I have managed to successfully attach an external antenna to the Yun, but it is a hack.
I had misread this thread, bought a "SMA Female Plug to IPX U.FL Female Pigtail Cable" ( http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231098912466) , connected it to the Yun and saw no improvement.
Under a microscope, I could see that both the socket and plug were female. (see attached photos).
As I had nothing to lose, I thought I would have a go at creating a pin that would bridge the two female connectors. 1/0.6mm solid core wire fitted snugly in both connectors. I guessed at the correct length. Luckily i seemed to judge it about right and the plug is held firmly on the socket.
Amazingly, it worked. The Yun seems to auto sense the stronger signal. With no antenna connected to the SMA connector, the signal strength was about 35%. With the antenna connected, it bumped up to about 80%. I plugged/unplugged it a handful of times to convince myself it was working.
Obviously, with no soldering, this is might not be the most reliable of connections.
I would be interested to know from an RF expert whether I have managed to fluke a solution or whether the RF signal can jump the gap of a "not great" connection.
original murata connector, price not working( $80) and height is not. I got customer engineer drawing done. but MOQ is too high. plus Intellectual property?
Wow. Interesting solution, but it costs more than the Yun! No wonder you didn't go into production.
It's a bit of a hack, but I think Pete's solution is much more practical.
pete_dl:
I would be interested to know from an RF expert whether I have managed to fluke a solution or whether the RF signal can jump the gap of a "not great" connection.
I'm not an RF engineer (as far as I'm concerned, RF is black magic!) but while I'm sure that the "not great gap" is introducing some reflections that may affect signal quality, it's hard to argue with the success you're reporting.
Does anybody know if there's a way for the Yun to report signal quality (or signal/noise ratio) in addition to signal strength?
ShapeShifter:
...
Does anybody know if there's a way for the Yun to report signal quality (or signal/noise ratio) in addition to signal strength?
iw dev wlan0 survey dump
Survey data from wlan0
frequency: 2412 MHz
noise: -95 dBm
channel active time: 105 ms
channel busy time: 36 ms
channel receive time: 35 ms
channel transmit time: 0 ms
...
Thanks! This would be the interesting number to see with Pete's "imaginative" adapter. But of course, to really know if it's significant, it would need to be compared to the noise figure for a a "proper" adapter...
Still, it would be interesting to see Pete's noise figure with and without the external antenna.
I have replaced the original outlet with one that will mate with any ordinary antenna lead.
I have mounted my Yun + sensor shield in an old wireless router case, using the antenna giving me good house wide connection
I am not an R.F. engineer but can solder with a magnifying loupe to my eye, requires a steady hand