Pipo M9 Pro wifi antenna modification instructions

[elmachinegun]

No need to thank.

It is a pleasure to help.

Don't forget to share how was your intent.

[M9ProPipo]

The GPS is fine, but won't find a fix quickly until you initialize it

Just for info. The gps.conf that you mentioned. I have tried it. No go for me. Doesn't even work outdoors. Doubt it's the fault of the conf file though. I strongly believe it's pertaining to my GPS(or lack of it). You can try it first though. But since you got the expertise and equipment to do a solder. I would suggest you go ahead and do it for gps. If you do go ahead with the hardware mod. Please do share it too! Do note that this is my personal experience. Others have shown success with the simple file added. I hope you have better success than me.

Hi,

to those having a hard time getting the GPS to work I point you to this post:

http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.php?7826-Pipo-M9-Pro-RileyROM-2-0&p=109700&viewfull=1#post109700

key points:
* hold it in portait mode with the camera on the right.
* in the settings for ntpsync tell it a local ntp server and run it before you go out
* gps.conf and "fast" gps lock solutions just do a ntp sync at gps launch, and thus require a 3G network connection or outdoor wifi to work (and if you have outdoor wifi you probably don't need gps to tell you where you are!). IMHO all those mods are more risk and much more trouble than they are worth; just use ntpsync.
* after you get a fix let gpstest run for >30 minutes without interuption.
* OSMAnd~ from F-droid.org for a great nav app.

I've never gotten much above 40% SNR, but regularly get 11-12 sats in view many in the high 30s. Considering it's a cheap dipole wire sandwiched between a multilayer PCB and a sheet of aluminum, I wouldn't really expect it to be any more. Time to lock takes longer than I'd like compared to dedicated gps units, but usually has it in less than a minute or two which is fine for driving. Hopefully future android releases don't put so much stock in the time already being accurate to within milliseconds.

[giouncino]

First of all I want to thank everybody in this forum for your wonderful and helpful ideas and comments.

I want to share my experiences with you for this topic.

I wanted to get better signal from my wifi antenna, so I decided to do the cardboard trick, long story short, made the same mistake as giouncino, pulled too hard from the antenna...





So I went on **** and ordered an Ipad replacement, took the broken one out then installed the new one... The new antenna behave pretty much as the broken one!. Very low signal and constant disconnections. So it was time for other options.

I searched the internet for a replacement that could work with my Pipo M9 Pro. And I found this article http://fabiobaltieri.com/2012/06/02/...-wifi-antenna/

That was something to give a try, so I bought a roll of 10mm copper tape and cutted the design.



I soldered both wires to the antenna, but as Finless found out, my signal was not quite good.



So just left the red wire (+) connected and completely removed the black wire. As Finless says: "If it works..."

Here is the final result:


Here are some readouts, before and after:

These where taken 3m in front of the router.


These are from a floor above from the router.


Hope this helps somebody that has a broken antenna like me.

I am very happy with the performance of this DIY antenna. Besides it only costs pennys to build.

Good luck and continue with your research.

Sincerely.

Just for curiosity: is Bluetooth still working? I'm asking this because the shape of this antenna is a lot different wrt the stock one, and bluetooth and wi-fi shares the same antenna!

I'm working to find the copper tape (extremely difficult to find it in Italy, also on e-bay in the rest of europe is not so simple to find it!!!)

[elmachinegun]

Just for curiosity: is Bluetooth still working? I'm asking this because the shape of this antenna is a lot different wrt the stock one, and bluetooth and wi-fi shares the same antenna!

I'm working to find the copper tape (extremely difficult to find it in Italy, also on e-bay in the rest of europe is not so simple to find it!!!)

Bluetooth works fine, I dont use it that much but just used it to connect to my Samsung S3 and transfer some files to test. All went smooth.

I understand that wifi and bluetooth both operate in the 2.4 Ghz band, so the same antenna design works well for both. In the designer's paper he even mentions that this antenna works forthe 5 Ghz band.

I ordered the copper tape directly from China (everything comes from China this days) I got two rolls for US$6

If you still can't get it. I would be happy to provide some for you. Just PM your name and full adress and I will send you enough to make 4 or 5 antennas, no problem.

Regards.

[belier]

Bluetooth works fine, I dont use it that much but just used it to connect to my Samsung S3 and transfer some files to test. All went smooth.

I understand that wifi and bluetooth both operate in the 2.4 Ghz band, so the same antenna design works well for both. In the designer's paper he even mentions that this antenna works forthe 5 Ghz band.

I ordered the copper tape directly from China (everything comes from China this days) I got two rolls for US$6

If you still can't get it. I would be happy to provide some for you. Just PM your name and full adress and I will send you enough to make 4 or 5 antennas, no problem.

Regards.

Thanks for your work and for sharing it.

Some questions.
- Have you experienced a lower consumption after the mod?
- Can you share the measures of your antenna design? A drawing or similar.
- Which ROM are you using?

Thanks in advance.

[giouncino]

Thanks for your work and for sharing it.

Some questions.
- Have you experienced a lower consumption after the mod?
- Can you share the measures of your antenna design? A drawing or similar.
- Which ROM are you using?

Thanks in advance.

1 - You can see lower power consumption only if you SET a lower TX poweer (you can use TXpower app), otherwise you will see only a better signal reception.
2 - if read better the post of elmachinegun (opening the attached link) ALL the measures are present
3 - I think that the ROM used it is not significant for the mod

[belier]

1 - You can see lower power consumption only if you SET a lower TX poweer (you can use TXpower app), otherwise you will see only a better signal reception.
2 - if read better the post of elmachinegun (opening the attached link) ALL the measures are present
3 - I think that the ROM used it is not significant for the mod

Thanks for answering.
Now I've seen the link. Inside there are the measures. My bad.
The ROM is related with first question. My battery literally drains. I've opened a thread about it.

http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.php?9957-Pipo-M9-Pro-Battery-duration

and I'm trying to figure if a defective antenna can affect, due to both wires being shorted in any way.

[elmachinegun]

Thanks for answering.
Now I've seen the link. Inside there are the measures. My bad.
The ROM is related with first question. My battery literally drains. I've opened a thread about it.

http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.php?9957-Pipo-M9-Pro-Battery-duration

and I'm trying to figure if a defective antenna can affect, due to both wires being shorted in any way.

I am using Finless 1.5 ROM. And the power consumption, as Gio says, is normal.

About the wires, you can try disconnecting the ground portion of the coaxial cable as Bob did, and test for results.

Hope you can figure out a fix, dont forget to share.

[belier]

I am using Finless 1.5 ROM. And the power consumption, as Gio says, is normal.

About the wires, you can try disconnecting the ground portion of the coaxial cable as Bob did, and test for results.

Hope you can figure out a fix, dont forget to share.

Thx for answering.

What do you mean for normal?
How many time with screen on between charges?

[giouncino]

I am using Finless 1.5 ROM. And the power consumption, as Gio says, is normal.

About the wires, you can try disconnecting the ground portion of the coaxial cable as Bob did, and test for results.

Hope you can figure out a fix, dont forget to share.

I will try also to build this antenna that has higher gain that yours:

It is a lot bigger, I will build both antennas and then install the better one (if I have enough room inside the tablet).

I will also try to rebuild GPS antenna and 3G antenna (even if this one is quite complex)...just to reach the BEST sensitivity!

[raxy]

Antennas with gain

I ´ve learned that gain is not the only or most important quality of the antenna for a portable device like a tablet.
Dispersion pattern is also important;
a portable device should use omnidirectionnal antenna so that you don ´t have to bother how you should hold your device regarding the router.
higher gain antenna tend to be bigger than unity gain ones, and as space is tight in a tablet ( especially for 9" screen or less), you will quickly hit a brickwall going that high gain route.
Last but not least, high gain means narrower beam and also less than unity gain is many directions,
that is why a working stock antenna is finally a good compromise in term of power consumption, usage of available internal space, practicality and radio performance.

[giouncino]

I ´ve learned that gain is not the only or most important quality of the antenna for a portable device like a tablet.
Dispersion pattern is also important;
a portable device should use omnidirectionnal antenna so that you don ´t have to bother how you should hold your device regarding the router.
higher gain antenna tend to be bigger than unity gain ones, and as space is tight in a tablet ( especially for 9" screen or less), you will quickly hit a brickwall going that high gain route.
Last but not least, high gain means narrower beam and also less than unity gain is many directions,
that is why a working stock antenna is finally a good compromise in term of power consumption, usage of available internal space, practicality and radio performance.

In theory you are right, but I think that these cheap vendors like Pipo and many others, to keep the costs low install the very cheapest antennas they can buy. If this antenna allow to connect properly (even if it works only very close to the Access Point) it is enough.
I don't think Pipo has performed ANY 3D antenna radiation study...with spectrum analyzer and so on...
For this reason I'm not surprised to see that a homemade antenna performs a lot better than the stock!

About the various parameters to be kept into account for the antenna, you are right: this is why I will do some testing to verify which antenna is suitable for my tablet.

[mcg_999]

Thanks madsega!!!

After much frustration I finally decided to crack this sucker open,
I went for the easy fix and did madsega's cardboard and electrical tape "fix".
All I can say is that it is working like a charm.
After dealing with crappy WiFi for so long, it makes this seem like a new machine.

What's even better is that it was SO easy. It only took me about 10 minutes.

THANKS MADSEGA!!!!

[madsega]

After much frustration I finally decided to crack this sucker open,
I went for the easy fix and did madsega's cardboard and electrical tape "fix".
All I can say is that it is working like a charm.
After dealing with crappy WiFi for so long, it makes this seem like a new machine.

What's even better is that it was SO easy. It only took me about 10 minutes.

THANKS MADSEGA!!!!

I'm very happy I could help out. Thank you for your feedback

[bobcntsa]

is it the same thing with m8hd

hi, I just receive a m8hd and I noticed that I ve got a poor wifi signal, does anybody already tried any of these modification on it?
thank you