I did a performance test of the latest atben/atusb version, testing the quality of two-way communication at various locations in my appartment.
The test setup consisted of a Ben with atben, running on battery, and atusb plugged into my PC at the front side, only few cm above the floor. I tested at 2425 MHz, with maximum transmit strength (3 dBm or 2 mW), and maximum-sized packets (127 bytes). Command on the PC: atrf-txrx -p 3 -P 1 Command on the Ben: atrf-txrx -p -P My apartment is a duplex, and I tested at both floors. Here's the approximate layout of the upper floor: http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/wpan/tmp/apt-wa.pdf The blue dot is the PC with atusb. Distances are in cm. The living room is underneath the bedroom and the office. There's also a terrace on top of it all. This is a high-rise building with steel reinforced concrete on the outer walls and hollow bricks in the interior walls. Communication inside the office was perfect. I also had a good signal in the bedroom, unless I put myself in the path between door and Ben, with my body close (< 20 cm) to the Ben. As I approached the stairs, communication became more unreliable and failed completely at certain angles. Going even further away, communication became unusable. Inside the bathroom, the two stations would hardly notice each other, let alone communicate. It is of course somewhat galling not to have wireless while on the throne, so I guess I'll have to put another "access point" somewhere nearby. Interestingly, I also had very good reception in the entire living room. Nothing made it to the terrace, which suggests that there's some metal sheet for isolation. I also tested Atmel's non-standard 2 Mbps high-speed data rate. It worked perfectly in the office and was still acceptable in the bedroom and in the living room. Beyond that, it decayed more rapidly than with the normal data rate of 250 kbps. All this confirms that an atben/atusb combo can now achieve the "same and adjacent room" coverage I was hoping for. - Werner _______________________________________________ Qi Hardware Discussion List Mail to list (members only): [email protected] Subscribe or Unsubscribe: http://lists.en.qi-hardware.com/mailman/listinfo/discussion
