Maverick ET-73 Antenna Mods...

Rubit · Posted: Jan 31 2007 Post subject:

Well I have failed to increase the range of my maverick more than 10%. The pie plate thing showed promise outside but failed to increase the range inside the house.
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Rubit · Posted: Feb 01 2007 Post subject:

SmoKen, did you ever try the mod?

The only thing I know left to do is take a piture to one of the electronic forums and see if they have an idea for an antenna.
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Q-IT-UP · Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Posts: 3

Hey guys....I just got a Maverick ET-7 with dual probes last week. I was starting to get paranoid after reading all these threads about it so I hooked it up last night. Hmmmmm....mine works perfectly. I took it outside to the pit, closed the garage door, shut all inside doors and sat on the couch in the living room with the unit sitting in front of me. The signal went through two walls (diagonally even).

I don't understand why some seem to work and some not so well at all.

Rubit · Posted: Feb 01 2007 Post subject:

One thing that seems to affect the range indoors is the location of the electrical distribution box, washers, dryers, refrigerators and the like.
I have a Brookstone and it works anywhere in the house but its preset temperatures greatly reduces its use.
http://www.brookstone.com/store/product.asp?product_code=330654&wid=18&cid=1801&sid=180102&search_type=subcategory&prodtemp=t2
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Smo-Ken · Posted: Feb 01 2007 Post subject:

Rubit, I did try the mod. Jury is still out and I'm still playing with it. I started with some 18ga stranded primary wire at about 12" long, soldered across all 3 solder pads on the antenna board. If anything it cut the range. Then I cut it down to about 9" and the range improved some. One thing I did notice was that when I put my hand on the receiver it seemed to get an instant update. Next I cut the wire down to just under 6.5" from the end solder point to the end of the wire. This extended the range for sure but again I noticed it improved when I held it.

Reading that other antenna design article started me thinking about impedence and such. I'm wondering that if the board already has an antenna and an inductor on it then maybe with the 6.48" wire is incorrect. So when I have time I will continue to play with the length, and I also want to try a smaller gauge, single strand wire for the antenna.

And Q-it-up, don't worry - mine was working as good as I needed it to, but being a tinkerer at heart after reading of the reported successes I just wanted to see if I could make it any better! Wink

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Bedlam BBQ · Posted: Feb 01 2007 Post subject:

I opened up my two Taylors last night. They both already had a wire running around the perimeter of the case. But I went ahead and notched a spot on the case and then ran the wire on the outside of the receiver.

I'll test it tonight to see if I get any improvements on range.
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Smo-Ken · Posted: Feb 03 2007 Post subject:

I played around with it a bit more today - I started thinking about the impedence issue again and thought maybe a small "air gap" would help out. I opened the Rx case again and cut the wire between the left-most and center solder pads. Here is Somegeeks pic of the wire across all 3 pads:

If you look where the wire is soldered across all 3 points, which is how I did mine originally - what I did was to clip the wire between full left and center pads, making sure that there was a gap.

I noticed a definite improvement in my range after making that change!

I will use it this way over the weekend then continue experimenting next week...

SMOKE ON!
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~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Bassin, Blues & B-B-Q's... Nuthin's Finer!!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Bar-B-Chef Offset Smoker
BBQ Pro Bullet
22" Weber kettles (Red & Blue)
'05 Skeeter TZX190/175 Yammi HPDI

Rubit · Posted: Feb 03 2007 Post subject:

That sounds good to me. I will give it try too and see what happens. I will try it as soon as I can.
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Vertical Brick pit wood burner
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Tank smoker Charcoal
Tank smoker wood burner
Tank Charcoal grill

Rubit · Posted: Feb 13 2007 Post subject:

That last mod did the trick giving me a total range increase of about 25% maybe more. I had a chance to try it Sunday and it was nice to be able to put it in more places around the house.

I still wonder about the length of the antenna with the onboard foil anntena.
_________________
Vertical Brick pit wood burner
Converted Lazy Q Charcoal
Tank smoker Charcoal
Tank smoker wood burner
Tank Charcoal grill

Rubit · Posted: Feb 14 2007 Post subject:

Been in touch with a guy that know a bit about antennas and he suggested trying an antenna in the 16" range. Maybe this weekend I will give it a try but he did say this was only a good guess and trail and error may be the best course of action.

Right now in line of site I have exceeded 100 feet easily.

If I had a new one that the range sucked on right out of the box I would send it back first before trying this mod.
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Tank smoker Charcoal
Tank smoker wood burner
Tank Charcoal grill

Smo-Ken · Posted: Feb 15 2007 Post subject:

Rubit, I tried mine out on Super Bowl Sunday and was very impressed with the range after cutting the "notch" on the sloder pad. Unfortunately I got slammed by a nasty flu bug that weekend so I was pretty much out of it - but I did manage to get the ribs done and from what I was told they were fantastic. Am I dedicated, or what???

I was able to take the reciever onto the other side of my house and still keep the signal while I was trying to sleep. And this was with my gas grill, a double pane sliding glass door, several internal walls & the laundry room between the transmitter and the receiver!

I will be interested to hear if you try the longer antenna. I have not tried anything else with mine yet - I may just stop here since it's working so well...
_________________
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Bassin, Blues & B-B-Q's... Nuthin's Finer!!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Bar-B-Chef Offset Smoker
BBQ Pro Bullet
22" Weber kettles (Red & Blue)
'05 Skeeter TZX190/175 Yammi HPDI

saltforkchubs · Joined: 16 Jan 2007 Posts: 11 Location: No. Illinios

Purchased the ET-73 and found the range lacking. After adding the antenna, I found the range adequate for my purpose.

Here are some helpful hints--

Be careful when removing the back cover of the receiver. Pull it straight back. This will prevent the power switch from breaking.

The wires from the battery compartment to the circuit board are very fine and there is a good chance they will break also. Be prepared to solder these back.

For the antenna I used 18ga stranded wire. The length is 6 1/2 inches. From the picture above I soldered the antenna to the center and the furthest right connections. Did not solder anything to the futhest left connection. Routed the wire out the side and up.

Range now at least 100 feet. Signal passes through several rooms of lath and plaster (house built somewhere around the time the Cubs won their last world series).

Used a 15 watt pencil soldering iron and .032 light duty rosin core solder.

I have more confidence in the unit now. It's too bad the design doesn't report when a drop in the link occurs.

Kosmos Q · Posted: Sep 10 2007 Post subject:

SStory. Do you have pics of the inside of yours. I would like to see how they did it at the factory.
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Kosmos Q · Posted: Sep 10 2007 Post subject:

Does anyone have pics of the add-ons to both units?
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saltforkchubs · Joined: 16 Jan 2007 Posts: 11 Location: No. Illinios

Kosmos--

Look at the first post of this thread. "Tweaks". Some very good "before" pics of the maverick. Also, some very good dialogue regarding this issue.

Smo-Ken and Rubit got theirs to work, I just followed suit.

--Chubs

Kosmos Q · Posted: Sep 10 2007 Post subject:

Got it. I attached the antenna to two far right spots. I think it's 5 & 6. Finally works. It went through 3 walls.
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