Adding a larger antenna to a WGR614 Wifi Router
Rec 13-jul-2008 19:56
The low price of USD 70,00 (a bargain here in Brazil) motivated my parents to buy a
Netgear
WGR614
Wifi
router
appliance to share their DSL line. It worked pretty well, but my father said
the signal up in his workbench at the back of the house was too weak, causing connection drops all
the time. "Easy enough", I replied,
"let's hook up a larger antenna to replace the feeble 2dBi one these devices come with". I bought
a 7dBi antenna and headed to their house, just to find out the device's built-in antenna was not
removable.
Well, any antenna is removable if you are willing to disassemble the device, so,... let's
start!
Removing the stand-offs to reveal the torx screws.
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The main board after disassembly, showing the antenna attachment.
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After carefully desoldering the antenna wire. Too bad it's a v7 device -- there is no DD-WRT Linux port for its Atheros chipset just yet.
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After removing all the wire from the disassembled antenna and resoldering it to an SMA connector I happened to have lying around
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Reusing part of the plastic support of the old antenna
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The antenna cable resoldered to the main board
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The device, reassembled. We had to chip off part of the plastic case to make room for the thicker antenna.
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Almost done, showing the new, much larger antenna. It would had been prettier if the antenna was white as well, but, hey, it worked just fine!
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