External antenna

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commonswift
Posts: 4
Joined: 28 Nov 2017 16:06

External antenna

Post by commonswift »

I'm wondering if there is something special one should do to attach an external antenna to the Zuno board? Sorry but I cant find any info here or elsewhere.
I have desoldered the original wire antenna and soldered a UF.L connector to the PCB footprint. Then a 1m coax cable to which I have attached a 868Mhz 1/4wave rubber antenna. The reason is not long distance from hub/routing slaves, but I do get a very bad signal inside the metal cupboard in which my electricity switchboard (and my Zuno) will reside. So I made a hole in the top of the metal box, ran a coax from the Zuno out through the hole so that I could locate the external antenna outside the metal cupboard.
Things improved somewhat, but I still get "Can´t detect device" messages frequently. My external antenna is ca 5m from the Vera Plus and 3m from nearest Z-wave device (FGS-223). Is there a capacitor or PCB trace that should be removed, or something added, to better adapt an external antenna?
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PoltoS
Posts: 7562
Joined: 26 Jan 2011 19:36

Re: External antenna

Post by PoltoS »

Basically you should just unsolder the entenna. A bit better (but minor) to desolder L4, C12 and C13.
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commonswift
Posts: 4
Joined: 28 Nov 2017 16:06

Re: External antenna

Post by commonswift »

Many thanks for your advice. I did unsolder the components you listed, but finally I discovered that the pigtail coax cable was defective, once I replaced it I got a very reliable reception. Still, it is good to know the optimal way to attach an external antenna, I will use it in another installation too. Thank you!
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