Hi,
Is it possible to add additional antenna on the beacon ( NRF51) in order to increase the range ?
If yes kindly let me know the list of available or recommended antenna for this purpose.
Hi,
Is it possible to add additional antenna on the beacon ( NRF51) in order to increase the range ?
If yes kindly let me know the list of available or recommended antenna for this purpose.
Do you mean specifically nRF51522 Beacon Kit (PCA20006)? Then the answer is NO, this kit has PCB antenna and cutting the lines and adding some coax connector and external antenna seems like not worth the job. If you mean another HW or nRF51 in general then indeed you can do various magic by proper antenna design/tuning and you can even add some active amplifier (if your compliance = certification and local law allows). There is even PA/LNA (Power Amplifier/Low Noise Amplifier) support on nRF52 and particular Soft Devices but not for nRF51.
Do you mean specifically nRF51522 Beacon Kit (PCA20006)? Then the answer is NO, this kit has PCB antenna and cutting the lines and adding some coax connector and external antenna seems like not worth the job. If you mean another HW or nRF51 in general then indeed you can do various magic by proper antenna design/tuning and you can even add some active amplifier (if your compliance = certification and local law allows). There is even PA/LNA (Power Amplifier/Low Noise Amplifier) support on nRF52 and particular Soft Devices but not for nRF51.
If using the nRF51822, it is possible to connect a PA to the VDD_PA pin, it is 1.8 V when the radio is in TX mode, and 0 V otherwise. On the nRF51822, a LNA is not recommended: The range can be worsened because the LNA also amplifies noise, and this does not result in a better signal-to-nose ratio.
Hey @endnode are you nordic employee??
Yes I mean specifically NRF51822 BEACON KIT (PCA20006).
No I'm not, Nordic employees are having it written in bio (and having blue rectangle around the avatar).
But you are sure about NRF51822 BEACON KIT (PCA20006) that it is not feasible to add extra antenna.
Well everything is possible but I'm pretty sure it's not worth the effort on Nordic Beacon Kit. Do you see any place where to cut existing antenna and add different one? Do you think it could ever perform better then it is now? However there are HW files available so you can pass it to your antenna designers and they can design. Also it should be possible to completely rework it, run new simulations of the antenna radiation patterns and maybe you will arrive to something slightly better then it is now...
