Ricoffee Cantenna (coffee-tenna?)

T

Tower110guy

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South Africa.
I want to make a cantenna with the big ricoffee tin.

I have a short arial that comes with the pcmcia.It has a 20cm wire with pigtail at end and then a plastic ice-cream stick sized aerial.

Has anyone had success with this make of (coffee )tin ?
Where would i insert the antenna.

I dont want to stuff tin up unless i know what i am doing,coz we only get one of these tins per month per budget!

PS did u know that nescafe costs 5 x ricofee?
 
http://www.nemr.net/~aschmitz/antennas/calcantenna.html - Yagy antenna calculator

http://www.saunalahti.fi/elepal/antenna2calc.php - Cantenna calculator

http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/PringlesCantenna - Pringles Cantenna

http://www.wwc.edu/~frohro/Airport/Primestar/Primestar.html - Modify old dish ?

http://rodent.za.net/gallery/cantenna - RoDent Cantenna galery



Package :256
Tower :36 Bedfordview
Signal : 11
S-N-L : 4
BER : 28%
Antenna : Patch - Batenna
Speedtest (Rodent): 138.6
Speedtest (int) : 79.2
Time of Test :20:02
Comments : Dang !

Pass the whiskey please! I need to dunk my Pringles ....
 
I have used the Pringles, Ricoffee and tennis ball can with success. Use the calculator for positioning the whole, and for best results just use the modem antenna.

The Tennis ball can was the best. More solid.

However, better results have been obtained by buying a cantenna from the USA, and getting a pig tail locally from Webb Industries. I got my Cantenna from "Etherdesigns" (comes with tripod connection), and strange as it may seem, better results by pointing the antenna at a wall. Microwaves tend to bounce a lot.
 
Poynting were recently considering importing the Super Cantenna.
I don't know what the outcome is though, but the person doing
the investigation was Louis.


<font color="blue">Bay of Plenty: </font id="blue"><font size="1"><font color="black"> Signal 46% - SNL 17 - ber 71%
</font id="size1"></font id="black">
 
Just tried the Frisco can...Not to bad - at least it allowed me to block off T82 which is a real pain in the butt...

Pringles still seem to be no 1 for now.

-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;

...and Gandalf stared into the distance with a faraway look of gold...
 
I have noticed that I get about 50% better performance with a smooth non-ribbed coffee can as compared to a blue pringles can (both properly designed) - with the coffee can I get about 8dB gain whereas the pringles can only provides around 3 or 4 dBs. This seems to vary depending on location as well.. sometimes its the other way around (at other peoples houses etc) perhaps due to LOS vs reflected signal effects.. so this cantenna business is not a *simple* science [:p]
 
I also initiated discussions with both Etherdesigns and Super Cantenna about importing them, but actually, I decided against it because I am not sure how many people would actually buy them.

The Etherdesigns sells for $30 and it would be cheaper for people to buy direct. For me to make $5 an antenna will not be worth it, because can you imagine the amount of s**t I would have had from all on this Mywireless forum. You could get blamed for blowing up modem and other things, like slow speeds. Not worth it.
 
Oy boy... "this cantenna business is not a simple science" is sooooo true.
I've tried both the Pringles and Dunlop Tennis ball can (attached directly
to the IPW antenna) and although the Dunlop can has a very slightly higher gain...
it is a LOT more work. So my vote goes with the Pringles for least effort greatest gain!

As for importing proper Cantennas... I think that there is going to be a growing
demand for something more professional. In fact maybe those interested should post
to this topic with a "I want one" and let's see if it is worth importing a small crate
of them!!!!! I'm prepared to try and do something here if there is demand
(I'm NOT interested in trying to make a profit here either... just giving us MW users a better solution). Maybe ProAsm can assist here... he may well know of someone locally who is prepared to manufacturer them to our local specification and with the proper pigtail etc..
Post “I want one” to this topic… and lets see if there’s demand!!!


<font color="blue">Bay of Plenty: </font id="blue"><font size="1"><font color="black"> Signal 46% - SNL 17 - ber 71%
</font id="size1"></font id="black">
 
I have ordered quite a few things from the states. It is easier if the individuals order direct. The guys (in the states) are more than willing to assist, and are very helpfull.
 
Robone, OK.
I'll leave it... but I do have spare space in containers that
arrive from Ohio once a month though.
Care to tell us the gain improvement of your proper Cantenna vs Pringles?

<font color="blue">Bay of Plenty: </font id="blue"><font size="1"><font color="black"> Signal 46% - SNL 17 - ber 71%
</font id="size1"></font id="black">
 
Making your own cantenna is part of the fun of getting MyWireless. Chances are, if someone hears about the cantenna option they will be on the forum already and all the instructions are here anyway. The gain (no pun intended) offered by using a pre-manufactured cantenna will be marginal I.M.O anyway.
 
Well, if you have space in containers, then I am sure a lot of the people on this forum would like to take advantage of it.

As far as the gain, it was, is about the same as a tennis ball can, but it lokks a whole lot better. More acceptable on my desk.(to my wife)
 
thanks especially tp MYDRAADELOOS,

20%,but rscp factor changed too

speed per rodent 1]= 88k 2] 112k 3] 119k ,the fastest speeds i've got so far.even though i have patch which gets 25%,those other factors are influencing the speed more than i thought.

Heres what i did: measurements per mydradeloos calculator link

1]20 cm long ricoffee tin
2]cut it down to 15cm
3]took ice cream stick arial which comes with pcmcia modem and cut it down to 3 cm (i.e. cut the top off so leaves 3 cm at bottom)
4]cut the one wire that goes to one side of aerial leaving a little stub of wire
5]sticky taped the bottom of the aerial so that no electric contact could be made with tin
6]cut a line parrallel to base of tin 3.6cm from base
7]inserted 3 cm ice cream stick pcmcia arial (still having the wiring on front side)
8]sticky taped the other wire stub to nearest contact point on side of tin.

plugged it in.

help it up

i'm spartacus
 
Towerguy, what sort of improvement did you get?

-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;-&lt;

...and Gandalf stared into the distance with a faraway look of gold...
 
Scarface,

Similar to patch antenna,i.e. improves signal in a bad area from virtually nothing to about 20%

but what amazed me was speed increase was much better than with patch.I am not sure if this was because of spiking or network related speed up or why.Not scientific but that was my experience
 
while we're on the subject of the weirdness of cantennas - funny thing:

i can put my cantenna's front AGAINST the wall it's standing next to and it keeps the signal.

But if I put my hand in front of it, the signal drops and goes.

Why is that? Could it be the effects of that radioactive spill I was in? :) j/k

<hr noshade size="1"><font size="1"><i><div align="right"><font color="red">i haven't lost my mind, it's backed up on disk somewhere...</font id="red">
tower82.randparkridge.jhb|13% signal|256k package</div id="right"></i></font id="size1">
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">i can put my cantenna's front AGAINST the wall it's standing next to and it keeps the signal. But if I put my hand in front of it, the signal drops and goes. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Does the signal drop more when your hand makes contact to the cantenna? Compare the cases where you hand is making contact vs. no contact but still close to the opening.

Ajax
 
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