SimpleLink™︎ Sub-1 GHz Wireless Microcontroller - Check Received Signal Strength

RE: SimpleLink™︎ Sub-1 GHz Wireless Microcontroller - Check Received Signal Strength

Jan Cumps — Fri, 18 Nov 2016 18:46:54 GMT

Competition time:

At the moment [mention:6e474abc33b64a82aa78c9813503c962:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] (rural area) and [mention:b0bc65b9ecdc4307bd967592f00e340a:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] (metropolitan area) are the owners of the Sub-1GHz range record.

Peter claims "the back of his garden". In Canada, where the gardens are long (and high) that's impressive. Shabaz says "at least a housing block, 290 metres".

(TI claims 10s of kilometers with their CC112X device - but that requires mountain ranges, few other signals )

I also live in a metropolitan setting, so I'm trying to do better than shabaz.

And I'm going to do the attempt with two very nice antennas that he has kindly given me.

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They are two Pulse Electronics "Outdoor 868 & 915 MHz Antennas". 18 cm decent quality flexible antennas with an SMA connector.

Outdoor means that they can widstand the elements - in particular UV.

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Electrical Specifications

Frequency [MHz] 868 - 928
Nominal Impedance [Ω] 50
Return Loss (dB) -8
Gain (dBi) 2
Polarization Omnidirectional

I now need to order conversion material to connect the LaunchPad's male Murata JSC connector to the antenna's male SMA connector, and a few 0R resistors to convert the CC1310 LaunchPads from PCB antenna to external.

The on-board connector (Murata MM5829-2700) is very tiny, but good quality. But the miniaturisation has its impact: the female connector that fits on that has a guaranteed life cycle of no more than 30 connections.

,[View:/resized-image/__size/111x102/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-cdfa950c-0b01-4ca0-8dce-09a622a73f94/1581.contentimage_5F00_188514.png:111:102]

I'm going to purchase 2 female JSCs and 2 female SMAs. I'll then mount the transmitter LaunchPad on my balcony in Schaarbeek, Brussels.

I'll carry the receiver with me trough the area. It's a hilly area here and my house is on the top of one of the hills.

It's possible that I loose contact and gain it back when moving up the next hill.

A big disadvantage is that the national Radio and TV tower is very close by (as in: I can see it from my street)

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If I don't post here again in the next few days, it may be because one of the following entities doesn't like my endeavours.

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Tell 'm I did it for science [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-cdfa950c-0b01-4ca0-8dce-09a622a73f94/3162.contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16]

RE: SimpleLink™︎ Sub-1 GHz Wireless Microcontroller - Check Received Signal Strength

Jan Cumps — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 09:53:17 GMT

Edit: I've added these instructions to the main article.

If you want to re-load the Out-of-Box firmware (the project will be included in the next TI-RTOS release, but currently unavailable), you can do that by:

Connecting the LaunchPad.

Browse to here: Welcome to CC1310 Launchpad

Locate the button that says ~ CC1310F128 and Click it

Done.

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RE: SimpleLink™︎ Sub-1 GHz Wireless Microcontroller - Check Received Signal Strength

Robert Peter Oakes — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 01:37:34 GMT

I have just posted a overview of the CC1310 on my YouTube channel for those that are interested, I did a quick crude range test and I have to say, these are awesome compared to earlier boards like the CC110L Booster pack. Over 3X the range in my simple test. If the one module was actually above ground I suspect the range will be way way more. That's a test for another video.

[View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxrnF_hQl7s:440:330]

Oh and if you happen to have any BOOST-SHARP96 modules, these will be used with the default app so you don't even need to connect to a PC to try them out. Awesome.

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RE: SimpleLink™︎ Sub-1 GHz Wireless Microcontroller - Check Received Signal Strength

DAB — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 19:27:58 GMT

Good simple test for wireless communication.

Sometimes it is also useful to use a wired connection to verify the protocol before adding the wireless hardware.

DAB