7
The patch antenna connection pin is not in the
exact centre of the square patch. Please refer to
the photograph (above). The connection pin should
be furthest away from the through-hole
components section of the PCB, as shown. The
patch should be positioned on the solder side of the
PCB.
Insert the connection pin of the patch antenna into
the centre-hole of the SMA socket. The photograph
(right) illustrates the connection pin location. Solder
the connection on the component side of the PCB.
Remote active antenna installation
If you decide to use an external active antenna, then do not install the supplied patch antenna. Instead,
you can fit a SMA socket such as the one pictured
here (left).
Install the SMA socket on the PCB as
shown in the photograph (right).
In this case you may also need to supply
power to the external active antenna.
Then you should fit R10 and L3 (not supplied).
Typically R10 should be 10 ohms, and L3 27nH (or a
ferrite bead). You will need to solder a wire from the
lower end of L3, to the SMA centre connector. This arrangement supplies power to the external antenna,
from the RF Vcc supply output of the RF module. Note that it does not have short-circuit protection!
