A Cheap Wifi Panel Antenna that Works Once You Fix It 

BOY, I'M RENAN FROM BRAZIL.I was looking forward to this study that was very cool, I live in the countryside of the state of Minas Gerais and I really like this type of content. Gratitude...

Good to have you back. I was waiting for your video´s.

I experimented with these Antennas too. You can improve it even more by adjusting the space between the reflector and the element.

Just bought one of these a couple weeks ago & got very mediocre results. Will have to check its grounded. Thanks for the video. I also plan to cut off the coax & mount a rpsma connector directly to the back to see if that improves anything.

nice to see you back

There are a couple of interesting features of this antenna design: 1) The microstrips' dielectric is a sandwich comprised of both air and FR4; and 2) The top elements are fed from the bottom, while bottom elements feed from top, so for proper phasing to achieve a single main lobe radiation pattern, the top elements have an additional delay line of 180 degrees.

Good to see some updated stuff from you, I always enjoy your write ups! Funnily enough I have 1 of these exact panels but is about 3 years old now, funny thing is is that I opened up mine just to check and it does have the solder tag on it and is screwed in properly! Also of note is that the makers sticker on the front of yours is at the bottom and not like mine which is in the middle, it also hides a square cut out which i'm presuming is to allow them to screw the tag to the reflector before putting their sticker on it so why they changed their design to a poorer 1 is beyond me. It is the same maker too according to the sticker!

Makes me laugh how you can come up with a solution to a faulty product, and the vendor has the cheek to put the price up lol... Nice work Andrew as always.

Oh My.... luv the cute little orange bi-quad antenna.... sweeet yet another fine learning RF primer ;)

Great video! I have a pair of these from my electricity meter box to one in my inverter so I can track power use, worked great for 2 years recently stopped, I want to reboot it but can’t see how? Maybe turn power off then on to the whole property?

I got same one .. and also had same problem lol .. I put a small nut and bolt through back plane to connect ground wire, and works grate

Nice to have a new video. Please look also into RFID UHF reader antennas.

Thanks for new thing. Outer connector goes to ground panel.

​@UCHqwzhcFOsoFFh33Uy8rAgQ - always a pleasant cup of tea when one of your antenna teardown or construction videos shows up in the queue! With more "smart plugs" in the house I find myself buying these panel antennas to get wi-fi to reach where it never needed to before. (A miniscule thing - around @11:29 you mention a photo of some cheap 5.8GHz antennas, I think it didn't get inserted. Then again we've all seen the usual suspects.)

I have been wondering all this time, if any of your projects can be used for boosting 4g lte broadband dongle.

Been some time since Ive seen your videos. As good as ever Andrew!

Always a good performance from your informative videos. Don't be offended but I have always considered you the Julia Childs of antennas. Thanks and have a good holiday.

My teacher, I see many devices from the search for gold depends on the wireless and the search for the frequency of gold Is it possible to explain the antenna used for this

would've been better to pull the wire through the hole and drill and tap another hole to mount the ground wire

.......... and he's back. Yay!!

Hi and thank u for your really insightful detailed vids. I am looking for hi gain dualband panel antennas 18dbi/ 20dbi but cant find any. Can I use a 2.4ghz 20dbi antenna for a dualband Alfa awus036 wifi adapter?

Has anyone done business with superbat aka RF supplier. I just received a dome antenna from them to replace my Wilson dt cell boost outdoor antenna. I took this think apart to look inside and its funny to see the cone element connected to the center conductor connected by s soldered brass wire to the reflector thats connected to the outer shield, basically a dead short between the two, checked with a continuity tester. Its a bit bizarre.

Finally! New antenna tweaks from Andrew! Love your stuff!

Hey. I do not know much English. Did I understand correctly that when the reflector is grounded, does the antenna work better? Does this apply to all antennas, including the biquadrat?

I am using a tp ling modded to act as a bridge to grab wifi signal fro. A sonar on a bait boat. If i connect a 15dbi panel antennae will it reach 100yds ?

I have tried a lot of your designs and I seem to have the same problem with all of them. I get a better signal for connection to my router but when I'm actually connected and browsing the web or downloading / netflix I get better performance with a poorer signal from a small dipole. is there a reason for this, I have tried numerous usb adapters.

it's fairly tempting to put these components behind a laptop monitor

attaching the antenna ground that way looks difficult, what's your thoughts on attaching it to a loop of copper tape on top of the foam so it makes contact once closed

Thank you andrew

Thanks god, new video.

Where to get that USB WLAN adapter that you can see at 3:18? (The little silver box.) And what type of cable connector does it have?

how did you connect it to the router?

how did you connect this to a router?

Be cool to see some telephone antennas

Hi Andrew, what else would I require to plug into, to make this work for a desktop pc please ?

Would it be possible to join several of the antennas together to increase the gain?

Most Chinese Products like These Antenna's are Made in Prisons Factories,

No link?

Thanks, for sharing, but your logic isn't quite right unless all the stations you are receiving are standing in a line, in a single direction. If these stations are all over the place a high gain antenna would give you less stations, but those in the right direction with seriously improved signal strength. The antenna gain is usually trading in directional versus omnidirectional reception. Unless all stations are standing in a single direction, your approach is rubbish. And you don't even try to optimise the direction versus the signal strength of a specific station, so what is the point of tersting a directional antenna, when you don't care of the direction?! The only thing I can take away from this is that the PCB may possibly be a good electrical design? while the rest is just terrible feeding that can be fixed ... and cable changed to some low loss coax. But as you say, how in the world can anyone build this for 6 bucks?! Here in Germany you would pay 6 bucks just to get an industrial low loss coax connector if you are lucky :-). In the future please tread omnidirectional antennas and directional antennas differently, else it doesn't make any sense to test it at all.

OK> So screw you. Now I don't trust anything on eBay at all. So sell me a descent antenna for Wifi for my camper van ! with a router, so I can distribute wifi around and in my vehicle...