N900 with poor aerial connection. Anyone with hardware experience still on this forum?

[muxer107]

Thanks for sharing info with us - very interesting. Also, do You know that N900 got internally ready-to-use micro-sockets for external antenna connecting? Preparing output for them into modified mugen-cover is on my (quite long) list for things that I should do one day

This is very common. All those mobile broadband sticks (the ones made by Huewei) all have a connection for an external antenna on board.

[bingomion]

Carwhisperer, next time google it!
Not sure if it works on the n900, it might, i've installed maemo4 bins and it works (stella- atari2600 emulator)
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=20780

info here:
http://zitstif.no-ip.org/?p=377

[tuxsavvy]

The little connectors on the N900 PCB are hirose u.fl if you're referring to test points. I personally doubt they would be the same type of connector that you would find with a mobile broadband stick. These hirose u.fl connectors have far less connect/disconnect cycles before they become faulty compared to generally any other antenna connector.

As for getting something that is equivalent to bluetooth monitoring in the early days, you needed cambridge silicon radio non-ROM chipset. That with a commercial sniffer program (which can only now be found on sites that leak them) that offers the firmwares along with a bit of linux knowhow can turn a fairly cheap bluetooth dongle into a commercial bluetooth sniffer. Unfortunately N900 is equipped with broadcrap (ahem, broadcom rather) bluetooth chipset which is most likely incapable of doing that.

With USB hostmode these days I'm sure one can still get by with a decent USB bluetooth device (something like aircable for instance) and might be able to do some bluetooth pentesting. Otherwise there is that option of building/buying ubertooth.

[vi_]

Interesting, I have one of the CSR DBT120 'RAM' dongles. What is the name of this 'commercial software' tux?

[Estel]

tuxsavvy, thanks for this valuable and very informative post.

As for Hirose U.FL, they're indeed ones I'm referring to. This page:
http://wiki.maemo.org/N900_Hardware_Hacking
...contains invaluable info about possible solutions and commonly available adapters, that one can use for connecting (see "external antennas" part). There is also note about FMTX contact pad (*not* H. U.FL), and it seems it's just connected by spring-like "clip".

This page seems to confirm that (clip for FMTX):
http://wiki.maemo.org/N900_FM_radio_transmitter

Overall, it's possible to - relatively easy - extend range of GSM, GPS and WiFi/Bluetooth (same frequency range = same connection pad). If I'm not wrong here, Bluetooth should be also connectable via headphone jack, due to it sharing same chip as FM radio (with antenna shared with headphone jack). Of course, that would require specially crafted DIY connector with jack plug.

As for Hirose U.FL, it's commonly used in mini-pcie cards, found in notebooks/netbooks/UMPC/some bigger tablets. So, cables for them, are - novadays - also quite common, so instead of buying adapter, one can craft one (with due care, cause it need to be shielded correctly - such thin cables are capable of catching interferences).

To be honest, it's so (relatively) easy, that I'm 100% sure I'll do it one day - only one thing that I need it's time Mugen Cover (that I use daily, alongside DIY dual-scud battery) got enough room for all adapters, so no need to werar&tear H U.FL.

/Estel

[tuxsavvy]

Originally Posted by vi_

Interesting, I have one of the CSR DBT120 'RAM' dongles. What is the name of this 'commercial software' tux?

Frontline Bluetooth Sniffer (v5.6.9.0). If you want, I still have a copy on my computer. I also even have the DFU files as well (firmware updates iinm for CSR non-ROM based chipset). Let me know in PM if you want them as new posts about N9 keeps flooding the active topics bar and preventing me from seeing topics like these . In other words I'm losing track.

Estel: heh no worries. Yeah I wrote up the external antenna mod part of that hardware hacking wiki page with help from SpeedEvil (not sure on his tmo username) and joerg_rw.

Its a bit of a shame that the FM transmitter was a spring like clip, had it been a hirose u.fl connector in place one can have some more `fun'.

[Catacylsm]

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...73#post1135573