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Ublox antenna re-attachment

Posted by Greg Fletcher on April 4, 2010 at 2:05pm
Oh the horror ! I dropped my Ublox onto a hardwood floor and snapped the antenna right off.
After 45 minuits of carefuly picking at the epoxy potted base I have expossed a central pin in the middle and one on either side if it. Ohm meter says the two sides wires are both grounded to the copper base.
I can glue the broken white plastic holder. Has any one done a sucessfull re-attachment? Am I correct
on the two outer terminals being the same? Any advice is greatly appreciated
Thanks, Greg

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Replies

  • Greg Fletcher April 7, 2010 at 8:54pm
    Re-attachment was successful. And it works too. The most tiny, fiddly thing I ever soldered. First I repaired the plastic holder with JB weld which is a very strong epoxy. I used silicon adhesive to attach the holder to the board. This is an important step as it ensures it is properly placed and can't move during soldering. I replaced a snapped of ground pin by twisting a single strand of very thin wire around the stub, which was maybe half a mm, soldered it on. Then I inserted the antenna core into the holder and soldered. It is firmly attached and not wobbly any more. It's better than it was, but I wouldn't mess with it unless it breaks off. If it does you can fix it with a lot of patients and a good magnifier. No pictures because my camera doesn't have a macro lens.
  • Greg Fletcher April 4, 2010 at 5:09pm
    I'm pretty sure I can save it. After I calmed down, I examined every thing under a lighted magnifier and saw in detail which was it was. I also found that the holder that sides over the pcb was only 1/2 way on,because there was a solder blob in the way. I always thought it was kind of wobbly. The center pin is a solid pin and it pulled right off the solder blob as did one of the side ground pins. The other ground pin snapped in two where the epoxy ends. I couldn't see it at first because after they soldered it they injected epoxy into the base in a blatant attempt to prevent me from repair, or at least make it as difficult as possible ;) Might have broken anyway, but it was a sloppy installation. Vibration over time might could have broke of the center pin. Maybe was lucky to drop it ? Epoxied the holder back together, cleaned of the pads and will re-solder tomorrow with a smaller iron I have at work.
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