Differences between RFM69W and RFM69HW

[Spexx]

I want to buy some new RFM69-transceivers and I have recognized, that there is no significant difference in costs between the H and the HW version. At the moment I don't need the higher output from the HW-version, but maybe I could use it sometime later if needed...

So the question is, are there any other differences or only the higher tx output? If I don't activate the higher output via the programm code, is the tx power consumption the same like with the H-version? According the data sheet, the rx power comsumption should be the same...

Thanks

[Felix]

You *HAVE* to use the setHighPower() on the HW otherwise it will NOT work at all. That's merely a switch which tells the library to set the registers correctly in order to use the HW output amplifier instead of the regular one (which is only present on the W not the HW).

You can however set the output power gain to something less than max - apparently on the HW there are only 16 steps not 32.
Anyway you get extra 7dBm of power in the HW which some people prefer to get extra penetration and/or extended range.

The datasheet is a copy cat of the semtech chip. The hardware implementation is different between the 2 versions of the HopeRF hence the datasheet can be misleading and a lot of people ask this question.