Long Range Antenna Mod

Here is a quick 15 minute modification to add a long range antenna to the Cam V2. The camera in the photos is a year and a half old, so it’s out of warranty,

Items Needed:

  1. 6 inch U.FL IPX IPEX (or equivalent) (Not M.2 Antenna Kits)
  2. Starter drill bit
  3. Step bit (to enlarge hole)
  4. Small Phillips (to open the V2 x2 and remove the internals x1)

Instructions:

  1. Start by removing the two chrome screws under the swivel base.
  2. Unplug the small two wire plug for the speaker.
  3. Pop the speaker off the back of the camera. (Takes a little force)
  4. Remove the one black screw holding the internals to the housing. (Left of the Micro USB port)
  5. Lift up of the internals and then slide towards the bottom of the housing to remove it leaving just the housing.
  6. Carefully remove the stock antenna, held on by adhesive.
  7. Drill a starter hole, then step it up to fit the new antenna extension. See photos for location. This is the only location of the housing that doesn’t interfere with anything.
  8. Install the antenna adapter in the new hole, tighten the nut, make sure the extension is looped one time like in the photo to remove the slack.
  9. Plug the speaker connector back in, then snap the speaker back into the housing. You can see everything fits perfectly.
  10. Attached the swivel base and insert the two chrome screws. Screw on the antenna and you should be good to go!

Obviously you can use a shorter antenna, this one came with the kit linked in the “Items Needed”. So far after a quick test, from the very back corner of my property using a portable battery charger to power it, the signal strength was excellent. The router is in the garage on the opposite corner. The portable charger may have not provided enough AMPs, but for testing worked fine. Bitrate was at a constant 113.5kb/s, hard to see in the screenshot.

I would call this a success! The kit from Amazon came with 2 antennas, may as well mod another V2 or possibly one of my Pan Cams. Thanks for reading!

UPDATES:

  1. This mod will not work on the V3 camera due to the upgraded Antenna.
    image

  2. Pan Cam has plenty of room with the antenna right below the bridge USB port.

  3. Outdoor Cam is too tightly packed due to the battery, but it may still be possible.

5 Likes

Thanks for taking the time to write this up. We’ve had similar mod threads over the past couple years and yours is nice and easy to follow.

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Did you take the V3 apart for that picture?
Could one just connect a wire to the original V3 antenna and run it to an external antenna?

No, the V3 photo is from the FCCID Internal Pics. I would assume you could solder a wire, not 100% of the workings without disassembling my own V3.

That’s wierd… I just opened up my V2, and to my surprise, has a “soldered-on” antenna… NO connector! SMH sucks… anyhow, I had ordered 3 SMA pigtails on Ebay, and some antennas