12" Powerbook External Antenna Hack

Step 5 Fit it all together

Getting it all back together can be a little bit of a trick. The problem is that the original internal antenna connector juts out just a bit too much, and I feel comfortable notching neither the connector nor the part of the battery that hits it. It's so close that you can just tightly tape the connector back in it's little nook, tape the flap shut, and drop the battery down with a little bit of jiggling. Voila! You've hooked up an external antenna! Now you realize the cable is thicker than the gap under the Powerbook. You need to put new feet on the bottom that raise the whole thing up about 4mm or so. I snagged some feet from the bottom of a Sonicwall Firewall that was being rackmounted, but you can improvise with anything that suits you, and Radioshack usually has some stick-on feet that will work.

Now just stick some stick-on velcro on the back of the antenna to mount it to the display. You can substitute any antenna you want, provided it's designed for wi-fi usage. However, just about anything will perform better than the stock antenna!

Comments

[neuralstatic]

can you notch the battery in front and snake the cable out there, so the powerbook lies flat?

[Mo]

Good question, although the cable itself looks to me only 1-2 mm thick.