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I read in these threads about using an external antenna. Someone posted Radioshack# 17-345 Universal Antenna plus a 17-349 adapter pigtail to connect the 8525.
I was planning to use this in a sports car with bluetooth so I could set the phone in the back.
The short story is, I uncorked the external antenna port and plugged in this antenna. I got no signal bars. I disconnected the antenna....now no signal bars where I used to get 4.
I pulled the battery, let it sit, same problem. Pulled sim and used a different phone, 4 bars.
So this external antenna seems to have killed my radio!
Cell phone today with just the handset alone is almost good for anywhere you go will get you a decent signal strength. Unless under extreme condition such in a forest or up in the mountain where you might need to pull in a stronger signal, there's where those external antenna comes in play. Most ppl like me do not use external antenna while in car. There's just no point of using an external antenna in car. Not sure how you fried the radio, is this some kind the amplified antenna?
RemE said:
I read in these threads about using an external antenna. Someone posted Radioshack# 17-345 Universal Antenna plus a 17-349 adapter pigtail to connect the 8525.
I was planning to use this in a sports car with bluetooth so I could set the phone in the back.
The short story is, I uncorked the external antenna port and plugged in this antenna. I got no signal bars. I disconnected the antenna....now no signal bars where I used to get 4.
I pulled the battery, let it sit, same problem. Pulled sim and used a different phone, 4 bars.
So this external antenna seems to have killed my radio!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it's a passive antenna, simple design about the size of a pack of cards. I simply plugged it in and then saw no bars, just searching. I un-plugged it and it was toast.
I believe that the 8525 connector disconnects the internal antenna when a external antenna is connected. I also believe that that connector was somehow damaged by the external antenna and now there is no antenna connected.
I won't be trying this again!
RemE said:
I read in these threads about using an external antenna. Someone posted Radioshack# 17-345 Universal Antenna plus a 17-349 adapter pigtail to connect the 8525.
I was planning to use this in a sports car with bluetooth so I could set the phone in the back.
The short story is, I uncorked the external antenna port and plugged in this antenna. I got no signal bars. I disconnected the antenna....now no signal bars where I used to get 4.
I pulled the battery, let it sit, same problem. Pulled sim and used a different phone, 4 bars.
So this external antenna seems to have killed my radio!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just killed my Hermes using a Radoshack external antenna adapter, too. It worked great for about 5 minutes, giving me 5 extra bars, and then the cell signal went dead. I haven't been able to get it to find a signal any more.
Do you think it was physically damaged? Broke a solder point pushing the connector on or off- or it somehow shorted out the device by drawing too much power or something? My reception sucks in my new apt here in Shanghai and I really want to get an antenna for use while at home, but I don't want to kill my Hermes!
Did you try a Hard reset - after backing up of course...
Other than that you may need to pull you Hermes apart and see if the radio antenna has popped out (unlikely,but....). For any manuals go here - http://michael-channon.spaces.live.com/
You may get help from our HTC Hardware Guru, Mike Channon...
Cheers...
Anybody know a way to get a Sandisk Connectplus +128 wifi CF card to work with WM5 ? Drivers for WM2003 are available from Sandisk but that's all. Some of the Linux users have gotten theirs to work with Prism 3 drivers, but it didn't work for me. I've got an ipaq hx4700 with onboard wifi. I have the card leftover from an older ipaq and would like to try to make an external antenna for it rather than messing with the onboard wifi. Thanks for any help.
jwy2k2 said:
Anybody know a way to get a Sandisk Connectplus +128 wifi CF card to work with WM5 ? Drivers for WM2003 are available from Sandisk but that's all. Some of the Linux users have gotten theirs to work with Prism 3 drivers, but it didn't work for me. I've got an ipaq hx4700 with onboard wifi. I have the card leftover from an older ipaq and would like to try to make an external antenna for it rather than messing with the onboard wifi. Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This forum is for HTC manufactured devices but have you tried the 2003 drivers maybe they will work
Sorry, I thought this device was made by HTC because there's alot of posts about it on another thread. Anyway, I wasn't able to get it to work with the 2003 Sandisk drivers or with some HTC customized Prism drivers from another site. The card doesn't show up at all, not even a message like "unrecognized card" (the 128MB of built in flash on the card are available however)
I may be doing something wrong, my knowledge of these things is very limited. I removed the ipaq wireless manager shortcut .lnk file from the startup folder and made sure the onboard wifi was not active but, maybe other registry changes need to be made as well.?
BTW, out of curiosity I thought I would take a peek at the onboard wifi internals. Fairly simple removing the 4 screws and popping off the plastic corner antenna cover. I noticed what looks like a connector of some kind in the wifi area: not on the wifi daughterboard but just next to it. I don't know what it is, testing connector? JTAG? or maybe antenna? I'm not about to mess with my internal wifi hardware without knowing what the hell I'm doing but maybe others would be interested. Googleing about external wifi connector hacks on PDAs I only find one guy that did it with his Axim.
jwy2k2 said:
BTW, out of curiosity I thought I would take a peek at the onboard wifi internals. Fairly simple removing the 4 screws and popping off the plastic corner antenna cover. I noticed what looks like a connector of some kind in the wifi area: not on the wifi daughterboard but just next to it. I don't know what it is, testing connector? JTAG? or maybe antenna? I'm not about to mess with my internal wifi hardware without knowing what the hell I'm doing but maybe others would be interested. Googleing about external wifi connector hacks on PDAs I only find one guy that did it with his Axim.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can you post a pic maybe i can help you with this more then the drivers
I'll try to post a pic later.
Meanwhile I haven't totally given up on this old card. I tried installing the official Sandisk 2003 drivers again and managed to get the ipaq to "see it"' but it won't connect: the LED on the card blinks but there are no networks being detected where there should be.
BTW, for any HTC owners, here's the link to the custom Sandisk drivers I tried earlier. Probably ancient for most but might help someone.
http://www.damnsoft.org/cgi-bin/ghostgui.cgi?nographics=;app=projects;section=sandisk
jwy2k2 said:
I'll try to post a pic later.
Meanwhile I haven't totally given up on this old card. I tried installing the official Sandisk 2003 drivers again and managed to get the ipaq to "see it"' but it won't connect: the LED on the card blinks but there are no networks being detected where there should be.
BTW, for any HTC owners, here's the link to the custom Sandisk drivers I tried earlier. Probably ancient for most but might help someone.
http://www.damnsoft.org/cgi-bin/ghostgui.cgi?nographics=;app=projects;section=sandisk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe its a typo but its not HPC its HTC (High Tech Computer Corp. and is the name of the manufacture) but maybe he meant Handheld PC (came before pocket pc look at link). So the drivers are i think even before WM2002.(thats cool that they are still around maybe all these forums will still be around in ten years or more)
and he edited the drivers so that the would work on a old device, dont see that, that much
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmtop
Hi,
Have a Kaiser on the way and want to have an external GPS antenna and an external phone antenna ready to go when it gets here.
But I can't find anywhere what types of antenna sockets the Kaiser has for these two antennas?
Does anyone know???
Thanks.
Great forum, by the way!
As far as i can see it only has a socket for a GPS antenna so i assume this would probably act as both although not sure
you can get the official antenna from expansys
http://www.expansys.com/htc/p_htc_item.aspx?i=151025
I can confirm spooki37 says, from what I can tell, there is only one port. It is located the rubber GPS stamp that is on the back of the device. eBay has them shipping to the US for about $15 - $20 non-oem from China.
When I remove the battery cover, it sure looks like there are two jacks. I too thought the other must be for external Cellular antenna.
So does anyone know what the 2nd port is used for?
Whatever you do dont use the second port because it will damage your phone. I plugged an external antenna into my original phone and when I removed it the phone had no signal at all. The only way to get any signal was to use an external antenna after that.
That second port is an antenna port but htc doesnt support any antenna for it and is supposed to be used for debugging purposes only.
I use an external antenna all the time with mine... (TyTN II / Kaiser) works ok.. not great, but gets me one more bar, and seems to hold the signal better in a low signal area.
I use this adapter:
http://www.wpsantennas.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=441
with one of their antennas.
I don't have any problems with signal after I disconnect it, but i'm pretty careful with connect/disconnect, and I cradle it while connected. I bet a little torque would probably damage the connection which would probably damage the internal antenna connection as well.
So you remove the battery cover and plug that antenna into the smaller of the two ports? Ive damaged 2 phones trying external antennas and so have others. This one is a htc titan http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/ppc-6800-xv6800/96140-phone-signal-horrible.html and theres more reports like this one.
Ren13B said:
So you remove the battery cover and plug that antenna into the smaller of the two ports? .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I usually just pull my battery cover off, carefully seat the antenna into the port on the left, and then cradle the the thing.
I've done this with this phone, a moto blackjack, and at least two other moto phones in the past, and never had an issue. Again, though... I've pretty much ALWAYS immobilized the phone while it's got the antenna jack plugged in. I actually try to do the same when USB is in too... the boards inside these tiny devices are too thin and the amount of torque you can apply accidentally is quite high... best to be safe... but I get intermittent signal where I use it most frequently, so I accept the risk.
Thanks!
KarlFlick said:
I use an external antenna all the time with mine... (TyTN II / Kaiser) works ok.. not great, but gets me one more bar, and seems to hold the signal better in a low signal area.
I use this adapter:
http://www.wpsantennas.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=441
with one of their antennas.
I don't have any problems with signal after I disconnect it, but i'm pretty careful with connect/disconnect, and I cradle it while connected. I bet a little torque would probably damage the connection which would probably damage the internal antenna connection as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly the answer I needed - thanks heaps!
So obviously it takes the some patch lead as the Tytn. In that case I'll just get a Tytn patch lead off ebay and hope for the best.
The owner's manual I found for the Tytn says you can use the antenna plug, so they obviously thought it was safe then, but maybe hid it on this model because of a few reported breakages. I'm going to use mine only occasionally and in a cradle, so I hope I'll be OK if I'm very careful. Maybe I'll never end up using it given the risk...
Another option would be one of those universal antenna leads. They clip on the back of the phone and work by an induction coil. Their performance is very variable - mine works OK (+1 bar) on a friend's phone, but seems to make no difference on my phone.
I want to add this as well: plugging in an external antenna can damage your phone. I have plugged a wilson antenna into my 8925 and now my reception is extremely poor... I am not sure of the cause, or how to fix it.. just hope to help people avoid this.
We have the 8925 here at our office and have found that the port on the right side is for GPS only. The left port is for cellular reception.
We have not damaged the phone that we have here and have had the 8925 for about 6 months.
There are a few issues with using external antennas:
First of all, the connector must be properly sized for the phone.
With some device/connector combinations it is normal for the connector to appear to not be fully seated. If you try to force the connector on further you can do permanent damage to the phone.
In the phone there is a tiny mechanical switch that gets tripped when you plug the external antenna in. This physically disconnects the internal antenna and connects the phone's radio to the antenna port. Sometimes this switch gets stuck in the port position, so you get poor performance when you disconnect the external antenna. This is especially common with CDMA Motorola V3 models.
-Jay
any body uses a wifi external antenna????
How hard is it to fix this "switch"? I have a kaiser that will only work with an external antenna after using one. Port isnt damaged as far as I can tell and ive never had problems with external antennas with other phones.
Jay2TheRescue said:
There are a few issues with using external antennas:
First of all, the connector must be properly sized for the phone.
With some device/connector combinations it is normal for the connector to appear to not be fully seated. If you try to force the connector on further you can do permanent damage to the phone.
In the phone there is a tiny mechanical switch that gets tripped when you plug the external antenna in. This physically disconnects the internal antenna and connects the phone's radio to the antenna port. Sometimes this switch gets stuck in the port position, so you get poor performance when you disconnect the external antenna. This is especially common with CDMA Motorola V3 models.
-Jay
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DaMilky said:
How hard is it to fix this "switch"? I have a kaiser that will only work with an external antenna after using one. Port isnt damaged as far as I can tell and ive never had problems with external antennas with other phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never actually had this happen to any of my phones, so I don't know how hard it is to fix. If the external antenna was forced onto the connector you may have to send the phone in for service to have the port replaced. The only other thing I can think of is to put a small amount of contact cleaner on the port itself, the gently work it in with the external antenna connector. This may loosen the switch and let it return to the internal antenna position if this is your problem. In all likelihood I'd say that a warranty exchange is probably your best bet.
-Jay
has anyone notised a 3rd port? its between the camera and the speaker and slightly higer than the other 2 I bet that ones for wifi at 1st glance I thought it was a screw.
I don't understand why the port were designed in the first place when things seem to be such a useless purpose ...etc
comes with INTERNAL GPS ... so why the need for EXTERNAL ??? and if you do need to use it ... it is delicate and chances are, you're screwed and damage it !!
so why bother designed it ?? <scratching head> !!!
External antennae that are properly sized for the operational wavelength will always have higher effective gain than any built-on antenna that is capable of fitting on a typical handheld device.
The External GPS antenna has 27 dB Gain (typical)... I cannot find specifications for the internal antenna on our Kaiser's, but I am willing to bet they are probably at best a unity antenna, maybe 3db on the good side.
That means you will recieve SIGNIFICANTLY signal strength and more satellites when you are doing anything involving GPS, and weather, antenna position, and all standard environmental factors will have significantly less effect on your GPS activities.
The same goes for an external antenna for the cellular portion. The internal radio boosts power output when it has degraded reception which means when you're in a poor reception area, you burn more battery doing the same things you typically do.
A "gain" vehicular antenna directly connected to your phone will increase battery life when using wireless connections to the cellular network, as well as provide you good reception where you would otherwise have poor to none.
Of course, if you live in an urban area, this is probably of no use to you... but in a built up area with many large buildings around, you may not have as good GPS resolution and reception as you could with an external antenna..
*
The primary reason they put these on there is moreso for diagnostic purposes probably... hook it up to a freq counter and/or spectrum analyzer and you can tell that the radio is actually putting out what frequency and it's strength as well. Without those, there's no external way to ensure transmission is occuring without possible interference.
mech_supernova said:
has anyone notised a 3rd port? its between the camera and the speaker and slightly higer than the other 2 I bet that ones for wifi at 1st glance I thought it was a screw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've examined this very closely under a bright light, and I have concluded that it is a screw with a Torx head.
I'm trying to find a serial console, hopefully to access u-boot, but I'm not having any luck.
I found 4 possible candidates on the main board.
JP1 is near the WiFi card and has mostly 3.3v on the lines.
JLTE1 is near the power LED, and has 3.3v on 2 of the lines.
JLTE2 is hidden under the front camera cable, and also has 3.3v on one of the lines.
Last is JP6, which is near the 3G connector, and also has 3.3v on 1/2 the lines.
-- dag nabit, can't post images yet --
I've hooked a scope up to all pins of these jumpers during boot and reboot, as that's when most of the serial console/kernel output would occur. But no luck.
So, has anyone found a serial console on the TPT? (or a schematic?)
Thanks!
I'm also looking for a serial port. Have you already checked the Dock connector? I think there is a chance that Lenovo made it on this port.
I have opened my Dock yesterday and also found some unpopulated PCB pads which are for HDMI.
Thanks!
Duh! I forgot about the dock connector, as I don't have a dock. Can you take a pic of the PCB? I'll order a dock, kinda handy anyway...
BTW, I also tried a USB/mini-PCIe adapter in the 3G slot. The kernel recognized the USB stick as /dev/sda, but would not mount it. So if you have root, you might want to make a mount point and rule for something like this.
Here's a cheap source for hardware:
www hwtools net slash Adapter slash PM3U dot html
The microSD option has potential, too. Make sure you get the USB, not the PCI versions. (As I'm pretty sure the PCI functionality is not available here.)
Someone harvasted a 3g mini pci modem from a lenovo laptop and installed it. The HC os had the drivers and the modem was recognized.
Yes, Ihave an Ericsson F5521GW 3G modem here. The tablet and Android recognize it and prompt me for a SIM card, which I don't have.
If you want it, I can mail it to you...
The mini-PCIe adapter for USB and microSDHC work fine. You just need to be root to mount them.
Don't know if this would help you guys or not
If you are looking for a serial output I have a http://www.g2microsystems.com/products/RN_270.
Basically it's a bluetooth to serial adapter. I use it on my phones and tablets with a free app called bluterm to connect to Cisco equipment with. Its pretty cool but pricey (work sprang for it).
There are a lot of different brands of these adapters (I had one from http://www.aircable.net as well that worked good).
Thanks Karl, but I'm looking to gain access to the u-boot loader. I want to hijack the boot and make it boot Linux off of the micro-sdhc card (installed in the 3G slot). Ideally I'll have it dual-boot.
I have a Trim-Slice PC on the way. It's also a Tegra-2, so theoretically, I can develop on Trim-Slice, save on micro-sd and boot from there.
However, those are some cool devices I could use for other projects. Thanks for the links!
AbeOwitz said:
Thanks!
Duh! I forgot about the dock connector, as I don't have a dock. Can you take a pic of the PCB? I'll order a dock, kinda handy anyway...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for my late response. I have taken some pictures and uploaded them to rapidshare. I cannot post the link here so I will send you a pm
Wow, thanks for taking the time to do that!
BTW, it seems the rapid-charger cable is not available any more?
Found some dock details here: http rootzwiki com topic 8523-reverse-engineering-the-dock-charger
So, i finally got the dock. No luck in finding the console.
I disassembled the dock, and probed both the 20 pins that are soldered through the board and the 40 pins on the inter-board connector.
As root I did a "cat /dev/urandom > /dev/ttyS0" to generate output, but no luck. I did find the audio and microphone lines. (/dev/ttyS0 is defined as console on the kernel boot parameter line.)
There must be a RTS/CTS line that needs to be enabled...? Or perhaps it's simply not passed through?
Hi all, new to XDa so go easy on me here...
Just. Got a smj327p sprint phone
Where I live I get very poor 4g coverage roughly -105dbm on band 41
What I am trying to do is connect an external antenna
The phone has a mhc705 connector labeled r1 which I'd love to make use of
I have a patch lead from my S4 days, This is a ms705 to FME
The cable fits the port but I do not think the center pin is making contact as I do not get any signal changes whatsoever, doesn't appear long enough
I am trying to avoid using a passive patch
can someone recommend a correct cable for this phone?
Thanks in advance
Hey Jer1981,
I'm in the same condition, pls update if you find a solution to plug an external antenna to the J3.
I share here a reply from some antenna makers in New Zealand: "The port on the J3 is more of a 'test port' than a usable antenna port. The port is smaller and more delicate than the one in the link, so much so it's designed for use in a 'laboratory environment' only. I can get the fitting to work with it, but it must be held in place and costs more."
I'm thinking of getting a 3G mobile wifi device from huawei with external antenna port...
Hi what cable are you using? for this as mine doesn't appear to get a connection at all