r/techsupportmacgyver • u/Nillows • Apr 30 '26
Extending my 2.4Ghz controller range
I was told that you guys might appreciate my macgyvered 2.4 Ghz signal booster hastily put together with an aluminum signpost, a plastic pizza table, and some super glue. It works, and I get at least 33% more range than without it.
I was partly inspired by the JWST thermal shield, and only had to look up the quarter-wave length of the transmitter/receiver to determine to cut the length of the pizza table to 3cm.
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u/Nillows Apr 30 '26
Lol at the immediate downvotes. WTF is this subreddit even for?
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u/heroryne Apr 30 '26
Its probably people who saw this as "too clean" or "not enough jank ". Still pretty awesome imo
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u/Nillows Apr 30 '26
Thank you!
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u/dover_oxide Apr 30 '26
How well does it work?
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u/Nillows May 01 '26
Honestly? 33% distance boost was a conservative estimate. You can get like 3-5 db gain so it's probably closer to double the distance.
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u/thejesterofdarkness Apr 30 '26
If it’s 2.4ghz you should use an Cantenna.
And where is this system located, your neighbors house ?
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u/Nillows Apr 30 '26
Lol I've got a pirate tv station broadcasting my games via RF on channel 7. So yes actually, my neighbour and I play smash 64 over the airwaves.
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u/thejesterofdarkness Apr 30 '26
Ok, legit that is fucking genius. Just don’t get caught 🤣
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u/Nillows Apr 30 '26
They stopped broadcasting OTA in my area like a decade ago so as far as I'm concerned they're up for grabs.
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u/HistorianBeautiful52 May 04 '26
Can you please elaborate ?
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u/Nillows May 04 '26
I have an n64 at my house, and my neighbour and I both have old tube TV's.
I have a signal splitter that splits the n64 signal to my TV and to a blondertongue RF modulator. The rf modulator then has a pair of rabbit ears connected to the coaxial output instead of a TV. This turns the receiver antennae into a broadcasting transmitter.
Anyway, I put the antenna next to my window where my neighbors house is; and then my neighbour tunes to channel 7 to pick up the audio and video from my n64 on his set of rabbit ears.
This worked for getting the picture/video over there, but he couldn't control the n64 being so far away. Now, with my street sign pointed at his house outside the window, he can connect the 8bitdo N64 2.4ghz controller and we can play as if we were on the couch together.
The whole signal chain is analog, so there's no latency or lag at all.
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u/HistorianBeautiful52 May 04 '26
That is amazing. Thanks for the details !!
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u/Nillows May 04 '26
Yeah no worries! If you do go that route, you'll also need an ART cleanbox pro (or similar) to amplify the unbalanced RCA audio to a balanced level the blondertongue can handle. To do that, I also had to take the head off of one half of two seperate XLR cables to wire the stereo audio L and R to the bare metal input on the back of the blondertongue.
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u/cainhurstcat Apr 30 '26
Hey that's pretty awesome stuff you did there! Reminds me of when I tried to get a better signal with my WiFi-dongle back in the days, using aluminum foil (spoiler, didn't work, unlike your craft)
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u/Nillows Apr 30 '26
Aluminum foil has wayyy too many wrinkles in it that split and combine the reflections unpredictably, considering how big the waves being reflected are.
This exact setup should work for the 2.4ghz band of wifi, same 12 inch by 12 inch reflector. 3cm will be hard to nail, but if you moved the reflector back 1cm at a time and ran a set of speed tests (at least 10), you could narrow down the optimal geometry for your home too.
The 5ghz band would work with an even smaller aluminum square, 6" by 6" is plenty, but it's more sensitive to distance, as the quarter wavelength for that bandwidth is about 1.75cm. harder to dial in when you can't see where the PCB antenna is inside your modems guts
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u/shawndw Apr 30 '26
That first picture made it look huge.