Hi All,
I bought a couple of SPARKFun transceivers (nRF24L01+ with chip antenna , ceramic). Working with PIC16F88 on one side and TINI board on the other side. All working great in terms of communication protocol. I’m really disappointed by the “working range”… the max I can get is ~7m inside (1 wall in between)
I use the recommended configuration for maxing out the range… 0dB / 1Mb /LNA set. I use ShockBrurst /Auto ACK with 3 retries.
On SPARKFun site, Product info shows (WRL-00691):
On-board ceramic 2.4GHz Antenna
100m Range at 250kbps
250kbps to 2Mbit Data Rate
So, 100m is given , but for 250kbps, the DataSheet doesn’t offer anyway to go below 1Mbps. Is that a “typo” or is there any “non documented” way to decrease the frequency ?
I think to test the same transceiver but with external SMA antenna. Any clue/advice on how much range I would gain moving from chip ceramic antenna to external antenna ?
Typically, a 20m range inside would work for me for what I’m trying to accomplish. Thanks in advance for anyone wanting to share his experience/recommendations here
That’s about the range I get indoors. Those ceramic antennas aren’t very efficient and are also directional. You will get much more range with conventional antennas, like 1/4 wave verticals. You could use high-gain antennas like a Yagi at each end, or a vertical at one end and a Yagi at the other.
Leon
Hi ,
Actually, writing my previous post helped me to do some review… I saw that I was using the wrong DataSheet… RF24L01 instead of 24RFL01P… this “P /+” offers the capability to bring the frequency down to 250Kbps… with that setting, my range got much better now. I can reach any place inside the house from the controller. Sufficient for me for “Home Monitoring usage”.
Definitively, I think that you’re correct, to get extended range, external antenna is kind of “must do”. Good point about “Directional”… will do some tests/measurements as soon as I get time and will post result.
I rotated the unit I was carrying so that the antennas were aligned, when I was doing some range testing. It made a big difference.
Leon
No doubt on that. Microchip is designing some 4000 ft wireless module, and should be released soon. The budget price is between US$13-2x at 2.4 GHZ.