I got my 10.1" unit and decided I was going to do something about the abysmal wireless reception these units have (I set up a WAP in my garage next to my car because it couldn't get a good signal to the router on the other side of the wall for my 7" unit). I connected up my new HU to power and tested, sure enough the wireless reception was garbage. I decided to fix that.
I popped off the lid, de-soldered the existing excuse for an antenna, and replaced it with a pigtail I had laying around. The pigtail was intended to be used in a desktop using a mini pcie card in it, so I chopped the connector off the end and stripped it down in similar fashion to the OE cable. I popped the hole next to the GPS antenna out with a screwdriver and the new RSMA connector fit perfectly. I put a reasonably large antenna on the unit and not only could I see the router from a house on the other side of the street and down a plot, but I was able to connect and pull internet through it.
I could put a smaller antenna on the connector and install it as is, but I intend to use an extension cable like this to get better signal from somewhere besides the radio slot of my car.
Next up: Heatsinks and a fan!
You got my hopes up there. Thought you were going to talk about the RADIO reception.
Unfortunately, the only thing I can imagine needing the wifi for is for hooking up an rpi I use for dashcam at a distance of 2 feet.
luciusfox said:
You got my hopes up there. Thought you were going to talk about the RADIO reception.
Unfortunately, the only thing I can imagine needing the wifi for is for hooking up an rpi I use for dashcam at a distance of 2 feet.
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Click to collapse
I used extension cable from the head unit to under my fibreglass roof on my campervan and then from the extension cable, wired 8 metres long cable running under the roof.
Now I get much better reception with that than with my decorational amplified shark fin antenna Both AM and FM pull now weaker stations.
Unless I am mistaken this will improve bluetooth reception (usually they share an antenna and are in the same chip). There have been times when my phone has been passed to someone in the back seat and bluetooth audio started cutting out. For radio reception you may consider some kind of FM pre-amp? I have never used one, and generally broadcast radio is a last resort for me (commercials can be atrocious where I live, sometimes I prefer silence...), but it may help you.
Brilliant idea. I use the WiFi to connect to a USB 3G dongle for Waze & Google maps traffic data, and the wifi is terrible even with the dongle 2-3 feet from the head unit. Already done my fan mod, so wifi antenna will be next.
BTW bluetooth is also 2.4GHz so make sense to share the antenna. Home or office wifi is often the reason why phone headsets don't work well in these environments, especially with multiple access points not correctly configured.
http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Networking-and-WiFi/Getting-a-better-Wireless-Network-Signal/td-p/3170334
pwood999 said:
Brilliant idea. I use the WiFi to connect to a USB 3G dongle for Waze & Google maps traffic data, and the wifi is terrible even with the dongle 2-3 feet from the head unit. Already done my fan mod, so wifi antenna will be next.
BTW bluetooth is also 2.4GHz so make sense to share the antenna. Home or office wifi is often the reason why phone headsets don't work well in these environments, especially with multiple access points not correctly configured.
http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Networking-and-WiFi/Getting-a-better-Wireless-Network-Signal/td-p/3170334
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Click to collapse
Which 3g dongle are you using?
It's similar to this one. I only have 500MB VirginMedia Data SIM for £5 per month, so didn't bother with 4G dongle. This is plenty for Waze Traffic !!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HSDPA-USB-STICK-SIM-Modem-7-2MBPS-3G-Wireless-USB-Dongle-TF-Card-Adapter-Win-7-8/161578239488?epid=1689886176&hash=item259ed04600:g:LNMAAOSw-W5UyEy4
Nice modification dude! That's actually pretty cool. I'm pretty sure that this should also improve the bluetooth reception of the unit. Have you noticed any difference in that?
Thanks for sharing! :good::good:
-Murf
Odd, mine pulls signal from my neighborhood, and I can connect in my separated garage through three wall. I haven't done any modification to it.
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 02:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:13 PM ----------
Wonder what it will do with this mod?
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
I think they have bad quality control in their factory.
I have a Sofia 3GR model with good WiFi reception. Now I have a PX5 with very bad WiFi reception. I put them next to each other and the PX5 is just terrible compared to the Sofia 3GR.
So it seems to vary per unit: again, bad quality control.
Maybe it is the soldering itself, or some damaging heat effect from the soldering or bad connections? Who knows.
Related
Having a hard time getting a good wifi signal. Anyone have any tips, suggestions, or ways to extend the wifi antenna?
I know someone wired it to a SMA port on the back with a normally stubby wifi antenna back there.
I toyed with this idea and was tempted to solder in the BNC jack/antenna off the spare router that I keep around just in case but eventually had to scrap it due to the limited RE in the dashboard cavity behind the HU. I used a slightly different approach which has proven to be just as effective: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=67394021&postcount=2
I did it here on my old Android 4 unit:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/and...rk3188-rk3066-2-din-head-units-t3193170/page2
And i did the same thing on my Android 5.5.1 unit as well.
What I do is cut off the end of the cable they provide. All the provide is a simple antenna made from cutting the coax back a bit to expose some center conductor, and the put some heat shrink on it.
I cut that off, and actually crimp on a proper rp-sma jack and mount it to the case. It's not difficult, but I am a ham radio operator, and have the correct crimping tools and experience doing it.
I do it on mine because I actually have a wifi antenna externally mounted on my jeep, and I need the rp-sma jack to connect to the coax from that outside antenna.
On the new Android 5.5.1 unit, it has TWO wifi antennas, I guess for diversity reception which can sometimes help the signals. But what I did was leave with the short stock antenna, and only put the connector on the other which goes to the external antenna. So now I sort of have one internal antenna, and one external.
nixfu said:
I did it here on my old Android 4 unit:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/and...rk3188-rk3066-2-din-head-units-t3193170/page2
And i did the same thing on my Android 5.5.1 unit as well.
What I do is cut off the end of the cable they provide. All the provide is a simple antenna made from cutting the coax back a bit to expose some center conductor, and the put some heat shrink on it.
I cut that off, and actually crimp on a proper rp-sma jack and mount it to the case. It's not difficult, but I am a ham radio operator, and have the correct crimping tools and experience doing it.
I do it on mine because I actually have a wifi antenna externally mounted on my jeep, and I need the rp-sma jack to connect to the coax from that outside antenna.
On the new Android 5.5.1 unit, it has TWO wifi antennas, I guess for diversity reception which can sometimes help the signals. But what I did was leave with the short stock antenna, and only put the connector on the other which goes to the external antenna. So now I sort of have one internal antenna, and one external.
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Click to collapse
in that post, you linked to an external antenna on ebay. did you end up buying that and is it good? or were you just thinking about it? in this post you mention an external antenna mounted on your jeep. is that the ebay antenna you linked or a different one?
my unit has a weak antenna on its back side outside of the box. it's fine for picking up my phone when i make it a hotspot in the car but doesn't/can't pick up wifi from the house when i am parked in the garage. phone easily picks it up. i don't know if it's just a weak antenna or the fact that it's surrounded by the dashboard housing... or both. would like to change that if i can do it on the cheap.
Recently got an MCTD unit, has a v3 mainboard and I am suffering on poor FM reception and non existent AM (not bothered about AM though)
Have read that sometimes the aerials are not connected internally so had a look, one of the earth points was a bit suspect so re-soldered that, but no improvement. If I am stationary I can get 3 stations, however when I start to move I lose the signal. Interestingly it does seem to improve if I leave the radio out (I.e. Not fixed into position in the car).
I think the unit is an A Media (will have to check later) but it is a Huefei variant (running Android 5.1.1)
I have bought replacement internal aerial adaptors that are boosted to no real improvement (although after doing a bit more reading I need to check if the booster power source (from the ANT wire from the headunit) is actually giving 12V
Any ideas / mods to help improve it? Aerial works fine with standard headunit.
Thanks
anyone any ideas?
ok if anyone is interested, I bought a cheap window aerial that has a power booster, can now get channels but still not great. My next step is to either replace the roof aerial on my car (or certainly the wiring), of take of the power boosting element from the new aerial and incorporate that into the car roof mount
Buy this (don't look to the price) and you will say thanks to me for long time
http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/Kinetic_DRA-6005_GPS_FM-AM_DAB_car_aerial.html
I am not interested in making publicity of this product but even I would have been you will be as happy as I am. BEST!!!
You will need extra wire extenders as the product has short cables fitted. It's on that page the link of what you will need.
similar issue
Hi are you still having this issue or did you manage to fix it? if so what did you do please?
i am having a similar issue with mine and found that iv improved things by putting a cable to earth my head unit (cable from screw on back to ground on loom) and also i have changed the cable coming from the Headunit with one from halfords (at first glance i thought it was part of the unit as it had the black sheath and blue cable but it just pulls out)
not fully, I am going to look at the antenna wire from the headunit as I dont have that connected and that may help (from reading the pumpkin website).
I have good earths which I have measured with a multimeter so I know thats good.
If I cant imrove then I will look at an aerial from the above place
htt p:// www .ha lfords .co m/ techno logy/ car-audio/ stereo-fitting-acce ssories /aut oleads-pc5-111-fakra-to-din-aerial-adaptor
i used that cable from halfords to replace the one that came with the headunit. For me it was problem solved. obviously the one that came with it wasnt making a good enough contact.
sorry had to put spaces as im not allowed to put links yet.
Thanks for the link but I have about 3 different ones and they all make good contact (have checked with the unit taken apart and everything makes contact where it should)
I am going to check my installed aerial to see if I can work out whats going on with that. I can ge radio 2 now fully on my way to work (50miles each way) but I dont want to listen to radio 2
It is antenna wiring issue, not antenna itself.
I had the same problem in US with my A-Media unit. Initially the seller sent me a power cable and I had poor radio reception, FM working but not great, no AM at all. When the seller figured out wrong cable for steering wheel issues he sent me the correct cable and everything works great including radio FM/AM. My antenna harness has two wires but the first cable connected only one. The 2nd cable has both antenna wires connected, one to antenna socket and the other goes to power cable connector.
Sorted it out, the existing aerial on my car was a dummy aerial (sharkfin), turns out the aerial itself is on the rear windscreen.
Anyway, I got an DAB aerial off ebay (bee sting type) fitted that in place of the sharkfin and re wired it. Result now have perfect reception on both FM and DAB with no loss of signal at all. Only cost £29.99 GBP as well with all wiring extensions etc
jaytc2003 said:
Sorted it out, the existing aerial on my car was a dummy aerial (sharkfin), turns out the aerial itself is on the rear windscreen.
Anyway, I got an DAB aerial off ebay (bee sting type) fitted that in place of the sharkfin and re wired it. Result now have perfect reception on both FM and DAB with no loss of signal at all. Only cost £29.99 GBP as well with all wiring extensions etc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hello, i have the same problem with my unit.
i wanna buy that antenna also on ebay. but the (bee sting type) you told about have a din style connector.
the original one that was by the radio is a usb type. how did you fix that problem?
I was able to solve my unworking AM Radio here.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/an...questions-development/radio-fm-radio-t3895859
Apologize if this is the wrong forum to post this in, but I just installed an Android 8.1 head unit in my car in the USA, and I get great FM reception, but I can't get reception for any AM stations. I disconnected the unit and reconnected my old radio to make sure nothing had changed in the car, and I still got good FM and AM with the old radio, so I know the antenna is good.
Is there a setting in the radio for region (USA, Europe, China, etc) that could affect this? When I scan stations, it seems to be in the right range of frequencies, but doesn't stop on any, and I can't manually force it to a station that I know (950). Instead I can make it go to either 945 or 954. I have searched through all of the menus that I can find, and can't find anything that would allow me to see or change the region.
Thanks in advance - Paul
Update on this issue - I was able to get to the menu to change the radio region:
Car Settings:: About the Device (passcode 8888):: Radio
It was defaulted to Europe - I changed it to America 1 and America 2 which at least allowed me to directly tune to a couple of strong AM stations that I know, but I still had no reception. Everything else about the unit works well. I am trying to get them to send me a replacement thinking it is something in the hardware, but please let me know if anyone has any other ideas on things to check.
I have this problem too. Great FM reception, VERY poor AM reception. I've tried all country codes (Australia is not available). I've asked vendor for a solution. Still waiting.
Did you get a solution?
I had this too until I realized that my car has a built in car antenna amplifier (most cars now do) and it needs to be powered. Without power to it, you'll barely get reception. So I connected the antenna amplifier to the powered antenna output from the head unit and that improved it some, but still it wasn't great. Then I checked the voltage from that wire I found that the head unit only puts out 10.6 volts instead of the required 12. So I hooked the power antenna to the same 12V power coming from the car that feeds the head unit and presto, now I get normal radio reception like I used to.
This constantly amazes me, why do so many people not understand about the aerial amplifiers used on most cars now? When you swap out a manufacturer specific unit, make sure all the wires are connected, they're there for a reason!
yes, but most people don't realize that the lead from the head unit that says ANTENNA is not suitable to power the antenna. You must use the 12V power supply coming from the car to power the antenna amp.
It varies with the head unit, many do put out the full battery voltage on the antenna feed wire (ours does) but obviously some don't, your fix is correct for those that don't. The issue is that everyone seems to just leave the amplifier wire disconnected and wonder why it doesn't work.
Mr.TT_NZ said:
This constantly amazes me, why do so many people not understand about the aerial amplifiers used on most cars now? When you swap out a manufacturer specific unit, make sure all the wires are connected, they're there for a reason!
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I know this is an old post but I'm having this issue.
I'm actually little confused as to how to remedy this.
Any help would be appreciated.
Should I splice the blue ant wire into the power wire going to the radio?
I was under the impression the blue ant wire was for people who had a power antenna that raises and lowers when the radio is powered on.
Here's the radio I got for a 2005 Corolla.
US $195.00 20%OFF | For Toyota Corolla E120 E 120 BYD F3 2000 2003 2005 2006 DSP 4GB+64GB Android 2 Din Car Radio Multimedia Carplay GPS Navigation
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mPnUCX6
jnotgsure said:
I know this is an old post but I'm having this issue.
I'm actually little confused as to how to remedy this.
Any help would be appreciated.
Should I splice the blue ant wire into the power wire going to the radio?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The ANT wire of the head unit is intended as power supply for the car antenna. Not only the automatic extending antennas need a power supply, also active antennas.
So it depends on your installed antenna if you need to connect it.
Some active antennas doesn't have a separate wire for power supply. In this case you need a "Phantomeinspeiseadapter" (Google it). Espacially cars from VW group (Skoda, Seat, VW, Audi...) need such an adapter in combination with a 3rd party radio.
The idea is to power the antenna only if it's needed (your listening to radio).
Alternatively the antenna could get its power from the ACC wire. In this case the antenna gets power as soon as you turn on the ignition.
The B+ wire should never be used to power the antenna because this would drain your cars battery 24/7.
With OEM head unit the reception is fine. With the PX6 head unit the FM reception is quite poor. I have checked that the OEM amplifier gets power. I have tried one of those small "FM amplifiers" but it just made it worse.
So I am thinking about getting an external antenna like this one:
Eightwood DAB/DAB+ Antenna Car Radio Antenna Splitter: Amazon.de: Elektronik
Eightwood DAB/DAB+ Antenna Car Radio Antenna Splitter: Amazon.de: Elektronik
www.amazon.de
They seem to get good reviews at Amazon but I am curious to hear if anyone here been using it with a Chinese Android head unit and if it made any difference?
Thanks!
I use one on a Joying HU, It works great. FM is perfect, GPS is also spot on. DAB worked on my last HU but, I needed a new DAB box for this HU, so I didn't bother. The bit rate for DAB in the UK is shocking, streaming is the way forward for good sound quality.
I’ve had one before and dab and fm radio worked perfect.
You should be able to get the oem aerial working properly though with this unit.
Have you got an adaptor for the antenna to go into the new unit or does the oem antenna cable just plug straight into the new unit?
The fm amplifier that you bought will make it worse because the chances are that your car will already have a factory fm amplifier.
ab1702 said:
I’ve had one before and dab and fm radio worked perfect.
You should be able to get the oem aerial working properly though with this unit.
Have you got an adaptor for the antenna to go into the new unit or does the oem antenna cable just plug straight into the new unit?
The fm amplifier that you bought will make it worse because the chances are that your car will already have a factory fm amplifier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I have an adaptor for the antenna, from Fakra to DIN. I have tried to disconnect power to the OEM amplifier, and then I got almost no reception at all, so I guess the amplifier works.
But I have realized that DAB+ sound quality isn't very good, so now I am hasitating to buy an external antenna. And just stream music and radio from apps.
If you get a good external antenna the sound will be better on dab. I use dab all the time.
It’s one of these that you need to get your FM working properly with your factory antenna https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353322093865 you connect the blue cable to the blue cable that comes out of the back of the headunit and it powers your factory antenna(although you should have got one of these with the headunit).
I bought similar antenna https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B073R8KW7F to try to get better reception of DAB+ (instead of windscreen-sticked antenna), and for DAB it made so much better reception, so i have now DAB+ reception even in my underground parking place %) Cannot say though about FM - i had no problems with OEM antenna before, and new antenna didn't make FM reception better. But as i don't use FM anymore (DAB+ converage in my area is good, and with new antenna i don't have reception problems in other areas either, all FM stations i was interested before, are available over DAB), i compared audio quality DAB+ <-> online radios. Yes, the quality of online services is mostly better, but:
1. while driving, with all exterior sounds (tire noise, air whizzing @ high speeds, noise form other cars), i barely hear the difference.
2. hearing online radio with e.g 128kbps, will eat ~60 MB per hour. If it is OK for you - ignore it.
3. The 3G/4G coverage (at least here, in Germany), isn't perfect - i had already 3-10 minutes of "no internet" while driving, but, surprisingly, DAB was available there.
4. with proper DAB+ software you will get additional services, like possibility of radio recording, or timeshifting (personally me use it often while hearing some news and got distracted with road traffic).
So, after using similar antenna (same manufacturer, but with aerial rod) during last year, i have never had problems with DAB receiving (neither with FM, but i had no problems with FM reception with OEM antenna either).
Is there a difference in signal quality in these window antennas? I am wondering if swapping the one i have now will boost signal?
My original car radio only had FM which worked flawless. Since upgrading to the android head-unit…FM is impossible to listen, strange as it uses the same car antenna to connect into it?
I opted to buy a DAB+ antenna as the head unit will accept one but this is not great either. Any ideas?
You may have an active antenna on your cars roof and missed to connect the power supply.
I only have bad experience with the DAB windows antennas so I was forced to replace the existing antenna.