and 4G range.
I'm a little interested as well. For $50, it had better give great reception.
I heard my friend talk about this today. I hope it works.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App
I have used them from Wilson Electronics with great results...Don't know about these
Hold the (cell)phone - that one doesn't cover the LTE frequencies. Here's a nice indoor one that covers 700 MHz.
http://bestcelldist.com/htc_thunderbolt_all_bands_8db_panel_indoor.html
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App
I would like to see how they are attached to the Thunderbolt. (It says direct connect). There is no illustration of the antenna connection to the phone.
rtompkins3 said:
I would like to see how they are attached to the Thunderbolt. (It says direct connect). There is no illustration of the antenna connection to the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would think that it plus into that jack on the bottom back of the TBolt.
Looks to have a rubber plug in it now.
I thought that was covering a screw
Has anyone tried either of these or any other similar device? I recently moved and now my signal has gone to hell (I'm lucky if I get one bar), so I'm seriously considering one of these.
Any reviews/feedback?
rtompkins3 said:
I thought that was covering a screw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats what ive heard.
i also would like to see how this thing connects..
Are we still unaware as to how this connects to the phone? All we've got is our USB port and our headphone jack... unless there's a secret antennae jack that I'm unaware of?
wgoeken said:
Are we still unaware as to how this connects to the phone? All we've got is our USB port and our headphone jack... unless there's a secret antennae jack that I'm unaware of?
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Click to collapse
I know on the droid and several other phones, there are little Antenna diversity jacks so that you can plug in extended or high-gain antennas (usually underneath the battery covers). I have seen the metal connectors (but not in a standardized form) on the inside of the case that connect to the antenna leads inside the back cover. You could potentially solder some leads from those to a proper antenna connecter that you mount on the back of the phone or inside one of those rubber fitted screw-holes. Then you could plug in and unplug your external antenna. As far as standardized connectors for external antennas, I don't think the T-Bolt has one.
emailed that site. heres what they said:
The is a small plastic cover, about 1/4" in diameter, on the back
of the phone. You may remove, very carefully, with a needle, and
the antenna port will be exposed.
Notice, however, that we recommend using the ExtAntPro™ adapter
with the Thunderbolt, because of the very small antenna port. The
regular adapter, which comes with the antennas, falls off very
easily, although it does still work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they seem to think that cover isnt hiding just a screw, even tho htc says its just a screw. i feel that htc rep might be wrong tho. i might just have to tear my cover off to figure it out once and for all.
edit: ok that htc person is stupid. ITS AN ANTENNA PORT FOR SURE. watch this vid:
http://youtu.be/zdPiT82gWKw?hd=1&t=2m48s pause at about 2:52. youll see its clearly an antenna port with contacts in the circuit board running from it.
gohamstergo said:
emailed that site. heres what they said:
they seem to think that cover isnt hiding just a screw, even tho htc says its just a screw. i feel that htc rep might be wrong tho. i might just have to tear my cover off to figure it out once and for all.
edit: ok that htc person is stupid. ITS AN ANTENNA PORT FOR SURE. watch this vid:
http://youtu.be/zdPiT82gWKw?hd=1&t=2m48s pause at about 2:52. youll see its clearly an antenna port with contacts in the circuit board running from it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello, I second that. I had these antennas for a couple years. I never found the antenna connection on the last couple phones I had, so I never even cared to pull the rubber plug, but it is indeed the antenna plug, these antennas work great, special during long drives, or for when I visit relatives who live in the woods, with a very weak signal. Thanks!
nope not covering a screw i double checked
I would never hook up an external antenna to a phone again. I did it once with my old Samsung Epix, and while it improved the signal when I disconnected the antenna I lost all service, so my phone was basically useless after connecting it.
What about a signal repeater, my office uses them and they work great! our corp office is outside of town so weak signal. Get to work and go inside you get full bars - kinda weird when you notice it. They are place on windows on every floor look just like the external antenna but only have a power cord coming off it.
avatar120 said:
What about a signal repeater, my office uses them and they work great! our corp office is outside of town so weak signal. Get to work and go inside you get full bars - kinda weird when you notice it. They are place on windows on every floor look just like the external antenna but only have a power cord coming off it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We have one of these at my work as well. Great signal outside, but not so much in the basement of the building. As soon as we moved into that building, getting one of these installed was a top priority of mine. It made a HUGE difference, although mostly for non-VZW!
external antenna
Search U.FL on wikipedia
That appears to be the connector under the rubber plug on a thunderbolt.
I cant find any that just go straight except ipx connectors at rfconnector.com
Does connecting an external antenna affect the internal one at all?
LAMPEY said:
Search U.FL on wikipedia
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Click to collapse
The TB jack is not a Hirose U.FL. It looks more like a MS-156.
Does anyone know what exact frequencies Sprint uses for Wimax ?
I made an external antenna port on my Evo, now it's time to make an external antenna itself
I'm seeing 2.5 GHz, I will look for continue to look for specifics
Wikipedia has a huge write up on WiMAX. I'm not sure the exact information your looking for, but under the technical information section, they pretty much give you everything.
Thank you
I know the theoretical range of Wimax, would be nice to know what frequencies people are seeing.
Does anyone know if in ##DATA#, Center Frequency is an actual freuqency phone uses to connect ? (Here are the values:* 2647000, 2657000, 2667000 I would assume it's 2.647Ghz/2.657Ghz/2.667Ghz) ?
However, if I go into ##33284# (FieldTrial / Wimax Engineering) it's* 2551500 for Center Frequency (after turning 4G Radio)
Anyone cares to share their ##DATA# and FieldTrial / Wimax Engineering ##33284# center frequencies ? I just want to see how much variation there is.
Its important to get as close to right frequency as possible when calculating segment length on antenna.
I am showing 2.525Ghz with the bandwidth of 10Mhz. What type of antenna are you going to use? I hope you have access to a Service Monitor to check the SWR of your antenna. How are you connecting the antenna to the phone?
Thank you for sharing kf2m
I am going to build omni-directional antenna based on this design (but from thicker cable)
_www.rason.org/Projects/collant/collant.htm
Unfortunately I do not have any equipment to check SWR.
As far as connecting an antenna to the phone, I've made a slight cut out on red cover where 4G antenna terminals are and attached small connector for center wire of coax cable to the terminals (I do not know about what to do with ground, but let's see if I get away without it). Black cover closes normally, without showing any modifications externally.
I will share results after the weekend, whether it's a success or fail
Sounds interesting. I haven't seen anything like this for the Evo. Please keep the thread updated, and if all works maybe a write-up?
~ I'm a fungi
arch111 said:
Thank you for sharing kf2m
I am going to build omni-directional antenna based on this design (but from thicker cable)
_www.rason.org/Projects/collant/collant.htm
Unfortunately I do not have any equipment to check SWR.
As far as connecting an antenna to the phone, I've made a slight cut out on red cover where 4G antenna terminals are and attached small connector for center wire of coax cable to the terminals (I do not know about what to do with ground, but let's see if I get away without it). Black cover closes normally, without showing any modifications externally.
I will share results after the weekend, whether it's a success or fail
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That antenna is gonna be hot with common mode RF (hence the BALUM's at the base). Plus it is designed for 2 Meter operation, WIMax is like 10-11cm. I would not recommend using that. It also uses RG58 COAX which is way too thick, using thicker COAX like RG8 is going to be way too thick (massive line losses). The coax used for our purposes is about as thick as 14-16 gauge wire, RG58 is about 1/4", and RG8 about 1/2" thick. By design our phones use a 1/4 wave dipole antenna built into the chassis/frame. My measurements might be off but a full wavelength antenna is about 2.75" so a dipole antenna mounted vertically would be more effective, and without the grounding/ground plane issue you would have with an omni. At higher frequencies your SWR would be even more critical. Too high and your output circuit is going to overload from RF feeding back, and either pop the final output, or let out the magic smoke. A WiFi antenna is a close match, and using a LC matching circuit would be a better choice (or you can cut it down since WiFi is at 2.4Ghz, and WIMax operates at 2.5Ghz). Again you are going to need some sort of measuring device to properly match your antenna. Also using an antenna without a ground-ground plane, or reflector your SWR is going to be off the charts. To receive it is not much of an issue, but once you start pushing RF down the wire then it's a whole new ballgame.
Check here for some ideas.. http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Antennas/WiFi/
Hope I gave you a bit more information to work with.
Good Luck
73 de KF2M
Is there any way to extend the distance my phone can communicate with nfc devices? Right now I need to be within an inch or less it seems but I'd like to extend that to around 5 inches if possible?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
Interesting article
In theory, yes, it could be done. The challenges are that NFC uses a relatively low frequency (13.56 MHz), which requires a longer antenna (22 meters). The second is that NFC tags are powered by the reader, so the signal at the tag has to be powerful enough to activate the electronics.
I wonder if you put the tag at the focus of a parabolic antenna if you could increase the range? I'm guessing not by much, since the power transfer is over the magnetic field (like a transformer).
wouldnt this also increase the security issues? at one inch its really hard to get the phone to detect anything unless YOU want it to..at 5 inches, a person standing next to you could do it.
I think one would have to have more turns of coil and more power, but what I don't know is if the coils are "tuned" to a certain frequency
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda app-developers app
The coils are almost certainly tuned to the 13.56MHz radio frequency. The issue is that the power is transmitted by a magnetic field. More coils helps that at the expense of the tuning.
Check this NFC Extenders that would help
Check this NFC Extenders that would help
It has two NFC patch kit, one is for NFC smart phones, the other one is for NFC tags.
It could extend the NFC reading. Contact info @getsmartcard.net
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 which depends on the battery with a built in NFC antenna for NFC to work. I am currently using a 3rd party battery that doesn't have an NFC antenna. I would love if there is an option to somehow add an antenna externally, but not through the use of a microSD card if possible. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!
Doubt it. NFC isn't just a matter of adding an antenna afaik.
pcorlatan said:
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 which depends on the battery with a built in NFC antenna for NFC to work. I am currently using a 3rd party battery that doesn't have an NFC antenna. I would love if there is an option to somehow add an antenna externally, but not through the use of a microSD card if possible. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It would be really be more feasible to just buy a different battery with NFC support. Trying to add an NFC antenna to the phone would be a lot more work than it's worth.
JunyuT. said:
Doubt it. NFC isn't just a matter of adding an antenna afaik.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I assumed the rest of the required hardware is built into the phone and just the antenna in the battery, but then again the antenna probably needs to receive power so I can see how that would be an issue. Thanks for your input.
TWO515TY said:
It would be really be more feasible to just buy a different battery with NFC support. Trying to add an NFC antenna to the phone would be a lot more work than it's worth.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay thanks, it's not too big of a deal to throw in an NFC battery when I need the functionality.
S3 need a antenna?
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
tuansiro said:
S3 need a antenna?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just as much as any NFC-enabled phone does... You know that the antenna is embedded in the inside of the phone, right?
Damastus said:
Just as much as any NFC-enabled phone does... You know that the antenna is embedded in the inside of the phone, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually on the SGS3 the NFC antenna is in the battery, not the phone.
Sent from my Transformer using Tapatalk 2
Actually I knew that since it was stated in the first post. I consider that still inside the phone.
I thought the user I answered to imagined something like this here as an nfc antenna.
While technically yes, you could make an antenna out of say aluminium foil if you could figure how to cut it so you end up with a tuned antenna, then connect it to the correct pin on the battery connector, I think any sane person would just stick an NFC battery in.
I think they put the antenna in the battery because it's up close to the back of the case. That would also keep it well away from the other antennas that I doubt would like the power pulses that NFC puts out while it's polling.
Oh and Damastus, that picture it hilarious.
I've done the wireless charging mod using Palm Pixi guts. That thin coil of wire is enough to break NFC communication, depending on where it's put. NFC has a VERY short range, so I'm sure it's in the battery to put it as close to potential NFC chips you want to read, and to minimize anything else getting between the antenna & chip (like cases, batteries, etc.)
TWO515TY said:
It would be really be more feasible to just buy a different battery with NFC support. Trying to add an NFC antenna to the phone would be a lot more work than it's worth.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the Nexus S, the antenna is built into the phone's backplate.
In theory, you could buy a Nexus S back, remove that antenna, and put it on the inside of your phone.
Run fine wires from the phone's NFC antenna connections to the antenna, and it might just work.
I'd expect reception to be lousy, since you'll detune the antenna by trying to connect it. This also assumes that the NFC circuitry is in the phone, and the battery has only the antenna.
sysadmn said:
On the Nexus S, the antenna is built into the phone's backplate.
In theory, you could buy a Nexus S back, remove that antenna, and put it on the inside of your phone.
Run fine wires from the phone's NFC antenna connections to the antenna, and it might just work.
I'd expect reception to be lousy, since you'll detune the antenna by trying to connect it. This also assumes that the NFC circuitry is in the phone, and the battery has only the antenna.
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Click to collapse
Or..buy a battery with NFC support..
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
I got my extended battery (4300mAh) with NFC support from a Chinese manufacturer for only $15. I know you have to be careful with those, but this one seemed legit so I took a chance and it works great - last forever - AND has NFC. Here's the one I got: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/NFC-Extended-cell-phone-battery-with-cover-for-Samsung-Galaxy-S3-I9300-4300mAh/577969392.html
just take apart an OEM battery and start playing with it. My guess is what you want to do is VERY doable.
If I recall correctly, the Verizon SGS3 inductive charging back cover has the NFC element on the cover, not the battery.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium
nerys71 said:
just take apart an OEM battery and start playing with it. My guess is what you want to do is VERY doable.
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Click to collapse
I thought about that but I don't want to waste a perfectly good battery just to try, although it's tempting.
Mutiny32 said:
If I recall correctly, the Verizon SGS3 inductive charging back cover has the NFC element on the cover, not the battery.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
I think you're right, however I'm pretty sure that's what the extra two pins under the battery are for. These pins are only on the Verizon version of the GS3 though, so it wouldn't work for my T-Mobile GS3. Thanks for the suggestion though.
buy a cheapy chinese battery that has NFC and "have at it"
As far as I have known, there is a type of NFC antenna available in the market that can be stuck to the back cover of your Galaxy S3. In this way, you can take full advantages of NFC functions of the Samsung mobile with an alternative mobile battery. However, it seems that most providers like Sunshine Good Electronics Company only do wholesales business on platforms like Globe Resources. You can search it on e-bay, maybe you will be surprised to find on retail seller.
I have a very strong network signal outside my house or near my window. But inside my house the signal strength is very poor. Is there any external antenna to recieve strong signals.?? ( other than cell phone repeaters)
I live in india. Network- TATA DOCOMO
Sent from my MT27i using xda app-developers app
Week Signal
ommon4u said:
I have a very strong network signal outside my house or near my window. But inside my house the signal strength is very poor. Is there any external antenna to recieve strong signals.?? ( other than cell phone repeaters)
I live in india. Network- TATA DOCOMO
Sent from my MT27i using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't know much about it but I think you need external devices to detect the slow range
some Siemens phones had on the back an antenna jack, with those yes you could enhance the signal with only an external antenna
Increase Signal?
5 Quick Ways to Boost Your Cell Phone:
1. A simple piece of wire
Very simple and cheap method using insulated wire.
2. Major boost using empty cans
This one got me from zero bars to three bars, in an area I never get a signal in. I keep this one in the trunk when the weather sucks. The additional wires I got on eBay for a few bucks each. Takes less than five minutes, looks stupid but works well.
3. The paper clip booster
This one didn't work as well as I had hoped, but it did give me an extra bar (which is great when you have zero bars). Good if you're in the office and need to use your cell, maybe for making one of those "personal" calls.
4. The Tesla coil effect
Hands down the easiest one I found. All you need is tape and those little twisty-ties you get with cheap garbage/sandwich bags. Worked better than the paper clip for me.
5. An old radio antenna
this year the mobile signal is weeker than ever. When I wanna upload an picture or share sth with friends. it is not available. uhhh
Did you try to root your phone and check any cutom ROM? In my case custom ROM gave me much better signal on my SGS3
Good luck!
How to increase signal i9001
Hey everyone ..
How to increase mobile signal Samsung Galaxy S plus i9001 CyanogenMod 9.
Thank you,
Thank you
is it possible that the surrounding houses are aluminum sided."
if so the signal is getting bounced rather than absorbed. this creates whats called "signal bounce confusion"
I have try this trick with the cable.the phone choose the best signal between internal and external antenna.and of course it will get better signal from external antenna. it works but you must use a soft wire...the second time I did it I try to use a wire from ethernet cable...I broke the clips inside and the internal antenna is broken..now I use the external antenna with a soft wire from usb cable. So becarefully when try thinks like that.
It's great for your method, thank you.