- Joined
- Oct 6, 2014
- Messages
- 502
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I thought I would give this a shot. I live in Northern Ca and have a difficult time finding more than 5 satellites at any given time. I dont have any drop issues I just have allot of trees, fog and clouds. Once I get above the trees I usually keep 6 sats locked. Well this just isnt enough. I did the foil mod, heatsinked the internal component of my wifi, used sniffer probes to analyze where interference was coming from. I tried everything to get more signal strength, and then it dawned on me to install a better antenna.
The stock antenna GPS puck, is 2mm thick. The antenna utilizes its ground plane to gather more signal and the distance between the ground plane and the top of the antenna is a crucial measurement to allow more satellites at extreme angles to be recognized. I found that by removing a little plastic and swapping out the stock GPS antenna I could fit one in place with 1.5db passive gain. Since we are dealing with a signal strength of greater than -150db any db increase is going to be helpful.
I had to remove the gps receiver and the heat the GPS antenna with a heat gun till it got hot to the touch. I then slid a knife blade between the antenna and the pcb. I used solder wicking copper braid on the antenna pin that pokes through the board. While keeping the pin hot I used the knife blade to remove the stock antenna. Out it came.
The replacement antenna is not directional only the data is so I was able to clock the larger antenna to avoid the screw holes and had to remove a little plastic off the inside of the top. The replacement antenna is 2mm thicker.
The results are not very scientific. I can however say that in an area that I only saw 5 satellites for 10-15 minutes at a time I saw 7 today for a brief period of time and stayed nearly rock solid with 6. This was on the ground not flying. I am sure once I get it back up in the air I will see many more. It was definitely worth the effort for me......
Pics to follow when hughes net allows.... :x
The stock antenna GPS puck, is 2mm thick. The antenna utilizes its ground plane to gather more signal and the distance between the ground plane and the top of the antenna is a crucial measurement to allow more satellites at extreme angles to be recognized. I found that by removing a little plastic and swapping out the stock GPS antenna I could fit one in place with 1.5db passive gain. Since we are dealing with a signal strength of greater than -150db any db increase is going to be helpful.
I had to remove the gps receiver and the heat the GPS antenna with a heat gun till it got hot to the touch. I then slid a knife blade between the antenna and the pcb. I used solder wicking copper braid on the antenna pin that pokes through the board. While keeping the pin hot I used the knife blade to remove the stock antenna. Out it came.
The replacement antenna is not directional only the data is so I was able to clock the larger antenna to avoid the screw holes and had to remove a little plastic off the inside of the top. The replacement antenna is 2mm thicker.
The results are not very scientific. I can however say that in an area that I only saw 5 satellites for 10-15 minutes at a time I saw 7 today for a brief period of time and stayed nearly rock solid with 6. This was on the ground not flying. I am sure once I get it back up in the air I will see many more. It was definitely worth the effort for me......
Pics to follow when hughes net allows.... :x