I live in a four-story apartment building. There is an IOKE868 current meter in the basement. I have a Dragino LPS8N in operation on the top floor. Both devices are connected to TTN and send data. The IOKE868, however, only works if it is located on the top floor. As soon as it is placed in the basement, no data is received. What options are there to improve this situation?
TIA, gatonero
What are SNR and RSSI values when you have the unit upstairs? And what kind of antenna is connected to the Dragino gateway? The one it ships with?
Upstairs is “Rssi”:-25, “snr”:13 and I’m using the shipped one antenna.
A signal strength -25 dBm is super-strong and probably what you can expect when devices are right next to each other. This means the RF path is working in general.
I would try to experiment with the antenna orientation. Make sure they both point in the same direction.
A typical dipole radiates/receives best in the plane perpendicular to the antenna, with a ‘null’ right above and below the antenna. So if they’re right on top of each other, they might both have their null direction pointed at each other. So maybe you could try to orient both antennas horizontally instead of vertically and see if that makes a difference.
In general you should keep the antennas away from other metal structures.