uConsole dual-SMA antenna mount
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A uConsole hull that attaches to existing holes and makes 2 SMA-sized holes available for external antennas.
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Model information
- Source
- Printables
- Category
- Portable Devices
- License
- GNU General Public License v3.0
Introduction
I found two or three other 3D-printable uConsole antenna mounts online. I had initially seen Sn0ren's YouTube video where he linked to his version. It is small and light, and I printed it but discovered a problem: the u.FL to SMA antenna cable he recommends is too short for my uConsole — I don't have the Raspberry Pi CM4 version.
Now, I could get another, longer, cable, but I also wanted a platform upon which
to mount at least one other antenna -- one for GPS and maybe one for either ADSB or a second WiFi module, or whatever.
In order to support more than one panel mount SMA, the enclosure must
provide enough room to allow for cable strain relief in two dimensions. So, it appears that I want a larger enclosure than I could find ready-made.
I have created the model below. It has two SMA mounting holes that have an embedded
hexagonal nut for the cables that Sn0ren recommended, and this makes installation much easier. It was worth the effort to add.
Design Choices
The design requires longer M4 screws than those that come with the uConsole,
and I only had some pan-head Philips-head screws. This situation is not ideal
for the wire stand: it can no longer fully deploy. The wire frame will also be
uneven unless you replace the counterpart screw on the other side to match.
I may design a mount that spans the top and makes use of the other screw, such
that at least the wire frame will be even when deployed, though won't lock in place.
The Code
I designed this item with OpenSCAD. The code is fairly bespoke and mostly imperative. It has some parametric code, but is not totally parametric; that's a lot of work and not really necessary for this item. I know that when I search for items on Printables, I am always glad to see the source code, so I'm providing it for you. I really like OpenSCAD (the code resembles C in some ways). Though, I admit that I should probably be learning FreeCAD.
The code includes some optional elements expressed as arguments. For instance, if you want to add 1mm countersinks for the mount screws, you can do that by swapping a “false” to a “true” in the front_face_cutout() function.
Updates, corrections, and additions to the code will appear first in my GitHub repository.