Good way to recognise fake NRF24L01+ is measurement of current consumption. The best is measure current in power down mode, genuine chips have about 500nA (datasheet says 900nA) but fake copies has over 3uA usually 4uA.
In transmit or receive mode have fakes a little higher consumption than genuine. Genuine Tx-0dBm~11mA, Rx~13mA. Fakes have about 2mA more than genuine and it's consuption is out of datasheet range!
step-up regulator is not needed for 3V the easiest way is removing stabilizer an diode and replace by wire. HC-SR01 sensor inner works with 3 to 5V
The main difference of this module is: this module uses genuine NRF24L01 IC, another brown PCBs contain in most cases fake NRF24L01, probably overlabeled SI24R1!
I think that range was better than fake NRF.
Good way to recognise fake modules is measurement current in power down mode. Genuine have about 500nA but fake about 4uA! But if you use PA+LNA version the power consumption is a little higher.
I use red PCB marked as E01-ML01D and there is range better than modules with fake NRF.
You can compare power consuption, if you received this new module. I think that your old module contain fake NRF and have worse current consumption. Original module have about 1uA in sleep mode, fake module have worse!
At this module seller declared power down mode current under 1uA, you can check your current module in power down mode, if current is significantly different you have got fake.
Blue - parts to be removed
Red - wire or tin short circuit
