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gate opener remote

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haris_216

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Hi to all
I guess many people are familiar with those rf remote transmitters that we use as garage door opener and they work in the frequency of 433,92Mhz. There are several universal units that have the "ability" to copy the existent remote's code. Opening one I saw several smd components and one loop created on the pcb (printed as a pcb track). I suspect that this loop is used as antenna. The unit has a range (in paper) of 60m but, as you can expect, half of it is what you get in real life.
I wonder if there is a way to improve this range by adding some bigger loop (mobility of the unit isn't an issue as it will stay permanently in the car). I am only concerned if the loop by itself isn't just antenna but also serves as some sort of LC tuning parameter. Does anybody has any previous experience on the matter?
Thanks in advance to all
 
Yes. I doubled the range of my garage door operator by improving the antenna in the Receiver. The receiver has the same crummy, compromised, PC-board loop antenna that the transmitter has. I made the antenna a half-λ dipole by attaching 1/4λ wires. The bottom wire is soldered to RX PCB ground-plane near the RX input. The top wire is soldered at the non-ground end of the original loop.

Picture shows the dipole hot-glued to the wall with a tape measure to show the 13.5" length. Sorry, you will have to convert inches to cm. The plugged-in box contains the remote control receiver.

Moving the TX where it is not near the car body helps a lot.
 

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Yes. I doubled the range of my garage door operator by improving the antenna in the Receiver. The receiver has the same crummy, compromised, PC-board loop antenna that the transmitter has. I made the antenna a half-λ dipole by attaching 1/4λ wires. The bottom wire is soldered to RX PCB ground-plane near the RX input. The top wire is soldered at the non-ground end of the original loop.

Picture shows the dipole hot-glued to the wall with a tape measure to show the 13.5" length. Sorry, you will have to convert inches to cm. The plugged-in box contains the remote control receiver.

Moving the TX where it is not near the car body helps a lot.
thanks a lot mike. fast and helpful as always
 
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