Pathetic Range [SOLVED: use the right radio settings!!]

[perky]

Good work Felix! Did you do it that way? Series resistor between RXTX and the switch select pin, and switch select pin on the spare IO pin?
Mark.

[Felix]

oooh!  I can see the headlines now:  "New RFM69 standard from the renowned LowPower Labs!"
Good job, Felix!  Your pick and place does a lot better job than Hope's!

It can do it, but the challenge with 0402 is it's a much smaller part than 0603 and it requires a special teflon pick tool ($700 from DDM). The vacuum pump barely produces enough suction to make the head distinguish (through this hair thin pipe pick nozzle) when the part is ON or OFF the nozzle. So the threshold is very narrow and has lots more retries than 0603 which has virtually none.
I think at this point there would be no advantage to mass produce these in the USA because of several factors.

[joelucid]

I think at this point there would be no advantage to mass produce these in the USA because of several factors.

Also I think power consumption during TX doesn't significantly fall below 16mA for these radios. There's got to be a reason the datasheet only quotes power consumption down to -1dBm. http://blog.andrehessling.de/2015/02/07/figuring-out-the-power-level-settings-of-hoperfs-rfm69-hwhcw-modules/ demonstrates this.

So if it's free - why not shout?