WIFI Reception

[harrygranville]

Hi All. This is my first time here. I am not technical but slightly obsessional. Imported a Chinese android tablet (Ainol). Great device for the price but poor wifi reception at any distance from the router. There are so many articles about this deficit on lower priced tablets. Made worse by metal backed tablets. Seems there are very few articles about a modification. I would like suggestions about removing the installed wifi antenna for a better one. Here are my non technical assumptions: An internal wifi antenna is a standard piece of equipment. As long as it fits inside your device then it should work. So if I install an iPad antenna, which is clearly a better antenna than other makes, it should improve my wifi reception? Your thoughts would be helpful as there is very limited information out there. Many Thanks. Paul

 

[leeshor]

Welcome to the forum

Your antenna suggestion isn't bad, but not very reasonable. If the WiFi isn't working well you probably wouldn't be able to fit an antenna in the case that would make things better. Personally - when I have been at my customer's site where they have i devices I haven't seen that they had any better WiFi than my Android devices.

However, it is possible in many cases to improve the reception with adjustments to the router. Being that i devices, phones and tablets, use different chips and drivers for the WiFi than Android devices they can't be compared very well. I have a link below with some suggestions that may help in your situation.

 

[harrygranville]

Thank you Lee for your advice. I do not think this is a router problem. I have a TP Link router and there are 10 gadgets in the house that all use the wifi... Not at the same time . Of all the gadgets the Ainol has the weakest reception in terms of distance from the router. A universal range extender is a thought. My partner and I like to travel and on our last destination, although the wifi signal was weak, my partner could use her Samsung tablet but wherever I positioned the Ainol I got no signal!

 

[leeshor]

In that case you may indeed have a week antenna, (or some hardware or app conflict issue), but I doubt that there is much you can do to improve it short of trying a factory reset to see if it helps..

 

[AECRADIO1]

Poor reception can also be from cold solder joints at the connection point to the antenna cabling, normally on the board, near the WiFi module.
But this has all the makings of using substandard components or improper component values in the RF path, especially on RX. Since most internal antennas use 'diversity' meaning the RF is sampled from both antennas, and the best signal is favored over the weaker of the two, as this metric is internally sampled in the WiFi RF chip, using RSS, or Received Signal Strength, which compares the levels of actual signals, based on the level in dBm.
Poor component selection will cause poor impedance matching in an RF signal path, degrading the performance in both receive and transmit.
If you have an older NetGear router, you can swap the internal antennas from that unit into yours, as they are formed brass patch style antennas with direct solder connections to the matching section of the antenna.
I have a model B90-755044-15, and I have used the antennas from this unit in RF WiFi projects with pretty good results, including their use in an older Polaroid CX701 tablet.
If swapping antennas fails, and you can try external dipole antennas, and those fail to provide even decent service, then I have no other options for you other than dump that device for a better one.
You may also have a poorly performing firmware causing the WiFi chip to lock onto a poorly performing channel, or you have the configuration set up for AD-HOC use.

Dig into your device first, and try everything you have not tried previously....all else failing, download a more recent firmware if available.