I have a project that will require a Particle Photon or Core to be put inside a small steel container (actually a petty cash tin like this http://ebay.eu/1HJXiqZ). I’m not sure if the container will form a Faraday cage - it seems unlikely given that the box is painted and of cheap construction.
Does anyone have any experience of how well core or photon will pick up wifi in such a situation?
@saulcozens, it does not take much to create a faraday shield which will kill or substantially attenuate the wifi signal. Have you considered an external antenna? Even a flat “pcb” type flex antenna could do the job. The Particle store has two antenna models you can look at.
Faraday cages must be completely continuous to work, so if you can separate the box into two non-electrically-connected parts, you might be able to turn the box itself into a WiFi antenna. Sort of like what Apple did with using the metal edging as the antenna on the early iPhones.