I have 2 of these units that I have configured to send some sensor data between. I had previously done range testing with V1 boards and had established that what I wanted to do was achievable. Getting the boards to talk has not been a problem but I am not getting anywhere near the range that I had achieved with the V1 boards.
After some testing, it appears that I get max RSSI in any given scenario with the Tx power set to 14dbm - any setting over this only results in a lower RSSI. It is the same result regardless of which unit I use to transmit or receive. I have reduced my data requirements to a bare minimum (10 bytes once a minute) and optimized all settings for max range but still can not achieve a link. At a point approx 10m away from the intended receive location I can get the occasional packet at a reported RSSI of -105dbm.
The older board seemed to have much better performance at higher power output settings as well as much better receive sensitivity. Has anyone else had a similar experience?
I have now ordered some V3 boards and I am hoping that they live up to the specs…
Wifi LoRa 32 v2 LoRa Tx Power issues
Beware what antenna you use… the Heltec stubby antennae that are shipped with the boards are famously bad (as far as I’ve encountered). Can agree on the <-100 RSSI on less than 10 meters albeit not the slowest datarate.
Might be worth swapping antenna between boards and see if that makes any difference.
Thanks for you response. I have tried multiple different 433MHz antenna and do get a reasonable improvement over the standard antenna. However, even with the standard spring antenna on these boards @ 14dbm Tx power, I can manage to get a couple of kilometers. Don’t be confused with close range performance at high Tx power - you will overload the receiver and get a poor response.