points by jacquesm 2 days ago | 0 comments
I'm using the 2 W for a project and one thing I would love is for a better wifi antenna, the one that's on the 2 just isn't good enough. You can hack it though, there is a spot on the board where you can solder on a connector, cut a single trace and you're good to go. But it would be great if it would do better out of the box.
Amazingly powerful hardware for the price these little things.
[–] jubilanti 2 days ago
[–] MayeulC 1 day ago
You can also have infernal multiplexers to route the antenna signal to another pin, like the esp32-S3 has: https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/latest/esp32s...
The output trace needs to be impedance-controlled, but it could be a regular GPIO, or an external antenna connector/footprint.
[–] jacquesm 1 day ago
The 'infernal' really threw me until I realized you must have meant 'internal'.
[–] MayeulC 21 hours ago
Ah, sorry, my Android keyboard isn't that reliable, I tend to make a lot of typos when I type on my phone.
[–] 15155 2 days ago
> there has to be a physical switch
Or literally any $1-3 SPDT RF switch? >80% of which are directly optimized and advertised for wifi and bluetooth?
[–] awjlogan 2 days ago
For a Zero, that’s a big BoM item given this would be used by relatively few people.
[–] 15155 2 days ago
Yeah, western parts are expensive.
https://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/C47117600.html
Here's a capable switch for $0.07.
[–] RicoElectrico 2 days ago
There are RF connectors by Hirose which are bypassable due to a built-in switch, but I don't think pigtails with them are common.
[–] amatecha 2 days ago
Yeah I find the Pi's of that era have pretty poor wifi reception, has been a constant source of uncertainty when I run things on them sadly
Just use a USB adapter with a decent antenna.