How to improve the communication distance with Gazell?

[Dandingzz]

My gazell configuration is as follows:

#define PIPE_NUM					0
#define	TIMESLOT_PERIOD				2000
#define	TIMESLOT_PER_CHANNEL		2
#define	CHANNEL_TABLE_SIZE			1
#define CHANNEL_TABLE				{18}
#define	SYNC_LIFETIME 			(3 * CHANNEL_TABLE_SIZE * TIMESLOT_PER_CHANNEL)
#define	MAX_TX_ATTEMPTS				3
#define TX_POWER			NRF_GZLL_TX_POWER_4_DBM
#define TX_DATARATE			NRF_GZLL_DATARATE_1MBIT

Payload size: 22bytes

frames per second: 100

When the communication distance up to 2 meters, the device often cannot receive the ACK from host, or the host cannot receive the packet form device. I don't know that is normal or not? Can I improve the communication distance by setting up a more reasonable configuration?

[Hung Bui]

2 meters are too short, it should be much more than that. You may want to send us or update here your schematic and layout of the boards, a close-up photo is also useful.

[Dandingzz]

Here is my schematic, layout and close-up photo of the board:

In the board, I use the balun 2450BM14E0003 and the chip antenna 2450AT42A100E. The thickness of the PCB is 0.8mm. Can you please tell me what's the problem with this design? How much is the normal distance? Thank you~

[Hung Bui]

Your board looks OK. Could you try to test with the radio example or the ESB example in the SDK ? Just to check it's not the hardware issue.

[Dandingzz]

I have tried to test with the ESB example, and the same result were obtained.

[Dandingzz]

And here is my configuration in the ESB example:

#define PIPE_NUM									0
#define	RETRANSMIT_DELAY					600
#define CRC_LENGTH								NRF_ESB_CRC_LENGTH_1_BYTE
#define	CHANNEL										18
#define	MAX_NUMBER_OF_RETX				10
#define TX_POWER								NRF_ESB_OUTPUT_POWER_4_DBM
#define TX_DATARATE								NRF_ESB_DATARATE_2_MBPS