MK808 Wifi Antenna fix! VIDEO to help you do it!

[bdub951]

We are talking about 2.4GHz here. Try this calculator to give you the correct size of the wire. http://www.csgnetwork.com/antennaevcalc.html
So 2.4GHz = 2400MHz and take the 1/2 wave or 1/4 wave size. What you have created is an antenna that will resonate at much lower freq., prob like 250 to 300MHz.
The one I and most other use is about 2 inches long. If you take a look at the picture of mine I just used my soldering iron to make a small hole so I can feed the antenna thru that.
Also don't stick the wire like close to the device but like in a 90 degree angle. You will see a very steady speed transfer and alot better constant reception.

Strangely, with my antenna trimmed to 2.25 inches the performance is worse. I have it at a 90 degree angle from the board and I lost about 5db on signal strength and saw a decrease in performance. The longer antenna definitely provided the stronger signal.

[lukesan]

Strangely, with my antenna trimmed to 2.25 inches the performance is worse. I have it at a 90 degree angle from the board and I lost about 5db on signal strength and saw a decrease in performance. The longer antenna definitely provided the stronger signal.

Lets just call that 'weird'.
If you want to make it better for sure you should buy one of those magnet antenna's that come with a coax. Cut the connector off and solder it to the pcb.... but there goes the smallness of the thing.
Btw you don't actually need to cut the antenna to size to experiment. This is HF we are talking about, so if you want to experiment with different sizes you can just fold the end part back next to the wire.

[bdub951]

Lets just call that 'weird'.
If you want to make it better for sure you should buy one of those magnet antenna's that come with a coax. Cut the connector off and solder it to the pcb.... but there goes the smallness of the thing.
Btw you don't actually need to cut the antenna to size to experiment. This is HF we are talking about, so if you want to experiment with different sizes you can just fold the end part back next to the wire.

I agree on the weird part. I think something was amiss in the wifi config when I suddenly clipped off almost 10 inches of wire. Upon reboot, things improved noticeably from the stability standpoint. I still have the 5 db drop in signal vs the longer antenna but stability has increased. Even mounting the device behind my TV doesn't hamper the stability. I'm getting a solid 10-19,000bps without the strange connection drops and almost total loss of throughput. I've been testing for an hour straight now. I will optimistically say this is a noticeable improvement over stock.

1 tiny little hole drilled in the case and a drop of hotglue over my DIY soldered antenna's connection then I fed the antenna through the hole and closed the case back up. The slightly thicker wire I used sticks out perfectly straight and looks very tolerable. It's all totally flexible too so it wont break.

I will update if things change.

[lukesan]

Well to be honest wifi is a strange beast.

Now there is a saying 'measuring is knowing' but due to experience I have developed another one and that is 'know what you measure'
I have issues on the lower channels here which do not show up on inssider or wifi analyzer. When I got my spectrum analyzer I soon found out that some camera (I think) in the area is transmitting on these frequencies. If I check it on the analyzer the bursts are different and it is definately not a wifi type of modulation. This one is so strong that 10 meters (30ft) away from my Asus RT-N66U router I can't get a decent link. Now those things do not show up on the laptop nor the android monitoring tools.
Actually also the signal strenght is a strange beast. My wifes ZTE gives about 10dB better signal in the kitchen yet the download speed is way less than my Galaxy S2.

I hope to find a stick that operates on 5GHz since it doesn't reach that far, but far enough, and has alot more bandwidth available.

[spidara]

Hello,I have problem with wifi recipment and I want to look at your video, but thear is no video.can you upload new one pleas!e

[jbwalters]

Thanks

This mod worked well, thank you!

[mutton]

Is the link working for you

All I get is
This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.

<tree>
<message type="SUCCESS"/>
<require_auth/>

</tree>

[lauriv]

The real problem with the MK808 is the WiFi 0Ω divider (not a proper way to do a WiFi antenna divider).
The trace to the antenna in the back also goes through a via hole (bad for 2.4Ghz signals.."reflections").

In this case better one antenna than two:


I have done this mod on 5 different MK808-s and got at least a 10dB gain on each of them.

WiFi is rock solid at 65Mbps and signal strength is Excellent!

Thanks and good luck,
Lauri

P.S. I am not responsible, if you damage your device. Decent soldering skills required to remove the small 0402 size resistor shown on the picture.

[bdorset]

Questions for lauriv

1) I could get 65Mbps connection and excellent signal when my MK808 is close to the Router without mod. So you need to tell us at what distance you perform test and what happens when you put 1 or 2 walls between the MK808 and the Access Point.

2)"In this case better one antenna than two". Does that mean the Antenna on the other side should be disconnected?

The real problem with the MK808 is the WiFi 0Ω divider (not a proper way to do a WiFi antenna divider).
The trace to the antenna in the back also goes through a via hole (bad for 2.4Ghz signals.."reflections").

In this case better one antenna than two:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1265[/ATTACH]

I have done this mod on 5 different MK808-s and got at least a 10dB gain on each of them.

WiFi is rock solid at 65Mbps and signal strength is Excellent!

Thanks and good luck,
Lauri

P.S. I am not responsible, if you damage your device. Decent soldering skills required to remove the small 0402 size resistor shown on the picture.

[userman]

Bob, please repost video to youtube or somewhere.

[bdorset]

Bob, please repost video to youtube or somewhere.

Search Youtube or Google for "MK808 Quick Fix Antenna Mod"

[userman]

Damn, i'm slow!

[lukesan]

The real problem with the MK808 is the WiFi 0Ω divider (not a proper way to do a WiFi antenna divider).
The trace to the antenna in the back also goes through a via hole (bad for 2.4Ghz signals.."reflections").

In this case better one antenna than two:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1265[/ATTACH]

I have done this mod on 5 different MK808-s and got at least a 10dB gain on each of them.

WiFi is rock solid at 65Mbps and signal strength is Excellent!

Thanks and good luck,
Lauri

P.S. I am not responsible, if you damage your device. Decent soldering skills required to remove the small 0402 size resistor shown on the picture.

Nice catch! Shows ... again ... that they don't even know what they are doing or designing. You cannot couple antennas like that.
It will probably explain a couple of symptoms that I have been reading.

[Finless]

Video link fixed.

Bob

[v2comp]

Mine looks different inside and doesnt have the same antenna connections on both sides.

My unit looks different that the others I have seen posted and I thought I would post mine up. I have one heavily soldered antenna wire on one side and the other side has 2 pins that basically just touch the other antenna. check it out.