Introduction#

About the Range Test#

The range test demo provides measurement results regarding the quality of the RF link. The demo uses at least two RF nodes. One node is used as the "transmitter" (TX) and the other(s) as the "receiver(s)" (RX). The transmitter sends packets to the receiver(s) repeatedly. The packet includes the self and remote IDs and the number of the sent packet. The packet number increments from packet to packet. The receiver receives the packet and checks the IDs. If they match, the packet number is stored and the received packet's RSSI displayed. Packet loss is therefore recognized by a packet number increase of greater than 1.

To conduct a range test, you will perform the following steps, described in more detail in later sections.

1. Connect the radio boards to the mainboards.

2. Connect the mainboards to the PC, select the Flex (RAIL) - Range Test example and configure your custom settings using Radio Configurator. The range test is performed as a one-way radio communication. Configure the devices so that one is in RX and the other is in TX mode. It is important to set the self- and remote-IDs of the participants correctly.

3. Build the project and flash the image to the device.

4. If UART communication is not used, unplug the devices from the PC, put batteries into the mainboards and switch them on.

5. Start the test on both devices.

6. Actual packet transmission can be started at the transmit side by pressing START again.

7. Follow the progress of the test on the LCDs.

The Range Test Menu System#

The Range Test applications have a clean menu system for configuring the measurement parameters both for the transmit and the receive side. The configurable parameters and the functions of the menu differ by the applications, and are described in Configurable Parameters.

Any application created for a Silicon Labs Development Kit is configured to use the Wireless Starter Kit mainboard LCD panel and push buttons to navigate through the menu. This is the default user interface, but other options are available to configure the device.

A Command Line Interface (CLI) is also provided for each application. Therefore, the LCD and/or the push buttons are not needed to use these applications, making the examples more suitable for custom designs.

Selection Guide for the Range Test Applications#

Flex SDK 3.x provides four types of Range Test application, which are classified in the following table.

Custom PHY vs Standard PHY Applications#

Custom PHY Range Test applications are intended to evaluate the built-in or custom radio PHYs (defined in the rail_config.c file). Standard PHY means Bluetooth LE (BLE) or IEEE802.15.4g protocol PHYs configured with RAIL APIs. With these applications these two protocols' RF performance can be evaluated.

Single Protocol vs Dynamic Multiprotocol#

The Single Protocol applications supports both the CLI and push button/LCD interfaces to the application's menu.

EFR32 devices with Bluetooth LE stack support (devices from the EFR32BG|MG families) programmed with the Dynamic Multiprotocol (DMP) Range Test applications can be connected to a Bluetooth-capable smartphone. Once the connection is established, the receiver/transmitter node can be controlled by the EFR Connect smartphone application, which virtualizes the default menu system on the smartphone's screen. This makes the DMP Range Test applications portable for custom designs even if those have no USART capabilities.

While the DMP applications can also be used like the single protocol applications, through the mainboard's push buttons/LCD or the CLI, the smartphone control and visualization of the results may have some advantages over the regular experience. However, advertising, collecting the measurement results, and maintaining the Bluetooth LE connection requires more power. Because of this, the device should periodically switch between the Bluetooth LE and the other (measurable) radio configuration.

Note: DMP applications require more RAM and flash memory than the single protocol applications.