On Fri, Sep 20, 2013 at 4:04 PM, Stefan Monnier monnier@iro.umontreal.ca wrote:
The lack of other answers makes me suspect that all the builtin wifi adapters on ARM systems just suck, IOW what I'm looking for doesn't exist.
there are two factors at play here.
1) the price-war on tablets is driving everything down. if you're putting in a high-quality $5 WIFI module you just made the entire product uncompetitive because everyone else is using $2 modules. when the product BOM is only $30 the higher-quality WIFI module represents a whopping 10% increase in the BOM.
2) low-end portable products need lower-power WIFI modules otherwise the battery has to be larger, and *again* that pushes up the price to uncompetitive levels. low-power WIFI modules tend to have shit-for-brains range
the only other thing i can think of perhaps is for you to take some pictures of the wifi module, identify it, and then hunt around to see if there's a way for example to add an external antenna (or a better external antenna if it already has one). then make sure it's installed in a place that's away from any metallic objects inside the casework.
the only problem with increasing the effectiveness of the antenna is that it can suck more power out of the module's R.F. transmitter (i don't fully understand this but it's what i've heard so i'm repeating it parrot-fashion). so you'll just have to watch out for that, ok?
l.