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First post after long reading here, very nice source of information about HTC PDA phones.
I just bought one TyTN II from a HK eBay seller - fast FedEx shipping so should arrive next Thursday.
In the mean time, I am looking for a good case and found many made of aluminum at the web and eBay. Click to see eBay link.
My question is, that aluminum will not act as a RF shield for both input/output cell signals? And that probable shield will not increase the battery drain forcing more current (giving more power output) at the internal cell transmitter?
More power output mean less battery charge life.
Moreover, it will not reduce also the GPS signal reception?
Someone already did a test (cell/GPS signal strength with and without that aluminum case)?
Thanks,
Sergio
I got one of those cases I havent notised any signal drops and im using Wifi and GPS and EDGE all the time
My monaco is great, no problems
Looking around, found this message of member cornellfOo in [URL="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=352605&page=9]Seidio's Super slim rubberized case[/URL]:
"Wow. Glad to hear these types of cases finally came out.
Anyone know if these cases will hinder reception? I bought one of the aluminum hard cases and that definitely affected reception. I'm assuming that it's the aluminum and not cases in general that cause this.
I am in low service areas often so it can be the difference between making calls and not."
Usually any metal enclosures do shield RF signals and normally metal shield are used exactly to avoid RF leaking from devices. So, that is my point and would be great if more members could do this test and report here.
No problems with my aluminum case
I don't have a real scientific test, but I used my aluminum case for a solid week when recently on vacation and had no problems at all. (I switch to different cases depending on the situation and wanted the extra protection for it while it was in my pocket all day.) I used GPS, made phone calls and checked email and web pages with no problems whatsoever. (I saw no decrease in signal strength bars either.)
I also didn't notice any increased battery drain. In fact I even had an external charger with me just in case but only used it once all week and even that time I didn't really HAVE to use it (I just liked topping it off.)
That's just my experience.
The metal case costs you around 10 - 15db!!
Yes.. thats a lot.
You can check it with the tool Fieldtest.
thommic said:
The metal case costs you around 10 - 15db!!
Yes.. thats a lot.
You can check it with the tool Fieldtest.
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Click to collapse
Well I am still waiting for my device to be delivered, scheduled tomorrow by FedEx so, I can't yet make any measurements myself but, if you think that every 3 db down step is exactly the half in power measurements, that metal shield will eat too much signal.
I have one of these aluminum cases and I have found that I get better reception:
With the case open/screen tilted vs closed up
With the case off vs case on
I figured it would function as a RF shield and in all honesty it's not a huge deal to me. It's not hard to remove the device from the case if you need those extra bars, and I'll be installing a cellular repeater in my vehicle since we have mediocre (at best) cellular coverage up here.
Same here -- I just received my Monaco case, and have not noticed any interference in reception. I like it: my Kaiser feels protected now.
rgds, Manny
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 $20.00, The only thing to keep in mind is that since its a passive antenna it works better when you have the HTC HD2 laying on the Base input and in front of the reflector, The further you are from the base the less the affect? I put the Antenna as high as possible in my closet with one side 90 degrees perpendicular facing the closest Cell Tower (Find Cell Tower) and with the grounded reflector facing directly to the Cell Tower with a 10ohm transformer for matching.
The Antenna I made is purposely tuned for wide band but you can fine tune it for greater reception if needed, but the frequencies we are working with makes it too directional?
If people are interested I will put up a simple schematic with parts and description build list.
hd2shadow said:
If people are interested I will put up a simple schematic with parts and description build list.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why would you have done that from the start? Of course people are going to ask to see exactly what you did. I know my office is down in the basement and would like to have a better signal while down here.
would be awesome if you post a how-to on this...may give this a try.
T-Mobile USA recently boosted coverage in my area. I actually called in after experiencing better signal quality / speeds to give them kudos. Shortly thereafter, speeds dropped by two-thirds to around 0.3mbps. I have sneaky feeling they thought I was enjoying the newfound speeds too much.
Yes. Interested on how to do this!!
hd2shadow said:
I got frustrated only getting 1 bar and slow connections inside my back office?, so I made a "Passive Fractal Antenna" 3G to Boost from 1 to 4 bars, my dslreports.com Mobile Speed Test went from 228kbit/sec to 2976kbit/sec. the antenna is easy to build and more importantly! it$ 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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Click to collapse
+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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Click to collapse
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?
If you hold the phone in your left hand - just like the iPhone 4's "wrong" grip (your skin presses against the lower left side of the phone) watch reception bars go down 1 or 2 bars. The longer you leave your hand there, the more the bars go down. Release and they are up again. Tried it with and without a case. Same issue.
Just because it happens to HD2 does not necessarily become a problem.
I could also reproduce that on my iPhone 3GS and 3G in some location but not in all locations. I didn't even realise this until people start complaining about iPhone 4. To reduce the signal, i have to grip it (without using a case) very tightly without lettting go for a long time. If I periodically relax my hand as I would in normal usage, then signal won't go down. As this is not the way I normally grip, and the fact that I've been using my phones for so long without even knowing there is a "problem" probably means that I have nothing to worry about.
Then, I searched the youtube and found out that it is also happening to Nokia phones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi1gHDa7-X0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ7t75Uo6qQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amPG52DVQuk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zsuxbd0L0g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyLrFY3mI0M
Nokia is trying to fool everyone by saying that users can hold their phones in anyway they want, but this is simply not true. See this:
http://www.appleinsider.com/article...at_iphone_4_death_grip_gets_called_on_it.html
Haven't got an iPhone 4 yet, but my impression is that this issue is more pronounced with it. IMO, although it can be easily fixed by using a case, applying a sticky tape or nail polish over the lower left half of the antenna, Apple would definitely need to address this issue so that out of the box the extent of signal strengh reduction is minimized.
I didn't say it was a problem. I was just shocked to find it out after all this time I had it and never knew. Hence the OMG!
I think the phenomena is likely to exist with every phone, in certain locations, with certain hand type, but owners of the phone may not notice it unless they deliberately test it out. I could only produce that phenomena is one part of my house but not in another. Just like half the iPhone 4 owners were not able to reproduce this problem while about half were able to. My guess is that it has nothing to do with manufacturing defects, but simply a case of the location, orientation, and body type.
There have been discussions about that at the beginning on the HD2. The antenna is in the bottom part of the phone, between the bottom and the start of the metal cover, i.e. where your hand is (as stated in the manual).
The end word is that pretty much every phone on the market will have its reception drop a bit when you hold it.
FCC only allows the antenna to be located at the bottom of the phone, away from the user's brain. Also, the level of signal strengh must not exceed what's allowed. So, even if the manufacturer want to relocate the antenna to the top part of the phone so that user's hand could not touch it so easily, it would not be approved. Simiilary, even if the manufacturer could increase the signal strength, it would not be approved.
eaglesteve said:
Haven't got an iPhone 4 yet, but my impression is that this issue is more pronounced with it. IMO, although it can be easily fixed by using a case, applying a sticky tape or nail polish over the lower left half of the antenna, Apple would definitely need to address this issue so that out of the box the extent of signal strengh reduction is minimized.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I heard that the fastest and cheapest way to solve teh Iphone 4 reception problem was to put a condom over it. They are cheaper than the bumper and are available in a varitey of colors and textures. The added plus is that you always have a condom handy should you need one
Classic Apple!
Let HTC and Nokia work tirelessly for years upon years only to one-up them with a bigger shinier version of a feature EVERY smartphone has had since 2003.
Sheesh.
wineds said:
I heard that the fastest and cheapest way to solve teh Iphone 4 reception problem was to put a condom over it. They are cheaper than the bumper and are available in a varitey of colors and textures. The added plus is that you always have a condom handy should you need one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your recommendation would suit youself my friend. I'll use a nice looking case.
Basically every phone has way to hold it which will lower signal strength. With most smartphones it is rather easy. Most phones also have picture in manual how to hold it correctly. It's nothing new.
The HD2 issue your mentioning is a normal reaction to covering an antenna. This SHOULD happen in all phones since you are partially blocking the antena.
The iPhone 4 issue is not similar, if you go through this post:
http://gizmodo.com/5571171/iphone-4-loses-reception-when-you-hold-it-by-the-antenna-band
you'll see that the signal loss is due to connecting the left side of the antenna with the bottom by touching the left side and the bottom (left) portion of the phone. If you put a "Bumper", apple's term for cover, and then hold the iphone in exactly the same way, you will not lose the signal.
omar302 said:
If you put a "Bumper", apple's term for cover, and then hold the iphone in exactly the same way, you will not lose the signal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing is I have a black rubberised case around my HD2 and even WITH the case the bars still drop.
tboy2000 said:
The thing is I have a black rubberised case around my HD2 and even WITH the case the bars still drop.
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Click to collapse
as long as you are not brothered, it cannot be called a problem.
tboy2000 said:
The thing is I have a black rubberised case around my HD2 and even WITH the case the bars still drop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, thats because the singal has to go through your hand, so it might lose a bar or two.
All phones get this.
The Iphones problem is not the same thing, it just hast he same result.
if i leave any phone I've ever had in pretty much any spot in my house the signal flutuates.
sod all to do with holding it.
just use a BT headset
anyone cares for some duct tape?
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apples-latest-conundrum-duct-tape-2010-07-12?dist=countdown
lol... Snapperheads...
If you watch the iphone vid on youtube showing the 'making of' the phone you'll notice the alloy frame is the antenna... Covering it will help not to drop the reception... But having to have a cover to not lose reception is a joke...
As for the HD2, all phones held in a hand will have variance in reception... I tried the left hand thing on mine and it didn't drop a bar...
i have no problem with mine........may be the signal/reception from my carrier is really great unlike that in US.....
LOL good thing i'm not left handed
Bad Reception on All Networks Tried Compared to Older Nokia & Sony Ericsson Phones
I just thought I would post my issue here with my Desire HD. I will post updates following warranty. If anyone has similar issues with their handset please feel free to mention it here too. So far I've found a couple of comments googling about bad reception using a Desire HD when compared to an older phone. The girl I spoke to at HTC Australia said she had not heard anything about this before and said she believed it was an isolated issue.
I am experiencing very poor 2G & 3G reception on my Desire HD. I have played with all network settings including turning off Wi-Fi and selecting the network manually. I've also tried multiple radio versions, multiple ROM versions and factory resets and yes the issue was there to begin with and still is happening now after I've restored my ROM and radio back to stock. Compared to a much a older Sony Ericsson W660i and some other Nokia phone of the same age they all get much, much better reception. This is in the same room of the same house. Using sim cards from Telstra, 3, and Vodafone in Australia. The biggest change noticeable is obvious using 3 and Telstra SIM cards in the Desire HD. The old Nokia and Sony Ericsson keep a rock solid full reception bars. The Desire HD struggles around 1 or two bars. Often going to no bars, sometimes getting as high as 3 bars only for a moment and sometimes going to X bars meaning completely no reception. Using the Vodafone SIM card I get equally crappy reception but when I put the Vodafone SIM card in the Nokia or the Sony Ericsson it is not rock solid full bars but usually only just a bit bellow full. HTC have suggested a factory reset and a warranty. I have complied a complete guide to reset my phone back to factory stock ROM, settings, htboot, S-on ect. Which is here if anyone needs it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=920876
Lastly to anyone who didn't know HTC Australia informed me that if warrantied during the first 28days of purchace and they find an issue they just replace the phone. After 28days they only repair the phone. I will taking my phone in today to get the full replacement.
Could be bad SIM cover antenna contact. Without it you'll not get good reception at all.
Also DHD does not support all HSPA bands but you probably knew that. At least on Telstra GSM any DHD model should get full reception.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
Yoshi_523 said:
Lastly to anyone who didn't know HTC Australia informed me that if warrantied during the first 28days of purchace and they find an issue they just replace the phone. After 28days they only repair the phone. I will taking my phone in today to get the full replacement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's nice. In South Africa we got 7 days... I had to send mine in on day 11. Been waiting for almost a month for the phone to come back, but it should be any day now (holding thumbs, touching wood, etc).
Also DHD does not support all HSPA bands but you probably knew that. At least on Telstra GSM any DHD model should get full reception
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I did know that. Same as my Sony Ericsson W660i really. The Sony only runs on the 2100Mhz UMTS (3G) band along with the standard quad band GSM (2G). It gets full bars on Telstra & 3 but my DHD doesn't
Could be bad SIM cover antenna contact. Without it you'll not get good reception at all.
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Click to collapse
Where is the antenna exactly? I was guessing the antenna is around the middle of the back roughly coz cupping my hand across there will make the Wi-Fi drop a little. Is it really got a connector in the plastic cover plate that covers access to the MicroSD Card and SIM Card that affects the antenna?
The antenna in inside the botom plastic sim cover.
IT is molded in the cover and has 2 connectors where the cover and the main body of the phone make contact
broncogr said:
The antenna in inside the botom plastic sim cover.
IT is molded in the cover and has 2 connectors where the cover and the main body of the phone make contact
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed, and when I take the SIM cover off I can barely get reception near a cell tower.
The battery cover also has an antenna in it, however I think it's for Wifi and BT.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
have you tried taking the sim card out and wiping the contacts clean and doing a reset i.e. battery out reset. This was happening to me when I got mine and this fixed my issues.
^^ Yeah no dice. Cleaning the SIM card does nothing. I also used multiple SIM card of different carriers.
I've just posted a new thread with videos as the brand new replacement Desire HD still has reception issues and I've found it has a surprisingly similar "death grip" issue that plagued the iphone 4.
Here's the link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=10842571#post10842571
All phones have a similar death-grip issue. But have you ever dropped a call on your DHD while holding it? Mine's similar, but I'm yet to drop a call or data session.
^^ I'm sorry I cannot answer that question as ever since got the phone with this SIM card I've been waiting for Vodafone to get back to me to change over my existing phone number so I've put on hold to use this Vodafone SIM card to make any calls or to use data. I can't believe that many years after the Australia wide policy to be able to keep your phone number that Vodafone are making a stink about it being such an issue to swap my number over. So in short I haven't been using the new SIM card and only been using Wi-Fi till because I want to wait till it's transferred to my old number. I would imagine holding the phone vertically as shown that web browsing on zero bars wouldn't be great. I would also guess that once I move to an area with even less reception that it would drop out. Again this is just my educated guess. Others will probably have more experience on this.
Secondly yes I can understand that maybe all phones have a particular death grip hold (depending on where the aerial is) that will cause reception to drop however I do think that this is bad planning with this HTC phone. Being a touch screen phone I unusually hold the phone in my left hand as in the video for general application and web surfing use. The old Nokia and Sony Ericsson I'd really have to try hard to hold my hand strangely to get it to drop reception.
Again please keep in mind I'm not against you guys. I'm only new to this phone. I realise it's one of the best on the Australian market. Hell I love this phone and have bought into a 24month contract. I plan to keep it and I only wanted to show you what I've found and hopefully if others have seen similar maybe they can tell HTC and then they can work on something to help. Maybe it's me being optimistic but I would like to thing that maybe that plastic bottom plate holding the antenna could be re-engineered and replaced with an upgraded one or something similar and problem solved?!?
Here we go again. HTC made the best considering the laws of physics. You can't have metal body without some non-metal part that holds the antenna. The only other possible solution is WiFi and gsm antennas to switch places but that might not be practical from the internal design point of view. If you hold your phone and look at it, you'll see that the only place you never put your hand is the top of the phone but I wouldn't want a cover there especially on a rainy day .
Our "death grip" and iPhone's is completely different. We have attenuation of the signal because when holding the phone your hand is in the near field of the antenna which messes with its properties to some extend (and attenuated the signal too) and Apple experiences signal cuts because some bright boy liked his design too much and did not listen to the engineers. IPhone's antenna is exposed and by touching it you cause much more trouble than being in the near field. And as if that's not bad enough, that same bright boy has put the WiFi antenna too close and if you bridge the two, the signal drops. Actually with the silicon case on, the iPhone and the DHD experience the same. If it doesn't look like it that's because with the software update Apple changed the way signal strength is reported to the user.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
I'm not sure this is actually an issue at all, the OP has stated he has no idea if it drops calls or not, merely that the recorded signal drops, also comparing signal strength with that of older phones, or even phones of different makes is nonsensical as all manufacturers set there own scale as to when the phone displays full reception and when it displays less, and since apple got caught fiddling the scales they appear to be overly cautious at reporting full reception
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).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
*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.