NRF52840 Openthread UDP Range Too Low

RE: NRF52840 Openthread UDP Range Too Low

Sigurd Hellesvik — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 07:51:23 GMT

Transmission power is set in Desibel. See its wikipedia article on how the this works. In general, stronger signals go further.
However, keep in mind that there are directives and such limiting how much transmission power you are allowed to use. See your local radio equipment directives for more on this.

[quote user="MrsIoT"]And do I need to have the receiver set to the same transmission power? [/quote]

Receivers do not need to be set to the same, no. Receivers have something called Receiver Sensitivity, which i guess you can look up.

[quote user="MrsIoT"]In addition, is there a way to select certain channels that have higher range?[/quote]

While channels vary which wave length they use, these differences are generally too small to make any real impact on range.

RE: NRF52840 Openthread UDP Range Too Low

MrsIoT — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 14:26:12 GMT

Thank you for your message.

Just created a private ticket with attached PCB design files. For the software side of things, what transmission power should I set the radio to to achieve highest possible range? And do I need to have the receiver set to the same transmission power?

In addition, is there a way to select certain channels that have higher range?

RE: NRF52840 Openthread UDP Range Too Low

Sigurd Hellesvik — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 10:50:50 GMT

Hi,

[quote user=""]While testing, the systems are working perfectly fine. The only issue I am having is the very low range. When I was prototyping, the range was fairly good. But now that the NRF5240 (from SeedStudio) is soldered on to the PCB; the range has significantly dropped. [/quote]

This sounds like it could be an Antenna issue.

We provide support for both hardware review and antenna tuning.

Can you create a new private ticket and upload your hardware design, also mentioning your low range?
Then one of our hardware engineers will have a look at your design and give you feedback on this.'

[quote user=""]Is there a way to increase the range in software?[/quote]

If you want to try to increase power in software, see otPlatRadioSetTransmitPower().

Regards,
Sigurd Hellesvik