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Passive Fractal Antenna 3G Boost 1 to 4 bars

I got frustrated only getting 1 bar and slow connections inside my back office?, so I made a "Passive Fractal Antenna" 3G to Boost from 1 to 4 bars, my dslreports.com Mobile Speed Test went from 228kbit/sec to 2976kbit/sec. the antenna is easy to build and more importantly! it$ Cheap! total cost $20.00, The only thing to keep in mind is that since its a passive antenna it works better when you have the HTC HD2 laying on the Base input and in front of the reflector, The further you are from the base the less the affect? I put the Antenna as high as possible in my closet with one side 90 degrees perpendicular facing the closest Cell Tower (Find Cell Tower) and with the grounded reflector facing directly to the Cell Tower with a 10ohm transformer for matching.
The Antenna I made is purposely tuned for wide band but you can fine tune it for greater reception if needed, but the frequencies we are working with makes it too directional?
If people are interested I will put up a simple schematic with parts and description build list.

hd2shadow said:
If people are interested I will put up a simple schematic with parts and description build list.
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Why would you have done that from the start? Of course people are going to ask to see exactly what you did. I know my office is down in the basement and would like to have a better signal while down here.

would be awesome if you post a how-to on this...may give this a try.
T-Mobile USA recently boosted coverage in my area. I actually called in after experiencing better signal quality / speeds to give them kudos. Shortly thereafter, speeds dropped by two-thirds to around 0.3mbps. I have sneaky feeling they thought I was enjoying the newfound speeds too much.

Yes. Interested on how to do this!!

hd2shadow said:
I got frustrated only getting 1 bar and slow connections inside my back office?, so I made a "Passive Fractal Antenna" 3G to Boost from 1 to 4 bars, my dslreports.com Mobile Speed Test went from 228kbit/sec to 2976kbit/sec. the antenna is easy to build and more importantly! it$ Cheap! total cost $20.00, The only thing to keep in mind is that since its a passive antenna it works better when you have the HTC HD2 laying on the Base input and in front of the reflector, The further you are from the base the less the affect? I put the Antenna as high as possible in my closet with one side 90 degrees perpendicular facing the closest Cell Tower (Find Cell Tower) and with the grounded reflector facing directly to the Cell Tower with a 10ohm transformer for matching.
The Antenna I made is purposely tuned for wide band but you can fine tune it for greater reception if needed, but the frequencies we are working with makes it too directional?
If people are interested I will put up a simple schematic with parts and description build list.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is pretty interesting...but aw man..you screen protector is not so hot!!

Interesting...
I would have preferred that you did a series of speed tests and looked at the averages, since I have seen wild swings from one test to the next. But 228kbit/sec to 2976kbit/sec? That's pretty amazing.
I can basically see the concept of your antenna - so I guess the biggest question is: What wire did you use, and what does it do between the desk spiral and that diagonally zig zag in the closet. I sure hope your wife isn't tripping over it when she heads to the laundry room, LOL! +1 on the screen protector... Dude, the screen is hardened glass, and while I would cry if mine got scratched, I would be downright embarrassed walking around with that bubbled mess on top of my beautiful HD2.

+2 on the screen protector. Remove or replace it! NOW!!

SmartAs$Phone said:
Dude, the screen is hardened glass, and while I would cry if mine got scratched, I would be downright embarrassed walking around with that bubbled mess on top of my beautiful HD2.
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+3 on the awful screen protector he has.
But, that amazingly hardened glass CAN scratch. I watched the Youtube video of a guy trying to scratch it with a razor blade, and felt pretty confident I didn't need a screen protector. I had a half inch scratch in the center of the screen 2 days later. NO idea how it happened, but it my have been my keys the ONE time they were NEAR the phone.
Logically, I upgraded shipping on a couple PhantomSkinz so I'll never have to worry about that again.

Keys can scratch the absolute hell out of glass. My friend's ipod touch has a scratch running the entire diagonal of the screen.

service sucks in my basements im interested

I'd love to see the plans/schematics too, I know these types of antennas can work wonders, if implemented properly.

I will post pictures and plans/schematics as well very soon, next day or so, I just got back and need to do a few things first, Passive Fractal Antenna is not anything that is hard to do? you just need a roll of wire and patience.

toreone said:
but aw man..you screen protector is not so hot!!
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What a gem. Had to take a second look. Lol this is hilarious.please wait 2 seconds for an uncompressed image, or press Ctrl+F5 for original quality page

Think this would work to get a better WiMax signal?

[Q] Reception, how to improve?

So, we have probably all noticed that even compared to other phones the xperia line (and the Play in specific) seem to suffer from lower reception capability.
Putting them side by side, my Motorola Droid (A855, OG Droid 1) gets a better signal both in DB measurement and in bars. Same thing for WiFi signal. I'm guessing there is an issue with design of the antenna array in the device that causes for lower reception/broadcast quality.
I don't wish to shell out $300 for a cell repeater or $300 + monthly for a femtocell that will eat my internet bandwidth (which is pathetically limited). With that in mind, I went and started looking over the device, its teardowns, and its schematics. I was looking for something as a diversity jack for an external antenna. Now I noticed, next to the battery connector, there is a small semi-covered coax input. It appears that if you pulled off the rest of the sticker, or even if you just pushed a coax prong into there you could potentially be an antenna. However, it is not specifically labeled as such on the system board or the chassis, and the schematics were largely electrical diagrams and not system board schematics. Is there any answer for this? On pretty much every smartphone I have ever owned, there is an auxillary or "diversity" coax jack for adding an external antenna or doing signal injection.
Does anybody have any input on this? I would love to be able to boost my phone's reception quality, even if only in the car or at home (even if it means a custom modded case for ease of connect/disconnect).

Cant help you with your specific question but i can throw a tip.
- Switch your phone to GSM only. It will strengthen the signal. The downside is you are stuck with G/E data speeds (slower than H).

dsswoosh said:
Cant help you with your specific question but i can throw a tip.
- Switch your phone to GSM only. It will strengthen the signal. The downside is you are stuck with G/E data speeds (slower than H).
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Sadly, with the US-CDMA variant and its firmware, I believe that is not an option. I'm specifically using the R800x. However, the board layouts are essentially identical.

I don't see the problem if you arnt getting any dropped calls. Wrap your phone in tin foil lmao
Sent from my XPlay using XDA App.

Deoxlar said:
I don't see the problem if you arnt getting any dropped calls. Wrap your phone in tin foil lmao
Sent from my XPlay using XDA App.
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Well that is sort of the problem. I live in an area that its hills are filled with lead and other heavy minerals. Dead zones and limited signal zones are rampant, especially while driving. I _DO_ get dropped calls, and more importantly dropped data. Heck I even get dropped data from the router in the house through only one wall just a room away.
Basically if I can find out where exactly the aux/diversity port is for antennas, then I could design and fabricate a better back cover to either allow for external antennas, or to integrate better antennas into the cover (like the Thunderbolt sort of does).
Side note: Wrapping it in Tin/Aluminum Foil would make it worse, I believe (yes I have limited sense of humour).

you can easely remove the rubber in front of the coax port (atleast it definitly looks like a coax port). Would like to see a back case with better antenna in it (also being able to harbor an extra fat battery).

svenk919 said:
you can easely remove the rubber in front of the coax port (atleast it definitly looks like a coax port). Would like to see a back case with better antenna in it (also being able to harbor an extra fat battery).
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The problem is that there are several coax ports. The one near the battery connector is the most obvious, but there are some more that are under the secondary cover or behind more stickers. Trying to find out which one is which or what they do is not easy. I have some basic electronics schematics, some teardown pics/video, and a really really sparse parts replacement guide, but not much else to go on.

Plug in an antenna and see if it improves?

svenk919 said:
Plug in an antenna and see if it improves?
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*laughs* I suppose that would be the easy/simple way to find out, wouldn't it?
I'll see if I can find a matching pigtail adapter and see if I can plug a big fat antenna into and see if the DBM improves for either Cell or WiFi. I wanted to see if anybody could confirm before I attempted to mod this thing.

[Q] Xperia Play Wi-Fi issues

Hey guys,
Has anyone else noticed the terrible wi-fi capacility of the xperia play? Most of the time I pretty much have to be in the same room as my router in order to have a decent internet-connectivity. As soon as theres one thin wooden wall between the router and my play i have virtually no connectivity.
The Samsung Galaxy S seemed to have similar problems, but when compared to the connectivity of any kind of Iphone the difference is monumental
Is the Iphone's hardware just soooo much better, or does it have to do with the device's programming? Would a different kernel fix things?
I'd be glad for any kind of input. Thanks in advance!

So I guess no one has any answers to this... Except for buying a stronger router or Wi-fi amplifier

Cymatrelic said:
So I guess no one has any answers to this... Except for buying a stronger router or Wi-fi amplifier
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Reception in general on the Xperia Play has been a touchy issue. If you compare the actual dBm to another device, they are fairly close, with the Play often being a bit on the worse side. That being said, no easy way to increase connection power.
If you look at the schematics, there are ports that you could plug an external antenna into, but it would require modding the case (drilling holes, mounting plugs/adapters, etc). I'm working on my own case-mod that will do all of this for One of the two Cell ports and the WiFi port, but this is a personal hardware hack and not something done in software.
As to kernel settings for things like power boost or whatever else, you may have to talk to the folks on the FreeXperia project, or maybe DoomLord or FraserTag, as they have a bit of experience with the kernel on this phone. I'm not sure there is a programmatic way of increasing the power and/or reception sensitivity on the phone without hardware hacks.
All else aside, just try not to cover the back of the phone and possibly point the back of the phone in the direction of the signal (your router, cell tower, etc). That solves 50% of cases.

Thanks for the Reply!
I figured it's some kind of hardware issue...
Anyway thanks for clearing things up and thanks for the tips. Guess ill just have to drill a few holes in my floors and walls to have enough Wifi all over in the house
Good luck with your hardware hack! Seems to be kinda risky

Reception for me has been a lot better after updating to 2.3.3
I noticed if I leave the screen locked for a while, the wifi shuts off.. I'm guessing sony ericsson made it like that on purpose to save battery. My reason for thinking that is because it never cuts out while in use.
Sent from my R800

When I was using the rogers smc stock modem/router my play would keep disconnecting in the living room. I bought a netgear wnr3500L and it hasn't disconnected since. I do realize that the reception is weaker then the iphone 4 though
Sent from my XPlay using XDA App.

Reception occasionally drops but not that much my x10i does much better never loses connection guess it's a hardware issue

You can fix this often by re positioning your wifi router. For who doesnt know look up for how wifi signals travel travel around your house. Before you drill holes in your floor. You can also stuff a laptop wifi antenta in your play. There was a software hack for increasing output from wifi tx=100 or something but that was in froyo and not sure. I guess you can google tx power hack android

Problem is likely your house or your router.
I have both the Galaxy S Captivate and the Xperia Play. No problems with wifi reception whatsoever here.

Cymatrelic said:
Thanks for the Reply!
I figured it's some kind of hardware issue...
Anyway thanks for clearing things up and thanks for the tips. Guess ill just have to drill a few holes in my floors and walls to have enough Wifi all over in the house
Good luck with your hardware hack! Seems to be kinda risky
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing to extraordinary. A few tiny holes drilled in plastic, some little coax pigtail adapters running to a junction where there are other adapters in the back cover, plus leaders that run some flat metal tape/wire in specific lengths on the inside of the back cover to have an extra tiny bit of antenna. Not sure on how it will hold in regards to interference though of multiple antennas. If it causes poor results, I'll just be modding it to run to the external interfaces and then plug in a big antenna that sits in my window, or runs to my car or whatever. I may make a custom car-dock and desk-dock to go with it.
If/when I get around to finishing it, I'll post pictures.

Cymatrelic said:
Hey guys,
Has anyone else noticed the terrible wi-fi capacility of the xperia play? Most of the time I pretty much have to be in the same room as my router in order to have a decent internet-connectivity. As soon as theres one thin wooden wall between the router and my play i have virtually no connectivity.
The Samsung Galaxy S seemed to have similar problems, but when compared to the connectivity of any kind of Iphone the difference is monumental
Is the Iphone's hardware just soooo much better, or does it have to do with the device's programming? Would a different kernel fix things?
I'd be glad for any kind of input. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've noticed this. It is the same way for the cellular service. It's ridiculous how low the bars are. However, the actual data transfered is extremely high. I've done some research and it seems that the bar count is low for high connection. And the bar is high for ridiculously high connection.

For those wondering where the Wifi antenna is... here you go

I am not the originator of this... it was Hogwarts, all credit goes to him. I am simply bringing this back to the forefront as I want to make the signal in my phon stronger and wanted to also bring this to everyones attention so that they have photos to go off of. All thanks go to HogWart.......thank you Hogwarts...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=24791423&postcount=52

He got the first photo correct: that's the MAIN FPC ANTENNA that gathers CDMA/GSM signals to make calling/texting/3G browsing possible
He got the second photo wrong: that's the GPS ANTENNA, self-explanatory
He got the third photo partially correct: that's the BLUETOOTH/WLAN ANTENNA, and that's explanatory again..
SOURCE: R800i Full Disassembly.pdf

jgregoryj1 said:
I am not the originator of this... it was Hogwarts, all credit goes to him. I am simply bringing this back to the forefront as I want to make the signal in my phon stronger and wanted to also bring this to everyones attention so that they have photos to go off of. All thanks go to HogWart.......thank you Hogwarts...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=24791423&postcount=52
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Click to collapse
now to make it stronger for better signal..

narflynn619 said:
He got the first photo correct: that's the MAIN FPC ANTENNA that gathers CDMA/GSM signals to make calling/texting/3G browsing possible
He got the second photo wrong: that's the GPS ANTENNA, self-explanatory
He got the third photo partially correct: that's the BLUETOOTH/WLAN ANTENNA, and that's explanatory again..
SOURCE: R800i Full Disassembly.pdf
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Click to collapse
HE stated that its possible to use tin foil to increase the strength of the wifi antenna,,, is this true? Even after I reflashed a FTF back to 233 I still occasionally have a hiccup. Would adding tin foil, even a small piece, to that antenna make any difference and or improvement? I am tempted to do it as I want to try to make the most of my wifi experience.... thoughts?

Those are my photos

216Monster said:
Those are my photos
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Yes those are yours man..... thank you for that.... really really helps...

skimming through the thread, i didn't see any post of him making a tutorial of doing such.. in another thread maybe? IDK...
but i read in most articles on increasing GSM and WiFi signal, adding a tin foil actually increases reception, though I haven't tried it myself.. most articles i've read involve sticking wires through exposed parts of the antenna, which, i can't find in our play's antennas.. (some even talk about sticking wires on external antenna ports of phones, which is way too obsolete these days ) either way, if someone knows a hack, without doing extensive damage to the Play's electrical integrity, i'd be happy to try it and post results.. until then, i think i love my play too much to be doing hardware hacks at the moment.. after all, i'm getting good signals atm, but i'd still love a little boost..

narflynn619 said:
skimming through the thread, i didn't see any post of him making a tutorial of doing such.. in another thread maybe? IDK...
but i read in most articles on increasing GSM and WiFi signal, adding a tin foil actually increases reception, though I haven't tried it myself.. most articles i've read involve sticking wires through exposed parts of the antenna, which, i can't find in our play's antennas.. (some even talk about sticking wires on external antenna ports of phones, which is way too obsolete these days ) either way, if someone knows a hack, without doing extensive damage to the Play's electrical integrity, i'd be happy to try it and post results.. until then, i think i love my play too much to be doing hardware hacks at the moment.. after all, i'm getting good signals atm, but i'd still love a little boost..
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HE stated in the link above that he would make another thread and or add to that thread photos of adding tin foil to his wifi antenna to increase the strength, I do remember reading someone else about it from him too I think, but never found the photos.... I think the reason for that I am guessing is because his phone broke.... come to think of it I think he has moved on after his phone broke.
If anyone should attempt to use tin foil in their PLAYs to hopefully increase the wifi strength can you please post your results here... I am considering doing that myself but probably wont have a chance to do it until this weekend or sometime this month.

So I broke down and took the back off my PLAY. Gently peeled back the wifi antenna sticker from picture #3. and as R800x users do not have a GSM card but the slot is there I wrapped through the GSM slot and underneath the wifi/bluetooth antenna from #3.
I ran some speedtest tests and was getting around 24-25mbps (wish it were that fast in real life) speeds. I have not attempted to see how far I can get..... true test will be when I am at work on Monday (its saturday now) as where my office is I only have about 2 bars of wifi..... It would be cool if the tin foil would boost the antenna's range a little.
Also, I also wrapped over the tin foil with ta precise cut of thick packaging tape, so no tin foil is exposed... complete covered. I will post my results of my signal strength at work on Monday. If its improved I will let you all know, if not or its the same I will also let you all know.
Here is to crossing my fingers for a better range of wifi.. distnace wise
Edit: I am able to get about 30-40 more feet further from my router then previously.

Note 3 poor wifi, extra bar signal?

I have recently purchased a Note 3 (SM-N9005), currently running it rooted with the Polish NB3, unfortunately knox triggered, but never had a faulty phone before, so I hope that continues!
One thing that has been bugging me in an otherwise great phone, is the wifi signal, quite weak to say the least, my Sony Xperia Z is roughly 2 bars stronger in the same place, in fact, so is my Q10 and various mobiles I have collected over time (Xiaomi Mi2s, Pantech 840s), annoying to say the least, tried all the tweaks and settings mentioned here and elsewhere and while they may help some, for me the signal is still very poor.......
Was watching an excellent tear down video here:
When he mentioned making sure the little contacts for the antennas were sufficiently bent upwards to make a good contact, very interesting!
So I carefully popped off the back after taking out all the twelve little screws, and proceeded to gently bend upwards the two connectors for GPS and wifi, I also ever so slightly roughed the silver connector with a fine needle, all done in theory to aid signal.....
As for the results, well, with the same ROM, and no router reboot etc.... the wifi that used to hover at one signal pip, maybe two, now moves between two and three, it even went full bar briefly, which it had never done before from the spot I used! And there are a few more SSID's in the list too
I am now as you would expect, very happy, the wifi still isn't fantastic, but it's a damn sight better now!! :good:
Please don't try this and then blame me if you mess up your phone, I take no responsibility if you do, posted this just because I was quite surprised with the results!

No one the least interested, thought with all the threads about the poor wifi this find may have been of interest? Unless I'm late to the show and this is already been done and dusted

no one is interested because its a high risk low reward scenario.
Happy you had good results, but most people dont want to risk destroying their beloved note for a potential (minute) signal increase.

nakedtime said:
no one is interested because its a high risk low reward scenario.
Happy you had good results, but most people dont want to risk destroying their beloved note for a potential (minute) signal increase.
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Wouldn't say minute, having SSID's that weren't there before and one to two bars better signal is the exact opposite of that!
As for how difficult it is, unscrewing 12 screws and lifting off the back cover is a piece of cake, in fact you don't even need to remove it, just lift one corner away, watch the first few mins of the video, it's petty simple....
My phone didn't have the warranty sticker over one of the screws either, and the phone was brand new and sealed from the provider, weird

I've never had issues with the signal on my Note 3.
The (admittedly many) times I do get a lousy signal, the fault lies with the provider, not my phone. (I know exactly where each tower is and what its range is. And I'm usually outside of it.)
As for WiFi, once I moved the Router out of the reinforced concrete cupboard, I always get a full signal...

to the OP , very useful thread dont be put off because theres been little responce, like the guy said few would dare to unscrew there beloved Note but still useful to know.

Yeah the 3G and 4G signal seems strong, just poor wifi when compared to multiple phones in the same spot, at least that was the case
I guess I trust my hands more than most, bad flashes are more of a concern for me than a few dozen screws lol

Thanks
I gave my phone for repairs once and the wifi reception has been below par since. Had tried what you have posted before but was not quite sure if I had the wifi pin right. Also I had only tinkered with the raised connector on the board and hadn't roughed up the connector on the back panel like you did.
Well your post gave me some courage and with the help of the video that you linked I tried it. Unfortunately, I broke the connector and that obviously made my problem much worse!
But then out of desperation I thought I would get some common copper wire to try and connect the board with the antenna and it actually worked Looks extremely ugly but my note 3 now connects to wifi routers even better than my note 1. I am attaching screenshots of the two phones with the wifi analyzer app. There is also a picture of the copper wire mesh that i put below the wifi antenna connector on the panel before I put it all back together.
Definitely do not recommend that anybody try what I did. It was an extremely foolish thing to do for someone as clumsy as me.
Thanks still OP. My Note 3 is in top form again thanks to you

I did that and it fixed my poor GPS signal and it worked really well. I'll do it again for wifi pin

I did that and it fixed my poor WIFI signal. Thanks man.

I had slight water damage to my old Note 3. Since then my GSM signal has been really poor. I replaced the USB flex cable, as the phone wasn't charging as well - replacing it obviously did the job, but GSM signal issue remained.
Cleaned the GSM connectors and lifted the pins - that didn't help. When using o2 SIM inside the building it connects to o2 network straight away (signal not very good btw). When using other (Virgin in this case) SIM it doesn't connect at all and displays "Emergency calls only" message.
I think it might be the MoBo fault now, isn't it?

O2 OK but no VM reads as no CSC or wrong CSC .
Phone firmware has no knowledge of VM settings .