I recently bought a Lilygo T-Deck Plus and had assumed it would include an antenna, since i ordered it with an external antenna. Today it arrived and apparently doesn’t come with any external antenna, just a hole in the top with a rubber bung where one would go.

I had heard the antenna it comes with isn’t very good, so i bought a Stubby from ZBM2 Industries. What i need to know is what connector piece i need to go between the antenna and the circuit board. The little brass-colored thing that the antenna screws onto. What’s that part called and is there anything i should watch out for when finding one?

  • just some guy@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    10 hours ago

    I bought the same antenna for my t deck plus! Pretty happy with it.

    I agree with the other poster, the Plus model comes with a small whip antenna, both of mine came with the same one. They likely sent you the wrong model.

    If you don’t want to hassle with a return (understandable given the time shipping takes for these) you can crak that bad boy open and attach a ufl to female sma pigtail like this https://www.waveform.com/products/sma-female-to-u-fl-pigtail-adapter-v2?srsltid=AfmBOorizL-HpE3bSg8TVlHToLh4av4USvaYiEYVKjVFdBmFUdMtTqbd

    I bought 2, with 5dbi antennas included, off Amazon a while back bc I wanted to add an external gps antenna to my first one. Word of warning if the case still has the little punchouts for external antenna, they are hard to cut out and make rounded enough for the sma to slip through.

    I used model nippers and a round sanding stick to get the sma through that hole and it still ended to cracking the small ring of plastic on the case. It doesn’t affect performance at all and the sma connector is solidly in place, but it can happen.

      • just some guy@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        10 hours ago

        Happy to help!

        Another helpful hint, grab a 8mm wrench for tightening the nut on the sma to secure it to the case. Finger tightening will leave it able to spin in the hole while screwing on the antenna

  • Curious_Canid@piefed.caEnglish
    0·
    11 hours ago

    It sounds like they sent you the wrong model. If there is no external antenna connector (brass coax connector on top) there will be an internal antenna, but no easy way to connect an external one. The good news is that it should work without any modifications.

    If you want a better antenna, it’s going to take some work. There is a tiny connector on the board where the internal antenna is attached. You can easily buy an external antenna connector that will come with a short cable that has a matching connector. You can detach the internal and attach the external in its place. Then you would need to drill a hole in the case where you would mount the external antenna connector.

    You might be better off contacting LilyGo and ask them to take a return and send you the version you ordered.

    • IndigoGolem@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      10 hours ago

      I’m not sure whether it has no internal antenna or whether there’s just no other nodes around. Inside it looks like the one in this tutorial, except that i have a T-Deck and not a T-Board. The antenna cable already there doesn’t look like it connects to anything, unless the cable itself is the antenna.

      There’s already a hole where an antenna connector should go, i just don’t have a connector since one didn’t come with the antenna i bought.

      I could contact LilyGo but i don’t want to wait for shipping a second time if i can just fix what i already have instead.

      • Curious_Canid@piefed.caEnglish
        0·
        7 hours ago

        Okay, they did send you the wrong model, but the process of adding an external is less difficult than I thought. I didn’t realized the cases came with a hole there either way. You can follow the instructions that were provided by just some guy in this thread. Good luck!