curiosity teardown: cellphone booster
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- These cell booster things have been a thorn in my side for much of my career.
Today, I'm tearing one apart to see what's inside it.
And ranting about them possibly a bit too much...
Here's the datasheet for the big chip inside.
pdf1.alldatash...
-----
My tip jar: / pileofstuff
My other tip jar (channel membership) : / @pileofstuff
Buy me a coffee (or a beer): ko-fi.com/pile...
If you are OK with me getting a commission on your purchases, feel free to use my affiliate links:
Ebay: ebay.to/33IF7PA
Banggood: pileofstuff.ca/...
Some other links to products may be affiliate links
odysee.com/@pi...
#ElectronicsCreators
-----
This isn't the only way to do it.
It's probably not the best way to do it.
But it's how I did it.
I never messed around with cell phone boosters, but did get into some trouble with CB radios back in the 70s. I was as we said in them days "Wearing a 50 Gallon had with big boots" by boosting my CB system so I could talk with my Cousens in Texas. The day they caught me I was talking with someone in Iver win football station on a normal CB and the talking with my Cousens describing the game and not being too complementary too the home team. My Broadcast was interfering with the local tv station.
I had a job assembling a microwave components (RADAR, not ovens) - RF circuits and guides confuse the hell out of me.
Yeah, the higher the frequency, the more it seems to leave the realm of science and moves toward wizardry.
You don't sound upset at all :) If I didn't RTFM I can imagine causing all sorts of problems with one of those. That attenuation wouldn't be totally obvious to my novice brain. Thanks for sharing.
Years ago we had a huge one set up at place I worked at. Then people had problems with anything with a signal. Turns out some supervisor with no training install during after hours. I had so much fun taking a fork lift and ripping it off its perch. Owner wanted to fire me but found out it also was just outdated. Yeah those things are the worst.
Once you've ditched the PCB, it looks like you have a nice, shielded project box, a 12v PSU, and a bunch of RF cable with connectors. Not a bad haul for just $5.
Absolutely. I always keep any potentially useful parts from these teardown videos.
I've been running cell boosters for years. If you know what you're doing, they work great. Brought me from 1 bar outside (0 inside) to full service in most of my property.
It's great that you know what you're doing.
Far too many people don't.
@@pileofstuff yeah, I'd imagine the average user doesn't even understand that there are different frequencies. They just see the booster online and buy one.
I once bought a phone booster, plugged it in only find every samsung device in the house went missing.
😅😅
Can you make a video on how to install it properly.
I don't have the materials needed available.
The description I gave at the end of the video covers the basics.
here is a nice 2 digit surface mount database incase you dont have it . smd(period)yooneed(period)one
Yes, that is a great resource.
smd.yooneed.one/, for everyone else's convenience.
Burn several holes in PCB with laser engraver, pin PCB it to the wall, make a tag "Moby Dick" below.
I once had one of these type of boosters wipe out service on a major highway here in Chicago. It was installed in a building and light up the electric power tower causing a huge hole in the network. Worked with electric utility and thr FCC to chase this down. Took weeks to resolve.
Oooooh so basically a cellphone jammer in a box..... 😉 So, take output thru a directional coupler, main feed (-0.5dB) goes to antenna, side feed (-15dB) goes back to input, should get an interesting result.
We have one out in the countryside. Let me tell you as a end user, these companies could do far more to teach you how to tell if you have attenuation. All you have to list you have one with the fcc.
Couple years ago a friend living in rural Arizona asked me about getting one to mitigate the weak signal he had. I’m three states away so the best I could do was to give him the same advice you gave about antenna placement and orientation. He doesn’t have technical aptitude in any way so I had to go over some things multiple times, use analogies and like that.
He decided it would be too much trouble and decided not to try to use his phone until he got into town. Good choice imo.
I think that RF transistor is part of an active mixer/attenuator. Bidirectional amplifiers have to have some way to damp positive internal feedback to prevent that howl. Low power, low bandwidth amps can get away with passive networks but not that thing.
use these all the time in data rooms for cradle point type devices.
Now I know why you are asked to register the device. That would make locating them a little bit easier. The booster we had didn't come with installation directions that talked about antenna separation.
Be nice if we could see what you are looking at lol!!
I've never heard of these, or had the need for one if I had. I've always had good reception here.
Cell boosters are illegal in my country.
I have this thing. It is a 25 watt booster for cb's, a blue heatsink with 2 of some kind of rf jacks.
Can I just add that to one of these to a cell one? Boost the booster, or would you need two? Not my roundhouse. Pretty tired of one bar. Would just use 120 adapter. Verizon one is 150 new or something.
If the one you have is actually for CB, the frequency would be wrong for cellular.
Thanks for an interesting video. :)
Have you ever looked at harmonics from one of these devices? Do they affect digital TV terrestrial signals?
The shouldn't. The internal filters should limit them to the cellular bands.
I've recently joined the solar industry and our installs are often out of cellular range.
I want to get one of these for our work truck, which basically a directional uplink and maybe omnidirectional for the down link since us guys are a bit like ants when installing.
Any advice/ recommendation?
Just get one internet-station that has a directional antenna for the cell-network. And WIFI for your workers so you can turn the cellphones to internet/wifi only . Relatively simple and cheap to use and setup.
When arriving at an address, set the directional antenne for the cell to go in the right direction for the nearest celltower and your phones will all use that network.
If you are really out-of-range for the cell-signal, you can add satelite-internet to the same hub and use the same system.
As he explains in the video, don't fuss with trying to amplify cell-signals.
WIFI calling on cellphones is an excellent way to get around weak spots in the network as well as indoor areas that the signal can't get into.
Been using a Cell Phone Booster for the past 15 years. My shop is clad with steel walls and a steel roof. I have full Bars on my phone in my Shielded shop. My booster cost about $100 more than the Receipt you showed.
Your situation is a good application for this type of booster. The building is effectively a faraday cage that completely isolates the outdoor antenna from the indoor RF environment.