I have been having serious range with very low RSSI issues when testing the ESP32-1CH-LoRa modules. Today I noticed that on the front of the board are 2 small jumper pads located between the hole marked ANT and the UFL connector. (They can be seen in the hook-up manual where it discusses the antennas) So using a DVM I determined there is no actual electrical connection between the module ANT to the UFL connector.
SparkFun please verify this and should there be a connection as in a jumper? If not then explain how the UFL is gets its connection to the radio module as I can not see any using my DVM.
I am most concerned that if this is true then I have effectively been running my module without an Antenna which may have damaged the radios. A big big no no.
Did a little more testing. I removed the antennas I had connected to the UFL and instead mounted straight wires in the ANT holes on both the TX and RX. They are 6.125" long (1/2 wave)
The results were dramatic with the reported RSSI dropping from the previous >-100 to ~-65 at 10 meters thru house walls. This basically confirms the UFL connectors are not jumpered and in other words not connected to anything.
And WOW I just checked out a SF UFL at " https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/th … -using-ufl " and looking at the pictures the jumper I suspect is clearly there. And I don’t see anyplace where SF is telling their customers that this needs to be connected…NOT GOOD
Yes I see that now after you pointed it out. I wonder why SF doesn’t mention it any other place, especially in the tutorial talking about the UFL connector, which was recommended by TS-Mark in an earlier response? ( viewtopic.php?f=117&t=51338 ) The question is for SF not necessarily you n1ist.
Mike is correct here. The LoRa Gateway ships with that jumper open by default so users can use a wire antenna soldered to the ANT pin. In order to use the u.FL connector you would need to close that solder jumper.
I hope this helps clear up any confusion about the default configuration of the LoRa Gateway.
Interesting on the SparkFun Pro RF - LoRa, there isn’t any jumper on that board. Hmmm… I hope that this discussion leads to spark fun editing their tutorials at least to mention this little detail about the required solder jumper.
I think you may be confusing the [Pro RF - LoRa and the [LoRa Gateway. The LoRa Gateway does have this jumper present (labeled UFL) and it is covered briefly in the guide [here. The Pro RF LoRa does not have an antenna jumper but it does have jumpers on the bottom of the board to enable LoRaWan for the RFM95W radio module on the back of the board. The tutorial you linked in your previous post here shows the LoRa Gateway with the u.Fl jumper configured for an external antenna with a u.Fl adapter cable.
Sorry I am not confused! Quite the contrary, the Pro can use both the UFL and a wire antenna. and there is no jumper required that needs to be soldered. Can you please tell me what the heck the LoRaWAN jumpers on the Pro have to do with the antennas?
And your “here” link is exactly where a simple comment saying that a jumper needs to be soldered to use the UFL connector, would have been nice and all the confusion could have been prevented. Not sure the customer should be required to have to read the schematic.
All of this is probably mute as we considering options for another LoRa radio module to use in our project development. I fear these were damaged by testing with an antenna, which wasn’t actually connected, because of the incomplete tutorial information.