I need a better antenna on reciever?

[pp]

I have my RFID in cars all get great reception in driveway but in fron of house nothing. I have the little wire on main board from pc but I want to get it outside for better reception. Can anyone tell me ideas they have done?

[rmasonjr]

Mine is mounted in the roof of my garage. I have an external power supply plugged into the garage door plug in the ceiling and cat5 run back to the PC's serial port (edgeport). It works great in this setup.

[nightwalker]

I have mine mounted in the attic of the house, seems to work well from there as well.

[sailwhatcom]

Hello,

I tried many things as I installed my receiver and tried to maximize reception. I started with it sitting on my PC which was obviously not good. I then moved to mounting it on a central closet wall and it improved my coverage around the entire footprint of the house. Next I moved it to my attic and almost doubled my reception range.

Some of what I learned along the way is that the antenna wire should be straight if you have access to it. Also, an external 315 MHz whip antenna that is properly grounded makes a big difference! Whatever you do, mount it as high as you can.

Feel free to PM me if you need specific help.

Jeff

[pp]

Ok I guess what I am asking is how to make that antenna connection. I have the small wire off board and want it to go a distance. Do you use cat -5? Then on other end what kind of antenna? Anything I can get at Radio Shack? and how did u make the other end connection. I have a cat from PC to attic I can use and one I use...

[The Keeper]

FYI, cat5 is a data cable, not an antenna cable. You can use cat5 to run the receiver's RS232 signal plus power, but the cable you need to use to connect an external antenna to the receiver is RG6.

This is the link I used to make a couple of antennae (one for a cheaperrfid receiver, and one for a W800). I do understand the concept of proper grounding, and tied the shield of the RG6 to the ground plane of the cheaperrfid... I'm not entirely sure if it worked out for me. It's really inconvenient for me to run wires from the basement to the attic, so mine is in the rafters under the first floor.
http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/ind...?showtopic=126

Has anyone else made their own quarter-wave antenna?

Chris

[pp]

Ahh Nice thank you

[Stuart]

PP,
That is the same antenna I've got in the car for you.
Stuart
But, without the F to SO-239 adapter.

[pp]

That was the first thing I thought when I saw it. I gotta call you and come by. I am free later in week.
Thanks!

[heatvent]

Couple of questions.

1. How do you connect a coax antenna to the RFID reciever?

2. Can the W800 antenna be used for both (use a splitter and run 1 to W800 and the other to the RFID receiver)?

[sailwhatcom]

I can speak to connecting the COAX to the receiver. The connection on the board that currently has the antenna coming from it needs to be soldered to the center conductor. You will likely need to connect the ground to the mesh shield to get reasonable antenna performance, but try without it first. There should be a connection near that with the original antenna with "GND" marked next to it to indicate the ground connection for the receiver.

Tips:
- The gap between board and Soldered center conductor should be as short as possible. Any unshielded lead will modify the electronic characteristics.
- Experiment & measure performance as you make modifications so that you know what works best when you are done (and you can share with all of us).

Cheers,
Jeff

[heatvent]

I can speak to connecting the COAX to the receiver. The connection on the board that currently has the antenna coming from it needs to be soldered to the center conductor. You will likely need to connect the ground to the mesh shield to get reasonable antenna performance, but try without it first. There should be a connection near that with the original antenna with "GND" marked next to it to indicate the ground connection for the receiver.

Tips:
- The gap between board and Soldered center conductor should be as short as possible. Any unshielded lead will modify the electronic characteristics.
- Experiment & measure performance as you make modifications so that you know what works best when you are done (and you can share with all of us).

Cheers,
Jeff

What's your thoughts on connecting to my W800 antenna? Is that just a bad idea?

[Wadenut]

Initially, my reception was terrible. I'd almost given up on the whole thing, but tonight decided to try something.

I mounted an F connector (same type as used for cable TV) on the receiver box and ran the center to the antenna input on the receiver, the outside(ground) to a ground connection on the receiver using a short piece of twisted pair wires. They ended up a little better than an inch or so long. This is now connected through a splitter to the multi-band antenna in the attic already servicing a WF800 and RFXCOM receivers. Reception seems to be at least as good as before (if not better). I have yet to test for distance and from within the car.

[Czechmarty]

I use similar setup. I have 3 310/315MHz antennas in the attic that connect to a combiner and pre-amp. 1 RG6 cable down to my wiring room and active splitter (feeds the pre-amp as well). From that splitter I have short RG6 to all ther receivers. RFXCom, W800 and RFID. I have coverage almost in all corners of my 2.5 acres property.

Cheers
Marty

[heatvent]

Initially, my reception was terrible. I'd almost given up on the whole thing, but tonight decided to try something.

I mounted an F connector (same type as used for cable TV) on the receiver box and ran the center to the antenna input on the receiver, the outside(ground) to a ground connection on the receiver using a short piece of twisted pair wires. They ended up a little better than an inch or so long. This is now connected through a splitter to the multi-band antenna in the attic already servicing a WF800 and RFXCOM receivers. Reception seems to be at least as good as before (if not better). I have yet to test for distance and from within the car.

I did the antenna wire connection to a F-type connector, but where on the reciever is the ground? How did you find it? I can seem to find it on mine.

I attached a picture from cheapertronics for reference.