
robo rad
My brother recently had to move his music studio equipment down into my old Movie theater basement apartment and now with all his big equipment creating way more clutter,the Wi-Fi seems to get cut off more frequently when getting behind some of the big Amps and musical hardware laying around. When I let Paranormal-Rad-Robot do his Exploration around the basement,testing out all the sensors and cameras,he will lose the wi fi connection and need to be reset. I found a Quick fix was to remove the Head cover to expose The EZB cube and it seems to instantly improve Wi-Fi distance. I am wondering if it is because of the many coatings of Chrome paint I used on the robot? It is only a Plastic head cover that protects EZB from Falls.Is it possible to extend a wire antenna out of EZB circuit for better reception,where exactly is the Wifi antenna located? The video shows me testing it out with no head and working great,but thinking where to put EZB now for protection,what about adding a Mesh grill instead of plastic head?
I guess I'm also not sure how you are connecting to your robot. Is it a direct connect to the EZB on the robot to a computer a laptop in the basement or is the computer in another part of the house?
Or is the EZB part of your Wi-Fi network and in client mode?
I can't find the thread, so it could be the chip from the /1 but the /2 may support it. However, I have a WiFi chip I bought back in the V3 days when I was attempting a conversion that did have an external antenna, and the connector was obvious. I don't see anywhere to connect on the current chip.
Alan
The metal case of the WiFi module isn't the antenna. The antenna is rather the PCB trace that is suspended in the air on /2 Wifi board, as you can see here:
As @DJ mentioned in another thread. You won't want anything metallic too close or covering this area as it will diminish signal strength. I have heard of people using parabolic reflectors to boost strength but those applications are usually very directional and won't likely work in a robot application. The best plan is to have the top of the EZ-Bv4 as exposed as possible and having it in a vertical position as seen here:
If you very serious about getting a strong connection and are a soldering wizard (or know one) you can solder on a U.FL connector and move 1 tiny SMD resistor to allow you to use external U.FL antennas. I have made this modification in the past and it does work. *Disclaimer* This will void any warranties if you fail. Buying a stronger router with bigger antennas (or a WiFi Repeater for the basement) would likely be the better choice if you are using a client connection.
EnGenius Access Point