[sparky19]

Guys, the WiFi signal drops when I hold my playbook along the corners, especially at the top. Where is the antenna located, am I blocking it by any chance which is leading to weaker signal?

[renownedanonymous]

EDIT: Let me rephrase that... I think right behind the BlackBerry logo. That seems to be where most of the circuit boards are but I'm not very well familiar with antennas, etc.

Hope this is helpful: ifixit teardown

[Chaddface]

Top left I believe.

[peter9477]

Top-left: 802.11G

Top-right: 802.11N

Bottom-left: Bluetooth

Bottom-right: GPS

And yes, holding your hand clasped around one of those corners has a direct impact on the ability of the device to communicate on that channel. This is especially noticeable with GPS, providing one of several reasons why some people have such trouble getting GPS to work reliably, or at all.

[FF22]

The GPS antenna is in the lower right corner (when holding in the "normal" landscape orientation).

And gps antenna can definitely be affected by human body parts! Even my hiking garmin can be affected if I cup my hand around it the wrong way.

I don't know how sensitive the wifi and bt antennas might be.

[Chaddface]

Thanks Peter. That would explain why cupping my hand over the top left decreases signal. I have a G only router. That would also explain my decreased bridge range when holding the PB the way I do. I'll go upside down when using bridge. That should help.

[sparky19]

Top-left: 802.11G

Top-right: 802.11N

Sorry a very noob question. When you say top left and right, you mean the right angled corners? or along the sides I mean thickness part? or the underside?

Edit : I am not able to replicate the hold. If I know the exact spot, then I can avoid that.

[peter9477]

sparky19, not sure what you mean by "thickness" part, but by "top" I mean the edge where the power and volume buttons are, by "bottom" the edge with the connectors, and left and right should be obvious relative to those.

When you hold the PlayBook in landscape mode, generally your hands will "cup" the bottom two corners (left and right), obscuring the BT and GPS antennas partially. My experiments suggest that the Bluetooth antenna is able to cope with a fair bit of blockage (though this would depend on how far away your bridged phone is), while the GPS antenna is affected by almost any blockage.

The WiFi antennas (G and N) are in the top two corners, up near where you can see the two little microphone holes. If you held the PlayBook in portrait orientation, you'd block either G or N or both, depending on the position of your hands and whether you'd rotated it so the front-facing camera was on the left or the right.

There's no single "exact spot" to find. It's a more holistic thing. The more of your hand is near that corner, the greater the effect.

To block the GPS, you can merely hover your hand over it (or behind it), and if the line of sight between that area and one or more satellites is blocked, you'll affect GPS. To block Bluetooth, I had to clamp both hands very tightly around its corner, squeezing my fingers to avoid any gaps between them. The WiFi ones appear to be somewhere in between those in terms of sensitivity.

None of this is precise. Just take it as a general caution, and especially for GPS avoid having your hand there if you're having any issues.

[OGM]

Why doesn't this kind of information come with every new playbook? Everyone needs it. Otherwise they think the PB doesn't work well and they give up on it. That gives PB and RIM a bad reputation.

[breane paet]

can i just ask if what was your source on the information about the location of the antennas? specifically for the 802.11n and 802.11g antennas. i need it for our journal article.. thank you for your help

[991514982a]

Actually the above info is incorrect....

If you place the *Playbook facedown (where the Blackberry Logo is facing you):

The WIFI antenna is on the top LEFT (there is only 1 WIFI antenna).
The GPS is on the Bottom Left
Bluetooth is on the Bottom Right.

All are attached to the battery assembly.

Many People mistaken the Black Wire as a wire to another Wifi Antenna, however the black wire that's connected to the top right of the motherboard connects to the right speaker*.

[breane paet]

thank you

but the informations are contradicting and i find it difficult to understand and believe because there are no other supporting documents.

[peter9477]

but the informations are contradicting and i find it difficult to understand and believe because there are no other supporting documents.

breane paet, actually 991514982a says only one thing that's different, but he puzzlingly reversed the device while looking at it. My directions were from the point of view of a user, not a techie with the device disassembled.

The only thing he says different is that there's only one WiFi connection. I suppose that's possible... I was confident in my information when I posted it, but it was so very long ago I have no intention of repeating the research which led to it. He also refers to which corner of the motherboard the connections are on: that's irrelevant and was never a consideration in my analysis. I used actual measurements of the signal strength while the device was communicating on the various channels. Blocking the signal in the upper right corner affected the WiFi-N reception, and as I recall my analysis of the teardown pictures (not the ones shown) suggested there was actually another WiFi antenna at upper right of the device, though I doubt the connection would have been to the upper right of the motherboard. Instead, there are various wires connecting to a more central location on the motherboard.

Suffice to say that for WiFi-G, Bluetooth, and GPS, my information was definitely correct. I'll leave it to someone else to prove or disprove anything said above about WiFi-N.

[Vasilis Karachontzitis]

I read very carefully this post but i couldn't find an answer to my problem witch is, after a digitizer replacement, do it by me, following instructions from ifixit.com i have a very weak wifi signal. I can't remember what goes wrong and I don't remember forgetting any screw!The thing is that i can't have a strong wifi signal and i have to reopen it in order to fix it....but ....what do i have to fix?what do i have to check?
any suggestions? can i see the antenna if i reopen it?

[djmm2]

As Vasilis mentioned, go to iFixit. Go to BlackBerry PlayBook Teardown. They tear it down and point out parts. Very informative. Makes one think about trying it, if ever needed.

Posted via CB10

[RobC450]

Thanks for the info. Now I know why I have so much trouble trying to get a GPS lock.

[disallow]

Actually the above info is incorrect....

No its not.

If you place the *Playbook facedown (where the Blackberry Logo is facing you):

The WIFI antenna is on the top LEFT (there is only 1 WIFI antenna).
The GPS is on the Bottom Left
Bluetooth is on the Bottom Right.

All are attached to the battery assembly.

Many People mistaken the Black Wire as a wire to another Wifi Antenna, however the black wire that's connected to the top right of the motherboard connects to the right speaker*.

The black wire is indeed the wire running to the Wireless G antenna. The antenna is wrapped around the top of the speaker.

The speaker contacts are integral to the speak, and contact another circuit board underneath the speaker. Have you even taken one of these apart?

See my post here for a pic of the Wireless G Antenna:

http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...5/#post8190447

Note the *BLACK* wire attached to the antenna in the picture.

[disallow]

I read very carefully this post but i couldn't find an answer to my problem witch is, after a digitizer replacement, do it by me, following instructions from ifixit.com i have a very weak wifi signal. I can't remember what goes wrong and I don't remember forgetting any screw!The thing is that i can't have a strong wifi signal and i have to reopen it in order to fix it....but ....what do i have to fix?what do i have to check?
any suggestions? can i see the antenna if i reopen it?

See my post here:

http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...5/#post8190447

You probably damaged your Wireless G antenna. I have an extra one if you want it.

[bbobruns]

Originally Posted by 991514982a : If you place the *Playbook facedown (where the Blackberry Logo is facing you):

This wasn't relevant to the question and none of the supplied pictures remotely clarified your input as they never related to the position of the playbook when in use. It's clear that you know something about the interior of the Playbook, but your input only confused the issue for no reason.