nrf2401a range

Hello all,

My partner and I have been working with the nrf2401 for a few months and not only are we having intermittent connection issues, but when we do connect the range is only about 3 feet. I know these things are rated for at least 50’ so that doesn’t seem right.

We have basically used the code from: http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Interf … re/Nrf2401

and after adding serial.begin(9600) at the beginning we have them working but not well, or transmitting fast enough.

Has anyone else used these with the same problems?

Any help would be appreciated.

Luke

What hardware are you using? nrf2401a is just the chip…

Sorry bout that, its this board:

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/152

Those ceramic antennas aren’t very efficient, but you should get much more than 3’ range! I get a lot more than that with the nRF24L01 modules with a similar antenna, which was mounted over a ground connection due to a PCB cock-up, giving poor results.

Well if it helps I have a funny feeling the slow transmission rate and the range are the same problem. Think is has something to do with the baud rate?

Transmission rate shouldn’t have anything to do with it.

The nRF2401A is obsolete, BTW. The nRF24L01+ is much easier to use.

Ok thanks i’ve come across plenty of forums that say that but I don’t have the resources to just order another board…

If I was to buy the nRF24L01+ would it drop in the same way and with the same code? I am unsure how these 2 chips differ…

No, the connector is different, as is the software. It has a proper SPI interface.

I just checked my nRF24L01 modules on my PIC18F4520 boards. I get about 8m indoors but it depends a lot on the relative orientation of the antennae. It would be a lot more with the newer modules with the corrected PCB layout.

I’ve just ordered four of these modules:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NRF24L01-Wireless … 4aa9b64b03

They should give quite good range with the PCB antenna (they claim 100m) and the price is very attractive. The downside is that I’ll have to modify my PCB design for the different connector.