Xbee Scenario Questions. Range, Parts, etc.

Wireless & IoT
1

Hello

I’m planning a project that will possibly use two Xbee units to communicate. The transmitter will be some type of base station to send commands, and the receiver will communicate with a microcontroller programmed to control a few servos. The receiving device will be outside, strapped to a tree in my front yard enclosed in a wooden box. I will be sitting inside at a desk looking through the window where the receiving device will be in view about 15 feet away from said window. The only obstructions will be the glass window, and the wooden enclosure.

I’m planning on using the series 1 Xbee radios (ex. https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11215 ).

  • Would the trace antennas work for this application?

  • should I go for external antennas? (U.FL)

  • could I get away with a trace on the transmitter side with an external on the receiver side?

If I had to guess based on the research I have done so far, I’d think that the trace antennas would work fine.

Thanks!

2

The trace (or patch) antenna should work fine. The window will not attenuate the RF by any noticeable amount.

The wire antenna on the XBees does have a better range and really does work well. I would go with the wire antenna before an external (U.FL) antenna.

The Xbees should have a range cover 50ft with the patch antenna and over 100feet with the wire antenna looking through a glass window and wood enclosure.

3

Awesome! thanks for the info, it was just what I was looking for.

waltr:
I would go with the wire antenna before an external (U.FL) antenna.

Just for curiosity and knowledge for the future - where would be a good application that you would use an external antenna?

4

1- Where on XBee to beyond the typical range but is in ‘line of sight’ one could then use a high gain directional antenna.

2- Where the Xbee needs to inside of a metal enclosure then a coax can connect to a ‘bulk head’ connector (feeds through the metal enclosure) with an external antenna.

3- Where the XBee needs to be but has RF blocking obstacles, then an external antenna can be mounted to clear the obstacles.

4- Where a different antenna pattern may be desired. #1 is one such case.

Just a few scenarios.