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I read in these threads about using an external antenna. Someone posted Radioshack# 17-345 Universal Antenna plus a 17-349 adapter pigtail to connect the 8525.
I was planning to use this in a sports car with bluetooth so I could set the phone in the back.
The short story is, I uncorked the external antenna port and plugged in this antenna. I got no signal bars. I disconnected the antenna....now no signal bars where I used to get 4.
I pulled the battery, let it sit, same problem. Pulled sim and used a different phone, 4 bars.
So this external antenna seems to have killed my radio!
Cell phone today with just the handset alone is almost good for anywhere you go will get you a decent signal strength. Unless under extreme condition such in a forest or up in the mountain where you might need to pull in a stronger signal, there's where those external antenna comes in play. Most ppl like me do not use external antenna while in car. There's just no point of using an external antenna in car. Not sure how you fried the radio, is this some kind the amplified antenna?
RemE said:
I read in these threads about using an external antenna. Someone posted Radioshack# 17-345 Universal Antenna plus a 17-349 adapter pigtail to connect the 8525.
I was planning to use this in a sports car with bluetooth so I could set the phone in the back.
The short story is, I uncorked the external antenna port and plugged in this antenna. I got no signal bars. I disconnected the antenna....now no signal bars where I used to get 4.
I pulled the battery, let it sit, same problem. Pulled sim and used a different phone, 4 bars.
So this external antenna seems to have killed my radio!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it's a passive antenna, simple design about the size of a pack of cards. I simply plugged it in and then saw no bars, just searching. I un-plugged it and it was toast.
I believe that the 8525 connector disconnects the internal antenna when a external antenna is connected. I also believe that that connector was somehow damaged by the external antenna and now there is no antenna connected.
I won't be trying this again!
RemE said:
I read in these threads about using an external antenna. Someone posted Radioshack# 17-345 Universal Antenna plus a 17-349 adapter pigtail to connect the 8525.
I was planning to use this in a sports car with bluetooth so I could set the phone in the back.
The short story is, I uncorked the external antenna port and plugged in this antenna. I got no signal bars. I disconnected the antenna....now no signal bars where I used to get 4.
I pulled the battery, let it sit, same problem. Pulled sim and used a different phone, 4 bars.
So this external antenna seems to have killed my radio!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just killed my Hermes using a Radoshack external antenna adapter, too. It worked great for about 5 minutes, giving me 5 extra bars, and then the cell signal went dead. I haven't been able to get it to find a signal any more.
Do you think it was physically damaged? Broke a solder point pushing the connector on or off- or it somehow shorted out the device by drawing too much power or something? My reception sucks in my new apt here in Shanghai and I really want to get an antenna for use while at home, but I don't want to kill my Hermes!
Did you try a Hard reset - after backing up of course...
Other than that you may need to pull you Hermes apart and see if the radio antenna has popped out (unlikely,but....). For any manuals go here - http://michael-channon.spaces.live.com/
You may get help from our HTC Hardware Guru, Mike Channon...
Cheers...
Hi,
Have a Kaiser on the way and want to have an external GPS antenna and an external phone antenna ready to go when it gets here.
But I can't find anywhere what types of antenna sockets the Kaiser has for these two antennas?
Does anyone know???
Thanks.
Great forum, by the way!
As far as i can see it only has a socket for a GPS antenna so i assume this would probably act as both although not sure
you can get the official antenna from expansys
http://www.expansys.com/htc/p_htc_item.aspx?i=151025
I can confirm spooki37 says, from what I can tell, there is only one port. It is located the rubber GPS stamp that is on the back of the device. eBay has them shipping to the US for about $15 - $20 non-oem from China.
When I remove the battery cover, it sure looks like there are two jacks. I too thought the other must be for external Cellular antenna.
So does anyone know what the 2nd port is used for?
Whatever you do dont use the second port because it will damage your phone. I plugged an external antenna into my original phone and when I removed it the phone had no signal at all. The only way to get any signal was to use an external antenna after that.
That second port is an antenna port but htc doesnt support any antenna for it and is supposed to be used for debugging purposes only.
I use an external antenna all the time with mine... (TyTN II / Kaiser) works ok.. not great, but gets me one more bar, and seems to hold the signal better in a low signal area.
I use this adapter:
http://www.wpsantennas.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=441
with one of their antennas.
I don't have any problems with signal after I disconnect it, but i'm pretty careful with connect/disconnect, and I cradle it while connected. I bet a little torque would probably damage the connection which would probably damage the internal antenna connection as well.
So you remove the battery cover and plug that antenna into the smaller of the two ports? Ive damaged 2 phones trying external antennas and so have others. This one is a htc titan http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/ppc-6800-xv6800/96140-phone-signal-horrible.html and theres more reports like this one.
Ren13B said:
So you remove the battery cover and plug that antenna into the smaller of the two ports? .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I usually just pull my battery cover off, carefully seat the antenna into the port on the left, and then cradle the the thing.
I've done this with this phone, a moto blackjack, and at least two other moto phones in the past, and never had an issue. Again, though... I've pretty much ALWAYS immobilized the phone while it's got the antenna jack plugged in. I actually try to do the same when USB is in too... the boards inside these tiny devices are too thin and the amount of torque you can apply accidentally is quite high... best to be safe... but I get intermittent signal where I use it most frequently, so I accept the risk.
Thanks!
KarlFlick said:
I use an external antenna all the time with mine... (TyTN II / Kaiser) works ok.. not great, but gets me one more bar, and seems to hold the signal better in a low signal area.
I use this adapter:
http://www.wpsantennas.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=441
with one of their antennas.
I don't have any problems with signal after I disconnect it, but i'm pretty careful with connect/disconnect, and I cradle it while connected. I bet a little torque would probably damage the connection which would probably damage the internal antenna connection as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly the answer I needed - thanks heaps!
So obviously it takes the some patch lead as the Tytn. In that case I'll just get a Tytn patch lead off ebay and hope for the best.
The owner's manual I found for the Tytn says you can use the antenna plug, so they obviously thought it was safe then, but maybe hid it on this model because of a few reported breakages. I'm going to use mine only occasionally and in a cradle, so I hope I'll be OK if I'm very careful. Maybe I'll never end up using it given the risk...
Another option would be one of those universal antenna leads. They clip on the back of the phone and work by an induction coil. Their performance is very variable - mine works OK (+1 bar) on a friend's phone, but seems to make no difference on my phone.
I want to add this as well: plugging in an external antenna can damage your phone. I have plugged a wilson antenna into my 8925 and now my reception is extremely poor... I am not sure of the cause, or how to fix it.. just hope to help people avoid this.
We have the 8925 here at our office and have found that the port on the right side is for GPS only. The left port is for cellular reception.
We have not damaged the phone that we have here and have had the 8925 for about 6 months.
There are a few issues with using external antennas:
First of all, the connector must be properly sized for the phone.
With some device/connector combinations it is normal for the connector to appear to not be fully seated. If you try to force the connector on further you can do permanent damage to the phone.
In the phone there is a tiny mechanical switch that gets tripped when you plug the external antenna in. This physically disconnects the internal antenna and connects the phone's radio to the antenna port. Sometimes this switch gets stuck in the port position, so you get poor performance when you disconnect the external antenna. This is especially common with CDMA Motorola V3 models.
-Jay
any body uses a wifi external antenna????
How hard is it to fix this "switch"? I have a kaiser that will only work with an external antenna after using one. Port isnt damaged as far as I can tell and ive never had problems with external antennas with other phones.
Jay2TheRescue said:
There are a few issues with using external antennas:
First of all, the connector must be properly sized for the phone.
With some device/connector combinations it is normal for the connector to appear to not be fully seated. If you try to force the connector on further you can do permanent damage to the phone.
In the phone there is a tiny mechanical switch that gets tripped when you plug the external antenna in. This physically disconnects the internal antenna and connects the phone's radio to the antenna port. Sometimes this switch gets stuck in the port position, so you get poor performance when you disconnect the external antenna. This is especially common with CDMA Motorola V3 models.
-Jay
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DaMilky said:
How hard is it to fix this "switch"? I have a kaiser that will only work with an external antenna after using one. Port isnt damaged as far as I can tell and ive never had problems with external antennas with other phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never actually had this happen to any of my phones, so I don't know how hard it is to fix. If the external antenna was forced onto the connector you may have to send the phone in for service to have the port replaced. The only other thing I can think of is to put a small amount of contact cleaner on the port itself, the gently work it in with the external antenna connector. This may loosen the switch and let it return to the internal antenna position if this is your problem. In all likelihood I'd say that a warranty exchange is probably your best bet.
-Jay
has anyone notised a 3rd port? its between the camera and the speaker and slightly higer than the other 2 I bet that ones for wifi at 1st glance I thought it was a screw.
I don't understand why the port were designed in the first place when things seem to be such a useless purpose ...etc
comes with INTERNAL GPS ... so why the need for EXTERNAL ??? and if you do need to use it ... it is delicate and chances are, you're screwed and damage it !!
so why bother designed it ?? <scratching head> !!!
External antennae that are properly sized for the operational wavelength will always have higher effective gain than any built-on antenna that is capable of fitting on a typical handheld device.
The External GPS antenna has 27 dB Gain (typical)... I cannot find specifications for the internal antenna on our Kaiser's, but I am willing to bet they are probably at best a unity antenna, maybe 3db on the good side.
That means you will recieve SIGNIFICANTLY signal strength and more satellites when you are doing anything involving GPS, and weather, antenna position, and all standard environmental factors will have significantly less effect on your GPS activities.
The same goes for an external antenna for the cellular portion. The internal radio boosts power output when it has degraded reception which means when you're in a poor reception area, you burn more battery doing the same things you typically do.
A "gain" vehicular antenna directly connected to your phone will increase battery life when using wireless connections to the cellular network, as well as provide you good reception where you would otherwise have poor to none.
Of course, if you live in an urban area, this is probably of no use to you... but in a built up area with many large buildings around, you may not have as good GPS resolution and reception as you could with an external antenna..
*
The primary reason they put these on there is moreso for diagnostic purposes probably... hook it up to a freq counter and/or spectrum analyzer and you can tell that the radio is actually putting out what frequency and it's strength as well. Without those, there's no external way to ensure transmission is occuring without possible interference.
mech_supernova said:
has anyone notised a 3rd port? its between the camera and the speaker and slightly higer than the other 2 I bet that ones for wifi at 1st glance I thought it was a screw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've examined this very closely under a bright light, and I have concluded that it is a screw with a Torx head.
Is anyone using an external gps with their X7501?
My internal seems so hit or miss - works sometimes, then not at all. And usually slow to acquire a position.
I would be using a Garmin RINO gps as the external receiver and haven't found a male mini B to male mini B USB cable yet to connect them.
Any thoughts are appreciated.
Ron
ron-powell said:
Is anyone using an external gps with their X7501?
My internal seems so hit or miss - works sometimes, then not at all. And usually slow to acquire a position.
I would be using a Garmin RINO gps as the external receiver and haven't found a male mini B to male mini B USB cable yet to connect them.
Any thoughts are appreciated.
Ron
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well can't help with cable but would think the 4 in 1 would let you
access USB port,I use a BT332 receiver with 7501 occasionally and it works
well,possibly a bluetooth off Ebay would be simpler.
I've been thinking of doing the same with a USB GPS I have which I know is extremely sensitive, and fast. I just don't have a 4-in-1 to test. I would leave it in the car for road trips and use the internal (and pray) when on foot.
If it helps, you aren't the only one. Many people have had problems. One person opened his up and claims that messing with the internal antenna fixed his problem, so it might be a manufacturing issue. Others have tried various ports and baud speeds and found solutions that way.
OK, I bought the 4 in 1 cable.
I tried a program called "VisualGPSce" to see if the receiver was passing on a position. I tried selecting any/all of the various serial ports available in the program, but none were getting any information from the receiver.
The Garmin interface is set to NMEA.
Any ideas?
Did you set up the port in the Connections > External GPS?
techntrek Did you set up the port in the Connections > External GPS?
I finally got around to playing with the ports but was never able to figure out which port the 4 in 1 cable USB was supposed to be.
I also thought I might have a bad cable since it would not "see" a brand-x thumb drive. Plugged in a friend's Kingston drive and it was immediately recognized. (learned all this from another thread here)
Last night the internal GPS was working but I had to remove the 7501 from the metal case. Perhaps this is part of the intermittent reception problems, although if I remove the device from the case, acquire a position and then put it back in the case, signal strength drops but it will still provide position data. That case has saved my bacon a couple of times, having dropped the device from desktop height twice. No damage whatsoever to the unit.
Anyone have any idea where the GPS antenna is in the 7501 case (edge?) I could modify the metal case somewhat to give it a clearer field of view and go back to working the internal GPS.
On the back of the 7501 there are 2 small rubber pop outs.
One of those is connection for an external gps antenna,
it's located closest to the camera lens.
http://member.america.htc.com/downl...vantage X7501/HTC_Advantage7501_Manual_US.pdf
If you look around the net you can find the Athena service manuals, which may describe where the antennas are. Only from memory, I believe the person that opened his up and played with the internal antenna said it was along the top near where the antenna ports are (which makes sense since antenna ports usually plug in at the base of internal antennas).
Keep in mind those antenna ports are for external antennas, and not external GPS receivers. As you look at the back, the one on the left is for cellular, the one on the right is for GPS.
I guess it's again not necessary to allow for a clear view of the sky for the internal GPS antenna because it stopped working again. No amount of settings tweaks have gotten it going again.
I'm still interested to see if an external GPS receiver will provide position data for loaded software, but when I connect the Garmin RINO to the 4in1 cable, the Advantage asks for a "driver name" for the receiver. I doubt Garmin has such a thing.
I looked for a generically named driver in the /windows folder onboard and was unable to ID anything.
I have an htc hd2 I wanna amplifer my wici signal,anybody know is it possible?I bought a wireless usb adaptor for my laptop it is call Gsky 500mw.it is able to get 10 times mor signal and stronger than normaly.Can i do something els with my htc?
Thanks a lot!
good idea, but the current amps use to much power for it to work for long periods, wifi kanes the battery anyways and adding an amp to it would just kill it an hour ot two.
but...
you can make sure that your using the full power of builtin wifi by making sure that it isnt set to battery use over speed
my tg01, and my old diamond, i had the option to change the power of wifi for better battery times versus faster transmission and connectivity.
have a mooch around if you havent already done this, its on the powersave app normally. or performance?
or...
you could make an external antennae of sorts, it might work, but getting like 2 feet of copper wire and twisting it so it looks like a rectangle and affixing this on the back of your phone somehow, the phones wifi might gain more amptitude if can piggyback on something....or it might restrict your wifi usage somehow? i dont know,
have fun
No any plug for antenna at Back of my phone.It has only 1 micro usb 1 for the head set.I dont care if its eat my battery so fast I'm not gonna use my internet for long.And I dont care if a nedd to plug 2-3 feet cable.Because I wanna reach a wifi ruoter what is maybe far away from me.Thanks a lot!
no there wont be an antenna plug, youll have to take the back off, and remove the metal plate to access the htc wifi adapter, and solder or otherwise hold an antenna cable to that.
by the way, this WILL VOID your waranty. also its not the easiest task going...
kk most phones dont have wifi ant. plugs as they are not needed
but...
i remember seeing on ebay some time ago these little clear stickers with some copper wire etched into it to boost the 2g/3g signal, these were not directly affixed to the phones arieal in anyway, they literally were stickers you put under the battery ( so they are close to the phones builtin radio) and they boosted signal that way.
maybe a similar thing would work? if two wires are close enough but not touching they can both share the same signal ( try this with speaker cable,it works)
it works because all cables emit a sort of interference (apart from the noise free type) and if these interferences mix you get mixed results but maybe it could enhance your signal.
we need some experiments on this i think, anyone up for it?
So it is not gonna work,if I get an USB wireless adapter with antenna and plug it in my micro usb?And if I don't need it,I just unplug it.Or any other chance to get a strong wifi signal to my phone.What if I get a portable wifi router and I amplifer signal with this.I hope you understand what I'm wanna say.Or maybe it is not possible?I bought a yagi antenna and I plug it to my 500mw Gsky usb wireless adapter and the wifi signal is more stronger.How can I get my phone work with this?
you cant use a usb wifi adapter as your phone has no drivers, and never will do.
as for using an amplifier attatched to your router, or a seperate one, this will work reasonibly well.
You can look at http://www.cell-phone-accessories.com/htc-hd2-antennabooster-magnetmount.html
I don't know if it works fine. Only I' ve seen this site.
Also:
With my LEO I obtain the max WiFi connectivity removing the back metallic cover and taking the phone with my hand at the bottom half of it.
my phone will not do ANYTHING requiring usb other than charge , my phone charges perfectly either from wall or pc , but will not mount usb,tether,htc sync, etc.
i love music , so i used to always need to mount to add a new album or etc. and since atleast a month ago my phone is extremly picky about mounting usb, if im EVEN LUCKY to get it in a right position for it to mount usb,
just yesterday i was suprised because my 4th time wiggling and flipping , and bending cable finally got my phone to mount and transfer files at a MAX , 2.2 mbps speed, thats half of what it used to give me before the problems happened , i am assuming the problem is my usb (has to be atleast 92% of the cause)
i just want to know if theres a fix , or a legit work around , im okay with wifi mounts , i just need one thats straightforward , and probally has basic file managing .
thanks in advance for any replies
Sent from my Mytouch 4G Running Capychimps Sense 3.5 rom (v.4.0)
i have a solution for now , im currently using swiFTP , and its exactly what i was looking for , but still does anybody else have this problem ? or know how to fix it ? , ive also tried mounting in recovery, that doesnt work either
Sent from my Mytouch 4G Running Capychimps Sense 3.5 rom (v.4.0)
This problem is most likely physical - one of the D+/D- USB data wire pair is disconnected. In this case the phone will still detect VBUS (voltage on the USB) since the power wires aren't disconnected, will use it for charging, but won't be able to establish any kind of USB communication.
Jack_R1 said:
This problem is most likely physical - one of the D+/D- USB data wire pair is disconnected. In this case the phone will still detect VBUS (voltage on the USB) since the power wires aren't disconnected, will use it for charging, but won't be able to establish any kind of USB communication.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is there a way to fix that ? am i gonna have to pick around my usb port ? or take apart my phone ?
Sent from my Mytouch 4G Running Capychimps Sense 3.5 rom (v.4.0)
If it's indeed a physical problem - you'll need to do both, I'm afraid.
First, you can look inside your microUSB plug and see if the 5 tiny contact strips are visible and not dirty or obstructed by possibly broken piece of plastic ahead of them. If you have a tiny flat screwdriver - you can try to use it to scrub the dirt off the contact strips.
And if everything looks ok there - the problem might be in the soldering of the USB slot to the board, in which case you'll have to disassemble the phone and re-solder the contact pins to the board.