10$ WIFI Super Antenna

Tags:
10$ Wi-Fi Super Antenna Tutorials Computers Rf Helical Network Wireless Lan
hanzablast
  • Submitter:
    hanzablast
  • Visits: 22,644
  • Subscribers: 116
  • Comments: 22
  • Updated: 29-Oct-08
  • Videos: 5
  • Earnings: $1,750
Producer
  • International Basic English
  • Comments: 51
  • Views: 163,113
  • Added: 21-Jan-08

An easy to build 10$ WLAN antenna that gives 6 times more range than a standard antenna. You need some trash packaging materials and the rest are standard parts in electronics component shops.

Producer Rewards: Earned $764

  1. Categories: How To, Science & Tech
  2. Favorite On: ufuksinan86 Stuggy Mr.ownage arturoac wmarcostube
Comments on

10$ WIFI Super Antenna

51 Comments | Add Comment
  • Great Vid ! Easy to understand!

    And love the small ant. you made too.
    I was wondering, could you use copper plate instead of brass? I'm having a hard time finding a brass plate that thick.

    By NYCLEE 1201775061 Reply Spam [+2] Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • Hi nyclee

      You can use any material you can solder on. Brass, copper and tinned metal. Thickness is not really important, you need at least 0.5mm to get some mechanical strength. Materials which are less suitable are aluminium and iron (it oxidizes which may make the contact worse over time).

      By hanzablast 1201777888 Reply Spam [+1] Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • Thanks for the head up

      I give you 5 stars, but its really more like 10 stars :) !!!

      Keep the vids coming !!!

      By NYCLEE 1201856020 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • for more information

    Please have a look at instructables.com I have the same nickname there. I have a picture guide with much more information

    By hanzablast 1202509062 Reply Spam [+1] Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • whats wrong with an accent

    just because you have an accent doesen't meen you r english is bad i found it easy to understand

    By taez 1202249236 Reply Spam [+1] Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Outdoor Mounting Question

    I was thinking of sealing this inside a PVC pipe in order to mount it outdoors. I thought of PVC because it's easy to come by and weather-resistant once you glue it shut.
    Has this been done by anyone else? If so, is there anything that I need to keep in mind before/while doing this?

    By datasteal 1228327530 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • 5*****

    Great share..

    By ntahsapaentah 1223993822 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • some questions

    Loved this movie man, thanks :)
    But i still have some questions. Do you have any idea's on how to improve the sturdiness? The foam beam looks a bit flimsy. Will theperformance suffer if I attach a casing?
    Also, I'm having troubles finding these BNC's connectors, what are they called in dutch (native dutch speaker here)? The sites I'm looking at are mentioning Male and Female connector's, so I'm a bit at a loss here.

    By preske 1216672318 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • how could i plug this in?

    just wondering.. how could i get this to work for my laptop. it has an internal wireless card

    By sonicboom165 1215290513 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Question 2

    This is a circular polarized antenna, right?

    By rolfen 1207988195 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • for what I know...

      it is a pigtail antenna.
      This tutorial is really neat, and such antenna can be great to make a LAN bridge with another house nearby. And please stop breaking into your neighbors networks !!

      By xinoef 1211532992 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Question

    Thanks a lot for this video.
    I want to build such an antenna to put on my roof, So I want it to be weather resistant. I'm planning to make a fiberglass enclosure for it. Will the fiberglass enclosure reduce it's performance? Thanks

    By rolfen 1207967378 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • thx

    I can tell from your accent that you're dutch :) ashwickt ;)
    Thanks a lot mate, You probably saved me over $200 (I need to set up a long distance wireless bridge) - (and maybe ever over $100 MONTHLY subscription costs, in case i did not find such an antenna)

    By rolfen 1207785096 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • uh

      By the way, Any idea how to make this into a weather proof antenna? I may need to mount it on the outside, and I think the wind will damage it.

      By rolfen 1207785511 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • nice....

    is this device can work here in the philippines???pls reply..

    By yrrel 1204770056 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • Hi there

      If you used 2.5GHz wlan devices in the philippines (which I assume since it's pretty standard around the world) you can use this antenna. There is a A,B and G standard for wlan. I think A is 5GHz and B and G are 2.5GHz. You can search this on google, this antenna is for 2.5GHz, so you can check on the box of your accesspoint or on the website of the manufacturer.

      By hanzablast 1204890128 Reply Spam [+1] Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Great Vid!!!

    can i use this antenna for my laptop???if i can,where can i plug it??

    By richiejoe 1203778558 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • very nice job i like it

    By the way i will test it with my Wifi USB
    hacked project too. It would be a great combination i thing.
    5* from me too. Have a look to my hacks channel too!

    By EKTWR 1203459774 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • again

    making stuff from a store out of bubble gum and paper

    By davie123 1202483037 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Great,super,whatever you like

    Great and super idea,i tried it and it works better than the ones you can spend a lot of money on in the shops! 5 star

    By EverythingVideos 1201650197 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • haha great!

      Great that someone actually tried to build one of these things! I have no idea how many actually try it, but this really is easy to make and has really impressive results (and costs very little!). Thanks for the feedback, very nice!

      By hanzablast 1201679562 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • From one RF guy to another.

    Your explanation was perfect. I understand the need for speed. I liked your attention to detail. Keep it up!

    By Gyrobug08 1201485862 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • I've made another antenna

    That is much more compact, robust and weatherproof since I got some comments this is a bit flimsy. It has less gain but is super portable and very sturdy. Check it out on my channel if you think this one is a bit too big and clumsy.

    By hanzablast 1201340550 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • cool!!

    cool!!!!!

    By evil1949 1201289155 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Awesome !

    5 stars, I bet he is dutch.

    By M1ck 1201182776 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • You're right

      What gave me away, my beautifull dutch looks or my terrible english accent ;-) Indeed I'm dutch!

      By hanzablast 1201198483 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • ik ga je zeggen waarom

      omdat je dat accent overall herkent , kdacht eerst een belg of duitser

      By teodor X 1203189596 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • Question

      Does the MM of the wire matter? In the U.S. most of the hardware stores deal in inches. The closest I got was approx 1/8 inch thick which equals = 3.175mm or perhaps you can tell me the gauge of the wire?

      By NYCLEE 1201252150 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • I think it should work

      The wire I use has a diameter of around 1.3mm. I don't see why you could not use 3.1mm diameter wire, allthough it will be harder to bend, which may be a bit of a problem. From an antenna point of view, it's probably ok.

      By hanzablast 1201273011 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • great video

    i tryed to do this with a old dish attenna.

    By jayanderson 1201111828 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Awesome

    Easy to follow.

    By computermech 1201063396 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • You are not going to fast

    That was a good speed! If anyone is going to make one, than they would pause

    By frappe77 1201061370 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • You are not going to fast

      that was a good speed! If anyone wanted to build one, than they would pause and rewind as needed, like all how to videos. Snoopy said they were not going to build one anyway. Watch where you get your advice from! Except from me of course (ha ha) 5 stars!!

      By frappe77 1201061617 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • A 5 star video! Great work!

    Where could I buy a brass plate?

    By Stay_till_you_leave 1201043942 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • Brass plate

      Hi Staytillyouleave,

      I got mine at a hardware store in the Netherlands where they sell drilling machines, bolts, milling machines, lathes etc etc, basically metal working machines. I does not have to be brass, it can be any piece of metal that you can solder to, (not that you need to) like copper or tinned iron. Do not use aluminium, since the contact will go bad due to oxidation. Another great place to get materials is a scrapheap, sometimes they perfectly sort all the materials and you just have to dig a bit to find what you need.

      By hanzablast 1201070148 Reply Spam [+1] Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • Good morning to Netherlands

      Thanks for your helpfull reply Hanzaplast. Copper is easy to find. About the oxidation problem (at any constraction) I think you can aply varnish.

      By Stay_till_you_leave 1201082172 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • Looks are not what I am

      worried about. I want to make sure that the connector keeps perfect contact with the metal plate, if it oxidizes, this contact may get worse. One way to permanently solve this problem is to solder the connector to the plate, but you need a very heavy soldering iron for that!

      By hanzablast 1201198559 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • great!

    5* for sure
    but u r speaking very fast!!!

    By omarmo7sen 1200993736 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • nice work !!

    you deserve 5* for sharing information .... thanks

    By Union 3 1200986801 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • 5 stars, me don;t understand what he

      saying too fast... but me give him 4 stars

      By Snoppy_First 1201013398 Reply Spam [-1] Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • Hi snoppy

      Thanks for the reply, this is good input for me, I'm new making movies. I'm going so fast to keep the movie short, since I've read everywhere that long movies tend to bore people and make people loose interest. So it's a difficult choice what to do. I would like to add a written description with the movie which adds much more info, but that is not possible here on metacafe as far as I know. I'm currently looking into instructables.com, because I heard from another moviemaker you can add instructions there. Anyway, thanks for the comment and rating.

      By hanzablast 1201014754 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • I will definatelly have to make one

    instead of using the two metal bowls to 'focus' the signal between the access point upstairs and the other computer downstairs (5 walls and floor along the signal path :( )

    By UBIQ.TV 1200951606 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • That'll also work really well

      I had the same problem you have. Accesspoint downstars and computers upstairs. For the in house link, I mostly used my biquad antenna of which I made another movie, it's more compact and mechanically stronger, I just had it laying behind my pc and gave a perfect connection.

      By hanzablast 1202509605 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • nice

    5 * for sure ! ;)

    By chemistryproduction 1200947125 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • nice work

    thanks for good information

    By tahirawan 1200943377 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • How...

    Clever! 5*'s.

    By flexichick 1200929317 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Hey Hanzablast

    Great video, looks quite simple to make

    By marmiradi 1200865249 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Awesome

    I currently using the best wireless "En Genius" with the longest Antenna. with over 150 bucks...but still not so strong. I am loving this video very much...anyway, just a bit difficult for me, because I don't know where to get that kind of foam...

    By tycoyoken 1200859055 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
    • Hey tyco

      Thanks for the comment. If you can't get this PE foam, just get ordinairy styrofoam. It's used as insulation everywhere and can be bought at do it yourself building stores. Styrofoam is a little harder to work on since small balls come off as you cut it, but is stiffer, making it easyer to keep the antenna straight. Styrofoam is the stuff that is used to package all home applyances when you buy them. Just take it with you when you go to a diy store and they can probably tell you where to get it.

      By hanzablast 1200860826 Reply Spam Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • ？

    um,im a newbie,how can i download this video on my macbook?

    By herman008 1201157922 Reply Spam [-1] Moderate Up Moderate Down
  • Great Instructable

    5 stars

    By marek080580 1200935349 Reply Spam [-1] Moderate Up Moderate Down
51 Comments | Add Comment