I have this board up and running with esphome and openthread. Unfortunately the onboard antenna is pretty weak. Is there a chance to connect an external one? The board doesn’t have a connector so I wonder if I can still solder that somehow.
Yes, this has been done before, but it is not trivial. Your board uses a PCB trace antenna.
There is no connector or antenna switch. That means no clean upgrade path exists. People usually cut the RF trace. Then they solder a coax pigtail. The shield goes to ground.
The center goes to the RF feed. This requires steady hands and RF experience.
The following links may help regarding antenna design and modification.
It’s a bit bigger but this board has a connector for an external antenna.
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The form factor would be good but I am running Thread, so I need an ESP32-C6
Just found this, don’t know if they break out the pins you need or not but it’s worth a try.
Tiny Matter-Native Board for Smart Home - XIAO ESP32C6 https://share.google/mfTnSYLxo0jJS06bF
You can solder a coax to the onboard antenna pad to add an external antenna, but it’s delicate and might affect performance just make sure to follow the board’s antenna layout carefully.