How I improved wifi signal on MK809iii

[astroboy87]

Hiyas,
I found a way to improve wifi signal after much trial and error.
The dbM measurement from wifi analyzer app, has improved from around -70% to about -43% with this hack.
What i did was;
Pulled off the outer casing on the mk809iii and removed the flat foil piece from the end of the antenna wire and then plugged it directly into the middle of an external wifi antenna. (I unscrewed the wifi antenna from a spare wifi adapter laying around). See picture

And then shaped the electrical tape into a circle inside the antenna screw plug area, and pushed the wire into the middle where the electrical contact is made, and then folded the tape down inside it to hold it in place.

------ STUFF I TRIED BEFORE THIS -------
Followed the youtube videos that showed people changing the position of the antenna wire internally and also pulling it completely out of the case and also tried soldering another small wire onto the side of it. The 2nd wire option did work now and then but wasnt a reliable constant signal like i have now.


---------- QUESTIONS I HAVE ----------

I dont have much experience with android (only windows).
Even though its a good improvement the real time download speed for streaming from wifi or internet seems to be maxed out at around 600kilobytes/s, which isnt enough for 720p streaming, or at least XMBC buffers when playing.

SPEED TEST.NET reports a download speed of 5megabits BUT
SPEED CHECKER APP reports download of 13megabits.

Why is there such a big difference between these apps?
I am wondering if speed test.net is writing to a different area of the android device, if there is a bottle neck area somewhere?

I would love to be able to have XBMC streaming in real time all of my HD or even SD content without buffering if any suggestions?

thanks

[imaddiced2u]

I did something similar. I had a broken laptop kicking around. I removed the two antenna's from it and desoldered the stock antenna lead from my MK809III and soldered the laptop antenna in its place. I brought the wire out between the OTG port and the SD card. This allows me to get the antenna about 18 inches from the MK809III. I think the biggest issue with wifi/bluetooth on these devices is having the antenna in close proximity with the electronics. I get a solid 65 Mbs wifi connection now and haven't had issues with streaming HD content in XBMC over wifi from a usb hard disk attached to a windows 7 PC or from my 50 Mbs speed internet connection. Bluetooth works perfectly now as well.
I used the other antenna on my second MK809III and have had no issues even with both devices streaming.



It's likely that the difference in speeds is because the programs are testing speed from different servers on the internet.