The thing is that i’m making a project where the space is very tight, and I was wondering if this modules need to be hooked up to an antenna to work, or if the wireless communication will work without the antenna, but at a lesser range.
Is this possible? or I need to place the antenna in each of the modules for transmission? Right now i’m using the Xbee Series 1 with the little antenna cable, but I was looking for a module that works around 5Ghz and at a better speed.
Is there an adapter for this kind of module (SMA), like a female to u.fl connector, or something of a smaller size? Because i’ll be traveling to USA just for one week and the other modules are out of stock.
But I would really need to buy a female version of this product: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/662 Because this antennas are really bulky and space is heavily compromised in my project. But I can’t find anything like that.
There is an XBee with an onboard PCB antenna. I use them for close range testing so I don’t have to deal with an antenna during prototyping. They sell this version at Sparkfun also. WRL-15126.
There are 3 versions
RP-SMA for antenna attached directly to XBee (XB3-24Z8ST-J)
U.Fl for remote mounting antenna (XB3-24Z8UT-J)
PCB Antenna (XB3-24Z8PT-J) No external antenna needed.
And for the u.fl version, does it works without hooking up the antenna? I know the difference between the models but right now sparkfun is out of stock with some of them, like the one with the chip antenna, and I have to make the purchase very soon
OP, you can use the XBee3-Pro U.FL ([Sparkfun 15129, currently in stock) and its compatible antenna ([Sparkfun 11320). There are other antennas that could make the system even more compact, [Adafruit example.
I would be OK using the modules without antennas on a temporary benchtop basis for development but I’d prefer an antenna (or the PCB antenna model) for production or operational use. Without an antenna or other load, a majority of the signal is reflected back into the transmitter. While these devices are pretty low power, I couldn’t say whether this reflected energy will cause damage or improper operation. Certainly, range and efficiency suffer.
zaemo:
There is an XBee with an onboard PCB antenna. …
PCB Antenna (XB3-24Z8PT-J) No external antenna needed.
Mouser has the U.FL back in stock now. There must have been a run on them. As far as the PCB version… I spoke to Digi about it and their answer was to order what you need to cause the distributor to put an order in despite what the lead time says. He said they should take 10-12 days to be delivered.