fun with FM transmission
FM transmitters suck. But they suck a lot less, and even approach excellence with
These are the steps I took in modifying my iTrip to solder on a longer antenna (tightly coiled copper). It definitely helped a lot, and clamping additional antenna onto the car antenna as well made it work across a 5-hour trip across Virginia with no interruptions. Still not incredible, but performance is better than the $80 monster fm transmitter. Not too hard to do:
*pry it open
*if you're very careful you can pull the antenna out of the molded plastic channel without breaking it, but it's a VERY thin connection to the circuit board
*Make a hole in the itrip case over the antenna connection on the circuit board
*Coil copper around a straight paperclip, attach this antenna to the circuit board through the hole. I ended up having to use the coiled wire around some solid copper wire to get a really stable connection, otherwise the antenna moved too much at the base. So now most of the antenna is a spiral, but the base is more solid.
*Put heat shrink around the antenna
*To help ensure that the antenna doesn't break off the circuit board, I used epoxy to keep it from moving (both in the hole in the case, and to partly attach the antenna to the case.
Of course, this is both illegal and voids your warranty, but worth doing if you like to tinker. Tools required:
razor to open case
needlenose pliers to try to remove original antenna from channel
copper wire
paperclip
soldering iron (w solder and flux)
epoxy
heat shrink
hair dryer (for heat shrink)
patience
images
*pry it open
*if you're very careful you can pull the antenna out of the molded plastic channel without breaking it, but it's a VERY thin connection to the circuit board
*Make a hole in the itrip case over the antenna connection on the circuit board
*Coil copper around a straight paperclip, attach this antenna to the circuit board through the hole. I ended up having to use the coiled wire around some solid copper wire to get a really stable connection, otherwise the antenna moved too much at the base. So now most of the antenna is a spiral, but the base is more solid.
*Put heat shrink around the antenna
*To help ensure that the antenna doesn't break off the circuit board, I used epoxy to keep it from moving (both in the hole in the case, and to partly attach the antenna to the case.
Of course, this is both illegal and voids your warranty, but worth doing if you like to tinker. Tools required:
razor to open case
needlenose pliers to try to remove original antenna from channel
copper wire
paperclip
soldering iron (w solder and flux)
epoxy
heat shrink
hair dryer (for heat shrink)
patience
images