How To Fix A Broken Taoglas Cellular Flex Antenna

Hardware
1

HELP…An old Boron I have, the original Taoglas Cellular Flex Antenna connection broke off. Is there a way to reconnect this antenna by soldering to somewhere on the Boron besides where the original one was.

I have nothing left where the old connect was. I tried soldering to where the old connect but it didn’t work. The Bluetooth antenna connection is still OK but I understand that is only for the Bluetooth and has no connection to the cellular.

Thanks

2

Unfortunately if the pads below the U.FL connector are damaged there is no good way to repair the cellular antenna connector.

The traces that run to the pads on the bottom side of the cellular modem are too small to solder to, and there are no exposed points available. This is intentional to prevent leakage of RF, but also made it essentially impossible to repair.

3

That’s was a bad idea you must to replace U.FL connector with the new one ! Could you share some pic how the PCB looks like on connector area? I’m worried that is in disaster condition :see_no_evil: if you do not have an hot air station and some precision soldering station do not even try to do anything as the PCB is a multilayer and can be easily damaged. The thing is that you can do some research on a local electronics shop in your town/area check the reviews etc and then go and ask them if they can do it for you shouldn’t be exepensive. Eventually, if no one wants to help you and the pcb is not in death condition you can DM me send the Boron and I’ll do it for you :+1::grin: I have the comnectors if so but that will be the last option.
Please note if you attempt to fix it by yourself it’s big possibility that something else got demanded and even after replacing the connector the issue can still persist.
Best,

4

I cleaned off around the antenna area, not sure if the pads are there or not?
Check the image:

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5

It’s hard to say anything as I can’t see 2 smd elements on left, the trace in between the U.FL GND pads and also the can’t see the holder pad could you clean a little more and focus mostly on connector and area arround e.g
image

I marked the important areas
And here’s what we are looking for, flipped U.FL

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6

Another better screen shot of the antenna area. I think it’s missing a component that connects the pads (to the right of the N in the Boron name). May not be worth the trouble to fix it.

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7

I don’t know :man_shrugging:t3: it’s up to you :grin:
This elements are:
Capacitor 15pf and inductor

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And they are cheap and available
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The most important is to look for antena “hot” pad/trace connection point:

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Looks like just top layer is realy important as is going directly to the cap and inductor and then from cap to modem antena connector I’m not sure what’s for the bottom layer :man_shrugging:t3:
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But 100% this trace is really important.
Best,

UPDATE:
I think that I got it :grin: the bottom layer/trace is also really important ! And I believe that is used for ANT_DET signal

8

Thanks for your help and pointing out what is needed. I think at this point I’ll continue to use this Boron for testing only since I’m able to load code unto it not needing a over the air connection to Particle .

Thank again