GL-XE300 puli - adding external antenna

Technical Support for Routers
1

I was opening my GL-XE300 to see how to add external antenna with UFL to SMA adaptator.

I actually notice a few others UFL connector available on the board.

see fig 7 here
https://fccid.io/2AFIW-XE300C4/Internal-Photos/Internal-Photos-5098900

would it be possible to have them connected together with external antenna that will do both 4G and WIFI ?

2

You can connect 4G antenna to external but not wifi.

WiFi antenna is onboard and there is no uFL for it.

3

What about the two blanked off uFL connectors that appear to be in-line with the onboard wifi antenna?

Can one modify those and use them?

I bought two of the XE300 units for two RVs, and need to have external connectivity for the Wifi and 4g, not just 4g.

As it stands, the on-board wifi is terrible at even connecting to my house network when parked outside (when a phone connects no problems at the same location…)

any help would be REALLY appreciated.

4

There is no uFL on XE300 for wifi.

5

can one be added… if I accept warranty void and what not…

I own two of these devices, what about removing the 4G pci card from the second device, and buying a pci wifi card with uFL ports. Then I’d have to work out how to bridge them, but I can work through that mess after.

So the questions are

  1. Is there ANY way to hack a uFL onto the board in place of the on-board wifi antenna.
  2. Will these units work with a mini pci wifi board in place of the 4G board.
6

In order to connect wifi antenna you need to modify the hardware and solder the antenna wire directly.

It does not work with mini pcie wifi board because the pcie interface is actually USB in electronics.

What is the difference from just plugging a USB wifi dongle

7

I’m struggling to Find USB dongles that have support in openWRT. I’ve ordered the third one now…

I have a broken GL Mifi, I’m going to see about using the external antenna on that, and using that as the bridge, and then just scripting shutting down the WAN interface(ethernet) when not connected to a wifi network.

just means two devices now, which isn’t ideal.