Electronics > RF, Microwave, Ham Radio

The difference between Coaxial Cable and Two Wires?

(1/3) > >>

bozza:
While I was rebuilding my android phone into a new frame the coaxial cable lifted off the pcb and pulled a pad along with it.

The coaxial cable connected the main pcb with a secondary pcb at the bottom of the phone. The secondary pcb contains the usb-c port, headphone jack, vibration motor, speaker, microphone and I suspect it also functions as a secondary antenna.

I replaced the single coaxial cable with two separate wires by soldering them directly to the pcb traces. (36AWG for signal and 32 AWG for ground). The metallic case is also grounded through which the two wires run. The signal wire is now sandwiched between the metallic frame and the black ground wire.

My phone reception is now excellent once again, but I do wonder if what I have done has any negative side effects.
Is the coaxial cable an antenna in itself or does it simply transport the signal between the two pcbs?

james_s:
Does WiFi still work? 2.4 and 5 GHz? Coax has completely different characteristics than individual wires.

bozza:
I was thus far only able to test wifi in the 2.4GHZ band which works fine.

I suspect the cable is for cellular internet and voice calls. After I soldered the wires onto the pcb the speed of the cellular internet increased!

This is all really just speculation and I too would like to know what that cable is actually for. Most android phones are designed in the exact same way.

Bud:
Engineers put it there for a reason. Nobody would do it "just in case" because it is expensive to use coax in place of spagetti wires. Substitutes may work to a certain extent and effects may be subtle.

Miti:
Why didn’t you cut the coaxial cable and solder it instead of the wires? It wouldn’t reach?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page