Only 25 meters max on dwm1001 outdoors! need help to extend range!

Hi

dwm1000 have been tested and we have got 226 meters stable LOS link and 310 meters max range. It is near 300m, as described in dwm1000 datasheet. OK.
Next
We ordered mdek1001 because of the firmware is providing all thins out of the box.
But there is no any 60 meters LOS link as described in datasheet of the dwm1001
we have got 25 meters max LOS outdoors in a flat field!
Very disappointed.

That is the best way to combine your PANS stack and the good ceramic antenna like in the dwm1000 ?
We thinking about custom module, but that about antenna delay calibration? PANS do not allow to do this calibration.

Also i have tried to flash dwm1001 HEX firmware to nRF52 dk connected with dwm1000 and found out that it is completely do not working.

please help

And i have read this topic https://www.decawave.com/decaforum/showthread.php?tid=904
I have only 1 question now:
How to extend range without custom software? Planning to use custom nRF52 board (absolutely like dwm1001) with dwm1000 attached.
What’s the right way to configure existing PANS software to make this working properly?

Hello Skadi,

With the dwm1000, in order to achieve 200m+, what RF configuration were you using ? (Channel, Datarate, PRF, Preamlble length …)

Also how did you set your transmit power ? (register 0x1e , offset 0x00) ?

The 60m can be achieve with DWM1001 in an favorable environment introducing some reflection. An open field is probably the least favorable environment and it explains the constrained performance.

It is a bit strange pans could not be flash on the nrf52838 development board. What kind of issue have you seen ?

A ceramic issue may help but keep in mind the range highy depend on the channel and data rate which are fixed to channel 5 and 6.8 Mbps with PANS (not necessary the best settings for range)

Let me know how it goes,
Thank you,
Best regards
Yves

Now i have succesfully flashed DWM1001_R1_default.hex to nrf52dk with dwm1000.
New device is visible in decawave android application
Device stated as UWB passive tag.

Looks ok, but if i try to change any settings, the android app hangs out, falls out or says “update failed”.

If accelerometer presence in critical?
May be any OTP-memory settings critical?

Please help to make dwm1001 fimware run correctly on our nrf52+dwm1000. It is key to solve our problem.

Current HW:

Hi Skadi

Any update on this project?
We are also stuck in same situation, in our case DWM1001 default range is much less than 20m

Hi,

in general the antenna of DWM1000 is not much better than the one on DWM1001. I suspect that in order to achieve the range mentioned by Skadi it was probably necessary to use RF parameters favorable for the range (e.g. 110kbps update rate, longer preamble, …) and also the transmit power was higher than the limits. Settings such a RF parameters will limit the overall system performance. Those range numbers are very idealistic and misleading in my opinion.

Cheers,
TDK

Hi,

How can i change the update rate? (is it same a update frequency!!)
if i change it to 110kbps, what disadvantage do i have?

Our project is stopped. It’s way more difficult for us than expected. Real 60-80 m will be enough, but both ways to achive that are difficult or impossible.

May be future new modules or software may help.
But i do not think that decawave will go to complete out of the box solution – it will be rivalry with partner’s software and impact on their business. My opinion only.
Goodbye.

Thanks for the update skadi,

Yes we are also realizing that. with less than 20m range, there is no way some one can use it production. it is only usable for demo.