Introduction
For one of the Raspberry Pi projects I have been working on had this specific requirement for an external antenna. The entire Raspberry Pi 4 needs to be placed inside a metal box. So external antenna was the only option left for me to make the Bluetooth and WiFi to work. I had two choices, One to use the compute module 4 and use the IO board or use a regular RPi and somehow add a UFL/IPEX Connector to the PCB. Considering the cost and availability I preferred to try the second option.
On a closer inspection of the WiFi/BLE Module area, We can see a small provision where a UFL/IPEX Connector can fit. Ofcourse there are no expose pads for an UFL/IPEX connector. We need to create one ( Atleast the ground pads ).
Step 1
Remove the solder mask and prepare a nice and clean exposed copper pad for soldering the UFL/IPEX connector.
Step 2
Cut the trace which goes to the on PCB Antenna and solder a 0201 0E resistor like shown below.
Step 3
Remove the capacitors used in the PCB Antenna.
Done! I connected an IPEX 4dB antenna to the my RPi 4 for a quick test.
Result
Everything works fine and I am getting roughly 4- 5dB difference compared to the stock PCB antenna.
My router was atleast 5-6 meters away from the RPi and there was a wall separation.
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