tb40nd

Hi, I have been working on using the reflector solution to increase the gain of my internal laptop antenna but haven't been too successful and was hoping to get some help with what I'm trying to do.

Goal... I'm trying to improve my laptop connection while at my dock / shed area some 50 - 75 yards away from the back of my house where my AP (netgear mr814) resides - the AP is on about a 20ft incline from there also. I have made a reflector for the AP similar to this...

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/rem...lan%7Emode=flat

...it helps but it still needs some help. I have LOS but there is a bush (not very dense) at the window and a few tree branches at about 20 yards. my laptop uses the intel 2100 mini pci card (802.11b) and without any modifications (except the reflector on AP antenna) I get an average of -80dbm on netstumbler which nets an average 5.5Mbps. i'm wanting to get that up around -70 to -65 so i can get full 11Mbps speeds.

Here's a pic of what i'm trying to do here with some explaination...

http://home.comcast.net/~tb40nd/reflectordesign.jpg

Here's a pic of the type of anteanna assembly located at right edge of laptop (see pic above)...

http://home.comcast.net/~tb40nd/minipciantenna.jpg

Ok, I have made a few reflectors without any success (if there was any improvement it sure wasn't much). I have made a 5 x 5 inch, 8 x 8 inch, and a 12 x 12 inch reflector and neither have made much difference if any.

If you look at the bottom right of the first pic you'll see (or i tried to illustrate) that on each reflector I cut out a 3mm rectangular section on each reflector so that they will slide over the edge of the laptop thus extending the position of the antenna assembly toward the focal point of the reflectors.

I have tried various focal positions on each reflector (sliding the reflector further back or forward over the edge of the laptop) but nothing seems to give me better results?

So I guess my question is whether this type of reflector even works with this type of antenna or is there something else I should be figuring in here considering the fact that the antenna assembly is under the plastic casing? oh yeah, the wire that the antenna assembly is connected to is about 12 inches long and I was thinking about taking the laptop apart again to unscrew the assembly and use actual assembly at the focal point of the reflector but didn't want to go through all of that again if it won't work anyway... or would it HAVE to be outside of the pc to work? or does this type of reflector only work for certain types of antenna?

Either way i'm stumped and i'm hoping someone will be able to give me some direction or add something here that I've missed.

Thanx in advance!

-RTB

Airstreamer

I've got an old "C band" 7' by 9' fiber glass dish you could try. Only weighs about 400lbs. And if it didn't work, you could make it into a small wading pool for the kids.

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streaker69

If you have electricity at your Dock/Shed area, why not just setup another AP as a repeater to the AP in the house. From your description that may be a viable solution.

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tb40nd

Yeah, maybe I'm wanting to do to much with what I have but isn't that most people

On that note though, I have a Direct TV dish and a HUGE conifer (probably from an old Galaxy setup of previous owner) that I have been thinking about trying out.

I could get the DirectTV dish easily but I really want to try to mod the conifer but its on a skinny tower at least 100 feet up

tb40nd

Thanks for the reply...

I was hoping to avoid buying anything else until I got ready to redo the my whole setup with G band equip. Right now I just have the two laptops (both 802.11b) and the netgear MR814 to work with.

I know trying the laptop reflector is a little extreme but I have made so many of these darn things I really want to see some results from one of them you know.

Scruge

I don't think you are going to get very good results from the reflector. Streaker69's suggestion of using a repeater/bridge is as good as any, provided you have power. You should be able to find a type b or g for next to nothing now days $15- $30. If power is a problem, a lot of them run on 12vdc.
If you don't like that idea then you might want to consider a usb adapter.

The problem with the reflector is the focal length and diversity switching. You don't have much focal length to work with plus you probably don't know what the radiation pattern is for the card. Then factor in the diversity switch which is toggling the pattern at approx 48khz.

Airstreamer

And the USB adapter is something that you can stick in a reflector, with mixed results though. Sometimes they work pretty well.

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Try a tube of the new lube,

Obamacaine!

They won't feel the shaft until it's too late!

Airstreamer

Might take a look at
http://www.trevormarshall.com/biquad.htm

and

http://www.wwc.edu/~frohro/Airport/P...Primestar.html

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Try a tube of the new lube,

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tb40nd

No, I don't have power out there... just the battery on my lappies. Getting some out there in the future wouldn't be to big of a deal when/if I go the repeater route. I agree that a repeater would be a great solution and it may be what I end up having to do down the line.

I have tried a USB adapter for a while with a couple of round parabolics I put together with okay results. It was a Belkin G actually and it worked fine out there with decent improvement when used with the reflectors, but I ended up taking it back b/c 1) it was sooooooo cheap - kept falling apart and the little mobo would come falling out 2) I was hoping it would work with NS but it didn't

Does anyone know anything about that type of antenna assembly (i.e. omni? directional? range?) etc? I have searched for two days for internal antenna assembly and haven't come up with too much at all accept a couple of stores that sell the replacements. Pretty sure it's an omni but so was the usb adapter but I was able to see some improvement with the reflectors when using it.

I was wondering whether or not it would be worth running the antenna wire outside the laptop and centering the assembly at the focal point? I would just do it but it's a pain to take this thing apart and thought I'd ask before I headed down that road again.

tb40nd

Coolio... thanks for the linkage - I'm checking the second one out now which seems to be more my speed from the looks of it. Trevor's work is very nice... a little out of my league... but a very nice mod

waytostoned

Actually, I might be able to help a tad here...

One of my recent projects was something similar in nature. I currently own a Dell C400, and the internal antenna, well, was far from desirable distance wise. Ordering a small pigtail, and purchasing a 5.5db omnidirectional worked wonders. Recently, I upgraded to a much nicer HomeRF antenna.

I ran the cable up through the LCD, drilled a small hole at the top for the cable slack. The bottom corner of the LCD frame, right by the hinge, has the pigtail end. All the extra wire tucks away nicely beneath the plastics of the LCD. I used JB Weld on a big Mc' Donalds straw, and the cable runs through that top to bottom. Then just Velcro the antenna on the top edge of the LCD. This way you disconnect the pigtail end at the bottom of the lcd, and pull out the antenna any time you desire!

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