NEW PI ZERO GAINS UNAPPROVED ANTENNAS YET once again

We’ve only started to tap into the prospective of the brand new Pi Zero 2. having lastly got his board, [Brian Dorey] shows us exactly how to boost your Pi’s WiFi, the hacker way. Inline with the onboard WiFi antenna can be discovered a u.FL footprint, as well as you just understand that somebody had to add an outside antenna. This is where [Brian] comes in, with a photo-rich writeup as well as video tutorial, embedded below, that will have you customize your own Zero in no time. His measurements show seeing fourteen networks offered in a area where he’d only see four before, as well as the RSSI levels reported have improved by 5 dB -10 dB, huge when it comes to getting a further or more steady connection.

With old laptops being a decent source of WiFi antennas, you only requirement to procure a u.FL connector as well as method soldering a bit before you take this on! The hardest part of such a job has a tendency to be not accidentally putting any type of solder on the u.FL connector’s metal can – as well as [Brian] mainly succeeds in that! He shows exactly how to disconnect the outside antenna to prevent signal reflections as well as the like, and, of course, you will be expected to never power your Pi Zero on without an connected antenna afterwards, lest you have your transmitter ended up being fatally confused by the mismatch of hardware-defined impedance expectations. A Pi Zero isn’t the only location where you’ll encounter footprints for connectors you can add, as well as arguably, that’s your duty as a hacker – modifying the things you work with in a method that adds functionality. Don’t fail to remember to share exactly how you did it!

This technique should be quite practical if you’re ever to put your new Pi Zero in a full-metal enclosure. curious about the Raspberry Pi antenna’s inner workings? We’ve covered them before! If you’d like to see some previous Raspberry Pi mods, here’s one for the Pi 3, as well as here’s one for the original Zero W – from [Brian], too!