Upgrading the Versa Drape Motor with an External Antenna
Posted on 26th Dec 2025 11:37:29 in IoT, Home Assistant, esphome
Improving Range on Versa / Dooya / Tuya Drape Motors
Adding an External 433MHz Antenna (and Gaining ~11 dB Link Quality)
Most low-cost curtain/drape motors (Versa, Dooya, Tuya-based units, etc.) ship with a printed PCB antenna inside the motor housing. It works, but it’s trapped against the motor body, wiring bundle, and plastic enclosure – so RF performance is marginal at best. In my case, it resulted in weak signals and intermittent control from the other side of the house.
This write-up covers how I added an external antenna safely via the RF feed point. The modification resulted in a measured ~10–11 dB link improvement (from ~-84 dBm to ~-73.5 dBm), which translates to a substantial boost in usable range and reliability.
