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Cardboard WiFi Antenna Upgrade
An anonymous reader writes "A British company called Tritium is marketing a piece of cardboard with metal foil on one side. You order it for under US$25, shipping included, and you get a flat envelope with the cardboard. Cut it out, shape it into a parabola and snap it into the little stand. Then slip it over your current antenna. It is advertised to extend the range of your current antenna by 2 to 3 times. See their website for more information on the cleverly named Tritium Flatenna."
And you thought tin-foil was just for hats!
That's an awfully bad company name to associate with antennas, considering some people are nervous about them to begin with.
Or you could just go here and make your own with stuff in your house for under $1.
doesn't it?
Microwave pizzas, hot pockets, etc come with foil-backed cardboard underneath. That looks to be the same material -- I'd wager you could cobble something together with those as well. And you'd have something to eat while you're geeking out.
These would probably put you over the legal limit, if you get more than ~5dBi out of them, which you should. Most cheap consumer gear is 15dBm, so 15+5=20dBm=100mW
What's wrong with that? You try to accept credit cards and ship any product for less than $25 and see how long you stay in business. Mail order is tough.
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
just turn it inside out, insert over antenna, viola 10 mpbs and encrypted ...
Is this at all dangerous? Any modification like this is bound to cause signal feedback. Seems like it might work for receiving but I would hesitate to use it to xmit.
I'll offer the same thing for $22.50! Shipping included! and um, I'll throw in a free yahoo e-mail account to boot!
Beat that!
I tried this once. People called it "fraud", though... they were so disappointed when they saw the Staples price sticker still on the cardboard and tin-foil.
:)
Just goes to show you, those British folk can get away with anything!
Anyways... back to planning my quest for world dominaton using nothing more than a stick of gum and a paperclip.
gone already!
Damn that summary...
Cut it out, shape it into a parabola and snap it into the little stand. Then slip it over your
ARGGHHH, but I really have the urge to say 'HEAD'.
Damn you tinfoil hat posters, damn you to hell and back damn blast and double damn.
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
Does it work? Yes, this advertises a boost, but so do a bunch of products for cell phones that are purely decorative.
I had to sell these for a small retail store, and to this day I feel guilty. A local newstation did an expose where they found there was zero conductive material at all in these stickers.
25 Dollars? I can get two for $3.50 at the corner store.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1860241.stm
The site itself already got "flatenned" :(
The revolution will not be televised.
Looks like their webserver is made of cardboard too...
That was fast. Less than 5 posts and the machine is melted.
9 7.php
w w.tritium.co.uk/
Well here's a press release on the product. I like the part about it "vaguely resembling a Klingon space ship".
Check it here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/6/prwebxml1350
Oh and of course the Google cache of the melted tritium.co.uk box: http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:TSbW7tvLA14J:w
You can get Wi Fi Speed Spray for a few bucks less, and there's no overseas shipping to worry about.
It looks to me as if 15 minutes with graph paper, scissors and glue (together with a bit of card stock and foil) would give you the same thing, without waiting on the snailmail, and without the $25 U.S.
By the way, the site I link to says 9.99 pounds, which should be a bit less than $25.
See what I've been reading.
I had one of these, actually worked quite well. Until the glue dried up and the foil fell off. I made something better using regular aluminium foil and cardboard; it lasted longer and wasn't quite so dear.
it doesn't amount to this
i laughed at this too, like 90% of slashdotters here
then again, if you told me in the 1980s that people would pay for bottled water
or in the 1990s that people would pay $5.00 for a cup of coffee
i would have laughed at you too
the lesson is not to laugh, but to figure out your own amazing scheme
for while we laugh at the people who sell this stuff, they are laughing all the way to the bank
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Good idea Getting an ad for your product posted to Slashdot. Bad idea Hosting the site on DSL in your mom's basement.
This isn't as much "normalization" as it is "don't take so many drugs when you're designing tables."
This is NOT an upgrade for your antenna. This doesn't increase gain, it just takes it from the back and adds to the front. The good thing about this method is it doesn't require you to modify your original antenna, so you don't have to worry about breaking FCC regulations on all equipment being certified. Apart from that, they are selling for $25 something which I created for free out of household items. Check here for more info on how to do it yourself (took me all of 30 minutes the first time).
But again, I want to state this isn't an upgrade, your antenna isn't any more powerful, you're just taking power from the back and shooting it forward, so if you need omnidirectional signal this isn't for you. It can however, increase a dirctional link, but so can a pringles yagi directional, and that's still cheaper than this. Forget about this company and just make your own, it's simple, fun, and cheap, and gives you more of a choice in what material you want to use.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
Unfortunately all this does is crank up the gain. It probably works fantastic with one story houses, but I imagine for two story apartments and houses it wouldn't be too ideal. Crank up the gain, your antenna becomes more and more dipole- it broadcasts very well onto one plane but not anywhere else with a strong signal.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Which Klingon ship does it resemble? A battle cruiser or a bird of prey? I can't see any pictures because the site is slashdotted.
Don't forget that Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
Ever notice that giant radio telescopes are not simply long wires?
It just makes it directional. It's like the reflectors behind the bulb on a flashlight.
"He's more machine now than man, twisted and evil."
For $24 I'll sell you a cardboard box that you can sleep in. Just think how much money you'll save by not paying for housing! This is ideal for people living in Silicon Valley.
Mathematics is not a crime.
you don't have to worry about breaking FCC regulations on all equipment being certified.
Just because it doesn't modify your antenna directly doesn't mean it's legal.
If the directional gain it produces is above a certain amount, then you may still be above the power limitations on the signal. It doesn't matter if you don't directly alter the antenna itself, you're changing the characteristics of the signal, and technically the "antenna" includes any reflectors and such that you might attach to it.
I doubt anybody will break down your door or anything, but it may still not be within the FCC limits.
Or phosphor coat it for that matter? Tritium is a Hydrogen isotope.
I suspect you are thinking of Radium.
It is cowardly, and a betrayal of whatever it means to be a Jew, to act as a white man
-James Baldwin
The distribution of magnetic waves is His business and thou who tampers with it art deeply sin. Instead of getting thee Ethernet frames in the coffee below, they (the frames) can end-up at the neighbour above.
Once you've got a few dB's of gain, why not use the leftover cardboard from your pizza box and heat up some more pizza?
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
Damn. I'll have to wait a couple of days just to check that piece. The site is currently /.ed.
Moment of terror is the beginning of life !!!
Might was well Slashdot them, too:
http://www.fractenna.com/
(I'd make it clickable, but I depend on the kindness of strangers to show me how)
... is horrendously radioactive. Get a Geiger counter, measure what your tritium keychain is putting out, and measure what your salt shaker is putting out. Go on, I dare you.
It's the only way to fly. Pringles can antennas just plain don't work - the only reason you see an improvement is because *anything* even vaguely right is better than the piss-poor excuse for an antenna that wifi cards have.
just don't ask what the SWR (standing wave ratio) is, but i bet the output transistors of the phone do
mmm toasty
You don't know how to make an HTML link? What the hell sort of geek are you?
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
Set the kind of post to "HTML Formatted", using the little menu in the lower right. Then wrap HTML markup around it:
<a href="http://www.foo.com/"> Text that you want highlighted </a>
Fractenna is actually a pretty interesting-looking link. Thanks.
WWJD for a Klondike Bar?
You don't know how to make an HTML link? What the hell sort of geek are you?
:)
The anonymous kind
Same kinda pseudo geek that'd think Fractena has any cred, let alone is cool. Google up Nathan Kohen, fractena and rec.radio.antenna (rec.radio.amateur.antenna?? I forget which one, been awhile) - this guy's snake oil has been lambasted so bad it's impressive he's still in busininess!
Senior NCO in the fight against entropy. I've seen things, man. Things no one should have to see.....
I think the stuff reflects the microwaves back through the food, to effectively double the cooking speed.
No, the previous poster had it right.
Your basic microwave heats the food where there's water or resistive material (like carbon). So it tends to make crispy materia soggy (by "steaming" it with the water evaporated from the wet places). And if you heat it long enough to dry it out, some spots heat enough to become burned - at which point they absorb more microwaves and become MORE burned - in a positive feedback that makes spotty burns rather than a crispy crust.
The material is very thinly coated with metal and quite resistive. So it absorbs a portion of the microwaves and becomes very hot. The infrared is used to crisp the surface of the material, like a broiler would.
Getting the packaging balanced - so the food is thawed, frozen, and crisped properly in the oven - takes some work. (Resistive cookware is available for do-it-yourselfers who want to broil in a microwave oven.)
Such resistive packaging would make a rotten reflector. It's more like a "stealth" coating on an aircraft than a microwave mirror. (It might be useful, though, to make a microwave absorbing wall between your antenna and a nearby interference source.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Or you could just buy a Cantenna. It's based on the pringles-can antenna, but it's bigger, better, weather-proofed, and takes a lot of the hassle out of making an antenna out of a pringles can. Not to mention the fact it's better.
Everyone knows tinfoil hats are the only way to keep Rumsfeld from reading your thoughts...
next its gonna be "the water antenna" and then what "the air antenna, just imagine it and it works" all they do is have a guy come to your house and adjust your current antenna....... o well. life just gets dumber dont it
You're probably in the minority if you don't have a semi-parabolic pan or pot lid lying around your kitchen (though, this is Slashdot, maybe you're not in the minority here). That's what I used for to focus the signal at my last place. Just used a pack of CDs to prop it up behind the antenna. It was a fairly signficant boost. I was impressed. And it didn't cost me anything I hadn't already paid.
Your rules in the UK must be more strict than ours in the US, we get to use 4 watts EIRP in the ISM band (more info).
-jim
Cost:
Chicken wire $1 (from hardware store)
styrofoam as a base $0 (free from greengrocer)
Cable ties (to hold it together): $1
Gain should be at least 6dB
Um, if you visit the site, you'll see that the WiFi spray is a *joke*. "Interesting"?? Try "Funny" if you must mod it up :-p
That doesn't work better than the Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie
Get rid of everything Micro and Soft: Buy Viagra and/or Linux
Remove top and bottom, cut down side to get rectangle with nice built-in curl. Then fashion cardboard braces ala www.freeantennas.com and tape to antenna. Soft drink cans work too; plastic coating doesn't seem to degrade performance.
Parent said "This doesn't increase gain, it just takes it from the back and adds to the front." But this is the definition of gain from an antenna: it alwas is about taking ot from the back and adding it to the front. An antenna, which is just some passive materials, can never add any power!
This saves me from using tin foil and running out before my hat is complete
I remember seeing a plywood satellite dish...
meh
From the website:
2 to 3 times the range (one Flatenna)
So can I get 10 of them and extend the range to 20-30 times?
It took me ten minutes to print out the template cut it out and assemble. I didn't bother with glue, I just taped everything together it actually works. I've got a huge increase in singal strength, enough so I have good coverage on the far end of my house where my wireless never worked before!
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I built one based on this http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/ind ex.html and it increased coverage in the back of my house by %26 according to the Cisco Aironet Desktop Utility when connected to my Qwe(r)st issued all in one Actiontec DSL TA/802.11G AP/Router. Given, it is not "increasing gain" just making it directional, but for 20 minutes work and no cost it was worth it.
.-=Wit is educated insolence=-. -Aristotle
I want to get tritium sights for my Glock.
I mean, lets break it down.
1) anonymous poster
2) price of product mentioned in "article"
3) website that looks it had a once through by an SEO consultant (just look at that page title)
The only thing the SEO can't get you in 3 is slashdot linkage karma.
So you submit it as "story" to slashdot. Ingenious.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
...you insensitive clod!
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
is because they tried a flantenna first, but the custard kept melting.
"A witty saying proves nothing." --Voltaire
... Is it like the cardboard submarines you could buy from ads on the back of comic books ?
If Doc Ock didn't make you nervous about tritium, then nothing will...
So I just stand by the sideline and laught at the dumbshits who buy this kind of stuff. Antenna extenders are so basic. Who hasn't used their body to clear the radio signal on a portable?
I know that most radios used in workplaces (factories) wich have a lot of metal usually have a few meters of wire attached or have the antenna leaning against a handy pylon.
For the more fragile /.er there is the old pringle can antenna.
These guys selling pringle carton at a huge markup are pretty smart. Now it is just a question if they are smart enough to avoid the trading standards agencies. This is england and not the US. In england only very large companies are allowed to rip people off.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
yeah, fractenna.com is a pretty neat site - I've looked at these antennas previously and would like to see something like this to make a WIFI access point that resembles the puzzle box from the Hellraiser movies.
:)
Even cooler if it unfolds, twists, and turns like the one in the movie.
The best length for an antenna is one quarter of the frequency's wavelength.
-so, to figure this out....
-Consider the equation... Wavelength = (Speed of light/Frequency in hz) -which is like saying Lamda = 3x10^8 m/s divided by (frequency number x 1000000). You'll get a nice number like 2.83 or something small. This unit is in meters. Your antenna should be 1/4 this length. -for example, a frequency of 106.1 in San Fran will work best with an antenna 27.8 inches long Have fun! Now the question is, are there antennas out there that auto adjust? I havn't seen any...
Neil is that you? Yeah yeah, it's me... Neil...
there are auto-adjust ants for HF to VHF, I have no seen them for this sort of part of the spectrum.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
For a guy spouting a lot of half-baked antenna math, you don't know much. (Maybe not stupid, just ignorant.) Do a little homework before trying to pontificate. (Keeps you from looking like a fool.)
Ham radio frequencies have usually been integer multiples. This way, the same antenna can be used. (A 1/4 wavelength antenna for 80 meters is a 1/2 wavelength antenna for 40 meters.)
There are antennas that auto adjust for length. They call them trap antennas.
1/4 wavelength is typical. But many times, a 5/8 wavelength is preferred. (It reshapes the radiation balloon around the antenna. Use a directional reflector, and you get a long balloon instead of a spherical. If you see an antenna design that reshapes the balloon into a weiner dog, let me know.)
BTW, pumping more power into the antenna is like pumping more air into the balloon - it gets bigger.
Your point about RF is well taken. A recent item (on /.?) discussed discovery of a mechanism for RF in cellphones to affect biochemistry in the body - RF in quite low doses tends to orient water molecules in line with the electrical field, which _might_ affect the complex organochemistry in the cells.
... I once spent a month in a cabin in the woods, on the north side of a steep canyon, with no electricity, i.e., out of the line of sight of nearly all possible radio transmissions, though I don't know if that was significant. When I was driving away from the place, I had a country and western song running through my head. I turned on the radio and the song was playing on the radio, exactly at the point where the song in my head was at!
More interestingly, stories have been around since the 1940's at least of people receiving radio stations on the fillings in their teeth. I don't know if that was what happened to me, but
This is a true event. It was during my hippie-vegetarian-ascetic phase, so I suppose that I was highly "tunable" at the time. It was weird, whatever it was. Perhaps it was my fillings. It's never happened again, so far as I know.
My friend says it was probably the Crab People.
It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
You might could magnify it's available power by spraying it with supercold liquid nitrogen on one side and steaming the other side... hehe hehe www.newpath4.com Perhaps it needs more CAPACITORS TOO to control all that power!
1: Collect empty Pringles cans (cost: free).
2: Cut up one side and roll flat.
3: Xerox one page of instructions (cost: 5 cents).
4: Insert in envelope (cost: 20 cents).
5: Postage (cost: 57 cents for over 1 ounce).
6: Walk to mailbox (good exercise).
7: Collect $25 checks for above.
8: Walk to bank (better exercise).
9: Profit!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Back in the days of coffee can HBO receivers, a friend of mine who made them told me he had read about an antenna design involving concentric rings of aluminum foil, properly spaced on a flat surface, which simulated a parabolic dish. I know nothing whatsoever about antenna design. Does this sound like something that would actually work, and could it work for WiFi?