[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

[Jeffery]

Hi 

Did you reproduce this issue at your side/

Thanks.

If this issue was also found at your side, could you schedule to fix it at the coming ncs version?

Thanks.

Jeffery

[Mttrinh]

Hi,

We have been testing on both v1.8.0 and v1.9.1 of nRF Connect SDK, unfortunately we are not able to reproduce your issue. Everything is working as expected. We tested with the UART peripheral example.

Have you made any modifications to the example before building it?

Can you also test with the latest version of nRF Connect SDK? Do you see any difference?

[Jeffery]

Hi

1. Tried latest ncs  \nrf\samples\bluetooth\peripheral_uart sample at 21540 DK. The result was unexpected.

    During advertising, I used nrf connect for mobile app at my phone to scan DK. The distance between phone

    and DK was 1 meter. If 52840DK, RSSI was -65 dBm. If 21540DK, RSSI was -86 dBm.

2. 21540 DK version is 0.9.1.Would it be a problem?

3. Would you mind giving me your workable hex file of 21540 DK? Let me flash it at my DK.

4. Then, at documentation page for bluetooth sample, There was a topic "FEM Support". It seems developer shall

    set up the project to work 21540. Was it? I didn't do it since I have no idea how to follow the steps. Didn't you

    said 21540 DK board can work  fine only if we chose nrf21540_nrf52840 as board?

Thanks

Jeffery

 

[Jeffery]

Hi Paka

The 21540 IC is version 1 (QDAA-F00) at DK v0.9.1. 

So, at version 2 (QDAA-G00), as you mentioned, the error was fixed.

It means bluetooth samples can run well  for tx/rx directions both, right?

Unfortunately, there was no DK v1.0.0 and above backlog in my company.

I will ask our purchase department to order it.

Jeffery

[Jeffery]

Hi Paka

By the way, .

How about SDK17.1.0 bluetooth examples?

How about SDK Mesh 5.0.0 examples?

Can latest NRF21540 DK (version 2) support them?

Thanks.

Jeffery

[PaKa]

Yes, that is the silicon version which is impacted by the Errata #4 so can fail when operating. All kits shipped from our side (and from distributors) have the updated build code Gxx where this issue is removed. These will work according to spec so support Bluetooth as well as Thread/Zigbee

[PaKa]

The nRF21540 will not be supported in the nRF5 SDKs except for some samples in the nRF5 SDK for Thread and Zigbee. There will be no support for Bluetooth with the nRF21540 in the nRF5 SDK, this will only be supported in the nRF Connect SDK.

[Jeffery]

Thanks for you reply.

If I got new 21540 DK, I will try it and let you know.

Jeffery