External SMA Antenna on nRF52840 DK

RE: External SMA Antenna on nRF52840 DK

mej7000 — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 10:08:58 GMT

I just happened to be searching for the same information. I think this is the cable in question: ‎MXHS83QE3000‎

RE: External SMA Antenna on nRF52840 DK

Victor Ruiz 26 — Sat, 27 Jan 2024 17:58:35 GMT

Hi Valentin,

Where did you buy that cable? I am searching for it in many websites but I do not find the same...

Thanks in advance!

RE: External SMA Antenna on nRF52840 DK

ketiljo — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 13:07:44 GMT

As large as practically possible is the best. Do some experiments and see how small you can make it before the range starts to drop. Less than 1/4 wavelength in radius will have impact on the range.

RE: External SMA Antenna on nRF52840 DK

Valentin — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 12:39:55 GMT

Thanks you for your response, we have tried this :

And it's better, we have increase the range about 30m ! We will do a better ground plane, thanks you.

Have you any ressources to calculate the size of the ground plane for an antenna please ?

RE: External SMA Antenna on nRF52840 DK

ketiljo — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 11:27:18 GMT

If the external antenna you have doesn't have more gain than the PCB antenna, you won't see any increase in range. Even if the antenna appears to be longer, it's not necessarily better.

The antenna should perform better if you use it with a ground plane. Try mounting the SMA connector in a metal plate and see if that makes any difference.