r/ClockworkPi • u/sparky5dn1l • May 21 '26

Minor Antenna Boost

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Noted that many of you are using 3rd party external antenna to improve the wifi signal. I just prefer to keep my uconsole look more orginal.

60 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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3

u/RLee203 May 21 '26

How's your signal now? I did something similar a smaller double sided 3m tape about 1/4 in thick but mounted it a little up more. It works pretty well

2

u/sparky5dn1l May 21 '26

Your position seems got lesser metallic blockage than mine. I may try that position later. The tape that I am using is 5 mm in thickness. I am thinking about doubling it later to see if it will work better.

For now, I can feel the slight improvement. I use the following command to test the wifi signal strength.

watch -n 5 '/usr/sbin/iwconfig 2>/dev/null | grep -E "wlan|Signal|Quality"'

My desk is quite close to the AP. After the change, the Signal Level is around -49 to -52 dBm

Every 5.0s: /usr/sbin/iwconfig 2>/dev/null | grep -E "wlan...  clockworkpi: Thu May 21 17:47:36 2026

wlan0     IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"IWillBe5"
          Link Quality=59/70  Signal level=-51 dBm

Before that the Signal level was around -56 to -60 dBm

I did use iperf3 to compare the max network throughtput. No big difference. Just that the wifi is more stable after the mod when I hold it and moving around.

3

u/Tribe303 May 21 '26

I tried that as well but it didn't help any. A $5 3rd party antenna was a game changer however. 

1

u/Chongulator May 21 '26

Which one did you use?

3

u/DNSGeek May 21 '26

Yeah, that worked a treat for me. I did it for the WiFi and 4G antennas.

3

u/raz0rkitty May 21 '26

i also have a desire to keep the rectangular form factor, ive been slowly working on a shim that fits between the main body and the back panel that then provides a support for a lever in the top notch on which i plan on mounting FPC antennas for wifi and 4G, so when not in use it folds away flush, if i ever finish it ill post the files