nRF52840 coded phy sensitivity

[slowhand]

Hi,

I get RSSI values like -96 or -97 dBm before the coded PHY connection between two nRF52840 pdks drops. Are these values something expected? TI advertises sensitivity of -103 dBm in their youtube video of CC2640R2F. Are they slightly ahead or do I misinterpret something?

[Sigurd]

Hi,

The nRF52840 have -103 dBm Sensitivity in coded PHY(125kbps BLE mode). The reason why the connection drops at -96 / -97 dBm is a bug in the current alpha versions of the S140 SoftDevice. Errata with workaround for this bug can be found here: RADIO: Low sensitivity in long range mode

Fix will be included in the upcoming S140 5.0.0-4.alpha release.

[Sigurd]

Hi,

It seems that some additional workaround is needed to get the full sensitivity in long range mode. I.e. the workaround in Errata 164 is not sufficient to get the -103 dBm sensitivity (and will not give you better range). Final workaround and new version of the SoftDevice will be released when the final verification and testing is complete. Note that the current S140 SoftDevice version is still in alpha version. Sorry for the inconvenience.