Antenna towards Ground or towards Sky

Now it is only a couple of days until we know if they placed the antenna facing towards the ground https://medium.com/personal-notes-on-the-garmin-f%C4%93nix-3-hr/f%C4%93nix-3-hr-a-non-destructive-teardown-bcfb45f1b746#.2kmze34pl or facing up towards the Sky and the satellites.

On the 18'th of february the internal photos should be public...
https://fccid.io/IPH-03095

0 peakrodent over 8 years ago

treze walk

I reckon it'll be fairly similar to the Chronos:

https://fccid.io/document.php?id=3091131

I believe this is a redesign from the F3/F3HR where the antenna is soldered onto the circuit board.

Interetsing to see though.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

Do you have any experience of the quality of the Chronos's GPS tracks? Are people reporting a noticeable improvement over the F3HR?

Thanks.

0 peakrodent over 8 years ago

There's not a lot of complaints about the GPS accuracy on Chronos but then again not a lot of people have one!

0 Dr Phil over 8 years ago

In the least favourable position to ensure sub-optimal detection of satellites and ensure degraded GPS.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

There's not a lot of complaints about the GPS accuracy on Chronos but then again not a lot of people have one!

Right, good point!

0 Mathias.Bjorklund over 8 years ago

On the 18'th of february the internal photos should be public...
https://fccid.io/IPH-03095

Now the badge is green, but still no link to download the images. Does anybody know how to get hold of the FCC photos?

0 Viluekis over 8 years ago

Now the badge is green, but still no link to download the images. Does anybody know how to get hold of the FCC photos?

Everything is available at FCC:

https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=Qntz9na%2Fs8W8IMquF7uSww%3D%3D&fcc_id=IPH-03095

0 Volker over 8 years ago

Looks like, if they have hidden/removed all interesting hardware parts on the internal photos...

0 Mathias.Bjorklund over 8 years ago

If I interpret the pictures correctly the antenna is placed where there is a void in the inner layers of the PCB at the bottom of picture. When we see the USB connector the board is rotated same as picture 2 in the external photos which means that the antenna is placed on the opposite side of the unit compared to fenix 3 => antenna is placed towards the sky if you run with the watch on your hand.

=> Better possibilities of good GPS performance.

0 ferbpen over 8 years ago

Practice Exit

I don't see this.

I think the antenna space with the void pcb area is the same area as in the chronos picture labeled blue with "antenna". But I don't know what kind of antenna this could be. Maybe it's the wifi or bluetooth antenna.

Please note the three spring connectors in the opposite area. Here the GPS antenna could be connected the same way as in fenix 3 and in the chronos watch.

Are you sure that the blue labeled antenna is the gps antenna and not bluetooth?

Let's hope for the best.... :rolleyes: