change phy in mesh

[kassianson]

I'm working with the nRF52840 PDK and I'm wondering how to change the PHY (preferably to CODED) in a Mesh. Has that been implemented yet? Or when can we expect this feature?

[Jeff Seaman]

Yes there is a great difference in the range. and more importantly to me it get through the local interference inside. I tested the range on our production floor. But I have not done any real range testing due to the weather here.

[matsublox]

Been a while since i visited this topic. Any news? Done any test on newer versions of the Mesh SDK?

[matsublox]

I know that the mesh spec does not support Bluetooth 5 but the question was If anyone testet the ”trick” above to enable coded PHY over Mesh in the latest version of the Mesh SD!  We are interested to  see what cab be achieved in future long range mesh. 

[Jeff Seaman]

I am testing Long Range now with the intent of integrating into the mesh,.  So far I have had nothing other then the Throughput test used by Nordic for range testing do anything with the long range.  I saw a drop in throughput but have not tested the range yet.

[matsublox]

Hi Jeff,

Are you using the latst version of the SDKs to do this an used Hung's method as decribed earlier in this thread?

Mats

[Jeff Seaman]

One of the problem I had testing long range was that my nRF52840 dev kits have a revision AA chip.  I have since acquired 3 Rigado bmd-340 dev kits with the newer chips they are functional using the sdk15.2_mod example.  Still looking at how this will work with regular BLE before trying the mesh

[matsublox]

Please keep me updated on your progress. We intend to test this ourself but  i do not know when yet.

[Jeff Seaman]

I just ran the test this morning.  The patch provided above is working on the SDKforMeh3.10.

With the Rigado units I was able to Achieve 560 feet on the Long Range as compared to 266 feet with the 1MBIT PHY.  What is disappointing is I got 560 Feet using the 1MBIT PHY on the Nordic Dev kits.  I did find a Par of the nRF52840-PREVIEW-DK that worked on Long Range and got 700 feet. I think there is some local interference from the terrain as I should have gotten about 1000 feet.

On the whole I am disappointed in the performance of the meandering antenna.  Any Ideas for a better antenna design that a monopole like on the Nordic Dev kits I am space constrained of course make the antenna smaller and get more range.