Pipo M9 Pro wifi antenna modification instructions

[rodentkj]

worked like a charm, thanks for this thread!

Which method did you use? Replacing the wire or tape insulation?

[Zeggi]

worked like a charm, thanks for this thread!

[madsega]

Fixing wireless without changing the wires

Hey guys,

I had the same problem with the WIFI as everyone else. Couldn't stay connected for more than 15 minutes, sometimes it would drop after 30 seconds or 2 minutes. After reading all the posts here and other forums about replacing the wires, yesterday I thought I'd give it a shot.

Before replacing the wires, I wanted to try something I read elsewhere (where they said there's no reason to replace the wires).

I unglued (not unsoldered!) the wifi adapter from the case, cut a piece of thicker paper to fit between the case and the wifi adapter and placed it between the two. Then I put the adapter back in the original position (on top of the paper), put 3 stripes of insulating tape (image below) over it to shield it(?), and the original scotch tape that was over it.



I'm glad to say that yesterday, I had 6 hours with no interruption and today another 4 hours. Also, when connecting from one network to another, if I turn WIFI off while it's connected and then turn it back on, it connects instantly. As range goes, it's still good, I have 54Mb (router max speed) while in the room with the router, and about 36Mb while in other rooms with concrete walls.

Hope it helps for you guys who want to try something else before messing up with the wires.

Here is how you should open the Pipo (look for open pipo M9 01 17 part & open pipo M9 02 17 part)

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKJcthilKC1OJcrgO-YTV6Q/videos

Cheers

[lunatictr]

Don't do it unkess you have connection issues

...Then as soon as the battery arrive I'll do all the soldering and cable mods.
Hopefully next week-end.

I had problems with the fist stock Rom like everybody else. After switching to custom Roms I did not have any connection problems other than the range. It has no where near my Hyundai T7s whish has no firmware support. I wanted to increase the range. Although I did not find it logical to use 2 wires as Wi-Fi antenna I wanted to give it a shot, as I have to visually check the board for possible damages done by a Chinese adapter (see below). Well, it seemed that it has a stronger signal level at the same distance, it was unable to blood an pages probably because of all the noises/interferences picked up by these wires. the patch antenna is optimized for WiFi signals. Shielded cable is there to conduct the signals picked up by the antenna to the board. I have not watch the yet video fully. They might have tested the signals at a location close to the router. If they go ahead and go away from the location they would realize it is not any better. My explanation for the cases for which this worked is that they had a problem with the coax cable or the soldering to begin with, which could have been solved by a proper soldering or a new coax.

And as for my experience with a third party chargers, I got caught off guard (read stupid). I ordered the adapter for my external HDD to connect it to my tablet. I did not have the Y cable yet so I tesd it on my tablet (dammit!). I don't know what I was thinking when I plugged it my in my tablet first, instead of letting it plugged in the outlet fist and measure the output with my DMM. Like 15 second later it blew on me. Now the tablet thinks it is charging all the time and draining the battery much faster. I suspected the control board of the battery, which could have been straightened out by a new battery. But nowI am thinking of the board of the tablet itself. Morals of the story is don't do what I do.
If you come accross funny words, I have to blame it on my slow keyboard and auto correction of it, rather than my rusty English.

[giouncino]

Can you post your results.

BTW, I totally agree with the theory that the interconnect should be shielded.
It's possible that the person soldering the coax wire has not been properly instructed (or wasn't listening).

Of course!
I will receive a new battery for the tablet soon, I would like to open my tablet one time only. Then as soon as the battery arrive I'll do all the soldering and cable mods.
Hopefully next week-end.

[Nordo]

I completely agree.
I'm going to replace on my Pipo M6pro the wi-fi AND 3G coaxial cables with low loss aeronautics coaxial ones to improve signal strength!
I hope that a slightly increase in cable diameter can fit inside my tablet!
I'll do it probably next week-end...

Can you post your results.

BTW, I totally agree with the theory that the interconnect should be shielded.
It's possible that the person soldering the coax wire has not been properly instructed (or wasn't listening).

[giouncino]

Pure luck. Bla.....
You give the impression that not using a piece of coax for the fix can cause some type of irreparable damage to the tab. Worse case the wifi still performs poorly.

Sure using coax would be the best option. No doubt. And if you have a piece use it. With that said most people will not have that available to them. So I went the down and dirty route, hail mary if you will.

We could go back and forth about this but the end result is this modification made my worthless M9 useful again. Other have reported the same result. And if others can benefit from this then it's worth posing the info.

Black, red. Red, Black wire color. Who cares. As long as the wire is connected to the correct pads, the color is pointless.

This is not completely true, if the input/output part of TX/RX wifi doesn't see the correct characteristic impedance, it is possible to destroy the wifi receiver. Not for sure, it depends on how is good the wifi integrated circuit.
For example, if you use a wi-fi router without the antenna properly connected you can damage it. It has heppened to me on one awus036h wifi adapter modified by me (in not a good way..), after a while (less than one month) it was no more able to connect to wi-fi.

If you want to do a good job you can easily find in internet a suitable low loss coaxial cable...

[rodentkj]

Pure luck. Bla.....
You give the impression that not using a piece of coax for the fix can cause some type of irreparable damage to the tab. Worse case the wifi still performs poorly.

Sure using coax would be the best option. No doubt. And if you have a piece use it. With that said most people will not have that available to them. So I went the down and dirty route, hail mary if you will.

We could go back and forth about this but the end result is this modification made my worthless M9 useful again. Other have reported the same result. And if others can benefit from this then it's worth posing the info.

Black, red. Red, Black wire color. Who cares. As long as the wire is connected to the correct pads, the color is pointless.

[Finless]

All I can say is if it works ENJOY! de-soldering the shield worked for me. I know by design that is not right but like I said..... It works and fixed my wifi signal issues.

Bob

[giouncino]

Sorry to be such a scrooge, but I just have to jump in when I see really bad information being put forward.


The purpose of using coaxial cable (shielded wire) is to keep the signal transmission wire from becoming an antenna too. The original problem was most likely caused by "cold" or bad solder connections or the outer braided jacket being heated to long during installation and melting the inner wire thus creating a low impedance path for some percentage of the WIFI signals. The wires used as a fix are totally wrong, they should be as short as possible to reduce line losses and are color coded wrong. The black wire should have been on the coax shield solder points (ground or -) and the red wire should be the signal wire solder points (+). I suspect the fact that this fix worked at all can be attributed to pure luck more than anything else.

The replacement wire should be coaxial type only, kept as short as possible and soldered very very carefully.

I completely agree.
I'm going to replace on my Pipo M6pro the wi-fi AND 3G coaxial cables with low loss aeronautics coaxial ones to improve signal strength!
I hope that a slightly increase in cable diameter can fit inside my tablet!
I'll do it probably next week-end...

[geofferyh]

Sorry to be such a scrooge, but I just have to jump in when I see really bad information being put forward.


The purpose of using coaxial cable (shielded wire) is to keep the signal transmission wire from becoming an antenna too. The original problem was most likely caused by "cold" or bad solder connections or the outer braided jacket being heated to long during installation and melting the inner wire thus creating a low impedance path for some percentage of the WIFI signals. The wires used as a fix are totally wrong, they should be as short as possible to reduce line losses and are color coded wrong. The black wire should have been on the coax shield solder points (ground or -) and the red wire should be the signal wire solder points (+). I suspect the fact that this fix worked at all can be attributed to pure luck more than anything else.

The replacement wire should be coaxial type only, kept as short as possible and soldered very very carefully.

[Finless]

Right. I read that too.
I figured sine I was going to be in there, and I had the available resources and skills to completely replace the wire, I should go ahead and do that.

Agreed! If you do it do it right. I was not sure this was my problem so I just did the simple de-solder and put it back together to test it. When it worked I said "heck with it" and left it that way (lazy ). Next time I take it apart I will fix it right anyway.

My GPS works but all sat signals are below 40%. It works but I would like high signal levels. Thus later I plan to do the same as you and try hardware to see if it improves. gps.conf made no difference to me. Once I set my time zone and location via wifi, I get GPS lock very fast.

Bob

[rodentkj]

FYI for my tablet all I did was de-solder the ground/shield side of the antenna and this totally fixed it.
Bob

Right. I read that too.
I figured sine I was going to be in there, and I had the available resources and skills to completely replace the wire, I should go ahead and do that.

[rodentkj]

Just for info. The gps.conf that you mentioned. I have tried it. No go for me. Doesn't even work outdoors.

I should have been a bit more clear in my response.

If there is a hardware issue (suspected cabling in this case) then a simple software file is not going to fix it. Although it could improve a little to make it seem like things are better. But yes, I agree with you on your point.

However, once the hardware issues have been resolved then one can move forward with the gps.conf file.
I am 100% convinced that having this file properly setup for the country and region you reside in will help obtain faster and possibly better GPS signal.

With the gps.conf file in place I'd like to at least get GPS somewhat working with no hardware changes so I have a baseline. Then modify the gps antenna wire in my M9 and see if things get better.

Look for the user Cracktech. He has a good handle on things when it comes to the GPS stuff.

[Finless]

FYI for my tablet all I did was de-solder the ground/shield side of the antenna and this totally fixed it.

We had this very same issue on the MK808 TV stick and de-soldering ground fixed those too.

Now the best way is like the above procedure but I can tell you just desoldering ground also works and did for hundreds of MK808's as well as my M9 Pro

Bob