DaGeneral’s Telescopic Antenna Mod
by CaboWabo
Of course you’ll need your controller and a telescopic antenna. You’ll first determine the best spot on the controller to place the antenna. The type of antenna DaGeneral used has a screw hole at the base and is rather heavy once extended and is about 2 feet in length when extended. DaGeneral decided to secure the antenna using the screw on the top center of the controller. That also happens to be near the original antenna, and would make it easier to solder the two.
Next, DaGeneral proceeded to cut a groove on the controller casing, large enough to allow the antenna to be placed where the screw goes. Depending on the tools you have it may be easier or not. However, make sure you cut just enough as needed, you will be debilitating the casing by removing the plastic that gets secured by the screw. Also, make sure you only remove the plastic from the back piece, not the one that has the actual hole where the screw gets tightened (the front piece, the one with the main controls on it). Now it?s time to disassemble the controller and find where the original antenna goes. Make sure you remember where all the pieces go before you do anything, understand the basics of the antenna. Once you have the controller disassembled, it’s time to move on to soldering the antenna.
The basic principle is this: You secure the antenna to the controller and you solder a wire from the new antenna to the base of the old antenna. Depending on the new antenna that you will use, you may find that there are various options. The approach DaGeneral took is not the best one, in retrospect. DaGeneral soldered a piece of wire directly on to the antenna. If DaGeneral had the patience required, he would have soldered the wire to a loop plate that in turn gets screwed in the same spot with the antenna, making contact. This would have made it easier to disassemble the antenna in the future. The other end of the wire, DaGeneral soldered to the base of the antenna, or any other metal in direct contact with the old antenna.
Almost done, you need to assemble the finished piece. Make sure all pieces fit tightly and you put all the right buttons in place. This controller has a tendency to have its pieces come loose when disassembling, and it takes good hand / eye coordination to get it done. Turn it on and make sure it works. Viola!
