Ble chip comparison...!

[iqbalpalemad]

I have purchased a red bear lab ble nano board with nrf51822 and a PICTAIL board with microchip RN4020 chip. i have set Tx power 4 for both boards. The rssi value shown in my android device of both the boards are same up to -90db but after that the microchip shows values up to -99 but blend nano not showing range after -90db. and the range of communication of micro chip is up to 150ft but the range of ble nano is just 60ft. Even though both the device are with same Tx power and i have tested it with same receiver but the range is different so my question is why the range is different . and can i achieve range of microchip for ble nano..? have any power setting other than setTxpower(4) in ble nano

thankYou

[Roger Clark]

The difference in performance is most likely to be the antenna design is more efficient on the Microchip board.

You will also find that the range will depend on the orientation of the BLE board to the receiver as the antenna radiation pattern is not evenly spherical.

Its also possible that the Microchip board transmits further in one direction than it does in others, and possibly the RBL board may have a more even radiation pattern.

But I suspect that the Microchip board probably has better antenna matching to the BLE device and hence is just a more effective antenna setup

[iqbalpalemad]

i have tested the RBL board in all possible orientations but there is no considerable change in either RSSI or range of communication

[Roger Clark]

OK

You'd need to wait for official confirmation by Nordic that their devices transmit with the same power as Microchip, but I thought it was part of the Bluetooth spec for all manufacturers.

Hence the only difference could be antenna matching and antenna efficiency

RBL are a small company and I think they outsource their antenna design to a Chinese company called RFSister.

Microchip probably have their own experienced in-house designers, and possibly better test facilities and would also have more time and money to spend testing multiple different variations of antenna design to get the optimum.

You should probably buy an official Nordic made product like their Beacon and compare that with the Microchip board.

PS. Have you looked in detail at what the antenna's on these to boards look like ?

[iqbalpalemad]

I think the antennas are diffrent

[Roger Clark]

OK. I think that explains your results.