I received 3 RFM69HW moteinos yesterday and tried them out today. Two work great, but one is transmitting very weak signals.
Here are the tests I've done:
--one was programmed with the Gateway sketch example
--all have the supplied 433 MHz antennae soldered on the board
--the other two were programmed with the Node sketch example
--all had high power enabled (#define IS_RFM69HW uncommented)
--I tested each node separately, not at the same time.
--I used the same power supply with each node test, so the power supply is not the problem
One node works very well anywhere in the house, even two floors up.
The other node only works a few cm away. With 7cm separation, the Gateway reports RX-RSSI:-85
I tried resoldering a different antenna (carefully measured to match the length on the website). No improvement.
Next, I re-touched the soldering where the transceiver connects to the moteino (I did not touch up the transceiver). No improvement.
The other "good" moteino reports RSSI:-56 at the other end of the house, two stories up. So, something is amiss with one moteino (or with the moteino user).
Any suggestions would be welcome.
Reporting egg on face :-[
I had thought I had programmed the supposedly misbehaving moteino as high power, but I must not have. I tried it again and it now works well.
Yep, it usually is a small thing like that which is easy to miss.
Just for the records all moteinos are tested before they are packed. They get loaded with a test Node sketch to ensure they can be programmed and that they can transmit and receive as expected (no antennas are soldered but testing without antennas at close range gives a strong signal of -30 to -50dBm depending on type of radio).
There is but a very small chance that anything bad will happen in handling/transit to destination. Static zapping and other side effects are also possible but very very rare, I have not had proof of one happening to me (or I can't remember).
If they are handled decently while being unpacked, soldered and used, and also programmed with the correct firmware parameters matching the hardware, they should perform optimally.