Mod the Vero. Adding an external antenna

Help and Support Vero
1

First of all I will make a warning. If you are opening the Vero or making changes to it, IT WILL VOID WARRANTY.

One of the reasons I bought the Vero was that it has built in Wifi, and naturally to support OSMC.
But for me the Wifi is very poor, and the range is very bad, so can not use it as it is now.

I made some tests with an external antenna, and it was a big improvement over the built in antenna.
So I decided to see if it was possible to mount an external antenna, and here is what I came up with.

The alu frame acts as an heatsink for the SOC, so I did not want to remove any of it to make place for the RP-SMA connector, instead I made a cut so I could bent it inwards.

The U.FL mini PCI to RP-SMA Pigtail mounted in the case.

And yes it still fits in the box .

Well it did not make the Vero prettier, but the Wifi have improved dramatically.
The white antenna is 18cm long, but i have a black one which is only 9cm long, and it performs almost the same, so might buy a white 9cm.Think it will look a little better.

3 Likes
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yeah, I also think it necessary to have a larger antenna, can you tell me wifi speed after change?

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I haven’t made any actual speed measurements, but with the original internal antenna, I couldn’t even connect to the network in my living room. Now it connects fine and plays all my movies placed on my NAS without problems.

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I had problems with wifi speed of VERO, it was very weak and I can’t watch youtube, but when I use the wire, everything ok. If it’s good, i will mod my VERO.

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Hmmm. Aluminium heatsink almost all around? Could that be a cause for the bad wifi reception?
Did you try how the wifi reception is like without the heatsink?

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No I think it would be a very bad idea to power the Vero up without heat sink.

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What should happen? It is an arm soc. Most likely it will just crash and need to be restarted. It will not burn or something.

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I suggest it’s better just to monitor the temps for a while and see for your self if a heatsink is necessary

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That picture is a Raspberry Pi 1 B, this thread is discussing the Vero…

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This is a raspberry, right? Not a Vero. The raspberry also doesn’t need a heatsink. It you overclock too high, it will hang and you need to get the overclock down again. It will most likely not be damaged by heat.

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Apology you both are right,didn’t give enough attention that it was a Vero issue…(picture deleted).

A poor heat outflow has a negative effect on the lifetime of the components,and this applies to both the components of a Raspberry or Vero

But shall no longer interfere in the discussion about the usefulness/uselessness of a heatsink,it’s all yours :wink:

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This is not a discussion about heatsinks but about wifi and if the wifi reception is better if the heatsink is removed was my question as it looks like a cage that could potentionally block wifi.

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Only one way to find out, you have to try :wink:

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Here is your answer :wink: and yes the aluminium seems to block the WIFI signal.

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Orientation of the antenna alone could account for improved performance of wifi by laying the unit on it’s side.

1 Like
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Yes you are right about that, Wifi issues can indeed be very tricky to solve.
But as you can see on the picture, when you point the top of the Vero in the direction of your router, that gives you the most optimal placement of the antenna with no metal obstacles, the reception improved, and the fact that an external antenna did it for me, indicates (at least for me) that the antenna design/placement can be improved on the Vero.