Dumb question about Mini PCI cards

Looking at one of these cards there are two ports where you would plug
in your antenna wires. My question is does it matter how they are
hooked? You have a black wire and a white or red wire. Do the cards
have some sort of polarity where it won't pick up signals if hooked up
wrong? Also, would it make a difference if only one of the two wires
were hooked up.

My Specs
NEC Versa LitePad With Windows Tablet PC and SP/2
UGJZ 11a/b MIni PCI card

I am also thinking about getting a different card then this for my
wireless needs. So Any suggestions as far as that goes would also be
appreciated. Thanks in advance!

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Looking at one of these cards there are two ports where you would plug
> in your antenna wires. My question is does it matter how they are
> hooked? You have a black wire and a white or red wire. Do the cards
> have some sort of polarity where it won't pick up signals if hooked up
> wrong? Also, would it make a difference if only one of the two wires
> were hooked up.
>
> My Specs
> NEC Versa LitePad With Windows Tablet PC and SP/2
> UGJZ 11a/b MIni PCI card
>
> I am also thinking about getting a different card then this for my
> wireless needs. So Any suggestions as far as that goes would also be
> appreciated. Thanks in advance!
>
>
I think the two connections are like diversity antennas on wireless
routers, where the device chooses the strongest signal.

It doesn't matter. My computer only has one antenna, and I have to
connect it to the aux point because it won't reach the main spot. Works
fine.

[POSTED TO alt.internet.wireless - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <(E-Mail Removed). com> on 2 Jun 2006
08:23:03 -0700, "(E-Mail Removed)" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Looking at one of these cards there are two ports where you would plug
>in your antenna wires. My question is does it matter how they are
>hooked? You have a black wire and a white or red wire. Do the cards
>have some sort of polarity where it won't pick up signals if hooked up
>wrong? Also, would it make a difference if only one of the two wires
>were hooked up.
>
>My Specs
>NEC Versa LitePad With Windows Tablet PC and SP/2
>UGJZ 11a/b MIni PCI card
>
>I am also thinking about getting a different card then this for my
>wireless needs. So Any suggestions as far as that goes would also be
>appreciated. Thanks in advance!

One connector is for the Main antenna.
The other is for the Aux (auxiliary) antenna.
They should be marked on the card. The antenna cables should also be marked.

You should get best results with both antennas, due to "diversity." See
* <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity_reception>
* <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antenna_diversity>

If you only have one antenna, connect it to Main if possible, although it may
work fine on Aux (depending on the particular Mini PCI product).

Be sure to make good antenna connections -- I've seen a number of cases of
"Wi-Fi not working!" simply because the antenna connector came off.

--
Best regards, alt.internet.wireless FAQ: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

John Navas wrote:
> [POSTED TO alt.internet.wireless - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]
>
> One connector is for the Main antenna.
> The other is for the Aux (auxiliary) antenna.
> They should be marked on the card. The antenna cables should also be marked.
>
> You should get best results with both antennas, due to "diversity." See
> * <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity_reception>
> * <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antenna_diversity>
>
> If you only have one antenna, connect it to Main if possible, although it may
> work fine on Aux (depending on the particular Mini PCI product).
>
> Be sure to make good antenna connections -- I've seen a number of cases of
> "Wi-Fi not working!" simply because the antenna connector came off.
>
> --
> Best regards, alt.internet.wireless FAQ: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
> John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
> Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

Thanks! I will give wiki a look later. The Card that is in this Tablet
PC didn't apear to have any labels on or near the plugs. I will take a
closer look and post my findings later.

On 2 Jun 2006 08:23:03 -0700, "(E-Mail Removed)"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Looking at one of these cards there are two ports where you would plug
>in your antenna wires. My question is does it matter how they are
>hooked?

Usually doesn't matter which antenna cable goes to which connector.
Diversity reception is symmertical.

However, there's a possible catch. Some cards only transmit on one
antenna. If the antennas at the ends of the black and white cable are
roughly identical, it can go either way. However, if one is
positioned horizontally, while the other vertically, you will probably
want to connect the vertically polarized antenna to the "main" port. I
don't recognize the NEC Versa card so I can't tell if this card works
this way.

The easiest test is to try one MiniPCI port at a time. If one
cantenna to board connection works fine, but the other acts like the
card is sick, then the xmitter is only connected to the first port.
However, if both ports work just fine, it transmits on both ports.

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 (E-Mail Removed)
# http://802.11junk.com (E-Mail Removed)
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

The odd thing about this particular WiFi wiring is that there is only
one wire that goes from the anntena to the card (this is a black wire)
and the red line is a little stubby wire that is only about two inches
long. I had removed the card once before to install a differnt one, but
that card was worse then the card I was replacing it with so i put the
original back in and now I can't pick up any signals. I had made sure
the card was fully seated and as I said that was why I had the question
as to weather or not there was a difference with the cables on these
dumb things. If anything I can get ahold of a longer cable for the
red side if it would make a differrence. the way they have it mounted
in there is that it was just lightly attached to the black wire. I am
pretty sure my wires are not broken. Guess I will give what you
suggested a try and see if it makes a difference.

Jeff Liebermann wrote:

> Usually doesn't matter which antenna cable goes to which connector.
> Diversity reception is symmertical.
>
> However, there's a possible catch. Some cards only transmit on one
> antenna. If the antennas at the ends of the black and white cable are
> roughly identical, it can go either way. However, if one is
> positioned horizontally, while the other vertically, you will probably
> want to connect the vertically polarized antenna to the "main" port. I
> don't recognize the NEC Versa card so I can't tell if this card works
> this way.
>
> The easiest test is to try one MiniPCI port at a time. If one
> cantenna to board connection works fine, but the other acts like the
> card is sick, then the xmitter is only connected to the first port.
> However, if both ports work just fine, it transmits on both ports.
>
> --
> # Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
> # 831-336-2558 (E-Mail Removed)
> # http://802.11junk.com (E-Mail Removed)
> # http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> The odd thing about this particular WiFi wiring is that there is only
> one wire that goes from the anntena to the card (this is a black wire)
> and the red line is a little stubby wire that is only about two inches
> long. I had removed the card once before to install a differnt one, but
> that card was worse then the card I was replacing it with so i put the
> original back in and now I can't pick up any signals. I had made sure
> the card was fully seated and as I said that was why I had the question
> as to weather [sic] or not there was a difference with the cables on
> these
> dumb things. If anything I can get ahold of a longer cable for the
> red side if it would make a differrence. the way they have it mounted
> in there is that it was just lightly attached to the black wire. I am
> pretty sure my wires are not broken. Guess I will give what you
> suggested a try and see if it makes a difference.

That short stubby red wire is most likely the antenna itself. A quarter
wavelength at 2.4GHz is about 1.2 inches.

David

[POSTED TO alt.internet.wireless - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <Ixggg.45593$(E-Mail Removed) m> on Sat, 03 Jun 2006
13:55:52 GMT, "David" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

><(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:(E-Mail Removed) roups.com...
>> The odd thing about this particular WiFi wiring is that there is only
>> one wire that goes from the anntena to the card (this is a black wire)
>> and the red line is a little stubby wire that is only about two inches
>> long. I had removed the card once before to install a differnt one, but
>> that card was worse then the card I was replacing it with so i put the
>> original back in and now I can't pick up any signals. I had made sure
>> the card was fully seated and as I said that was why I had the question
>> as to weather [sic] or not there was a difference with the cables on
>> these
>> dumb things. If anything I can get ahold of a longer cable for the
>> red side if it would make a differrence. the way they have it mounted
>> in there is that it was just lightly attached to the black wire. I am
>> pretty sure my wires are not broken. Guess I will give what you
>> suggested a try and see if it makes a difference.
>
>That short stubby red wire is most likely the antenna itself. A quarter
>wavelength at 2.4GHz is about 1.2 inches.

Wouldn't have good gain. Perhaps it's a (shorter range) Bluetooth antenna,
rather than a (longer range) Wi-Fi antenna.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

"(E-Mail Removed)" <(E-Mail Removed)> hath wroth:

>The odd thing about this particular WiFi wiring is that there is only
>one wire that goes from the anntena to the card (this is a black wire)
>and the red line is a little stubby wire that is only about two inches
>long.

That's common for diversity installations. The metal bulk of the LCD
display tends to block signals in some directions. So, the
manufacturers install the main antenna (black cable) in the LCD
section. The aux antenna (red cable) is in the base unit. This
separation should give the radio a better chance of picking up a
signal from any direction.

Now we get complicated. The diversity algorithm methinks is used by
the radio may have a bias toward reverting to the main antenna
connector if the signal gets lost. What little reverse engineering
I've done seems to show that the radios do NOT scan back and forth
between antennas trying to find the best signal. It tends to sit on
the main antenna and only switch antennas if it gets valid data with a
high error rate. I really don't understand the logic, but that's what
I'm seeing. Therefore, if your MiniPCI card works this way, it would
tend to favor the main antenna port, which should therefore be
connected to the better (black cable) antenna.

Just to drive everyone insane, the antennas ports are often labeled in
the setup software as "right" and "left" instead of "main" and "aux"
or "primary" and "secondary". I note that Cisco corrected this
mistake several years ago, but the low cost vendors apparently still
don't know their right from their left.

>I had removed the card once before to install a differnt one, but
>that card was worse then the card I was replacing it with so i put the
>original back in and now I can't pick up any signals.

The tiny u-FL connectors are good for only a few insertion/removal
cycles. Be VERY careful or they will break. It can also be a driver
issue. Installing multiple network drivers from different vendors is
not a great idea. I had a test laptop where I had installed about 10
different drivers for various cards I was using. At no time could I
get more than a few of them to work at the same time. I eventually
had to resort to using Windoze Profiles and Netswitcher to switch
configurations. Unfortunately, I didn't track which driver stomped on
which other driver.

>I had made sure
>the card was fully seated and as I said that was why I had the question
>as to weather or not there was a difference with the cables on these
>dumb things.

Yes, there's a difference per previous discussion. However, that has
nothing to do with your current problem. Even if the antennas were
totally disconnected, the board leaks enough RF that you can make a
connection to a wireless access point from a few feet away. If you
can't make a connection at all, or see any other SSID's, then it's not
the antennas and something else is wrong.

>If anything I can get ahold of a longer cable for the
>red side if it would make a differrence. the way they have it mounted
>in there is that it was just lightly attached to the black wire. I am
>pretty sure my wires are not broken. Guess I will give what you
>suggested a try and see if it makes a difference.

Hint: Kindly disclose what problem you're trying solve when asking a
question. It makes the answer somewhat more relevant.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On 2 Jun 2006 08:23:03 -0700, "(E-Mail Removed)" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
: Looking at one of these cards there are two ports where you would plug
: in your antenna wires. My question is does it matter how they are
: hooked? You have a black wire and a white or red wire. Do the cards
: have some sort of polarity where it won't pick up signals if hooked up
: wrong? Also, would it make a difference if only one of the two wires
: were hooked up.
:
: My Specs
: NEC Versa LitePad With Windows Tablet PC and SP/2
: UGJZ 11a/b MIni PCI card
:
: I am also thinking about getting a different card then this for my
: wireless needs. So Any suggestions as far as that goes would also be
: appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Dell's instructions tell you to connect the white wire to the main terminal
and the black wire to the auxiliary terminal. But in every Dell laptop I've
ever opened, both wires are black.