Add External Antenna to Pi 4 [Detailed Instructions & Analysis]

After a few requests, I've made a some modified Pi 4 boards available for people who don't have the time, or equipment to do it themselves. Check them out here: www.ebay.com/itm/114773307539. If you already have a Pi that you want to be modified, I now have a service available for that here: www.etsy.com/shop/FunAndTech

just found this. did this to my pi 4 as the metal case had been tanking the signal strength. i will now be doing this to every pi i work on. its so strange, this is such an easy mod you could almost swear it was supposed to be there. also FCC eat your heart out.

Great instructions, exactly what I needed. Testing different conditions was icing on the cake. Mahalo for taking the time and sharing. : )

This needs a lot more views - excellent work mate

Thanks! This saved my day after I found out the all-metal passive-cooling pi case I purchased also completely blocked the wifi signal. I had a self-adhesive antenna not unlike yours lying around and cannibalized a u.FL connector off an old unused GSM board. Works like a charm!

Thanks! Your testing allows me to forget all about doing this altogether. I won't be putting any of my Pi's in metal enclosures. Other than in that particular case the gains provided by the external antenna are pretty minor and certainly not worth the trouble for me. I do appreciate the detail though. Now, if I were to do it I would have absolutely no questions at all about exactly what to do.

Great explanation and tests. Thanks for creating

Thank you so much for doing all the work and sharing. When I saw that long stub trace left there when the capacitor is removed I thought the designer had made a mistake, or they were just so smart that it was some impedance matching leg or something. I was planning to cut it off as my experience with PCB design made me suspect it would just add a reflection and dork up the signal. Your testing shows the correct solution perfectly. Great engineering work. A shame the original designer wasn't better at layout. The Pi designers likely don't have the resources or high end CAD tools to do really careful PCB layout reviews or analysis.

Mod worked great on Pi 5. I have an amp I built in a metal enclosure. Adding a PI to it was a great addition however the wifi signal was only about 60%. After the mod I'm getting 90% consistently. Thanks..

As always very nice video! Interessting to see the how the different ways of disconnecting the internal antenna affects the results. Good measurements and statistic. :-)

Very informative video, thank you!!

Works great for extending my BLE range!

Thanks for the inspiration! This video gave me details and courage to try ... I used solder and solder pencil instead of solder paste and hot air, and got it to work, even with shaky hands! Thank you!

Awesome ! I need to try the hot air flow technique

I found your channel from your comments on a Sabine Hossefelder video (How Dead is Moore's Law?) and I see now why I liked your comment so much. You actually know stuff.

This was awesome to find out! building a large reef aquarium lighting system using a pi for pwm control of 36 different channels of LEDs. thought I would have to mount the pi external to the aluminum housing or have it hardwired to the network...not now!

Thank you for the Review :) hopefully you get some 2 and 4 gig boards in soon.

Beware of trying this without the proper tools! It can all go south with the smallest mistake, believe me :) excellent job Caleb!

Hope you enjoyed the video. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions. -I'm giving away the modified Pi 4 used in the video along with an antenna, so be sure to enter for a chance to win. There is also an art reference in the video, so put in your guess for an extra entry- gleam.io/AdghM/raspberry-pi-4-with-external-antenn… Edit: The giveaway has ended. The winners will be announced shortly, in accordance with the rules of the giveaway. Edit: Congratulations, Lou from Ohio!

Brave, brave man! hehe