Maverick ET-73 Mod

[LilSmoker]

VERY, VERY, nice LS. How much booze did you have to consume to get your hands steady enough to solder that up?
Your hired!!!

Haha! hey iceman you just know how scared i was, my wife said she could smell the fear! 

[Wildcat]

You are more fearless than I with electronics and I am on the other side of the pond where they are readily available.  Nice job!

[LilSmoker]

Thanks Wildcat, well i figured if i messed up, i would have to suck up to Kirk or iceman to organise a replacement Maverick, and i already owe manxman, icerat4 and a few others enough beer to open a bar.

So i thought a few more beers can't hurt 

[Habanero Smoker]

Great job!

[Mr Walleye]

Excellent job!

I know I won't be able to keep my hands off it for sure now!

    

Mike

[LilSmoker]

Thanks guys, i'm looking forward to my next overnight smoke/cook, i'll be able to drift off to sleep whilst watching temps from my bed!

Don't know what the wife will say?, then again she knows how important decent pulled pork is

[Mr Walleye]

I gave it a shot but I didn't see any improvement. Both my garage and house are stucco so of course they have stucco wire. I don't know if this has an effect or not. The garage and house are about 60 feet between them. My house windows are Low-E and Argon filled, again I don't know if this has an effect on it. Prior to soldering I scraped the 3 pads with a razer knife to remove the coating, tinned them and the wire. I tried re-soldering as well thinking I may not have had a good enough connection but still no improvement. I guess on the bright side... It still works!

Mike

[LilSmoker]

I gave it a shot but I didn't see any improvement. Both my garage and house are stucco so of course they have stucco wire. I don't know if this has an effect or not. The garage and house are about 60 feet between them. My house windows are Low-E and Argon filled, again I don't know if this has an effect on it. Prior to soldering I scaped the 3 pads with a razer knife to remove the coating, tinned them and the wire. I tried re-soldering as well thinking I may not have had a good enough connection but still no improvement. I guess on the bright side... It still works!

Mike

Hi Mike, sorry to hear it didn't improve, did you cut the anttena wire to 6 1/2 inches?, as by all acounts this can make all the difference. Is the stucco like reinforcing steel rod?.

I gave mine a good test at the weekend, i had some paperwork to do, so i had the maverick on my pc desk, it worked a charm, i have seen a huge improvement with mine.
My house is built from twin skinned brick (cavity wall) which is quite typical in u.k., and my garage is single skin brick.

I suppose there's lot's of factors to be taken into account?, mine was very limited to short range before the mod, so it must have been the anttena issue in my case.

Anyway might be worth checking the wire length?

LilSmoker

[Mr Walleye]

Hi LilSmoker

I did trim the wire to 6.5 inches from the solder joint. The stucco wire is a wire mesh with something like a 1 or 2 inch opening, kinda like chicken wire if you are familiar with that. I've always had limited success with the Maveric inside the house. I can track the reading just outside the door but not inside it. This is the same result prior to the mod. I may have to get a magnifing glass and have a closer look at the solder connections. That's all I can think of.

Mike

[nodak]

I did sneak mine apart the other night, but that is one small hole.  I'm not sure on me soldering so I thought I would just stick a wire in it like the one forum talked about.  Do you think is a good idea?

[Mr Walleye]

I don't know Nodak. If it came lose or even sticking through the other side it might short something out on the board. I'm no expert here by any means so hopefully somebody with a little more experience will chime in.

Mike

[LilSmoker]

Hi nodak, i think it would be ok from what that guy on the forum said?, but personaly i would prefer solder.
The thing i don't get, is that some who have done the mod with success, have either soldered to just 1 terminal,  or all 3, but it seems to work either way?

As i said in my earlier post, when i tried 1 terminal, it wasn't much of an improvement, maybe i had a bad connection?, but after doing 3 terminals, it's spot on, but Mr Walleye did the 3 terminals without any luck?, unless it is the stucco wire causing a bad signal?

I have to say, if ever i got another Maverick i would perform surgery on it straight away, as the performance difference has been major in my case. Then again hindsight is a wonderfull thing i guess

@ Mr Walleye, did you do your wire running inside the case or out?, just trying to cover all the options

[nodak]

I haven't performed surgery yet.  Can't figure it out I put My maverick far away through many walls and it now seems to work perfect. But I used to loose signal when I smoke.  Regardless I'm going in!  Brought wire home from the office tonight.  If I get time I will perform surgery.  Maybe I knocked something into working when I took it apart?

[Mr Walleye]

LilSmoker

I did run the wire out the same as you did, although I haven't got my hands on something that I can use like the RC antenna to run the wire through. I got my self  big magnifying glass with a light in it. Now I'll be able to see that sucker and check that solder joint a little better! 

Gettin' older ya know! can't see as good as I used too!

Mike

[Mr Walleye]

I tried out my new illuminated magnifying glass. Man did it work good!

Oh ya the solder joints look fine. So right now I don't see anything else other than possibly the building construction issues.

On the weber link where the discussion regarding this took place I noticed a couple of people mentioned thinking about having a look at the transmitter to see about adding an antenna. unfortunately nobody posted anything further.

Any other ideas? I may have to open up the transmitter! 

Mike