Battery Sensor v 1.0 PCB
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I'm about idea'd out. I put a 200 uF electrolytic directly on the Vcc and Gnd terminals of the radio module and it made no difference whatsoever ... the sensor fails to report beyond about 10 meters and one interior wall. That doesn't leave much upside.
I'm at a loss at this point, I've tried different radio modules to no avail. I've taken the radio off the board ground plane to no avail.Thus far the only thing I've found that allows decent distance is a radio with the PA/SMA antenna and that simply eats battery. I can't make hide nor hair out of the scanner output ... the channel variation doesn't appear to be more than a few percent for the most part so it doesn't look like that's much of a solution.
I admit to being curious if anyone has actually had these things work beyond the workbench :)
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I'm about idea'd out. I put a 200 uF electrolytic directly on the Vcc and Gnd terminals of the radio module and it made no difference whatsoever ... the sensor fails to report beyond about 10 meters and one interior wall. That doesn't leave much upside.
I'm at a loss at this point, I've tried different radio modules to no avail. I've taken the radio off the board ground plane to no avail.Thus far the only thing I've found that allows decent distance is a radio with the PA/SMA antenna and that simply eats battery. I can't make hide nor hair out of the scanner output ... the channel variation doesn't appear to be more than a few percent for the most part so it doesn't look like that's much of a solution.
I admit to being curious if anyone has actually had these things work beyond the workbench :)
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@clippermiami said:
I admit to being curious if anyone has actually had these things work beyond the workbench :)
Maybe your house is just a lot bigger than ours :office: :laughing:
@Yveaux While I suppose that's possible 10-15 feet is still 10-15 feet :-)
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I'm about idea'd out. I put a 200 uF electrolytic directly on the Vcc and Gnd terminals of the radio module and it made no difference whatsoever ... the sensor fails to report beyond about 10 meters and one interior wall. That doesn't leave much upside.
I'm at a loss at this point, I've tried different radio modules to no avail. I've taken the radio off the board ground plane to no avail.Thus far the only thing I've found that allows decent distance is a radio with the PA/SMA antenna and that simply eats battery. I can't make hide nor hair out of the scanner output ... the channel variation doesn't appear to be more than a few percent for the most part so it doesn't look like that's much of a solution.
I admit to being curious if anyone has actually had these things work beyond the workbench :)
@clippermiami said:
I'm about idea'd out. I put a 200 uF electrolytic directly on the Vcc and Gnd terminals of the radio module and it made no difference whatsoever ... the sensor fails to report beyond about 10 meters and one interior wall.
Do you know what's inside that one interior wall? Could it have anything which would interfere with RF (more than the typical wood 2x4's and two sheets of drywall do)?
Some people have definitely had better results.
I think you said that you had changed out the radio module, but did you try any from a different source or batch?
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@clippermiami said:
I'm about idea'd out. I put a 200 uF electrolytic directly on the Vcc and Gnd terminals of the radio module and it made no difference whatsoever ... the sensor fails to report beyond about 10 meters and one interior wall.
Do you know what's inside that one interior wall? Could it have anything which would interfere with RF (more than the typical wood 2x4's and two sheets of drywall do)?
Some people have definitely had better results.
I think you said that you had changed out the radio module, but did you try any from a different source or batch?
@Zeph it's just ordinary drywall. In the interest of complete disclosure, there is a floor-ceiling bookcase on the wall but if this stuff is THAT sensor then ... :-)
The radios are all from an order about a month ago so they are probably the same batch. I have another batch of 10 coming but that's probably a week away yet.
About the only thing left is to change radio channels but the numbers the scan don't tell me much, they don't vary but a few percent, so I am at a loss where to go.
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@Zeph it's just ordinary drywall. In the interest of complete disclosure, there is a floor-ceiling bookcase on the wall but if this stuff is THAT sensor then ... :-)
The radios are all from an order about a month ago so they are probably the same batch. I have another batch of 10 coming but that's probably a week away yet.
About the only thing left is to change radio channels but the numbers the scan don't tell me much, they don't vary but a few percent, so I am at a loss where to go.
@clippermiami I hope to release a network sniffer for NRF24 in the near future which might probably help you to diagnose the problem. It captures all on-air packets and also shows which ones have CRC errors.
The amount of packets with CRC errors is a good indication of the link quality.http://yveaux.blogspot.nl
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@clippermiami I hope to release a network sniffer for NRF24 in the near future which might probably help you to diagnose the problem. It captures all on-air packets and also shows which ones have CRC errors.
The amount of packets with CRC errors is a good indication of the link quality.@Yveaux thanks, I look forward to it :-)
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@clippermiami: How about ACI, Adjacent Channel Interference?
Having a WiFi background I know the 2.4 GHz band is also used by others, microwave oves, WiFi, Bluetooth etc.
Been working on WiFi - Bluetooth coexistence and although they do not share channels, Bluetooth transmitting on 10 dBm can impact WiFi dramatically if the separation of the two devices is small.
You could try moving both devices at least 5 meters away from other equipment and see if it makes a difference.
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@clippermiami: How about ACI, Adjacent Channel Interference?
Having a WiFi background I know the 2.4 GHz band is also used by others, microwave oves, WiFi, Bluetooth etc.
Been working on WiFi - Bluetooth coexistence and although they do not share channels, Bluetooth transmitting on 10 dBm can impact WiFi dramatically if the separation of the two devices is small.
You could try moving both devices at least 5 meters away from other equipment and see if it makes a difference.
@daulagari A possibility. I have three separate Wifi Access Points running in the house two 2.4 GHz 802.11n and one 5 GHz 802.11a. The 11A and one of the 11N points are in a dual band device, the other 11N is part of my AT&T uVerse router. I have them forced to specific channels, but none of then adjacent to the MySensors default (CH 76 as I recall), the highest one is the 11A on Ch 36
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I did have a chance for one more experiment. I had a SEEED "DevDuino" I bought to play with but haven't used yet. I swapped the radio from that module onto my sensor board and I was able to get reporting from another 10 feet away so there is definitely something related to the individual NRF24L01 modules --- different batch I guess. It still doesn't get me to even the other end of the house (perhaps 20 meters from the GW) let alone outside anywhere.or through outside walls.
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@daulagari A possibility. I have three separate Wifi Access Points running in the house two 2.4 GHz 802.11n and one 5 GHz 802.11a. The 11A and one of the 11N points are in a dual band device, the other 11N is part of my AT&T uVerse router. I have them forced to specific channels, but none of then adjacent to the MySensors default (CH 76 as I recall), the highest one is the 11A on Ch 36
@clippermiami said:
I have them forced to specific channels, but none of then adjacent to the MySensors default (CH 76 as I recall), the highest one is the 11A on Ch 36
The NRF24 channels (Freq [MHz] = 2400 + channel) are not the same as WiFi channels. Ch 36 for WiFi is in the 5GHz band but can you share the 11n channels you forced the AP's to?
See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels for a list of WiFi channels and their frequencies.
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@clippermiami said:
I have them forced to specific channels, but none of then adjacent to the MySensors default (CH 76 as I recall), the highest one is the 11A on Ch 36
The NRF24 channels (Freq [MHz] = 2400 + channel) are not the same as WiFi channels. Ch 36 for WiFi is in the 5GHz band but can you share the 11n channels you forced the AP's to?
See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels for a list of WiFi channels and their frequencies.
@daulagari Yes, my error, 36 is in the 5GHz band.
The 2.4 GHz channels are 5 and 11. There are some neighbors' Wifi on Ch 1 and 2 but they are heavily attenuated.
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It occurred to me that the one thing I had not changed was the GW radio. I had one spare NRF24L01+PA+SMA so I swapped it in the GW. That appears to be the fix --- I can now see the sensor module all the way out in the yard at the far end of the house, through outside walls and a half dozen interior walls. I doubt i'll get the 450+ meters reported elsewhere on the forum but its a LOT better than the 10 feet I was getting :)
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It occurred to me that the one thing I had not changed was the GW radio. I had one spare NRF24L01+PA+SMA so I swapped it in the GW. That appears to be the fix --- I can now see the sensor module all the way out in the yard at the far end of the house, through outside walls and a half dozen interior walls. I doubt i'll get the 450+ meters reported elsewhere on the forum but its a LOT better than the 10 feet I was getting :)
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Sounds good!
@hek just my luck, the USB on my Vera Lite has packed up so now I can"t do any more testing until I sort that out. Maddening
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I plan to use also a CR123 for my board. I bought some CR123a rechargeable on ebay but the battery give me 4V when it's charged... is it a problem to give 4V to a 3.3V step up converter? is the "a" after CR123 say that's a 3.7V instead of a 3V or is it just because of the rechargable function? is your CR123 give also 4V when it's charged?
Thank's so much
Julien
