Database Users

Aerial Socket "discovery"

Hi all,
Just back from holiday and my new toy has arrived - an external aerial for the Exec...
Not sure if this has been covered before (I tried searching for 20 mins and didn't find anything) but after experimenting I have discovered the following:
The left hand aerial socket only works for GSM.
The right hand aerial socket only works for UTMS.
Guess I always wondered why there were 2 sockets!!!
G

Aerial sockets? Can we see some pics please?

I'd be interested in more info on this as well.
Do you know what type of connector it uses?
Any ideas on the reliability of the connections, they look as though they could be flimsy?
Have you tried to see if they improve the Wi-Fi signal at all?
And the ultimate question, what aerial is it that you bought?
Thanx in advance,
Pug.

gquipster said:
Hi all,
Just back from holiday and my new toy has arrived - an external aerial for the Exec...
Not sure if this has been covered before (I tried searching for 20 mins and didn't find anything) but after experimenting I have discovered the following:
The left hand aerial socket only works for GSM.
The right hand aerial socket only works for UTMS.
Guess I always wondered why there were 2 sockets!!!
G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you are mistaken!
One socket is for an external GSM antenna (2G and UMTS), the other socket is for an external WIFI antenna.

jasonkruys said:
I think you are mistaken!
One socket is for an external GSM antenna (2G and UMTS), the other socket is for an external WIFI antenna.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And are these avaiable off the shelf yet??
Mav

Aerial I bought and more...
Well to answer the important question of what aerial I bought it was this one:
http://www.mobilephonecrazy.com/modeldetail/xda-exec,Signal_Enhancer.htm
I mainly bought it for the car - driving through Windsor Great Park the signal is a bit dubious at places so bought this to improve it.
I've actually downgraded the radio stack on the phone to 1.09 recently as 1.13 seemed to have problems with the UMTS signal - in places where everyone else was getting a good UMTS signal I was getting 0 to 1 bars at most - and it does seem better now, but the built-in aerial of the Exec doesn't seem very good at all - hopefully the successor will have a better antenna!
The above aerial I think is a fairly standard aerial but the important thing as far as we are concerned is that it came with a 50cm fly lead that has a socket for the aerial at one end and a plug that goes into the back of the Exec at the other - it came in a little plastic bag marked "SPV M5000" - I'm not an electronics expert I'm afraid so can't tell anyone the actual type of plug but I'll photograph it tonight if anyone is interested.
Right I have to drive to work - have a good day everyone!

Hi,
It looks like a great find. Can you comment on how good the aerial is? Does it really do a good job of increasing signal strength and if so by how much on average?
Does it give you a signal in places you didnt used to get a signal before?

It would be great if you can post the results of your "discovery".
I have a really crap signal in my office and need to balance my phone on top of a lamp to get just 1 bar....
Also you might want to move this to the accessory board?

Any chance on some feedback for this aerial?
I really want to sort my reception problem out and would like to know how your aerial performs before wasting money...
Thnks

I'd love to post some performance reviews of this aerial however some blaggard on Friday stole my car, laptop, phone and aerial so at the moment I'm kinda incommunicado :-(
Once insurance kicks in and I get replacements (should have new work laptop shortly) I'll post some performance comments.
Sorry all!!!
G

gquipster said:
I'd love to post some performance reviews of this aerial however some blaggard on Friday stole my car, laptop, phone and aerial so at the moment I'm kinda incommunicado :-(
Once insurance kicks in and I get replacements (should have new work laptop shortly) I'll post some performance comments.
Sorry all!!!
G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bummer chap, hope you get sorted.
Mav

OK looks like I wil take the chance and buy an aerial anyway.
I will let you know....

Sorry about the uni
Dude sory to hear about the uni getting robbed. I also live in windsor so will keep an ear to the ground for anyone selling/getting rid of a uni.
But back to the thread.
I work in a second world war hangar with 3ft thick walls, so reception is nill.
After looking into wifi a little while back, I was making an external wifi antenna for my uni for use around home and work (very basic just a pice of wire and a wooden pole). When I plugged it in to my uni I found that the network signal (not the wifi) reception went up to 3 bars from nothing.
I have plugged the antenna in the wrong connector.
so after cocking up I have solved a problem with the signal but not the wifi.
All I used was a 10mtr pice of coax (50hm). A standard female uhf tv conector and this is the important bit, a 36mm copper rod from the centre of a power cable. Fit this in the uhf connector and point it upward like an aerial. connect the coax to the uhf connector.
Then on the other end strip the coax down to the centre core strands and snuggly slot them in the connection on the back of your uni.
Thats it!!!
Now i said it was basic!! but it does work despite the amount of cable.
If anyone would like photos I will take them toinight and try to pop them on my web site. But for now I can e-mail untill its up and running. [email protected]
If anyone would like some of the coax (I get it from work) and are near the Windsor area, feel free to e-mail me and we can sort getting some to you. (free as we are all in the same boat here).
My next project will be a car mounted type. watch this space!!

Found this on the wiki:
http://www.wpsantennas.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=408
This is just a connector, you still need an external antenna, which you can find on this site as well. If you poke around the site there is also a 3w bi-directional amp which boosts range up to 50 miles.(85km) It only works on 2 frequencies, and I don't know which is which, so I'm not sure what it's good for.

Wi-Fi antenna

Hi,
Does anyone know if there is a mod possible to add a seperate Wi-Fi antenna (internal) in the Hermes, instead of using an antenna that is not optimized for 2.4GHz? The Wi-Fi range of the phone is for me one of the bigger disadvantages.
Hans

hansaplast26 said:
Hi,
Does anyone know if there is a mod possible to add a seperate Wi-Fi antenna (internal) in the Hermes, instead of using an antenna that is not optimized for 2.4GHz? The Wi-Fi range of the phone is for me one of the bigger disadvantages.
Hans
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not aware of someone having tried to do this. Might try myself, but don't hold yor breath! There is some spare space in the rear speaker area - the black housing unit for the speaker that might? be used.
Mike

GPS internal

I know this has been up before but I´m still confused.
On this site http://cnn.cn/shop/htc-tytn-c-277_279.html
they sell antenna for the hermes gps.
As we know Hermes has an internal gps but without the internal antenna that is necessary...
So has anyone installed such hardware?

It would certainly be interesting to know if with the external antenna the GPS would work. Looking at it I think it might, the only problem I can think of would be the device recognising the GPS. Great find!! Good on you!!

strandkanten2 said:
On this site http://cnn.cn/shop/htc-tytn-c-277_279.html
they sell antenna for the hermes gps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looking at the product page on this antenna there are som pictures with it installed.
It attaches to the connector behind the rubber protector next to the camera.
Is'nt this the connector for external radio antenna?
Or is there any smart electronics that connects this connector to the internal gps module?

mippen said:
Looking at the product page on this antenna there are som pictures with it installed.
It attaches to the connector behind the rubber protector next to the camera.
Is'nt this the connector for external radio antenna?
Or is there any smart electronics that connects this connector to the internal gps module?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wondered the same thing.

This has been discussed to death so many times. Most recently, this exact antenna was discussed in the Hermes Accessories section of this forum (use search, I'm not going to do it for you).
Here's the FACTS!
1) There is some of the circuitry (hardware) for a GPS in a hermes. Some is missing. This is most likely due to the chips that the hermes uses having multiple built in functions. One function was needed so they used a chip that just happened to have part of a gps built in.
2) Adding the rest of the gps harware isn't practical and has a 99.9% chance of destroying the device even if you are highly experienced in working with surface mount components.
3) Even if you added the antenna, etc. successfully there is no firmware to drive it. You still need to write everything from scratch and make the firmware work with the rest of the pda/phone. You would have to do this without benefit of having any existing source code for the pda. Good Luck
4) Assuming you managed to do all this, and plugged in this antenna, you would have a gps that needed this big ugly antenna wired to the phone. So why not just spend the $50 and buy a bluetooth gps that works without wires and doesn't need the phone modified?
5) The store selling this antenna have stated to queries (see other threads) that this antenna is for use when using an EXTERNAL gps with the hermes. In other words, some bluetooth and wired gps units that work with the hermes have an external antenna jack so that if they are used in poor conditions this antenna can be used to boost the range by placing the antenna outside the vehicle, etc.
6) You cannot use this antenna plugged into the hermes external antenna jack. it will probably destroy the phones radio instantly and permanently. In fact, its a very bad idea to use any external antenna with any radio that wasn't specifically designed for the radio. There are many reports of frying the radio by using 'universal' cell phone antennas.
In conclusion.... GIVE IT UP!
There is no usable gps in the hermes!

deach01 said:
.
In conclusion.... GIVE IT UP!
There is no usable gps in the hermes!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok then, anyhow very misleading pictures on that site then.
why would i install a wire to my phone if i have gps on bluetooth. makes no sense.
Ps. I knew this was discussed earlier but I wanted uptade on if someone tried it recently.

strandkanten2 said:
ok then, anyhow very misleading pictures on that site then.
why would i install a wire to my phone if i have gps on bluetooth. makes no sense.
Ps. I knew this was discussed earlier but I wanted uptade on if someone tried it recently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
deach01 is correct. I agree the people selling this antenna should make it MUCH clearer as to its purpose.
To the best of my knowledge all development work has stopped, on getting the partial GPS functionality of the chip to work on the Hermes for the reasons deach01 states - it's just not practcal, and as said already the bluetooth receivers work well without major surgery to the Hermes.
Mike

Total BS! That site actually shows a picture of that antenna plugged into the back of the Hermes, talk about misleading!

deach01 said:
This has been discussed to death so many times. Most recently, this exact antenna was discussed in the Hermes Accessories section of this forum (use search, I'm not going to do it for you).
Here's the FACTS!
1) There is some of the circuitry (hardware) for a GPS in a hermes. Some is missing. This is most likely due to the chips that the hermes uses having multiple built in functions. One function was needed so they used a chip that just happened to have part of a gps built in.
2) Adding the rest of the gps harware isn't practical and has a 99.9% chance of destroying the device even if you are highly experienced in working with surface mount components.
3) Even if you added the antenna, etc. successfully there is no firmware to drive it. You still need to write everything from scratch and make the firmware work with the rest of the pda/phone. You would have to do this without benefit of having any existing source code for the pda. Good Luck
4) Assuming you managed to do all this, and plugged in this antenna, you would have a gps that needed this big ugly antenna wired to the phone. So why not just spend the $50 and buy a bluetooth gps that works without wires and doesn't need the phone modified?
5) The store selling this antenna have stated to queries (see other threads) that this antenna is for use when using an EXTERNAL gps with the hermes. In other words, some bluetooth and wired gps units that work with the hermes have an external antenna jack so that if they are used in poor conditions this antenna can be used to boost the range by placing the antenna outside the vehicle, etc.
6) You cannot use this antenna plugged into the hermes external antenna jack. it will probably destroy the phones radio instantly and permanently. In fact, its a very bad idea to use any external antenna with any radio that wasn't specifically designed for the radio. There are many reports of frying the radio by using 'universal' cell phone antennas.
In conclusion.... GIVE IT UP!
There is no usable gps in the hermes!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If they used a chip and it had GPS as a bonus and they just ignored it, why then would the go through the troubleb of adding an external antennal connection and mod the device housing to accomandate it?

The external antenna connection is NOT for GPS. Its for the cell phone radio.
Don't believe me?
Go ahead, plug in an antenna!
Hope you can communicate by smoke signals as your cell radio transmitter final amplifier toasts itself.
THERE IS NO WORKING GPS IN A HERMES!
Do you really think that HTC would build in a feature like GPS and NOT market it?

An expensive option, Kaiser!
An expensive option is to go for Kaiser(soon to be at&t 8925 ?)
Does anyone know for sure that at&t is NOT gonna kill GPS on Kaiser? Just heard today it has pass thru FCC (
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/windows-mobile/-283367.php )

As soon as the Kaiser comes out over here I'm going to get one, it's like the WM version of the N95.

External antenna connector

Is the external antenna connector just for GSM, EDGE and the like, or can it be used for other stuff like WiFi and/or GPS antennas also?

on the top of my head i'd say yes
because it would be odd to put more then 1 antenna inside the device
when various parts could just demodulate the signals they needed from the
same antenna

Can anyone confirm this?
Rudegar said:
on the top of my head i'd say yes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

GPS: answered in this Trinity accessories thread
WiFi: asked again in this Trinity accessories thread

The external connector is only for GSM and all data bands, GPS is a other antanna its quit different than GSM or WIFI bluetooth, wifi and bluetooth are the same (both 2,4 Ghz) that's also the problem when using them at the same time.
That's my vision.

are you talking about the antenna or the system to demodulise the signal ?
all an antenna is a dipol device which acording to the nyquist frequency http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist_frequency rules have to be min ½ of the wavelenght of the signal it's to recieve
as it's basicly just a conducting rod it would be silly to fit more inside the case then one would need

Rudegar said:
are you talking about the antenna or the system to demodulise the signal ?
all an antenna is a dipol device which acording to the nyquist frequency http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist_frequency rules have to be min ½ of the wavelenght of the signal it's to recieve
as it's basicly just a conducting rod it would be silly to fit more inside the case then one would need
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
That's tru and that's whet I ment ,you coud not use the same conector for different frequenties (only to receive,not the GPS)the GSM and WIFI/bluetooth antenna have no inpedance, GPS I don't know it's a 3d antenna that's all i know, so it coud not tell the differece.
And why woud the do that WIFI/Bluetooth were made for 10 meter radius and it works.
and the GPS is extra it was not ment for the market.

Somebody know what it is?

Maybe an antenna connector? For the GPS? It is located above the upper right corner of the battery

I think that is an GSM connector

someone in another forum identified it as a MMCX socket, indicating it was for a GPS antenna,
he also posted a link to an auxiliary GPS antenna with the mmcx connector, looked just like the GPS antennas we used to buy for the mapping programs that ran on our laptops, or the auxiliary antennas available for the dash mounted GPS units

I think it's an internal antenna (don't think it's GPS), had the same on my Omnia II. Some people thought it was the reset button and ended up messing up their devices badly.

it's a connector for external antenna. which one I'm not sure, could be WIFI, GPS, FM.
commonly use for lab measurements.

Ok, thank you... we must to investigate

Bump, just noticed this..... It certainly looks like a MMCX socket. maybe we can boost wifi/fm/gsm signal by adding external antenna? We could use some thin wire and lead it around the battery..

I have a sirius satellite radio antennae with the same connector. I'm not going to plug it in though, for fear of shorting something out...

It's a connector for GSM external antenna.

You could measure resistance with multimeter...
Its quite risky, since there is no information about this connector.

xan said:
You could measure resistance with multimeter...
Its quite risky, since there is no information about this connector.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or you could use a oscilloscope. and it would be safe

meybe could work like that
http://blog.wpsantennas.com/2007/05/samsung-blackjack-i607-external-antenna.html
http://www.wpsantennas.com/359921-samsung-captivate-galaxy-s-antenna-adapter-cable.aspx

Its a GSM external antennae plug for people with car kits. Use mainly by country people as they need it due to distance or professional drivers like truckers. I find it odd as you would need a modded back cover when using it. I WONDER if you can improve reception of GPS/GSM if you make a backcase out of required material