nRF52833 Mesh range questions

RE: nRF52833 Mesh range questions

SRINATH — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 09:26:37 GMT

Hi Hung,

What type of trace antenna is used in nrf52833 dk?

Is it an omni directional antenna?

RE: nRF52833 Mesh range questions

Hung Bui — Wed, 04 Mar 2020 08:57:12 GMT

Hi Sean,

I'm sorry that it's a bit confusing.

The 654m was tested at complete flat surface with no interference. The communication is also at minimum level (you will experience lots of packet drop at this range).

I mentioned 50-100m can be "easily reach" at +4dBm, it's not the max range.

RE: nRF52833 Mesh range questions

Sean Taylor — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 20:36:19 GMT

Hi Hung,

Thanks for the quick reply.

I discovered that by disabling the power to the JTag interface circuit on the dev. kit the range of my kit (not Nordic) increased the range to approx. 40m at 6dBm - roughly in line with the 50-100m @4dBm you mention (perhaps this dev kit is not so optimized, or perhaps there is a lot of 2.4GHz noise in my location -e.g. wifi).

However I don't understand how your expectation of 50-100m at 4dBm Tx power then translates to a measured range of 650m at 0dBm (also with an omni antenna). A factor of 10 greater range implies 18+dB greater link loss.

My next step is to order two nRF52840 dev. kits and I'll see what range I get with those - whether closer to the 50-100 you state or the 650m in your link.

RE: nRF52833 Mesh range questions

Hung Bui — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 13:24:15 GMT

Hi Sean,

Please be aware that if you do BLE mesh with coded PHY you may not be able to pass Bluetooth qualification.

Could you let me know the environment when you test the range. And how did you test ? Do you have any casing that covers the antenna ?

At +4dBm and outdoor light of sight , you should easily reach 50-100m with the omni antenna.
But you need to test using tuned (optimized) hardware. Our nRF52 DK is something you can use to test the range.

Our long range tests showed the range of 654m without coded PHY and 1300m with coded PHY, this is with 0dBm output.

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/nordic/nordic-blog/b/blog/posts/testing-long-range-coded-phy-with-nordic-solution-it-simply-works-922075585