Reef Angel Forum

To keep the story short, I boosted the wifi reception by purchasing a 3dBi external antenna kit:
http://www.amazon.com/3Dbi-RP-SMA-Anten ... B007Y6S18Q

It works perfectly with RA wifi's on-board u.fl antenna connector.
Now I have a good reception even inside the cabinet.

FYI, I have no affiliation with the seller or Amazon and I'm sure if you can find it cheaper and better elsewhere.

Nice idea.

Just did this modification this weekend and it works great.. Improved the signal alot..

dbmet wrote:Just did this modification this weekend and it works great.. Improved the signal alot..

Great to hear that.

How difficult is this mod, what exactly is involved.

Pretty easy.. Drilled a hole in the wifi case, ran the cable through it and connected it to the board..

dbmet wrote:Pretty easy.. Drilled a hole in the wifi case, ran the cable through it and connected it to the board..

Thanks, did you have to soldered it to the board, is it easy to identify the on board antenna.

Nope no soldering to the board. It's just a plug. I believe I did have change the software setting in the wifi module to use external antenna.

Ok, I ordered the antenna, only $7 on Amazon. This mod seems pretty simple.

Only question is where/how to adjust these software settings, can I log into the module and do this with putty

Did you order the cable with the antenna?

Yes the settings are in the manual and you can use whichever terminal program you use.. I'm on a mac so I use coolterm

dbmet wrote:Did you order the cable with the antenna?

Yes the settings are in the manual and you can use whichever terminal program you use.. I'm on a mac so I use coolterm

Awesome thanks, and yes I ordered the one with the cable.

Sweet. Good luck and post back if you have questions

Found the command set wlan ext_antenna 1

Antenna is coming Wednesday, cant wait to try this mod.

Antenna came today, mod took a whole 15 minutes, nice and easy.

Quick update, its been a week since I did this mod and I have not had a single issue with the wifi. Definitely worth the $7 and 15 minutes

cjrudy wrote:Found the command set wlan ext_antenna 1

Antenna is coming Wednesday, cant wait to try this mod.

I didn't know about this. Thanks

Nice find =) keeping this one handy if I have issues if I move my tank..

With the RA in the basement and my router on the first floor I constantly had wi-fi issues. Since installing the antenna four months ago I have not had a single issue. This thread was great find for me.

For the new user, here are the instructions.

Using a terminal program or the old Graphical Wifi Utility from the downloads page, connect to the WiFi adapter and send these commands: Reconnect to the wifi unit and issue this command: In the list of settings you should see ExtAnt = 1

Sending $$$ wakes up the console on the WiFi unit and it should reply with CMD indicating it is listening for your command. You only need to send $$$ at the beginning of each terminal session.

If your terminal session keeps getting interrupted with this message:

GET /r99 HTTP/1.1

you need to open the ReefAngel Service Dashboard (part of the ReefAngel Client software) and stop the Listener Service. If you have any phone apps that are logging, stop those also. You can start them again after you are done.

not sure why, but my ext antenna is always set to 0, any idea why?

CMD
get ip
IF=UP
DHCP=ON
IP=192.168.0.196:2000
NM=255.255.255.0
GW=192.168.0.1
HOST=198.171.134.6:80
PROTO=TCP,
MTU=1524
FLAGS=0x6
TCPMODE=0x0
BACKUP=0.0.0.0
<4.00> get w
SSID=Worldnetwork
Chan=0
ExtAnt=0
Join=1
Auth=OPEN
Mask=0x1fff
Rate=12, 24 Mb
Linkmon-Infra=0
Linkmon-AP=0
Passphrase=
EAP_Id=
EAP_User=
<4.00> get u
Baudrate=57600
Flow=0x0
Mode=0x2
Cmd_GPIO=0
<4.00> reboot
*Reboot*CMD
set wlan ext_antenna 1
AOK
<4.00> reboot
*Reboot*

get everything
wifly-GSX Ver 4.00.1, Apr 19 2013 11:48:31 on RN-131
Beacon=100
Reboot=0
IF=UP
DHCP=ON
IP=192.168.0.196:2000
NM=255.255.255.0
GW=192.168.0.1
HOST=198.171.134.6:80
PROTO=TCP,
MTU=1524
FLAGS=0x6
TCPMODE=0x0
BACKUP=0.0.0.0
OPEN=
CLOSE=
REMOTE=
FlushSize=1524
MatchChar=0
FlushTimer=10
IdleTimer=3
CmdChar=$
DNS=192.168.0.1
Name=www.reefangel.com
Backup=rn.microchip.com
Lease=300
FTP=198.175.253.161:21
File=wifly-GSX.img
User=roving
Pass=Pass123
Dir=public
Timeout=200
FTP_mode=0x0
SSID=Worldnetwork
Chan=0
ExtAnt=0
Join=1
Auth=OPEN
Mask=0x1fff
Rate=12, 24 Mb
Linkmon-Infra=0
Linkmon-AP=0
Passphrase=
EAP_Id=
EAP_User=
SleepTmr=0
WakeTmr=0
Trigger=0x10
Autoconn=0
IoFunc=0x0
IoMask=0x20f0
IoValu=0x0
DebugReg=0x0
PrintLvl=0x0
LaunchStr=
TimeEna=0
TIMEADR=129.6.15.28:123
Zone=7
Baudrate=57600
Flow=0x0
Mode=0x2
Cmd_GPIO=0
JoinTmr=1000
Replace=0x24
DeviceId=ReefAngelWifi
Password=
Format=0x0
Signal=0
Average=5
BCAST=255.255.255.255:55555
Interval=0x7
Backup=0.0.0.0:0
Sensor=0x0
SensePwr=0x0
<4.00>

Looks like your forgetting the magic word...

Save

worked.. thanks.

lnevo wrote:Looks like your forgetting the magic word...

Save

Oops, thank goodness for the edit button!

I use graphical wifi from reef angels website but do not know where in the program I'm writing code. Someone who can explain?

You must enter command mode. To do so, please read the manual.
You will need a serial terminal application such as tera term or putty.

I have downloaded that program and it dosent work. Does it work in graphical wifi? It only shows up some wierd symbols in the window in tera term.

Make sure you connect using 57600 baud rate

It worked. Thanks Roberto

Just did this mod. Make sure to drill the hole for the connector high enough (closer to the open top) for the wire to clear the circuit board. I also re-located the WiFi adapter away from my Bluetooth adapter as it seemed to be causing some connection issues. I'm considering running the long cable that came with the antenna to the other side of the stand to help mitigate it even more.

--Colin

Any idea why the screen goes in a loop mode when I connect the wifi module?