For possible future reference, can anyone here recommend a jackpot compatible ESP32 board with an external antenna connector?
Would this one work?
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CH9JKBC3
Probably not as reliably as a genuine wroom board. Various external antenna boards were tested when the Jackpot 3 was being developed. The results were not impressive - there was little improvement over the built in one.
Actually that might not be a compatible esp32 processor at all - I’m not sure FluidNC supports ESP32-D0WD-V3 chips.
I would get the official Espressif version of the board if possible.
https://www.amazon.com/Espressif-ESP32-DevKitC-32E-Development-Board/dp/B087T94ZH9
These would probably work:
https://www.amazon.com/HiLetgo-ESP32-DevKitC-ESP32-WROOM-32U-ESP-WROOM-32U-Development/dp/B09KLS2YB3
We found, unless you buy the perfect antenna, the externals are considerably worse than the built-in. We could not find the perfect antenna, and were left looking at expensive ones, wondering if they MIGHT be better.
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I did some testing on this and can confirm.
If you have a compelling reason to use an external antenna (for example, the jackpot is inside a metal enclosure), then the Espressif board is the way to go, and use an SMA pigtail and an SMA external antenna.
The one I used was similar to this: (Can’t find the original link)
https://www.amazon.com/Diymall-Antenna-Antennas-Arduino-ESP-072pcs/dp/B00ZBJNO9O
That is the application I was thinking about when I asked the question.
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