topic Possible to use Long Range Antenna for Arlo Go? in Arlo Go

Possible to use Long Range Antenna for Arlo Go?

DudeMac17 — Mon, 12 Jul 2021 14:27:54 GMT

Hey all. I've about had enough, and this is a last ditch effort. But as we all know, the antenna strength sucks on the Arlo Go. And when it goes offline, may God help you in it coming back online within the next 72 hours, and then when it does.... 1% battery. This is all due to the antenna / firmware design.

ANYWAYS> I'm thinking about just tearing into the thing and seeing if i can find where the antenna is and hardwire a long range antenna to it, like this one: Long Range Antenna

Is this insane? Possible? I'm pretty handy and savvy with soldering and the sort. But this cam is useless unless I attempt this. Not worried about warranty, as if thats even a thing.

Thoughts anyone? Circuit board schematic anyone? Thanks!

Re: Arlo Go External Antenna Retrofit

StephenB — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 18:39:44 GMT

@DudeMac17 wrote:

ANYWAYS> I'm thinking about just tearing into the thing and seeing if i can find where the antenna is and hardwire a long range antenna to it, like this one: Long Range Antenna

Is this insane? Possible?

It might be fun to try if you are prepared to sacrifice the camera.

But I don't think it is likely to make any difference. Although I'm not an antenna expert, I've been told that the main benefits of outdoor LTE and 5G antennas are

The signal strength is much stronger outdoors than indoors.
Outdoor power limits (transmit) are higher, because no one is close to the antenna for long. Note this only makes a difference if the transmitter itself is high power (which is not the case here).

Neither of those apply to the Go (at least not when it is deployed outdoors). However, if the performance is due to a poor antenna design, then replacing it with something else maybe could help.

Re: Arlo Go External Antenna Retrofit

jguerdat — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 22:46:45 GMT

Reminds me of all the car nuts that try to "enhance" their car's performance without even testing the difference. It's a system and needs to be treated as such. Making a change without considering the whole system is likely a crap shoot. There's no proof that any professionally designed antenna can be improved upon without other changes.

Show us the data. As they say, "Pics or it didn't happen."

Re: Arlo Go External Antenna Retrofit

DudeMac17 — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 22:54:47 GMT

This is a very fair point! My ignorance just led me down the path of, “longer antenna, better range”.