I have modded an Xbox 360 usb wireless receiver so that it sits inside my PC, but the problem I have appears to be range as it regularly drops the connection to controlers. The connection from the motherboard to the device is solid so it could be the computer case blocking the signal or would the RFI from the computer and its power supply be corrupting the data?
For reference, here is what the wireless receiver board looks like:
It seems like the gold band around the edge is the aerial. I have tried soldering a cable to this and running it into the front fascia of my PC case (which is plastic), but that seemed to make little difference. I have read that it is possible to extend such an aerial, but I know very little about electronics so I am not sure what's involved. Am I using the wrong type of cable ? Is there anything else I am doing wrong?
Any insight onto how to improve the signal by effectively moving the aerial would be great!
Best Answer
1: As brhans said, that gold rim-trace looks like it's supposed to be connected to a (now removed) metal (or foil tape) RFI/EMI shield to protect the "soft parts" of the board from harmful interferance. That needs to be replaced.
2: Also as brhans said, your antenna is the gold trace at the far right of the board.
3: If you want to attach an external antenna to this device, you can solder on an antenna connector to attach the coax feedline to like so:
(DANGEROUS if you don't have any pcb modifying experience)