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nRF24 transmission range

Alessio

Hi,

I'm trying using a setup with transmitter based on nRF24L01P and receiver with nRF24LU1P using Enhached Shock Burst.

The problem is the transmission lock (three failed attemps on TX side) if the receiver is placed more than 1.5m away from the transmitter. I'm using the nRF2726 board from the development kit as receiver and a SPI module with nRF24L01P and PCB antenna from a local supplier as transmitter.
The transmission is 4byte every 10ms. The setup is in a home environment in the same room.

What is the reasonable distance of transmission?

Can be the PCB printed antenna not strong enought?

Is the limit of 3 attemps in TX too low?

Are the receiver and transmitter intended to remain in a fixed position during activity?

Thanks.

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  • 0

    1.5 m is extremely short, you should get 40+ meters easily. Try another frequency in case there's something that disturbs the channel. Same channel on both sides of course. Use the default address

  • 0 in reply to ketiljo

    Hi, so far I tried 3 different channels, 0, 54 and 70. But the problem is still there.

    We have the development kit nRF6804 rev.1.2 2019.12 and 3 unbranded modules equipped with nRF24L01+.

    To avoid any issue with the 3 modules, I used the nRF2726 as a transmitter and the nRF24LU1+ USB dongle as a receiver both from your development kit.

    The transmission is fine within 1.5m away. Between 1.5-2m only if devices are in a fixed position. If someone is moving between them or one device is moved (a gently movement like rotating the pcb) the transmission slows down and/or lose packets. Trying the system with TX and RX at 8m of distance the reception never begins using nRFgo development kit PCBs. But with 2 of the 3 unbranded nRF24L01+ modules as transmitter and the USB dongle from the development kit as receiver, the reception works more or less fine even at 8m distance.

    The firmwares on the devices were developed from your SDK material using the enhanced shockburst examples of PTX and PRX integrated with the bootloader example to manage the USB part. I attach keil projects and .hex files.

    Where I'm testing there is a WiFi network.

    What can I do? Try other channels? Select a 1Mbps bitrate instead of 2Mbps?

    Using the nRF2727 module with a physical antenna instead of a PCB antenna can bring some benefits? We didn't try it yet because we don't have a physical antenna compatible with the connector.

    Thanks.

    TX_nRF24LU1P.zipRX_nRF24LU1P.zip

  • 0 in reply to Alessio

    I've taken a look at the code and there's no obvious errors that I can see.

    Can you post a picture of your setup please? There's something seriously wrong with your setup that causes this. 

  • 0 in reply to ketiljo

    Here are some photos on how devices are used. There are less than 2m from TX and RX and the transmission is fine only if no one is moving in between. If someone is sitting on the chair we can observe delays of some seconds and the data flowing is non linear.
    If one of the PC is 6m away from the other (in the same room) the transmission never begin.

    The TX is the one with the USB cable.

  • 0 in reply to Alessio

    The setup looks ok. To rule out the USB traffic, setup the receiver to toggle a pin and check the status if it, with a LED or an oscilloscope to check that you are receiving the packets you should. 

    One problem with these older devices is that debugging isn't easy, but you can toggle pins to check where the packets get lost. 

    If you don't have noise on the channel and the radio is setup correctly, which it looks like it is, you should not see packet loss like this.

  • +1 in reply to ketiljo

    Setup:
    Upper traces: Yellow and Cyan
    Under traces: Magenta and Blue
    Transmitter: device in the left angle (lower) in the video
    Receiver: device in the right angle (upper) the device is directly connected do the PC (only for power supply)

    Oscilloscope Traces
    Upper traces are the data sent from Transmitter device
    Lower traces are the receiving data by Receiver device

    CASE ONE - Video MOV_1155
    Transmitter receiving data from USB and transmit them, when I put the hand between the devices the communication stop workingMOV_1154_000.rarMOV_1155.rar

    CASE TWO – Video MOV_1154_000
    When we move in air the transmitter the data are lost by the receiver (the transmitter continue to send the data correctly)

    CONCLUSION
    We can confirm that the problem is in your KIT devices, I ask you to send us a complete Transmitter and Receiver KIT (nRF24 or nRF5X)

Reply
  • +1 in reply to ketiljo

    Setup:
    Upper traces: Yellow and Cyan
    Under traces: Magenta and Blue
    Transmitter: device in the left angle (lower) in the video
    Receiver: device in the right angle (upper) the device is directly connected do the PC (only for power supply)

    Oscilloscope Traces
    Upper traces are the data sent from Transmitter device
    Lower traces are the receiving data by Receiver device

    CASE ONE - Video MOV_1155
    Transmitter receiving data from USB and transmit them, when I put the hand between the devices the communication stop workingMOV_1154_000.rarMOV_1155.rar

    CASE TWO – Video MOV_1154_000
    When we move in air the transmitter the data are lost by the receiver (the transmitter continue to send the data correctly)

    CONCLUSION
    We can confirm that the problem is in your KIT devices, I ask you to send us a complete Transmitter and Receiver KIT (nRF24 or nRF5X)

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