Increase the sensitivity of Asus WL-500gP Hardware mod.

[rampage]

If u are just not so skillgull with soldering than i suggest the 1st method.


Method 1.
Shortcut resistor R17 next to your braodcom wifi mini pci (the shielded thing with the barcode where the antenna connector is)
This increases sensitivity by alot because the receiver (rx amplifier) is not powered at all (its a mystery why). By shortwiring this resistor u alwasy give power to the amplifier , receive sensitivity increases a lot.
To shortwiri it simply use an iron and just cover it with pb. Dont use to much though.
The downside of this method is that the noise gets amplified too, thus u dont have the same performance like method 2.


Method 2.
Open up the wireless broadcom mini pci shield. The small shield with the barcode on it. U will see a cross shield underneath, cut it away just to have more space to work. Its not going to harm anything anyway.
locate and find c93 and c94. U will see that there is a small space next to them, so by unsoldering them u could resolder them again by rotating by 90 degress. Do that and there u go.


I have no responsibility if u damage this thing. Do it by your own risk.

After the mod my link speed almost tripled, with a parabol reflector (u know the paper ones, like windsurfer from techanvil are very good) i could pick up ap from over 5 km.
Overall i measured an increase of up to 4-5 times in sensitivity by using the wl-500 gp as a client.
Also i noticed an dramtic linkspeed increasing when wl was used as a ap.

rammy

[Oleg]

Shortcut resistor R17 next to your braodcom wifi mini pci (the shielded thing with the barcode where the antenna connector is)

NEVER shortcut this resistor! Your pre-amp would die. This resistor should be replaced with 62 Ohm.

And also, post original link to dd-wrt.com, to respect the original author of this mod.

[rampage]

i dont know the original post of ddwrt, because a friend of mine showed me this trick.
if u have the link please post it. im interested too, cause i have done some mods with the resistor shorted.
I dont want ma friends to have thei mini pci killed too,
but so far it works

edit: found it
h**p://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=26178&highlight=&sid=00b97253e0405 df048ffaa66c02e83fa

[al37919]

the idea originated from here:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtop...er=asc&start=0

however, within the last couple of days this topic was thoroughly discussed here: http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=13261 (in Russian).

[Arnie-75]

So what is the final verdict of the ressian discussion?
I translated it with google but did not get all.

Has R17 been used by error or not? Is there any prooven benefit of replacing it with 62 ohms?

[Oleg]

Yes, it looks like a ASUS fault, i.e. they should use 62 Ohm instead of 62 kOhm resistor. We've found reference schematic for the transistor in question, which clearly states 62 Ohm (and other parts are the same).

And yes, replacing R17 with 62 Ohm gives about 15-20 dBm sensitivity increase for weak signals.

Shortcuting R17 will cause overcurrent for this transistor, causing it's death.

[Arnie-75]

Yes, it looks like a ASUS fault, i.e. they should use 62 Ohm instead of 62 kOhm resistor. We've found reference schematic for the transistor in question, which clearly states 62 Ohm (and other parts are the same).

And yes, replacing R17 with 62 Ohm gives about 15-20 dBm sensitivity increase for weak signals.

Shortcuting R17 will cause overcurrent for this transistor, causing it's death.

OK, thank you.

[Arnie-75]

Is it possible to buy a regular BCM4318E card and attach the original WL-500gP antenna to the first connector and a second cable-antenna (like Laptops have) to the aux-connector?

Should this work?
http://cgi.ebay.de/Broadcom-MiniPCI-...QQcmdZViewItem

[mimmopoli]

Is it possible to buy a regular BCM4318E card and attach the original WL-500gP antenna to the first connector and a second cable-antenna (like Laptops have) to the aux-connector?

Should this work?
http://cgi.ebay.de/Broadcom-MiniPCI-...QQcmdZViewItem

Yes it's possbile and it work!
I changed the mini pci original card with a standard BCM94318MPG found on ebay, it's incredible, I gain about 10db on my wds link!

Mimmopoli

P.s:For other info please refer on the original topic on dd-wrt forum...

[Arnie-75]

Oleg,
can you please tell us what you found out in the Russian forum?
As far as google translates it looks like the Russian members checked teir WL-500gP and found that some devices are using the correct resistance?

http://translate.google.com/translat...hl=de&ie=UTF-8

[Oleg]

Oh... Yes. We've checked number of units and it appears, that all units manufactured since August 2007 seems to have correct resistor installed. You could check your unit manufacture date by examining first 2 digits in the unit serial number: i.e. 78 stays for August 2007, 79 for September, ... 7c for December.

The easiest way to check if you've right resistor installed is to type

wl noise

in the "hidden" page. This will return measured noise value from radio.

62 Ohm resistor gives -89 dB and above.

If you've something between -99..-92 then pre-amplifier is not working (62 kOhm resistor installed).

[Arnie-75]

Thanks,
I just checked. My serials start with 79IE so it was manufactured in september 2007. I also measured R17 and it is 63 +/- 2 which should be OK, right?
Wl noise gives -87 at first and -86 at a second try.

So do I definately have a good WL-500gP.

Anyone in Germany interested a spare BCM94318MPG REV4?

[Oleg]

Thanks,
So do I definately have a good WL-500gP.

Exactly, this is a good WL-500gP.

[Arnie-75]

BTW, if anyone is interested, this is my good WL-120G V2AE:

[mimmopoli]

The easiest way to check if you've right resistor installed is to type

wl noise

in the "hidden" page. This will return measured noise value from radio.

62 Ohm resistor gives -89 dB and above.

If you've something between -99..-92 then pre-amplifier is not working (62 kOhm resistor installed).

Great,

my unit was march2007, so a "defective" one...
Just for your info on my "new" BCM94318MPG REV4 the output of "wl noise" is:

noise is -97

Hope this help,

Mimmopoli