Here is the backside of the controller board. That’s the Bluetooth module, ILogic ILT254S. Pin 1 is for the external antenna. Pin 2 is ground. That cap needs to be rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise to switch the output to the external pin. This cap is an 0402, which means 0.04” long by 0.02” wide. Really fucking small! To move it (unsolder and resolder) you need really fine tips and a high quality soldering iron like a Metcal.
Sorry this is blurry. Here you can see the cap is moved 90, connecting it to the external ant pin 1. I connected an insulated 24 awg wire to pin1 and I put the wire through the ground via to reach the other side. This was my attempt to keep the impedance of the wire closer to my 50 Ohm antenna (lower its inductance).
Here’s were I put the antenna. The adhesive seems really strong. I don’t think it’s coming off. Coax going to the left.
After that, I put the shell back on to the aluminum plate. You have to reconnect all the connectors while its barely open, because the wires are not that long. Everything then goes back together like it came apart.
I have the same problem. My boards just a few days old. My iPhone will maintain connection in my sock while riding, but in my pocket it drops connection.
This is really annoying because I can’t monitor my speed or track my ride.
Anyway, I’ve got news. I fixed it adding an external antenna. Works great now. It took it for a ride and I get realtime speed on my watch. Never worked before.
I’m trying to find a way to post details on what it looks like. Maybe reddit or imgur.
The antenna is a tiny little patch antenna that I stuck to the inner plastic part of the controller housing. You do have to unsolder and remount a 0402 cap on the Bluetooth module to remove the internal antenna and use an external one. Not easy, need a really good soldering iron like a Metcal with fine tips.
Now I’m pretty sure its a signal strenght issue. Maybe it only affect some boards. Getting it reworked by onewheel customer service did not fix it. Maybe they replaced the module, but that was not enough.
This is the topside of the controller board. That’s the wire popping through from the backside. I soldered in an H.FL connector. I was able to capture two ground points at 12 and 3 o’clock. This important so you can properly ground the coax. After soldering, I added RTV along the edges for stability (not shown).
The antenna I bought, [Taoglas FXP74.07.0100A] https://www.digikey.com/products/en?keywords=931-1224, has a U.FL connector. I mistook that for being the same as H.FL which I have lying around my lab. It does not mate well to U.FL. When I get a chance I will swap it for the correct U.FL smt connector. I wanted a connector here so you can disconnect the antenna from the board when you assemble/disassemble because the antenna will be attached to the plastic back shell while the board is bolted to the aluminum pan.
@Rado I did open a ticket online. A little too busy to call. I just wanted to make sure to log with them a failure. I know it will be a while till anything happens.
I just got mine back. The signal strength seems to have a marginally improved. It held connection for about a minute into the ride then dropped. Still not usable.
@gasppol I’m an EE too. I’m going to try it with a 50Ohm low gain patch antenna and coax I bought from digikey. I’m going to mount it away from the aluminum cover plate. I’ll let you know if it improves things. That great a software change works with android.
@gasppol It might be possible that you could use just a short wire as an antenna. I just want to do it as “right” as possible first to get the highest signal strength. If it didn’t work, I would always be wondering if I just fucked it up or the antenna was a bad match.
This is the antenna I bought. I was just looking for something low gain, that was small and 50 Ohms with a connector. There are hundreds of different ones on digikey that I would think would work.