What is the max read power I can expect from the Sparkfun M6E nano without an antenna? What length would this translate to in terms of inches/feet? Is there anyway I can have it reading up to 2 feet with no external antenna hooked up to an arduino mega2560?
In the different tests I did :
- the USB connection did not provide enough power to set for 2700dBm in a stable way.
- I had to put the TAG very close ( < 10 cm / 1/3 feet )to the on-board antenna to be able to read it.
Only and external antenna and external power supply I would trust for real implementations
I echo paulvha’s advice; for anything more than a few inches you need both external power and external antenna - it’ll also makes things easy to get the adapter cable and interface cable 