Extend range of BLE devices

Question

I would like to extend the range of two BLE devices. The first one is a VR BLE controller with a monopole pcb antenna. The second one is an ESP32 Tinypico with a chip antenna.

I bought two pcb antennas : this one and this one.

I don't really know how to solder them on the pcb but I will give it a try. My plan is to replace the antenna of the VRBOX. I will cut the antenna pcb trace and solder the inner cable of the antenna I bought. Then solder the shield of the cable to ground.

Here are some pictures of the two devices and antennas:

Answer 1

You’ll see in the second photo L1, C2 and C3 but only L1 populated - this is fairly standard practice; you’ll track a PCB with provision for some impedance-matching components and then use a network analyser to tune the interface between the IC and the antenna, often using very small capacitances (1pF or less). If you change the antenna, the method you’ve suggested is correct, join both the signal and ground to the coax, either with a connector or by soldering the coax directly to the PCB. If you’re very lucky then the impedance matching will be ok but it’s very likely you’ll see poorer performance unless you have a way to measure and tune the new configuration. You could do it by trial and error, measuring the usable range each time, but that would be quite laborious.