The Raspberry Pi Thread [6]

The 3A, 3B, 4B and 5 have a WIFI Module. And the Zero W of course. Not all are dual band, 2.4 and 5.
If you look at the first top most picture I posted, its the square silver thing. It's shielded by that silver colored metal cover. The onboard antenna is that triangle shaped open area on the PCD.
Your not supposed to add an external antenna because of certification etc. I'm only doing this for "testing" purposes.
I had to cut a track to disconnect the onboard, and bridge a gap in another to make my add on usable.

My plan is to use one of these,
Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 Antenna Kit
I'll drill a hole in my Smarty Pi V2 case for it. I have to see if I have room behind my 7 inch touch screen. I'm hoping I won't have to do anything too creative to make it fit.

I have two already on the way. And some other goodies to play with.

I used what I had on hand and have the external antenna all hooked up and mounted in my Smarty Pi case. From here on in, I will refer to it as My Port-A-Pi.
Modification No. 2 is to add this.
I'll let you guess what it is. It has been modified with a Dremel cutting wheel.
It's going to serve two functions.

I'm currently powering my Pi 4B + Official 7 inch touch screen from a Pi 5, 5V 5A Power Supply. The Smarty Pi case comes with a splitter Cable that is USB C to USB C (Pi 4)+ Micro USB (Touch Screen). I was getting the occasional low voltage warning with the Pi 4 USB C Supply. That should no longer be an issue now, even with stuff plugged into the USB Ports.

just came across my thumb drive full of Magpi magazines pdf files and other stuff ! 90+ files

I have about the same amount of MagPi magazines saved on my Windows PC. I've read a select few in the past. Haven't read any or downloaded nay lately.

I Have my Port-A-Pi all done, as far as current modes go. The PC board I posted above is a Pimoroni Fan Shim. I cut the ears off that would hold the supplied fan. Instead it powers the Fan that comes with the Smarty Pi Case. I just cut the pigtails of the fan and soldered on what was on the Fan Shim Fan. I can then unplug it if I need to open the access hatch, that has the fan mounted in it. Also removed the button and wired up my own. It's mounted in the case and used as a Boot Up, Shut Down button. No having to unplug the Power Supply to make it boot up. Pressing the Button grounds GPIO 3, which signals the Pi 4 to boot up. Pressing the button also grounds GPIO 17. I added a dtoverlay to make that signal a safe shutdown.

Code:

dtoverlay=gpio-shutdown,gpio_pin=17,active_low=1,gpio_pull=up

If I do it this way I can use i2c with no issues.
Fan SHIM at Raspberry Pi GPIO Pinout

I'll post some pictures when I get a chance. Have to go find the camera. I got up at 5AM, took me 20 min to find my glasses, lol

I botched up removing the button with my hot air reflow. I also took one of the solder pads off. That meat tacking my Button wire to were that pad went. Going to have to do some reflow practicing. I have a few SMT already defective boards to practice on. Just have to sit down and do it.

I've had this for a while. I use it a lot in the summer out on my back deck. It's been upgraded Pi wise, 3B+ to a 4B. I could likely put a Pi 5 in there, gets iffy though power supply wise. I don't want to end up having to use two power supplies to run it. Plus I don't see that happening now that I have done these mods. It's a nice little setup, easy to move around the house. The touch is a bit finicky though. My only other complaint "was" the WIFI, I've fixed that now Though. Might have been because the Pi 4 was orientated vertically, not laying down horizontality. The case is plastic so I don't think it was an issue.
I probably could have gotten the antenna mounted in the middle, there was lot of stuff running through there so I opted for a less busy spot for the hole. Lots of room for it to fold down where it is, so I'm happy.