Hmmm… I’m personally looking into creating an 802.15.4 design based on either the Motorola MC13192 or Chipcon CC2420. I’m leaning towards the Chipcon due to the integrated antenna switch (not looking to throw in amps to the legs or use separate antennae), so smaller PCB and simpler design for the same results. I’m definitely going the route of the printed folded dipole as cost is important I want to hobbyist-mass-produce them eventually.
I recently bought 2 NRF2401A Mirf modules. I have them hooked up to a pic and used the example source code as a starting point. Reception seems quite poor ( seconds between each time Data Ready goes high). I don’t believe that is just noise as if I turn off the transmitter the DR never goes high.
I have added big delays between the data and clock when writing to the nrf2401 thinking that my timing was too fast. This doesn’t seem to help.
I noticed in the comments in the Sparkfun source code that a large percentage of packets were being dropped. Is this a problem with the NRF2401A? Likely it is some error on my part but I have worked with rf chips before and haven’t encountered this type of problem. I am using the shockburst data transmission mode at 1MB.
Read through some of the other nRF posts. The configuration of the nRF plays heavily into the number of dropped packets. 250mb, 16bit CRC, and 32bit addresses seem to be the sweet spot for us. It probably changes on Thursdays.
Btw - nice crystal find SOI. We’ll drop a couple onto the next digikey order.
I want to hobbyist-mass-produce them eventually.