Modify S200 GPS antenna to improve GPS signal strength

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joyqing

Senior Member
Dec 15, 2007
319
39
Sydney, AU
as you konw, S200 GPS is not easy to fix, let me tell you a simple method to fix this problem.
1. Turn off your S200, open rear cover, remove the battery, locate the gps antenna position.
refer to f1.jpg

2. Peel the black gps antenna carefully and turn over from left to right. use the multimeter to measure resistance between two electrodes and you'll find it's short-circuit status (~0 Ohms).
Look carefully at the root location of the antenna, there is a black transparent line, at the end of this line,you can find the short-circuit point, cut off this copper chips until the short-circuit point completely disconnected, then measure resistance between two electrodes to determine it is no longer short-circuit (Infinity ∞ Ohms).

refer to f2.jpg d1.jpg and modification diagram.jpg or this (surcart's pic).

recovery the antenna, turn on your S200 and test gps. Enjoy it !

refer to c1 and c2 pics (compare with HTC P3600, left is P3600, right is S200)
c1.jpg is before modify, c2.jpg is after .

btw, tracking speed is faster than before.

d1.jpg is a large pic
d2.jpg is the details after modified


maybe you can do it without peeling antenna off, try to cut the short-circuit position directly if you are not sure you can completely peel off. refer to d2.jpg or s200_p1.jpg(provided by wysxs, thx) or Victor79's pic .
 

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joyqing

Senior Member
Dec 15, 2007
319
39
Sydney, AU
of course, i‘ve finished this modification and tested, gps now is very fast to track
 
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BikerBoy030

Senior Member
Dec 13, 2007
254
25
what do you mean with "confirm it's short-circuit status"?

but if this methode works, this would be great:)
 

surcart

Senior Member
Dec 18, 2009
56
0
Well, this would be excellent if it works as gps signal can be a pain in the ass to get on this phone. Can you explain in more detail and maybe a before and after-picture comparison on the removed "copper chips"? One that is more of a close up than the 2nd picture in your guide.
I'd like to know exactly what I'm doing before trying this out.
Thnx.
 

joyqing

Senior Member
Dec 15, 2007
319
39
Sydney, AU
sorry for my english,
pls see these two pics (compare with HTC P3600, left is P3600, right is S200)
c1.jpg is before modify, c2.jpg is after modify:

btw, tracking speed is faster than before.
 

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surcart

Senior Member
Dec 18, 2009
56
0
sorry for my english,
pls see these two pics (compare with HTC P3600, left is P3600, right is S200)
c1.jpg is before modify, c2.jpg is after modify:

btw, track speed is faster than before.

That's great but can you open your modified s200 and take a picture like the f2.jpg that shows how it should look after you have removed the copper chips ?
We would like a more detailed guide of how to do this.
 

surcart

Senior Member
Dec 18, 2009
56
0
Wow... I tried and it works great. Find satellites in a flash.

thank you very much :)

Lucio

Good for you. I just lift up the tape a bit in one edge and realized that the tape is actually the antenna. Haven't done the mod yet. I expected a chip beneath the tape. How bad was your reception before the mod? Could you get a signal at all or nothing?
 

surcart

Senior Member
Dec 18, 2009
56
0
This thing might need a little more research. I was about to try this mod and started to peel the antenna off. I started at the top and the antenna accidentally tore a bit as you can see in the picture. Above and a little to the right of the white spot in the picture you can see the torn part. It's not torn all the way across but it's there. Anyway. I got a bit freaked out thinking I had ****ed the antenna up beyond rescue so I put the battery back in and started the gps viewer. Lo and behold I now have a stronger gps signal than before. Putting my phone in the same spot as before the tare i now have 5-8 satellites instead of the 2-3 I had before.
 

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freco

Senior Member
May 17, 2007
879
110
Athens
Why you guys don't use some tape to seal this? I don't think Acer put it there with no use. Did you check radio reception? Maybe that's the reason being there.
 

joyqing

Senior Member
Dec 15, 2007
319
39
Sydney, AU
Why you guys don't use some tape to seal this? I don't think Acer put it there with no use. Did you check radio reception? Maybe that's the reason being there.

what do you mean "radio reception" ? GPS radio reception or GSM radio reception? If it's GPS, pls see c1.jpg and c2.jpg in above to compare signal strength. if GSM, pls see GSM.jpg to find where is GSM antenna location. i just modify GPS antenna. i don't think the reason that Acer put it there is just to “reduce” the signal strength.:p

do you think S200 GPS signal strength and tracking speed are too bad? compare with my HTC P3600, i think yes, but after modified, i think no.:D
 
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korl85

Member
Jan 23, 2010
38
0
Hi!
Isn't any other way to solve this problem of short-circuit without cutting things inside phone?
Something to isolate it, as freco said?
I wanted it to be reversable, you know, there must be a reason to acer build it that way, they aren't a bunch of incompetent that could not see this short...

PS: What tools did you use to cut it? Just a little stiletto would do it?
 
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    as you konw, S200 GPS is not easy to fix, let me tell you a simple method to fix this problem.
    1. Turn off your S200, open rear cover, remove the battery, locate the gps antenna position.
    refer to f1.jpg

    2. Peel the black gps antenna carefully and turn over from left to right. use the multimeter to measure resistance between two electrodes and you'll find it's short-circuit status (~0 Ohms).
    Look carefully at the root location of the antenna, there is a black transparent line, at the end of this line,you can find the short-circuit point, cut off this copper chips until the short-circuit point completely disconnected, then measure resistance between two electrodes to determine it is no longer short-circuit (Infinity ∞ Ohms).

    refer to f2.jpg d1.jpg and modification diagram.jpg or this (surcart's pic).

    recovery the antenna, turn on your S200 and test gps. Enjoy it !

    refer to c1 and c2 pics (compare with HTC P3600, left is P3600, right is S200)
    c1.jpg is before modify, c2.jpg is after .

    btw, tracking speed is faster than before.

    d1.jpg is a large pic
    d2.jpg is the details after modified


    maybe you can do it without peeling antenna off, try to cut the short-circuit position directly if you are not sure you can completely peel off. refer to d2.jpg or s200_p1.jpg(provided by wysxs, thx) or Victor79's pic .
    1
    i still dont understand what i have to do, when i peeled off the black "antenna".
    what should i cut??
    and is it nesseserry that the black antenna does look like bitten? Is it posible, that the black thing looks like that it is not touched??

    because if i need to send it back to acer( for reparing it) that they dont say: you touched the hardware, we don't repair it=/