Adding External Antenna to Squeezebox Touch

[eduardoo]

I am thinking about upgrading from a Duet to a Touch. Due to its form factor, I would probably have less flexibility in how and were the thing will be placed. With the Duet, it is not difficult to do a mod to add an external antenna. Has anyone done the same to a Touch? I have seen a couple of internal pics of the Touch but am not sure where the antenna lead is located. I am thinking about adding an antenna with a lead wire such that I can place the Touch out of sight and put the antenna where reception is good.

Thanks.

[UV101]

There are no coax type sockets in the Touch for easy connectivity however, the antenna itself is obvious. You could try replacing with a laptop type antenna.

I would initially try to add a small legnth of insulated wire to the original antenna. The problem would be that the antenna should be of a a specific length and therefore tuned to a specific freq. By adding additional wire you will interfere with the resonant freq. You may actually make things worse. On the other hand by having the wire run firther away from the PSU you may make things better. By running the wire nearer the DAC you will interfere with audio quality.

The other option would be to remove the original antenna and connect the centre coax of an external antenna to the PCB. You would also need to find a gnd to connect the braid of the coax as close as possible. This would help to remove interference from the SB and also get the wireless signals away from the unit. I would think this would be of benifits all round!!

[JohnSwenson]

There are pads on the Touch PCB for a coax jack for an external antenna. You would have to get the right jack and solder it onto the board. Its one of those very tiny jacks used on wifi modules (probably either UFL or MMCX), you can get short pigtails with one of these on one end and a bulkhead SMA on the other.

You would have to carefully measure the dimensions of the pads and try and find a jack designed to fit those dimensions.

What I don't know is if you can run the external antenna with the internal one connected. You might have to unsolder the internal antenna to properly use the external one.

John S.

[eduardoo]

There are pads on the Touch PCB for a coax jack for an external antenna. You would have to get the right jack and solder it onto the board. Its one of those very tiny jacks used on wifi modules (probably either UFL or MMCX), you can get short pigtails with one of these on one end and a bulkhead SMA on the other.

You would have to carefully measure the dimensions of the pads and try and find a jack designed to fit those dimensions.

What I don't know is if you can run the external antenna with the internal one connected. You might have to unsolder the internal antenna to properly use the external one.

John S.

Thanks, john. Can you be so kind as to post a pic and show me whether those pads and the existing antennas are?

[UV101]

You could always open it up and take a look! It's only 4 screws on the case and 5 on the pcb!!!

I've looked at my pics and unfortunately I've not got one of that area :-(

[UV101]

Found this on Google, then realised it was one of my pics from another post on this forum. Just searched for "Squeezebox Touch" in Images...Very clever that Google!!!

[eduardoo]

Found this on Google, then realised it was one of my pics from another post on this forum. Just searched for "Squeezebox Touch" in Images...Very clever that Google!!!

Thanks. I have actually seen a number of internal pics, but unlike the Duet, it is not as obvious which and where exactly the antenna is (Is it the silver bar on the right?), not to mention the place where the sma holder is supposed to go. I would appreciate it if you can give me further instructions.

Thanks again.

[UV101]

Yes I beleive the antenna is the silver bar. Without looking closer, I'd say the 3 pads just below in the picture are possibly spaced for a minature smt coax socket of some sort. I've found this in RS which looks suitable based on Johns suggestions of the socket types.(albeit I cant measure the size of the pads on the SB jsut from the picture)

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/connector-rf/0557981/



used with something like this maybe???

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/connector-rf/4812251/



You could then use a generic external WiFi antenna

[JohnSwenson]

Yep, the antenna is the silver bar on the left and the three pads immediately below are for an RF jack.

The linked jack looks like it could be the one. The pad pattern in the spec sheet looks exactly like the one on the board.

Looking carefully at the picture I see a pair of unpopulated pads which looks like it is connected to the trace going to the connector. Since there is another pair right above it which looks like its connected to the builtin antenna, I'm guessing that those two pad pairs are how you select which antenna the signal goes to. Soldering the cap to one pair selects the antenna or jack. This could be wrong, there needs to be some board tracing to find out for sure.

John S.

[eduardoo]

Yep, the antenna is the silver bar on the left and the three pads immediately below are for an RF jack.

The linked jack looks like it could be the one. The pad pattern in the spec sheet looks exactly like the one on the board.

Looking carefully at the picture I see a pair of unpopulated pads which looks like it is connected to the trace going to the connector. Since there is another pair right above it which looks like its connected to the builtin antenna, I'm guessing that those two pad pairs are how you select which antenna the signal goes to. Soldering the cap to one pair selects the antenna or jack. This could be wrong, there needs to be some board tracing to find out for sure.

John S.

Thanks for your inputs, John and UV101!

Just wondering, would it be simpler to just hardwire an antenna to the legs of the existing antenna? If so, can the old antenna be left in place or would it need to be clipped/soldered off the board?