Extending range of regular nRF24L01+
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That last comment on Hackaday was interesting: "There is another way to extend radio range, and you don’t need additional hardware, just some heavy error correction code. We implemented a LDPC (Low density parity check code) on a cortex m3 with a 2.4 Ghz ISM band chip in one of our projects, with very good results."
Anyone try that?
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That last comment on Hackaday was interesting: "There is another way to extend radio range, and you don’t need additional hardware, just some heavy error correction code. We implemented a LDPC (Low density parity check code) on a cortex m3 with a 2.4 Ghz ISM band chip in one of our projects, with very good results."
Anyone try that?
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Regarding the antenna mod, then, does it somehow increase efficiency and thereby increase the effective power of the transmission, or does it merely make it more directional?
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The antenna will have a certain gain, depending on how it's made, this will be added in both directions (TX/RX). The better antenna you make, the better radio coverage you'll get.
One caveat to making them yourself, is that it has to match the impedance of the radio input, otherwise you'll get into troubles with standing waves that will "destroy" your transmitter / receiver.
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Hihi isnt this "other guy " @petewill ?
http://forum.mysensors.org/topic/775/8-lamp-outlet-smart-plug-module/64#
@sundberg84 said:
Hihi isnt this "other guy " @petewill ?
Haha! Well, I've definitely been called worse things than "other guy"... :)
Cool, my video made it on to hackaday! I use this cheap hack all over my house with definite improvement. Like the site says, not the most "technically sound" but it definitely works for me.
My "How To" home automation video channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq_Evyh5PQALx4m4CQuxqkA
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@sundberg84 said:
Hihi isnt this "other guy " @petewill ?
Haha! Well, I've definitely been called worse things than "other guy"... :)
Cool, my video made it on to hackaday! I use this cheap hack all over my house with definite improvement. Like the site says, not the most "technically sound" but it definitely works for me.
@petewill said:
@sundberg84 said:
Hihi isnt this "other guy " @petewill ?
Haha! Well, I've definitely been called worse things than "other guy"... :)
Cool, my video made it on to hackaday! I use this cheap hack all over my house with definite improvement. Like the site says, not the most "technically sound" but it definitely works for me.
Roughly how much improvement would you say? 2x the range, or more like or 50% or less improvement?
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@petewill said:
@sundberg84 said:
Hihi isnt this "other guy " @petewill ?
Haha! Well, I've definitely been called worse things than "other guy"... :)
Cool, my video made it on to hackaday! I use this cheap hack all over my house with definite improvement. Like the site says, not the most "technically sound" but it definitely works for me.
Roughly how much improvement would you say? 2x the range, or more like or 50% or less improvement?
@NeverDie Hard to say really. I haven't done any sort of range testing other than placing nodes around my house. I had nodes that were maybe 50 ft and 6 walls away from the gateway that wouldn't communicate at all and when I put in the antenna they communicate every time. I usually suggest that if you're having issues you give this a try since it's easy, cheap and reversible if it doesn't work.
Maybe some day I'll get around to testing the range but for now I'm using all my spare time to make new sensors :)
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petewill:
Do we need cat5? Will any cable do?
Also do i need to have this antenna at both the tx and rx? Thanks for your cool video! Will try it and report my observations. We've got concrete walls in India.. I am hoping the range is still alright@ssrini2 I have only used cat5/cat6 cable but other wire may work. The stuff I use is solid copper (not stranded). There are many different examples out there of what can help but I have always used the method from my video. I would do some experimenting to see what works best for you. With concrete walls you may find that you want to turn on the repeating functionality on some of your MySensors devices.
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It worked quite well with solid copper wire across concrete. Much appreciated. Thanks. I am now trying to see if there is a smaller length that could suffice for my experiments. Any thoughts on that? Is there a smaller wavelength wire that could suffice? Anway I will post in this forum the lengths that worked for me. Cheers!
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It worked quite well with solid copper wire across concrete. Much appreciated. Thanks. I am now trying to see if there is a smaller length that could suffice for my experiments. Any thoughts on that? Is there a smaller wavelength wire that could suffice? Anway I will post in this forum the lengths that worked for me. Cheers!
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Hi guys, I tried the single wire mod but without any noticeable improvement: with a single wall in between I can't go more than 5 mt or I start getting NACK messages. I'll have to try the dipole or my radio modules are crap (as I always suspected)
@gohan said in Extending range of regular nRF24L01+:
Hi guys, I tried the single wire mod but without any noticeable improvement: with a single wall in between I can't go more than 5 mt or I start getting NACK messages. I'll have to try the dipole or my radio modules are crap (as I always suspected)
Have you first checked your power source ?
Did you put a capacitor big enough and as close as possible to the VCC/GND pins of the radio module ? -
Yes, I'm using both adapters with voltage regulator and caps or 3v from the mega 2560 plus 100uf cap. I suspect the modules because they were very cheap. I'm waiting for the PA to arrive and meanwhile I was just trying to play around with the ones I got.
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Yes, I'm using both adapters with voltage regulator and caps or 3v from the mega 2560 plus 100uf cap. I suspect the modules because they were very cheap. I'm waiting for the PA to arrive and meanwhile I was just trying to play around with the ones I got.
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@gohan said in Extending range of regular nRF24L01+:
Hi guys, I tried the single wire mod but without any noticeable improvement: with a single wall in between I can't go more than 5 mt or I start getting NACK messages. I'll have to try the dipole or my radio modules are crap (as I always suspected)
Tooooooo short! real range of printed antena modules are around 20 to 30m with one wall at midle.
You should have something doing noise,like router on same freq our other 2.4 ghz device on same frequency.
on my case i live ouside city so my router its the only one on 2.4ghz but never cause me problems .
Its really bad luck all your modules come with problemssome of my modules have and laptop antena instead of pcb antena,but only increase range in +/- 5m though walls
there's one increment that i read here from other member did on amplified version; cover the module with aluminium foil ,and leave antenna outside aluminium,i think that avoid signal propagation before antena do this job.(
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I put them on channel 10, that should be away from wifi networks. I leave in the countryside so I don't think I have any other interference. I suspect they are just crappy modules. Hope for the shielded PA to arrive soon (of course all the interesting parts I have ordered are arriving much later than all the other junk :D )
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@gohan said in Extending range of regular nRF24L01+:
Hi guys, I tried the single wire mod but without any noticeable improvement: with a single wall in between I can't go more than 5 mt or I start getting NACK messages. I'll have to try the dipole or my radio modules are crap (as I always suspected)
Tooooooo short! real range of printed antena modules are around 20 to 30m with one wall at midle.
You should have something doing noise,like router on same freq our other 2.4 ghz device on same frequency.
on my case i live ouside city so my router its the only one on 2.4ghz but never cause me problems .
Its really bad luck all your modules come with problemssome of my modules have and laptop antena instead of pcb antena,but only increase range in +/- 5m though walls
there's one increment that i read here from other member did on amplified version; cover the module with aluminium foil ,and leave antenna outside aluminium,i think that avoid signal propagation before antena do this job.(
@Tmaster said in Extending range of regular nRF24L01+:
cover the module with aluminium foil ,and leave antenna outside aluminium
This is very good advice if using the PA version. One of my PA radios was so bad it was actually took down my z-wave network network (yes, z-wave is 900MHz). After wrapping with aluminium foil (and grounding that) it works beautifully.
