How can i control a rssi of the BL600 series ?

[Takayuki Yoshinaka]

Hi,

I am developing ble apps with the BL600.
I am coding a source file with the keil IDE. And this source is deployed to the nRF51 DK board through the nRFgo Studio.

Now, i am considering that i want to adjust the strength of rssi value.

First, i tried to use the 'sd_ble_gap_tx_power_set' method for it.
An argument of this method was 4.
And i built it and deployed it to the BL600.

But, a rssi did not become a stronger.
A rssi had shown about -80 dBm.

Next, i deployed the same code to the nRF51 DK board directly.
Then, i checked a rssi value, it had shown about -35 dBm.

My questions:

• Can the 'sd_ble_gap_tx_power_set' method control a strenght of rssi on the BL600 ?
• Is there other methods which be able to control it ?

I thank you for reading it through.

// yoshi

[Ole Bauck]

Hi Yoshi

In the Laird BL600 module you can control if the VDD_PA pin is connected to the antenna circuit, this is done with a transistor and controlled through pin P0.20. Configure P0.20 as an output and set it low to connect the VDD_PA pin. If the VDD_PA is not connected the output power will be dramatically reduced (approx. 40dbm).

[Ole Bauck]

Try this instead:

nrf_gpio_cfg_output(20);
nrf_gpio_pin_clear(20);

which should be equal to this:

NRF_GPIO->PIN_CNF[20] = (GPIO_PIN_CNF_DIR_Output << GPIO_PIN_CNF_DIR_Pos);
NRF_GPIO->OUTCLR = (GPIO_OUTCLR_PIN20_Low << GPIO_OUTCLR_PIN20_Pos);