External Antenna

You know with all this discussion about Zigbee3 and Matter - I'm beginning to wonder if the C-7 doesn't have an upgraded Zigbee chip.. at least a bit more modern than the C-5. I thought it was the same.

We were told it was the same, and I don't have any evidence to suggest it isn't; the software implementation appears the same dating back to the C-3, or at least they're still using a Silicon Labs EZSP chipset (some of which do have upgradeable firmware, including the famous Nortek stick, but I'm not sure if any support Thread as-is...though given the very few such devices around right now, that isn't a huge concern for me either way)--based on the Zigbee getChildAndRouteInfo page.

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That was my understanding as well. Thanks for confirming that I had heard the same thing. :slightly_smiling_face:

edit: and am not completely crazy.. :crazy_face:

Well Amazon can just go suck a duck!
I was looking so forward to doing this upgrade.
Parts ordered Dec 10, shipped and out for delivery Dec 28.
Just got an email from Amazon saying my parts had returned as requested and a refund is on it's way. WTF
I guess after a few zillion orders Amazon forgets your addess and can't deliver?
Back to reorder and wait. :frowning:

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I had that happen once too. Was told an accident happened during travel from their warehouse to my local city. They just cancel orders and expect you to resubmit. Terrible user experience IMO. To make matters worse for me this was for a β€œfree” echo show I received as a promotion so it was difficult for me to reorder a free item but they finally made it right.

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I ordered a new light ring and Barlow lense on Amazon for my microscope and they showed as delivered but never showed up. They probably delivered it to the wrong address. It happens but they usually figure it out somehow as it eventually gets here or gets refunded and just order again.

Doing this mod so many times has really done a number to my brain. I find myself looking at everything now and thinking "What could I do to this thing to make it better?" I feel like Tim the tool man Taylor from Home Improvement.

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image

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I have the skills and tools to do this just finding it hard to round up the exact parts in Canada.

+1. Digikey and Mouser are just too commercial $$$ or extensive. Lots of antennas but they can be 10 - 350.00 and gains are 1.2 to 2 db for a lot of them once you narrow down the connector/freq/etc.
I'll give Amazon a second attempt first.

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Well I went for this update as well. At first I had my hub in my MBR closet on a top shelf with a lot of other gear. I was only getting around 4 directs or so in my 2000 square foot single story house. A lot of route changes as well even for switches 8 feet away. The closet had a lot of Ikea metal shelves as well. So I moved the hub about 2 feet to the edge of the shelf rather than in the middle of the other devices and the directs jumped up from 4 to 12 or so.

I then proceeded to order all gear needed to perform the mod. The pictures are deceiving because they make the UFL male connectors appear bigger than they are. I screwed up the first attempt getting solder inside the connector. I then realized I needed a good magnifier and pulled out my Brightview 2.5x magnifying floor lamp and boom it was clear as a bell. Soldering was a piece of cake.

After getting some longer USB Micro and ethernet cables I moved the hub to the other corner of the closet on the upper shelf and within minutes I got 34 directs out of 40 and only one 40K connection with the rest at 100K. I will have to see how it all behaves now.

Thanks everyone!

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I use a microscope and some precision tweezers for doing these mods. It makes soldering these a lot easier. Some Kapton tape can help too if you have a hard time positions the connector for the first solder.

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Do you use the third (photo) ocular or is it a 'maybe someday' thing?

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Yes I have a Nikon DSLR and a C-Mount with an HDMI out for a screen when I want it. This scope is Simulfocus and shares the left field of view without blocking it when using the third port.

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I purchased a similar scope years ago for my Assembler and she loved it, of course. I always wondered if I should have gotten the third ocular, just in case. Thanks! :smiley:

I use the eyepieces when actually soldering but the screen is good when doing board inspections. The screen is handy when showing people something so they aren't smearing their eyeball gunk all over my eyepieces.

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Not gonna lie this picture pleases me

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Been eyeballing this camera...

but I think I'm going to get me a fume extractor first so I don't kill myself with all these hubs.

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That looks very nice.. 4k might be above what my eyes can see any more. :smiley:

4k vs 1080p is pretty noticable:

image

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