Zigduino r2 onboard antenna performance

[ilia...@gmail.com]

I was wondering in anyone has done any tests with the new Zigduino R2 boards. How is the performance of the antenna? Indoor/Outdoor range?

Thanks

[Pierce Nichols]

Not formally, in large part because it depends very heavily on how the
board is used and what the local environment is. Typically, I have got
~200 feet indoors in a wood-framed building with no shields installed
and a few WiFi users in range.

-p

--
Pierce Nichols
Principal Engineer
Logos Electromechanical, LLC

[ilia...@gmail.com]

Thanks for your response. If the antenna was placed closer to the board edge, would that increase performance? I think the SMA connector used in revision 1 was quite a convenient feature. I noticed there's an SMA footprint on Revision 2 but it's close to the middle of the board. That makes it difficult to have an external antenna and a shield (ethernet shield for example) installed at the same time :-(. 

I also have a question regarding the battery. What short of battery do you recommend for this board? How many volts?

Thanks.

[Pierce Nichols]

It's an MMCX connector footprint, not an RP-SMA. The height of an MMCX
connector plus a right-angle cable connector is short enough to clear
most shields, and you can run the cable out to an external antenna.
See http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/CONMMCX001/CONMMCX001-ND/1277204
and http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/WCP2400-MMCX4/994-1079-ND/2392258.

The charging circuit is designed to handle a single Li-Poly cell. For
example, I often use this battery from Sparkfun:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/341

I am considering pulling the antenna out to the edge of the board for
the r3 version (still quite a ways out) and placing the MMCX footprint
such that you can install a right-angle connector pointed off the end
of the board.

-p

[Ilias Patsiaouras]

On Monday, 13 May 2013 19:24:48 UTC+3, Pierce Nichols wrote:

It's an MMCX connector footprint, not an RP-SMA. The height of an MMCX
connector plus a right-angle cable connector is short enough to clear
most shields, and you can run the cable out to an external antenna.
See http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/CONMMCX001/CONMMCX001-ND/1277204
and http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/WCP2400-MMCX4/994-1079-ND/2392258.

Understood. That's really helpful thanks.

 

The charging circuit is designed to handle a single Li-Poly cell. For
example, I often use this battery from Sparkfun:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/341

OK. Thanks. Looks like the 3.7V of a single cell LiPo is just enough to turn on the MIC5201 :-)

 

I am considering pulling the antenna out to the edge of the board for
the r3 version (still quite a ways out) and placing the MMCX footprint
such that you can install a right-angle connector pointed off the end
of the board.

I think that is a good idea. Similar to revision 1.