I’ve been using an MSI Trident X pre-built for a few years for my Windows/gaming box. Most of the parts in it are standard ITX and recently I decided to pull the guts out and put them into an SFFTime ITX case I crowdfunded.
The parts are mostly standard, but on the motherboard, MSI did remove the Wi-Fi antena ports and just soldered in these cables. They go to the bottom of the Trident-X case where they’re soldered into an antenna that was in the base of the case.
I had to clip the wires. I should probably solder these to a standard BNC connector and just use a router antenna using those holes on the case. I don’t use Wi-Fi, but do use bluetooth for PS4/xbox controllers.
My question is, which wire do I solder to which wire on the connector? On the MSI board, one of the two wires has a red piece of shrink wrap. I don’t even know what the internal structure of a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth antenna looks like? Is it just a big UHF type coil loop, or does the direction the wires are attached matter?
Since it’s a screw terminal, it will be easy to flip to find the right polarity. I’ll get an SMA to RP-SMA adapter so I can fit on one of my spare Wi-Fi antennas.
God I’m an idiot. That metal thing those wires are coming out of? It’s just a shield for a standard mini-pci Wi-Fi module in a vertical M.2 slot. Just like in any laptop. I’ve seen these posts on so many motherboard and always though they connected to an internal/soldered on Wi-Fi controller, but I bet most of them just have a little M.2 wi-fi card in them.
I just removed the shield and the connectors are stock. I stole one of the pigtail/antennas from my router and it works.
