[Please] RSSI of PCA10112 was weaker than RSSI of PC10056

[Jeffery]

Dears

Th case ID of my old question is 218372.

I were waiting for two weeks. However, nobody responded to me.

I wanted to make a BLE mesh product used NRF52840 and NRF21540. NRF21540 can extend the range to prevent

relay nodes efforts in mesh.

At your SDK connect samples. no bluetooth sample was about nrf21540_nrf52840.

At previous case, Nordic FAE told me to refer to DTM sample. But, DTM only for single direction test for radio RX nor TX, either.

So, it was easy to enable 21540 TX as testing radio TX, AND EANBLE 21540 RX as testing radio RX.

For most bluetooth application, the radio was bi-direction and controlled by your BLE controller library.

I had no idea to use API to set PA/LNA pins to BLE controller.

Best,

Jeffery

[Mttrinh]

Hi,

Not so sure why the RSSI is weaker on the PCA10112. 

At your SDK connect samples. no bluetooth sample was about nrf21540_nrf52840.

What version of the SDK are you using? Support for nRF21540 was added to our mesh samples in our latest version v1.8.0, see here.

[Mttrinh]

Hi,

What mesh sample did you try? I would recommmend you try one of the Bluetooth Mesh: Light switch examples found here.

If you only want a bluetooth example to test the performance, I suggest you try out the UART example.

How to setup and test the examples can be found it the example documentation.

[Jeffery]

Hi Mttrinh

1. I had tried light switch example at 21540 DK. The result was same. RSSI was very weak. It seems FEM

    didn't work. Shall I manually add FEM setting as below? Actually, I did read this at documentation.

    However, I cannot understand it. Could you explain it more clearly? Like, step by step.  

2. Would you mind adding these setting in light switch example and share the project folder to me? I used

   Segger Embedded Studio compiler..

Thanks.

Jeffery

[Mttrinh]

Hi,

According to the the attached document you only need use one of the options mentioned depending on your hardware. Since you are using a nRF21540 DK, you should only need to build the sample for nrf21540_nrf52840 board. Is this what you have done?

[Jeffery]

Hi Mttrinh

Yes. This is also my question. Board was selected "nrf21540_nrf52840". But, the advertising RSSI was very weak as scanning on the phone. It was even weaker than NRF52840 DK. 

[Mttrinh]

Hi,

How are you testing this and what is your testing environment? Are you testing in a "noisy" environment with lots of wireless devices around?  

Just note that there will always be many variables affecting the measured RSSI, like radio interference or signal/multi-path reflections for example. 

[Jeffery]

Hi Mttrinh

I tested 21540 DK at shielding room. Used same phone to scan DK.

PCA10056 peripheral > PCA10095 peripheral.

Could you mind verifying this issue for me? The SDK sample got testing

was \TOOLCHAIN\v1.8.0\nrf\samples\bluetooth\peripheral_uart

[Mttrinh]

Hi,

Sorry for the late reply. Have been sick and out of office the past days.

I will see if we can reproduce this issue on our side and come back to you.