[werk_ag]

Hi

I assume the RF efficiency is a ratio of packets successfully received, versus total packets detected ?

Its ratio between the packets effectively received and decoded versus the total packets sent by the receiver on the last hour.

and it needs to run for at least hour for the measure to be useful ? Is it a rolling average - can you confirm over what time ? or do I need to reset the unit for each test.

No, you don't need to reset the receiver, by the contrary, the longer it is receiving data the more reliable is the RF Efficiency value. After a reset the RF Efficiency starts almost at zero and will constantly increase during the first hour, because the number of packets received is small compared to the number of packets sent by the transmitter on the last hour.

Is there some sort of signal strength indicator - is that what the 3 dots on the front of the touchscreen are ? is it possible to get a signal strength from somewhere ?

No, these radio don't provide signal strength indicator, but there is simple trick which allow to fine tune reception / transmission.
Enable the relay data function, this will make that the TX led will blink each time the receiver gets and decodes a data packet.
No, these radio don't provide signal strength indicator, but there is simple trick which allow to fine tune reception / transmission.

Enable the relay data function, this will make that the TX led will blink each time the receiver gets and decodes a data packet.

Since you know that wind data packets ae sent every 3 seconds, the TX led on the receiver should blink more or less at the same frequency. Now its just a matter of playing with the position of the antennas (first starts with receiver) trying vertical or horizontal position, to get a blinking rate around 3 seconds.

so I corrected that but unfortunately the RF efficiency dropped to 16% Huh There's a lot of things I can try to improve.

This accident may have shown something I tried to say on the previous post. Having the transmitter antenna in vertical position not always ensures the best results, sometimes it works better in horizontal position (per example, in my location, having the TX antennas in horizontal position works always better than in vertical).

On the TX, try connect the antenna directly to the SMA connector.

You may would like to also read topic: Looking for best Antenna model & your opinion on exotic designs

[coupe pete]

Thanks - always good threads to find here. The antenna on my Tx looks a lot like one that Horny tested that performed extremely poorly. I will try with the spare stick antenna from the Rx unit. It will probably fit in the enclosure.

[uncle_bob]

182mm solid wire works well (I've had this on my TX unit since the beginning of time )

[coupe pete]

I have ordered some of the short antennas that tested well, but they are a few weeks away. The short wire tested better than the antenna that looks like the one i have been using so I just made and fitted one. Current RF efficiency is 11% - so we will see if the wire is better   

The good news is that even though the efficiency is poor, it is still uploading data.  The Tx is about 60 paces from the Rx so it is a reasonable distance i am trying to cover.

[coupe pete]

Werk - i could not find VP2SleepInterval. The closest I came up with was :-  VP2PeriodicDisconnectInterval=0  Is that the correct one ?

[coupe pete]

Actually found I need to add it to the file manually.

[werk_ag]

Current RF efficiency is 11% - so we will see if the wire is better   

That is really low, at least you will need 45 to 50% for a minimally reliable system.

The Tx is about 60 paces from the Rx so it is a reasonable distance i am trying to cover.

I suppose you are saying more or less 60 meters. If there is some concrete walls between TX and RX, 60 meters may be complicated.

[coupe pete]

Yes the distance is roughly 60m probably slightly more. Well the good news is the wire was very slightly better than the antenna with a lead - efficiency went from 11% with the antenna to 12% with a 164mm lead connected directly to the SMA connector on the Tx unit. I guess the lead was cheaper - although buying the SMA connector from Jaycar was more expensive than the antenna from Ebay 


The Rx unit was located on top of the windows server, moving the Rx unit about 30cm away from the server has bought the efficiency up to 66%. When the new antennas arrive will see what they do.

[werk_ag]

...with a 164mm lead connected directly to the SMA connector on the Tx unit. I guess the lead was cheaper - although buying the SMA connector from Jaycar was more expensive than the antenna from Ebay 

As said, avoid using any lead cable on the TX unit. Attach the antenna directly to the SMA connector, alternatively try the uncle_bob suggestion, but connected the solid wire directly to the central pin on the TX pcb. When the use of a lead cable is absolutely necessary, its length should be calculated to be exactly a multiple of 1/4 of the wave-length (to avoid high SWR - which cause that TX power is returned to transmitter instead of irradiated, risking damaging it), this is one of the the reasons why those antennas with a cable are the poor performers specially with low power transmitters.

The SMA connectors for the pcb cost arround 1€ on ebay.
Here an example:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SMA-female-pin-...SwcnpTmy8a

The Rx unit was located on top of the windows server, moving the Rx unit about 30cm away from the server has bought the efficiency up to 66%. When the new antennas arrive will see what they do.

I'm not surprised, the PC's (as TV's) are a strong source of interference for radio receivers.