Desire HD gps antenna swap

[hashem90]

Vilken GPS app använder du?

[knglaser]

@hashem90 "Gps test" och "Gps status"

[MintyKanesh]

I just tried this and havn't tested whether it has worked or not yet. I bent the springs upwards slightly but noticed that the two gold contacts on the antenna cover have black dots in the middle. Has something burnt out?

[knglaser]

@MintyKanesh yeah, it looked like small black dots on mine too. afaik it's metal rubbed off or the plastic showing through a small hole. It's unlikely to be burnmarks. the whole design is rubbish as it's only a question of time before the cover moves enough to mess up the contacts.

[geocachespoilers]

Like it

[TheRedRooster13]

THANKS A TON!!



[andidarmika]

wow thanks a lot, finally a working GPS on my DHD

[Guitjee]

it works, thank you! And great Tutorial btw, easy to understand for everyone :)

[knglaser]

@Guitjee thanks (: It's tricky to get it to work perfectly and permanently, just happy to shine some light on the problem and a way of dealig with it.

[nonunicorn]

Brilliant! - my GPS stopped working when the phone fell off a low shelf. The video gave me the courage to open the cover and bend back the two springs - Voila! The GPS now works fine.

[TheMrKekso]

This WORKED on my DHD! I did not buy new cover, just raised up those two metal springs and put the cover back, and my gps is working again! Thank you very much, you really helped me!

[lazytwin]

wow. after trying for 6 months this worked! thanks a lot!

[vectraB97]

I removed my videos because I think just soldering wires between contacts and pad is the best solution.. Maybe with a mini contact on the wire.. My loop antenna is just a secondary antenna for backup, not that good signal, a thinner double loop antenna might work better as secondary.. I got good signal now.. But I think directly wired pads would be more reliable..

[knglaser]

@vectraB97 There's a antenna connector near the spring contacts, maybe use that to connect the antenna ? Assuming it's for the gps :P

[vectraB97]

@knglaser no more experimentation for me:-) if I get more issues I will wire it directly.. I am thinking about switching to motorola next time. The desire hd gps antenne was the worst antenna design ever.. Is doesn't make me feel that buying htc again is a great idea.. My girlfriends HTC Desire also have over heating issues that make the phone reboot..

[knglaser]

@vectraB97 I agree that the antenna design sucks, and I've felt let down by HTC as I geocache sometimes and this has runied that experience a bit. The older phones I owned, the Hero and the Legend worked flawlessly.

[vectraB97]

@knglaser can't understand why htc didn't put wires and mini contact to the gps antenna, the gps cover moves to much for it to be reliable.. And the fake gold plating is worse than ordinary tin solder.. It's not just the antenna cover that have this pad coating, and not only the desire hd.. I never had contact issues like this on other phones I owned.. Also have to say that the loudspeaker is even worse than the one on zte blade.. I like htc looks and software. But motorola win in total

[knglaser]

@vectraB97 They probably use the same tech in other phones, like the Legend, but made a big mistake of not getting it rigid enough to not move around and bust the contacts. Another method would be to separate the antenna from the cover and solder it directly.. like making a copy out of thin copper foil. I might try that some day.

[vectraB97]

I improved my design more.. Soldering the pads on my gps cover in addition to my loop antenna gave me better signal.. The coating on the pads are really bad..

[vectraB97]

I didn't get the signal strength I wanted even with the new gps antenna.. So I made my own out of a 4.5cm long hpi rc antenna cable.. Soldered it directly to the spring contacts.. Works better than new now.. Get 7fix where I only had 1 before.. And 11 in my living room, vs 7 before.. And that is with the phone in my case mate tough..

[knglaser]

@vectraB97 it can be a bit tricky to get a good connection the first try. also it's important that you dont break the small plastic hooks on the cover as it results in a loose cover that wears the contact pads out. I'm also questioning wheter it would be more stable with a soldered antenna directly, as it always seems to be a question of time before it breaks again.

[vectraB97]

@knglaser I had connection, just not perfect, my cover was not damaged in any ways.. But one of my contacts didn't look very good.. I updated a crappie video of my camera display.. Just to show how the mod looks..

[knglaser]

@vectraB97 Ok, does it perform well with the wire loop ?

[vectraB97]

@knglaser If I don't remember to badly I would think it perform slightly better than when the phone was new.. I make a video for you later.. But I don't have the before and after.. Desire hd don't have a very good gps antenna.. My girlfriends HTC sensation have seriously good signal in comparison.. My desire hd is on level with my zte blade gps signal after the mod.. The zte blade doesn't have bad signal..

[knglaser]

@vectraB97 You should try "gps test" by chartcross to get a number on the signal strength. My HTC Legend gets 30-35 on most satellites and with a clear sky gets around 40. The DHD should be around the 30-35 when the antenna works OK.

[vectraB97]

@knglaser I will make a video with zte blade vs desire hd vs sensation, all running gps test.. I live in the polar circle.. I don't know if gps signal it the same where ever you are.. 

[vectraB97]

@knglaser I have uploaded my video test video now.. Not to bad.. It didn't get better signal than my zte blad or the sensation.. But the loop antenna definitely works.. Outside i get about 30 signal strength on average.. This video was inside my house with ridiculous thick walls..

[vectraB97]

This video also made me secure enough to fix it my self.. I had it on warranty service to fix some buttons.. When I got it back gps wasn't working anymore.. If your not careful when removing the gps gover, you may fracture the antenna inside the gps cover.. First I did the soldering fix on the connection pads, didn't work.. That's how I discovered the damage Inside the cover.. A new one was only 5.6£ on ebay.. Replaced in 2min because of this video:)

[knglaser]

@vectraB97 oh, didn't know the antenna itself could break so easily. thanks for the heads up (:

[timmietijd]

Dude, you saved me! 6 bucks on ebay and my gps Works like new.

[TommisTutorials]

Dont res this at home!

[velorex350]

Thanks a million! It did fix also my GPS problems after many headaches!

[dlenting]

I had the same problem with my Desire HD. Today I got the new GPS antenna. After applying the new one everything works fine ! I now have a nice fast gps fix in about 3 seconds. Usually it would take me about 45 seconds to get a 5/5 gps satellite fix. Now it's 9/9 satellites ! Awesome !

Thx for the video !

[tyredngrumpee1]

Thanks for your tips. I've found that the contacts of the gps/flash assembly are prone to oxidization. They don't seem to be gold plated, more like painted. So after bending the phone contacts outward, I used a smear of WD40 on the gps/flash unit and all seems well atm. Gps fix established in 5-10 seconds everytime, indoors and signal strength improved. Hopefully last time I'll have to do this else will use solder pads. HTC gps fail!

[decaoeu]

Dude where did you found that antenna think?

[knglaser]

@decaoeu on search ebay for "desire hd flash" or similar, they're not called gps antenna for some strange reason.

[KtaGon]

@knglaser

there are tons of flashes on ebay. would you mind to tell which flash worked for you?

[KtaGon]

@KtaGon

whoops. I was too lazy to read the description.

[knglaser]

@KtaGon for example 170663737517, 320675701080, 260810057373.

The only detail that can be missing is the transparent lens-thingy, otherwise they all contain the antenna. You should probably look for a new item, not refurbished.

[unxplained93]

how do you guys remove the cover? what's that gold thing he used? i've tried using screwdrivers and i just cant remove it. any help?

[knglaser]

@unxplained93 you need a bent object to reach the cover from the inside, like a screwdriver with the outer 1cm bent slightly upwards (say 30 degrees). The pin I used is 3mm diameter brass. Be very careful as there is a lot of stuff and wires in there that wont be happy if abused.

[xbuttiex]

Thanks mate, it really worked. Although for me it's enough to clean connectors with alcohol and rising them a bit. I wonder how long it will last anyhow.

[knglaser]

@xbuttiex I hope it will work for you. My soldered pads have worked for 6 weeks now, no sign of any trouble.

[alrusso82]

thank you so much..I was getting crazy...I tried your solution and it worked very well for my htc desire hd, now it fixs in less than 5 seconds every where, with almost 10 satellites in use....

[modlar]

Nice job !

But I know that is no need to change the antenna modul.

Just sanding the contacts will solve the problem.

As You said two black spots on gold contacts are oxidated contacts.

And put the contacts a little up to have a better contact.

[knglaser]

@modlar I dont believe that any two phones are identical, so they will need different fixes for different problems. I tried scratching away the black stuff with a scalpel, it did work for about a day or so. The best working method to date (for my phone) is the thin solder on the antenna pads. I have noticed that the antenna moves around when pushed (as in normal use), this is probably the failure mechanism in some of them.

[pager377]

T it inside phone case under cover - results became worse. I stay on variant when cover antenna is soldered to pad with short wires. I want say thank you for idea - it really works! Later I'l show pics :)

[pager377]

Hi, I do smth more. I connect antenna with short wires to pads on board (just solder it) and close the cover. Now it perfectly connected and it works much better then before (similar with your result on pictures). But I try to solder wire loop to board and it worked perfectly but when the loop was outside phone body, I tried different length of loop and with longer wire results were better. For 15 cm loop it shows 35 - 40 db inside, near window. It was awesome ;) but when I start coil wire to pu

[doublegandt]

I have same problem with my hd. Was really good when I forst got it just 3 months ago. Now takes ages - if ever to get a lock.

Can you explain though, the bit you are taking out just seems to be the flash? I can only seem two metal contacts - are they not for the flash?

[knglaser]

@doublegandt The cover has a transparent piece of plastic as the flash sits on the main board. the cover also has a embedded antenna for the gps, and it's the springy contacts that connects it to the main board.

the antenna is basically a wire loop of a certain length, tuned for the gps satellite frequencies. if you loose the connection on one or both of the ends, you loose most of the signal.

[hvega4]

Thank you very much, had also tried everything without success, now pressed with fingers strong flash cover and lock all the satellites, now I'll do the tin, publishes the results.

[SirQw3rtz]

thanks for your advice!

I have a similiar (or the same?!) problem

first tried to bend up the contacts - with the same poor results

then tried to solder the contacts - again, poor results

after that I cut a wire to 4,76cm and bridged the contacts, and voila, after 5 seconds I got a signal from 6 satellites ;)

I'm glad it's not the GPS-Module that's broken

[knglaser]

@SirQw3rtz Ah, thats a good tip. Mine still works after the solder fix, so as for now I'm a happy camper. If it breaks again I just might try your wire-loop fix, do you have any pics of it so we can see the loop design ?

As for the original design, there might be a optimal contact tension so it doesn't wear a hole in the thin metal on the cover.

[MyDanny38]

You are genius!!! I tried all the possible SW , ROM, … for days!!! Than I came across this one and it took me 2 mins to fix this problem which I spend at least days … long days to fix. BRAVO. You are genius and finally I am happy with my DHD. I did not have youtube account but I opened up a new one just to say THANK YOU - Danny



[knglaser]

@MyDanny38 Yeah, I went that same route, and decided to have a look at the hardware. Happy to hear it fixed you dhd, small things can certainly make a very impressive device into a much less impressive one (:

[diver981]

Thank you!!!

I have tried everything including all types of roms, radios, rils and gps status, fatserfix etx...but this solved the problem.

I just adjustet the pins and now everything is working perfect!

Regards

[knglaser]

@diver981 I'm glad to hear it worked on your phone. I just think there's too much blame on the software and it's possible fixes, when the problem sometimes is hardware and even worse, a mechanical problem.

[seregnoyotube]

Could you make a video to compare the new GPS antenna with the old one? Using "GPS Test" app, so we can see the improvements? Thanks :-)

[knglaser]

@seregnoyotube Yeah sure, I dont have any vids on the old antenna and not planning to swap it back to film it thou. The signal strength was very unpredictable and could be in the 10-20 region or even 0-satellites some times. Tapping the cover or pushing it slighly would give me acceptable signal, but it would always get worse when you stopped fiddling with it. I can do a side by side comparison on the three devices I have, the legend, dhd and the hero, stay tuned.

[knglaser]

@knglaser update, some pics on flickr, I try a solder-fix on the antenna. see the links in the description.