I am trying to use a second antenna with one XBee Pro 900HP with a U.FL connector to pick up a signal from a different location than my first antenna. I see on the chip that there is an open pad next to the connector, is this meant to be used for an antenna? If so, can I just solder on a U.FL connector and it will work fine? Is there any software changes that need to be made?
In the overall system, each antenna will be talking to its own XBee in a mesh configuration which I think I’ll be able to distinguish between them with unique packets easy enough so I am not worried too much about this.
I would be very surprised if you got this to work.
It wouldn’t be an intended use of the product. I doubt the hardware would support it. Even if it did I suspect the software wouldn’t. For example, would it interpret the signal correctly?
In general doing things like this voids warrenty.
It’s possible that the open pad was premade to make the PCB ‘generic’ and might not even be intended for a 2nd antenna.
Anyways, give it a try and let me know what happens. I’m curious.
I ended up just using a splitter for the first pad and it seemed to work out ok but not great. It might have just been for my application that it was not the best solution. I’ve ended up using a second XBee completely which works a lot better.