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any body heard of any sort of metal or steel type back for the evo? i really liked the back for the hd2 the solid cool feeling of the metal was awsome and would be a greta feature to add to the evo 4g. make it look and feel more bad ass Lol
As long as you don't want to use your compass... or apps that use it
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I am no electrical engineer but I decided to have some fun doing experiments. I took a sheet of aluminum foil and placed it behind the phone. The signal strength dropped from -73 to -87. So clearly having metal over antennas will block the signal.
I also recall hearing that is why they removed the aluminum back cover from the first iPhone.
This is just a warning in case you ever do find an after market metal cover. It might hurt your signal strength and in turn battery life.
Pops_G said:
I am no electrical engineer but I decided to have some fun doing experiments. I took a sheet of aluminum foil and placed it behind the phone. The signal strength dropped from -73 to -87. So clearly having metal over antennas will block the signal.
I also recall hearing that is why they removed the aluminum back cover from the first iPhone.
This is just a warning in case you ever do find an after market metal cover. It might hurt your signal strength and in turn battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The solution would be to do what Apple did for the iPhone 4. Use the outer metal rim as the antenna. Honestly, I think it's a stroke of genius.
liquidkernel said:
The solution would be to do what Apple did for the iPhone 4. Use the outer metal rim as the antenna. Honestly, I think it's a stroke of genius.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and i bet they panted it..
liquidkernel said:
The solution would be to do what Apple did for the iPhone 4. Use the outer metal rim as the antenna. Honestly, I think it's a stroke of genius.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We will see how it plays out. I am quite sure touching an antenna with your hands reduces its signal. So that design might not work out as well as it would seem.
In my testing I found holding the EVO at different points would increase/decrease the signal. It should be the same with the iPhone.
Pops_G said:
We will see how it plays out. I am quite sure touching an antenna with your hands reduces its signal. So that design might not work out as well as it would seem.
In my testing I found holding the EVO at different points would increase/decrease the signal. It should be the same with the iPhone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
iphone 4 metal frame is surrounded the top section is the main area where they have placed the antenna circuit the rest is the design flow. so it will work good enuf, I am not trying to compete with Evo or anything bad about evo just telling you something. evo for sprint is still the best .. the Ball is in sprin't court now its up to them how they continue with it such as by updating to 2.2 and how fast these things will count.
Pops_G said:
We will see how it plays out. I am quite sure touching an antenna with your hands reduces its signal. So that design might not work out as well as it would seem.
In my testing I found holding the EVO at different points would increase/decrease the signal. It should be the same with the iPhone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is in fact a warning in the documentation that came with the EVO, which states that placing your fingers on the portion of the phone left of the LED flashes, may interfere with your signal. I don't recall if it's in the Getting Started guide or the main user manual.
fazzy said:
iphone 4 metal frame is surrounded the top section is the main area where they have placed the antenna circuit the rest is the design flow. so it will work good enuf, I am not trying to compete with Evo or anything bad about evo just telling you something. evo for sprint is still the best .. the Ball is in sprin't court now its up to them how they continue with it such as by updating to 2.2 and how fast these things will count.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh I wasn't trying to make this an EVO vs iPhone debate. Just a general observation about antennas. It was also a problem I noticed on the EVO. Your hand/body will reduce the signal if placed in certain locations. I have seen this happen on TVs that are grabbing signal from the air, radios, and cordless phones.
So all I am saying it putting the iPhone's antennas on the outside might not be the stroke of genius people think it is. Not to mention it would be difficult to hold that phone without touching 2 different antennas at once. That might cause cross interference.
Hmm maybe I should start a thread specifically for antenna discussion, this title is a little misleading, and we went off into a tangent.
I mean, I'd be happy with a plastic back cover that FIT RIGHT
phinnaeus said:
I mean, I'd be happy with a plastic back cover that FIT RIGHT
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I heard this in another thread, but I am not seeing it. My back cover sits totally flush and looks great. Did I get lucky, or is there something else I'm missing?
phinnaeus said:
I mean, I'd be happy with a plastic back cover that FIT RIGHT
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Someone else posted somewhere that they put a piece of paper (folded once?) between the battery and the cover, and that pushed the center out enough to bring the outer edges flush.... could try that.
Jye75 said:
Someone else posted somewhere that they put a piece of paper (folded once?) between the battery and the cover, and that pushed the center out enough to bring the outer edges flush.... could try that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That fix worked for me. Probably could be solved with a thin piece of foam glued to the inside of the cover too.
phinnaeus said:
I mean, I'd be happy with a plastic back cover that FIT RIGHT
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i've modded my cover to fit perfectly, and solidly. i'll post a thread later tonight.
So what about the HTC Legend with the aluminum unibody? Do they use the whole body as a antenna?
Pops_G said:
I am no electrical engineer but I decided to have some fun doing experiments. I took a sheet of aluminum foil and placed it behind the phone. The signal strength dropped from -73 to -87. So clearly having metal over antennas will block the signal.
I also recall hearing that is why they removed the aluminum back cover from the first iPhone.
This is just a warning in case you ever do find an after market metal cover. It might hurt your signal strength and in turn battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm an electrical engineer, and I will confirm this. Perhaps someone could attach the metal back to the antenna somehow, though. That would be interesting.
Hello everyone.
I recently got a used TP2 with torn off wi-fi/bluetooth antenna.
I started experimenting with insulating tape and aluminum foil and managed to find an antenna shape that works quite well, but I don't know if it is as well as original antenna.
Any information on shape and size of original antenna would be very useful to me. Wi-Fi antenna is situated under the back cover, on the bottom of a phone, right between miniUSB and stylus. If at least anyone could make a good hi-res photo of antenna, I would highly appreciate that.
Thanks and sorry for my English, if its not quite well.
Looks like you should be talking to the guy on this thread!
Thanks again, I finally got a nice photo on my local forum and made an antenna identical to the original. Amazingly, original shape performs a bit worse than inverted-F type that I came up to while experimenting. To compare antennas, I measured a signal level from three WiFi access points with WiFI Monster and the level is about 3-5 dBm higher with inverted-F shaped antenna. It also seems to be higher regardless of antenna orientation, so i guess the gain pattern is OK, its still omnidirectional.
And improvement is even more noticeable with bluetooth headset (i tested on Plantronics Explorer 230), which now has a max distance about 12-15 meters (compared to 7-8 with original shaped antenna).
That is an interesting observation. I wonder if you could show us all the pattern, someone may be interested in modding their original antenna.
Photos attached.
On the first you can see what is left from original antenna.
On the second there are some variations of inverted-F shape (these are made from copper, not aluminum foil):
The bottom right performed best, on the third it is taped to the phone.
A couple more words on antenna modding.
As I found out, antenna does not like soldering for some reason (can't tell why, don't know enough about RF engineering), so I just fixed a new antenna to the remained piece of original with a masking tape. It should be better to make the whole antenna from one piece of copper foil, including the inner part, even though it will require partial phone casing disassembly.
Here I attached a file with exact sizes in millimeters. Antenna itself is actually about the same size as original, but extends a little further on the feeding line, which positively affects its performance.
And another interesting fact: TP2 has a miniature RF connector on the mainboard right next to antenna spring contacts, so it is definitely possible to use an external antenna.
Well, it's 6 am here and I decided to do a little experiment with my phone to boost my signal.
I simply placed aluminum foil over the signal connector thingy and it did happen to boost it up to 3 steady bars, when I would normally get about 1.
This may or may not work for you. Let me know if this actually worked for you.
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA Premium App
Pictures would be great. There are two antenna connectors in the back cover, one near the bottom and one near the top.
Didnt work for me
arent you supposed to put toothpaste in the foil and wrap it good?
jesand83 said:
Pictures would be great. There are two antenna connectors in the back cover, one near the bottom and one near the top.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's exactly were I placed them and closed the cover. It molds right in.
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA Premium App
voxigenboy said:
arent you supposed to put toothpaste in the foil and wrap it good?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know anything about that.
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA Premium App
wouldn't that put both the ground and signal in contact with each other? possible to post a quick picture?
There are 4 contacts under the phone, and 4 on the back cover. 2 of them (next to the camera) are linked. I suspect the contacts next to the camera are the looped GPS antenna.
The other 2 contacts are separate radios. One is wifi and the other is mobile (they are not looped). These should not be bridged (this can cause problems, actually). I think the outer contact is mobile and the inner (has the longer yellow strip on stock back cover) is wifi.
I've been kinda studying the back cover antenna thing and I've come to a bit of a strange conclusion: I knew the yellow bit was conductive paint or ink, but I'm suspecting that the yellow bit is the entire antenna as I can't find any other connectivity, wires, etc.
I know I've been defending this device in terms of signal quality, but I'm thinking, now, that this can be improved a lot. I'm probably going to be destroying my back cover in the name of science this weekend. I know I can get a replacement back cover so no big deal!
nimdae said:
There are 4 contacts under the phone, and 4 on the back cover. 2 of them (next to the camera) are linked. I suspect the contacts next to the camera are the looped GPS antenna.
The other 2 contacts are separate radios. One is wifi and the other is mobile (they are not looped). These should not be bridged (this can cause problems, actually). I think the outer contact is mobile and the inner (has the longer yellow strip on stock back cover) is wifi.
I've been kinda studying the back cover antenna thing and I've come to a bit of a strange conclusion: I knew the yellow bit was conductive paint or ink, but I'm suspecting that the yellow bit is the entire antenna as I can't find any other connectivity, wires, etc.
I know I've been defending this device in terms of signal quality, but I'm thinking, now, that this can be improved a lot. I'm probably going to be destroying my back cover in the name of science this weekend. I know I can get a replacement back cover so no big deal!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a cover that's dented..if you need it for science...well..
sent from an under rated phone
nimdae said:
There are 4 contacts under the phone, and 4 on the back cover. 2 of them (next to the camera) are linked. I suspect the contacts next to the camera are the looped GPS antenna.
The other 2 contacts are separate radios. One is wifi and the other is mobile (they are not looped). These should not be bridged (this can cause problems, actually). I think the outer contact is mobile and the inner (has the longer yellow strip on stock back cover) is wifi.
I've been kinda studying the back cover antenna thing and I've come to a bit of a strange conclusion: I knew the yellow bit was conductive paint or ink, but I'm suspecting that the yellow bit is the entire antenna as I can't find any other connectivity, wires, etc.
I know I've been defending this device in terms of signal quality, but I'm thinking, now, that this can be improved a lot. I'm probably going to be destroying my back cover in the name of science this weekend. I know I can get a replacement back cover so no big deal!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cool! haha. look forward to hear back any conclusions or findings from your experimenting.
nimdae said:
There are 4 contacts under the phone, and 4 on the back cover. 2 of them (next to the camera) are linked. I suspect the contacts next to the camera are the looped GPS antenna.
The other 2 contacts are separate radios. One is wifi and the other is mobile (they are not looped). These should not be bridged (this can cause problems, actually). I think the outer contact is mobile and the inner (has the longer yellow strip on stock back cover) is wifi.
I've been kinda studying the back cover antenna thing and I've come to a bit of a strange conclusion: I knew the yellow bit was conductive paint or ink, but I'm suspecting that the yellow bit is the entire antenna as I can't find any other connectivity, wires, etc.
I know I've been defending this device in terms of signal quality, but I'm thinking, now, that this can be improved a lot. I'm probably going to be destroying my back cover in the name of science this weekend. I know I can get a replacement back cover so no big deal!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. I will have to do some science as well, with FOIL!
anyone know where I can get conductive paint from? Maybe thickening the pre painted paint will make a better connection with the signal thingies?
And about the pics, sorry I can't post any, my phone is the only camera I have at the moment.
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA Premium App
you could still take pictures with the battery cover off, no? isn't the foil on the battery door?
Avelnan said:
Interesting. I will have to do some science as well, with FOIL!
anyone know where I can get conductive paint from? Maybe thickening the pre painted paint will make a better connection with the signal thingies?
And about the pics, sorry I can't post any, my phone is the only camera I have at the moment.
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Conductive ink is generally composed of a conductive polymer or contains metallic dust for conductivity. It's generally used as a cheaper method of bridge contacts between conductors. I've never seen it used this way before.
One thing I know about wireless signaling is length of antenna wire is important. I don't know the exact math for determining optimal length by frequency, but I do know the longer the better, preferably long enough to receive a full wavelength.
To be honest I'd be quite surprised if the conductive ink is being used as the antenna. However, I really can't find evidence to state otherwise.
nimdae said:
To be honest I'd be quite surprised if the conductive ink is being used as the antenna. However, I really can't find evidence to state otherwise.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to agree..since it only gets signal with cover on.
sent from an under rated phone
The inner contact is actually the mobile radio. I'm getting signal with bus wire but it's not a marked improvement. This is connected to the full 400' spool, though.
I've already damaged my back cover so I'm pretty much committed to this experiment. Going to do a little more testing before I commit to modification.
nimdae said:
The inner contact is actually the mobile radio. I'm getting signal with bus wire but it's not a marked improvement. This is connected to the full 400' spool, though.
I've already damaged my back cover so I'm pretty much committed to this experiment. Going to do a little more testing before I commit to modification.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have an extra. Where you live
sent from an under rated phone
knipp21 said:
I have an extra. Where you live
sent from an under rated phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Eh, don't worry about it It's not gonna bother me to have to buy a new one.
After a bit of testing using a 1' length of wire (used solder to build a flat contact on the end and pressed it in, feeding the wire through the tiny hold...for testing) I've found the signal strength marginally improves, but the data speeds improve quite a bit. In one of my rooms I tend to get poor signal/speed (pipes? not sure) but was able to double my speeds. However, the connection was still pretty unstable.
The end with my homemade flat contact broke and I don't feel like making another one right now. I have a temporary solution that works, but is a bit fragile.
nimdae said:
Eh, don't worry about it It's not gonna bother me to have to buy a new one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok btw I got hulu plus to work
sent from an under rated phone
Very interested to hear your results, nimdae. I was almost going to play around with this the other day.
I do have a suspicion though that some of the antenna may actually be "hidden" in the cover. I managed to carve off and expose some metallic looking material where you open the case at. Not sure if it is indeed since I didn't go any further.
Foil worked for me!!! My signal just went from -125 dbm to 98 dbm!!
Sent from my Incredible 2 using XDA App
Where precisely are the antennas located?
At the top and bottom. The Cellular antenna appears to be primarily at the bottom, GPS, WiFi and BT are at the top covered by two small pieces of plastic. It's fairly obvious to spot the ones up top. I don't think this phone has RX diversity like the Sensation 4G but it still has better reception regardless.
Thx for the input.
When you take the back cover off you can see three areas where there seems to be like a tape like substance put over the area.
One is on the left near the power button.
Second is toward the top right.
Third is on the very right top.
As for the cellular antenna....it's for sure at the bottom below the battery??
Thx!
heygrl said:
At the top and bottom. The Cellular antenna appears to be primarily at the bottom, GPS, WiFi and BT are at the top covered by two small pieces of plastic. It's fairly obvious to spot the ones up top. I don't think this phone has RX diversity like the Sensation 4G but it still has better reception regardless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also waiting on a response...
The bottom definitely has the cell antenna, no ifs ands or buts about it. We need to wait for the FCC documents to come off ice before we can know 100% but I think the 3 are BT/WiFi, GPS and NFC.
So it would be under that cover over the speaker then?
It's behind the speaker, yes.. but it's behind the back shell and depending on the design, probably in the back shell like on the original Galaxy S.
My Dinc2, like everyone else's, has terrible reception. (relatively speaking). About a week ago, it went from tolerable to dropping calls like crazy. The db use to be in the 90's, but it has since pegged at 105 and stays there no matter what - indoors or outdoors, unless I'm downtown where a tower is almost in sight. WHY did this degradation happen? I flashed from the 320 radio to the 312, no change at all. I am running the Magnolia ROM, after having tried the others. The reception was doing fine up until a week ago....
Yesterday, I put my flashlight in my pocket, which has a magnetic base. When I used it later, I noticed something stuck to the magnet... it was a "U" shaped piece of metal. It was very defined, then it occurred to me it wasnt a U, it was a C. The "C" from the "HTC" on the back cover. The H and the T were already gone. So I wonder... if these being metal had anything to do with the antenna being in the back cover? Could these tiny pieces of metal be contributing to the reception? Or their loss being a determent?
If you have the metal HTC letters on your back cover, could you check your db rating then pop them out, and check it again? Strange request I know... but all in the name of science!
I would give anything for the Dinc2 to have Motorola like reception.... it's almost perfect, except for that.
I know it is a long shot, it was just a thought. The metal loading of the cover may or may not have anything to do with the reception... from what I've read the aftermarket covers do not receive as well as OEM's, so who knows.
if i took off back cover and dial *#4636#*#* i found the "db" became 105 and i put it back it goes normal,that means the antenna was integrated in back cover,so you can try do to it to find if the problem cause by back cover and order a new cover over the Amazon.
I have had this phone since May of 2011 and I never noticed that the HTC on the back cover had the metal inlays!!!!! Wow!!!! Anyway, I don't want to pop mine out but I did the same by removing the back cover and the db's also jumped to 105 for me when I did that.
Pop off your back cover and grab some tweezers or a small flat head screw driver. You'll see 4 gold prongs on the back of your phone. 2 near the camera and 2 in the bottom left corner. Gently bend those up a little bit, being careful not to break them off. Now grab a pencil with a good eraser. Look at the inside of your back cover and you will see yellow/goldish lines that line up with the prongs you just bent. Rub these lines with the eraser. Personally I would do this with my phone turned off, but that probably doesn't really matter. I suspect your reception will return to normal.
The metal letters have nothing to do with the antennas. They're located near the middle of the thinnest section of the back cover. The plastic would be thicker there if any metal or wires were running close enough for them to do anything.
Sent from my ICS Dinc2
I wasn't even having trouble with mine and did this and worked great. Thanks for the tip!!!
I bent the tabs, I tried the foil trick, I tried up and down grading the radio, and with the cover on at my house, I'm looking at 105db. I borrowed a Verizon Samsung network extender which plugs in the wall and internet router, and when I'm within 10 feet of it, my phone registers about 70db. However, it makes my GPS location about 75 miles away!
So I'm a loss... I'm grasping at straws here trying to not give up on the Dinc2.
My guess would be that a new back cover is in order then. Do you know anyone that has a Dinc2 that you could try swapping covers with?
If that doesn't work then maybe the magnet damaged your phone. Magnets can do some weird things to electronics.
Sent from my ICS Dinc2