Xbee Pro 900 Range Problem

Wireless & IoT
1

I recently purchased 2 Xbee Pro 900 with an SMA connection along with the Xbee Explorer Regulated. I bypassed the diode and I am able to get the Xbee’s to communicate and pass data back and forth to one another.

I am having a problem with the range. I can only get the Xbee’s about 200ft from one another before they loose the signal. I have duck antennas attached to the Xbee’s and the Digi website states that the range should be about 1.8 miles.

I have used the X-CTU software and performed a range test with the Xbee’s side by side. The best signal strength I could get was -80db. I have tried cutting a piece of solid core wire and touching the other antenna contact points on the Xbee thinking that maybe one of the SMA connections was bad or not soldered correctly. There was no improvement of the signal.

With one of the Xbees connected to the computer running X-CTU and the other one connected to 5V power, I can remove both antennas and still get a signal strength of -80db. When I reverse the Xbee units I get -82db with the one or both antennas connected and it drops to below -94db when I remove both antenna.

2

I get about 500 to 600 feet with my pro 900 sma’s with duckie’s

That is with both running off usb power.

One connected through an arduino xbee shield (original shield, not sparkfun (800 mA regulator))

The other connected to sparkfun usb explorer, (At lower power with the 150ma regulator).

Transmitting from inside wooden house with vinyl siding to my car with the device on the dash.

You have any obstacles between the two xbees?

Dave

3

XBees in close proximity (a few feet) should report a signal strength of about -30 to -40dBm.