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Those of you with a Nokia N95 will like myself understand when I say the phone leaves something to be desired when it comes to GPS sensitivity. The aim of this guide is to give you a simple way of increasing this sensitivity a little without making any permanent changes to the mobile phone.
For the non squeamish go to http://europe.nokia.com/A4425308 otherwise read on:
What I'll be doing in this guide is essentially hooking a naked wire around the contact from the gps antenna and wrapping that wire around the phone in order to form a crude improvement upon the existing built in antenna.
What you will need:
1x Nokia N95 (any variety will do)
1x piece of wire
You will not need a screwdriver as we won't be undoing any screws. That said I'm pretty sure that getting the back off your phone will invalidate your guarantee.
Please be advised that the use of this guide is your entire responsibility. I hereby disclaim all responsibility and will not be made liable for any damages of any kind.
For the non squeamish go to http://europe.nokia.com/A4425308 otherwise read on:
What I'll be doing in this guide is essentially hooking a naked wire around the contact from the gps antenna and wrapping that wire around the phone in order to form a crude improvement upon the existing built in antenna.
What you will need:
1x Nokia N95 (any variety will do)
1x piece of wire
You will not need a screwdriver as we won't be undoing any screws. That said I'm pretty sure that getting the back off your phone will invalidate your guarantee.
Please be advised that the use of this guide is your entire responsibility. I hereby disclaim all responsibility and will not be made liable for any damages of any kind.
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Signing UpStep 1A simple brief
Before we begin we will locate the GPS chip and the antenna on the phone itself.
With the phone facing you and display pushed up to reveal the keyboard you'll find the antenna stuck to the plastic housing around the MiniUSB and power connector.
Just to give you an idea of the location I have used an image of the N95 motherboard devoid of all other components. The chip itself is located on the back of the motherboard behind the keypad.
The antenna is attached via a sort of metal prong to the motherboard in a similar way a speaker or microphone would be attached.
With the phone facing you and display pushed up to reveal the keyboard you'll find the antenna stuck to the plastic housing around the MiniUSB and power connector.
Just to give you an idea of the location I have used an image of the N95 motherboard devoid of all other components. The chip itself is located on the back of the motherboard behind the keypad.
The antenna is attached via a sort of metal prong to the motherboard in a similar way a speaker or microphone would be attached.
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Today I improved a little your idea. In the base plate there is a little hole near the GPS receptor, I passed another wire many times in the hole and then attached it to the wire that goes to the gps antenna. I don´t have a pictureof the process now but that improved even more the reception. Outside got the signal better than ever.
I work in a 30 floor building, at third floor , and even here I got signal, a little weak but before I didn´t get anything.
Good luck
As before up to step 4 but instead of using a piece of copper wire I used a screwdriver to remove the base plate.
Be careful of both the mic and GPS antenna contacts. Holding the main bulk of the phone horizontally in your left hand with the base on the right pull it slowly horizontally, this should prevent damage to the contacts.
Carefully remove the GPS contact (its a gold triangular type arial that is very delicate) from its housing. Then using the arial extension as a visual template (this is the copper arial stuck under a green protective sticker, I wouldn't recommend removing it unless you are very confident indeed as the adhesive, although not super strong, can make things a little difficult with such a delicate piece of kit) I made an exact copy of this out of tin foil, although I imagine any conductive sheet metal could be used, so long as it is very, very thin. Make sure that, in this case though, an elongated stub is cut out to ensure that this stub will enter the same housing the gold triangular antenna was removed from. Be sure to leave enough space on your template so that the little stubs that hold the keypad in place are not obscured or it'll not fit flush.
Place the freshly made arial extension in place over the original. Carefully replace the gold traingular arial. I did this using a cocktail stick to gently push it back into the housing. Making sure again that attention is paid to the contacts on both the arial and the microphone gently slide the bottom cover back on and screw it back securely.
Then follow steps 5 and 6 as above. Should any damage occur to the contacts of either the mic or GPS arial then new ones can be purchased of the internet very cheaply, but since originally reading duxxyuk original article I have been taking the bottom cover off many times to try different set ups with no damage, Just be careful if you're going to try! Good luck and thank you again to duxxyuk for starting me off.