BLE TX weak signal in nRF Connect SDK

RE: BLE TX weak signal in nRF Connect SDK

Kenneth — Tue, 20 May 2025 12:07:15 GMT

Get yourself access to a spectrum analyzer, measure the output power and compare. That is the only proper way of doing this.

Kenneth

RE: BLE TX weak signal in nRF Connect SDK

ekidsalan123 — Tue, 20 May 2025 01:45:27 GMT

Hi Kenneth,

I would appreciate it if you could provide any updates regarding this issue. Thank you.

RE: BLE TX weak signal in nRF Connect SDK

ekidsalan123 — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 12:30:54 GMT

Hi Kenneth,

Sorry for not explaining it in enough detail. In our test, if you use NCS firmware, you will see the RSSI signal disappear before you connect to Bluetooth, which makes it impossible to connect.

Using the same test method, using the nRF5 SDK firmware, a weak RSSI signal can still be seen, which makes the connection possible.

Best regards, Alan

RE: BLE TX weak signal in nRF Connect SDK

Kenneth — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 12:21:24 GMT

Are you 100% sure the connection parameters are the same? E.g. interval, latency and supervisor timeout? If the link is marginal that can have quite a large impact on the link loss.

Kenneth

RE: BLE TX weak signal in nRF Connect SDK

ekidsalan123 — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 08:50:05 GMT

Hi Turbo,

Absolutely I knew that's not a good idea for using BLE communication.

But this may happen in cases where our customers cannot control the usage.

What we are actually curious about is why the new SDK is worse than the old one? Under the same conditions, this should not happen, which will make us give up using the new SDK and new products.

This has been verified on more than one PCA10040 development board.

We only used human bodies for testing, but I think that maybe using other masks to reduce the signal would give the same results.

In summary, please focus on why the signal of the new SDK firmware is worse than the old one after being masked or interfered?

RE: BLE TX weak signal in nRF Connect SDK

Turbo J — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 06:43:22 GMT

[quote userid="119766" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/121090/ble-tx-weak-signal-in-nrf-connect-sdk"]Place a metal chair (made of iron) in an empty space, place the PCA10040 on it,[/quote]

Bad idea. The metal would either introduce a ton of directionality to the signal or could even be just a dead short. Bluetooth is not expected to work properly with large metal objects present near the antenna.

Using the human body as a testing tool is another bad idea, you also get an mountain worth of variance here.