20dBM difference between NORA-B106 and nRF5340 Nordic DK.

[kammutierspule]

I have a BLE code, when it runs on NORA-B106 it gives me -20dB difference on comparison to nRF5340 Nordic DK.

It was not expected such a big difference, what could be the cause?

[Turbo J]

Poor PCB layout is a likely cause.

Have a look into the "NORA-B1 System integration manual" from Ublox that details how the PCB must be designed under the antenna.

If you had a ground plane or traces below the RF keepout, poor performance will be the result.

[kammutierspule]

should be ok, because I also tested on NORA-B106 development board, it gives me the same difference.

[JONATHAN LL]

How are you measuring the value? 

[kammutierspule]

With some Android App (eg: nRF Connect)

[JONATHAN LL]

So both the module and the Module DK preforms the same in comparison to the Nordic DK?

You can check with U-Blox and ask what numbers they would expect. But there is not much we can do to improve the modules performance. You can set the MAX output power but that about it. 

Regards,
Jonathan

[kammutierspule]

both my module and vendor module DK performs (-20dB) worst than Nordick DK.
The thing is that vendor announce max 400m distance communication and I can't do 4m (inside same room).
While the same code running on Nordick DK performs the expected range.

[JONATHAN LL]

I would check with U-blox on this as it is their module. I would not expect these results to be normal so not sure what is going on.  Difficult to say what's happening here, and it is not something I have heard or seen before from other customers so might be some other issue that is fixable. 

Could you try to use the radio test sample and use the RSSI viewer desktop app from nRF connect Desktop. Connect the nordic DK to the app and use it as a view to see output power on channels. Then on the module use the radio test sample and select single channel constant carrier. 

Should be able to se how low\high the signal strength is then and compare the module to the module DK.  And if you have two nordic DK's then you can compare as well. 


Desktop app:
https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Development-tools/nRF-Connect-for-Desktop 



Radio test sample:
https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/samples/peripheral/radio_test/README.html 


Regards,
Jonathan