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External antenna AMST-606 window/door sensor

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 2:16 am
by vincenttor
Well, i found out the hard way that these sensors are not the best to use.
But for the people that already have these, i have changed the antenna to a external one to make the reach/distance a little bit better.
I know it is against the rules in some country's but i still wanted to share.

If you want to open up the sensor, beneat the sticker on the bottom or backside of the sensor is a small screw.
Dont forget to unscrew and if all goes ok you will see the following pcb.

as you can see on the picture on the pcb trace i used something sharp like a screw driver or something (watch out you don't hit other components).

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The antenna length for this frequency would be 16.4 Cm long, i used this website to calculate it. (http://www.csgnetwork.com/antennaevcalc.html)
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upper right corner
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There is improvement in the signal, i forgot to check the strength in the devices list but when i was in the garage, about 15 meters away from the RFXcom that has to look trough 3/4 walls i managed to get a reading when looking on te log file by teamviewer.
At some places in the garage there is to much interference i think but when i went to the windows/doors were they would be mounted i got everytime a reading if not opening and closing to fast (rapid every second)
Then i walked up front , thats less difficult actually from where the RFX is located, just 1 wall/windows to go trough but the distance is about 25/30 meters.

Re: External antenna AMST-606 window/door sensor

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 1:12 pm
by 123unlock
haha, yes this will work fine :) i did the same for my mailbox sensor.. already had it open to extend the reed switch with some cable to fit in the mailbox the signal at the frontdoor was "poor" there so made the antenna 16.3cm as you already have 0.1cm from the last filter component on the PCB :) but in reallife you should not see any spectacular differnce with the 1mm :)

Re: External antenna AMST-606 window/door sensor

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 9:15 pm
by vincenttor
Well i have still some signals not being detected.
Maybe the distance is a bit to big for this sensor even with the external antennas.

Don't get me wrong , the wireless equipment is great and saves allot of money and time, well money im not sure about.
But we do not have good experiences with low power RF devices.
For example the Oregon anemometer we are using that is located on a antenna tower (10 Meters high) and the original base station WMR200 had problems receiving it, as well as the RFXcom im using now.
The rain sensor seems ok and temp/humid.
Maybe the distances are to big and i expect to much from it but i am going to wire the mailbox and gate.

Re: External antenna AMST-606 window/door sensor

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 11:47 am
by raymonvdm
I also did this on my sensor and it seems to help but sometimes it still misses a signal. However i can live with this because i`m only using it as a door open/close sensor on a less important door. For other doors i use a Z-Wave network

Re: External antenna AMST-606 window/door sensor

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 9:28 pm
by vincenttor
Well, i have been looking at Zwave, and the fact is that i don't want to spend more money on sensors that also mis allot of pulses, or well that the signal is not being received and no detection is there.
Also the Zwave cost bit more so if i have it and its not working as good as i hoped i have another "useless" sensor.
But thanks for the tip