I have read a few recommendations here for using antennas on bluetooth or other wireless receivers for areas with a lot of interference. Interference is a signal to noise ratio problem, not a signal strength problem. The antenna will just as happily increase the gain for the noise as well as the signal. It will not help reduce interference problems. If you are having drop outs due to signal strength then an antenna will help. Frequency hopping receivers will help with interference.
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I don’t have interference problems with my bluetooth modules, but range inadequacy… when I get off my board and walk around a bit my module looses connection… would your antenna recommendations help with range?
on the remote I can walk completely inside my house with the board in the street and not lose connection…
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Yes, an antenna will help with range.
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well spill the beans
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The antennas I design look like this. I don’t think they will fit on your skateboard. The antennas offered with bluetooth modules should work fine. Unfortunately they would work better to increase range if you could mount them vertically instead of horizontally.
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can I wear that for a hat?
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Funny you should say that. Making hats like that was a bit of a tradition for a retirement gift. I haven’t seen one in a while. I should renew the tradition.
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Yea but the receiver is 2.4ghz which is far far superior to bluetooth, which is also 2.4 at way less energy
Antennae’s can absolutely increase the range but that typically comes with a trade off. More range usually means a more narrow linear distribution of the radio waves, so the signal can be very directional.
2.4ghz is generally pretty good at getting through walls, objects etc and going a long way.
Bluetooth on the other hand is very sensitive to obstructions and such. It’s generally uses way less power than a radio wave transmitter as well. But just given the relatively easy availing to disrupt the signal of Bluetooth, obstructions are your biggest enemy and anything around 20-30 ft away from your board with a Bluetooth device in the enclosure is very acceptable for Bluetooth tech.
My metr stays connected to my phone when I’m close to 70 ft away and it’s in my apartment, with drywall in between. That’s with the short ant…errr maybe it’s the long. It’s tucked between the battery and deck
i understand all that… i came from qwads… and now I fly with 900mHz… via crossfire… I’ve only been out 5 miles… I’m now limited by batteries and crappy 5.8gHz video signal…
but I digress… I’d guess I can get about 9.7825 feet away from my board and I have to reset the bluetooth…
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What about directional antenna that point towards where the remote would be? That should help with interference unless it’s also coming from the same direction.
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My ABS plastic and fiberglass enclosure doesn’t seem to have any issues. Could it be near by wiring or something disrupting the signal?
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happens on all my
Unity (with stock Unity BT modules)
wood decks, carbon decks, ABS and fiberglass enclosures…
I think I’ve found the common source of the range problem…
I’m playing around with a baseplate mounted receiver w/ directional antenna. Not that I’ve even had any issues with the existing LR trace antenna version, I just want to see if there’s any tangible benefit there.
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Small stick-like antennas are generally monopoles. They have a radiation pattern that looks like this.
The length of the antenna is the Z axis. Mounting a monopole horizontally will give your best coverage while you are standing on the board. If it was mounted vertical it will give you better range in a horizontal direction.
A patch antenna like @DerelictRobot robot shows has a radiation pattern like this:
It will have the advantage of directed power upwards towards the rider without wasting any directed at the ground while still giving some range to the sides.
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Norm buddy…
can you explain why I would want to have a balun on a dipole antenna?
pretend I’m pretty dense! 
(not in mass, in comprehension)
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A balun matches the impedance between the input and the antenna. Think of it like an impedance adapter. If the impedances are mismatched some power gets reflected at the interface and lost.
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I knew you’d know!
Thanks
So PCB antennae’s like those on the metr modules, are they directional? And what effect does mounting the whole device against the deck va enclosure? If directional, deck mounting is literally pointing the signal at the ground
Mmmmm HFSS