Low profile antenna mod

MNT Reform
1

Previously, owing to poor wifi reception compared to the Thinkpad my Reform was replacing, I replaced the default MIMO antenna with a pair of 8dbi external antennas in a rabbit-ear configuration. This worked great until I had a baby. Recently he tore one of the antennas right off its wire, so I decided to switch to a different design.

The reception is not as good as it was with the ear-style mod, but it’s better than I had been getting with the default antenna in its default position. I will be quite surprised if my child manages to break this one.

OpenSCAD files and STLs for both the ears-style mod and the new low-profile mod are up on Codeberg now. Photos are below.

front-view
front-view1296×864 183 KB

underside-view
underside-view1296×864 186 KB

underside-angle-view
underside-angle-view1296×864 151 KB

5 Likes
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Hi!

I did this mod to my reform too! It’s pretty great. I haven’t noticed a huge difference to the signal strength that I see from Linux, but what I have found is that my connection is much more stable at a low signal strength.

I used 3D printed ABS for my brackets, and I think it looks pretty slick. Thanks heaps for sharing the files!

IMG_1965
IMG_19651920×2560 523 KB

IMG_1966
IMG_19661920×1440 396 KB

1 Like
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I love your color scheme! Glad to hear you’re getting use out of my mod as well. :smile:

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Interesting. I really liked the rabbit ears version but your reasoning for moving beyond them makes a ton of sense. I think in my own house I have the wifi just too saturated through a mesh network, so I haven’t really seen a need to modify my wifi antenna.

However thank you for sharing and including pictures! Both of you! Pretty cool stuff indeed.

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