Trampa WAND connectivity issues - Gathering feedbacks (SERIOUS)

The forum when Frank Says anything:

Sorry for the derail. I do end up feeling bad for Frank at times. It reminds me of Jerry from Parks and Recs at times or Toby from the Office.

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Frank said the effect of “place the antenna so it has a straight shot to the wand”, “stuff on the antenna can negatively affect its performance.”,“Hot glue could cause attenuation”,“Try removing the hot glue to fix the issue”

None of these statements are inherently stupid. You just don’t want to admit that Frank is actually being reasonable this time.

Like I said in my original post, test it before you mock it.

In this case, testing is actually quite straightforward. NordRF, the chip manufacturers have an app that you can use to measure the signal strength of Bluetooth devices.

  1. Download the app “nRF connect”
  2. Turn on your board and measure the dBm ~4 feet above your enclosure, or roughly where the remote would be.
  3. Carefully clean the hot glue off the antenna module
  4. Measure the dBm in the same spot again

For the most accurate testing, it would probably be a good idea to measure the height each time

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@Pimousse You should include a poll in your first post, because in the original Wand thread I saw a lot of people having connectivity issues and blaming the metal case of the remote itself. Haven’t followed that thread in a while so I don’t know if anything changed.

Make a poll! Something like Working fine / Small glitches / Noticeable disconnects

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It actually is pretty stupid when there isnt a single other RX that has this requirement. Also, you are making assumptions when you say “You just don’t want to admit that Frank is actually being reasonable this time”. He isnt right this time. You just don’t wanna admit it :slight_smile:.

If 20 people are in the hospital with food poisoning from ground beef they bought at Walmart, do I need to go buy some and make burgers and sick before I can say that’s bullshit? No, I don’t, just like any other reasonable person. But you keep on with the kool-aid, its a good look for you :slight_smile:.

Asi I said way earlier in the thread, a part you didnt seem to read…

Have a nice day sir.

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I think Frank cast an ancient bavarian voodoo spell of perpetual triggering on @mmaner
It’s like groundhog day. Got old and boring a long time ago.

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Nope, that is not the one. Receiver side we use a module from Taiyo Yuden with a PCB antenna.
Wand side it is a 52840 with 8dBm.

Especially the very direct area of the antenna needs to be treated with care, since this can have quite an effect on the performance. So hot glue with hydrogen bonds are probably no good idea in this area.

However, if you change something and then you get issues that were not existant before the change, the logic approach is to go back to the configuration you had before and see if that resolves the issue. If it does, you know the source of the problem. Simple as that…

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Oh no, it happened again… :slightly_frowning_face:
@Trampa @mmaner @PixelatedPolyeurthan @NullReference and co.
Please fight in another place. I want to gather feedbacks of users.
I retain this post as the most useful amongst other users feedebacks (and some others about receiver alternatives) :

  • Deck : Trampa Holypro
  • Enclosure : eBoard Peru (should be glass fiber, TBC)
  • Placement :
  • Nothing changed in the placement. , I removed all old hot glue from ESC and receiver, I added a stripe of foam on the ESC edge then re-glued ieveything at the same place.
  • I can test with a new set of batteries to clear that point. :+1:

What should be kept in mind is that I DID HAVE already jerky behaviours BEFORE servicing.
It didn’t become bad, it became worse.

SERIOUS tag has been added to the title.

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That is not ideal placement wise. Next to the unshielded power stage and upright. Try to place it in a different location, edge of the enclosure but horizontally orientated.

I won’t rely my safety only on how is placed the receiver.
Nobody should.

Let’s make differencial diagnosis to isolate the root cause of these issues first.

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Just did 5km to my workshop holding the remote with the left hand (I’m right-handed).
That was a awkward ride but at least the remote was tail side (bc I’m goofy), thus closer to the receiver.

No issues noted (at least not remote related) although I had issues the first 50m holding the remote with the right hand (nose side).

So the root cause is definitely the remote - receiver connection weakness.
I’ll try a new set of batteries (Presently, the WAND estimates its battery level at 33%).

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The battery will not have an impact as long as the Wand works.
You had the receiver diagonally opposite of the remote + receiver upright, which is the worst scenario you can create. Once you relocate the receiver, everything should work just fine.

You probably missed my previous reply :

Here’s thereafter troubleshooting processus :

  • Test of a new set of batteries for then WAND
  • If still issues : test of an alternative receiver (with external antenna if possible)
  • If still issues : swap for a reliable GT2b
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@Pimousse how is your testing going? Some improvements so far?

Do we have an of the shelf nrf module with antenna we can buy somewhere and would work by just flashing the right fw on it?

It’s been raining for weeks now here in the Alps…
I’ll about to receive the module which will be used as RX alternative with external antenna.
It’s not “off-the-shelf” for now but I designed a simple host PCB to break out the desired pins.
If it works well, I’ll release the files for letting everyone building his own.

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Your testing is very valuable to some of us. Keep it up! Link that other antenna module too :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Evrerything’s received !

Will play with this beauty when back from holidays.

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Same problem here. Sometimes even if my thigh (heritage) is covering it from the board, my inputs are not registered. I just learned to be more careful with it.

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The remote is still working great for me apart from when the dongle is simultaneously connected to my phone.
Then it is acting weird.
I have already updated the dongle which helped to some degree but did not solve the problem completely.

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This is an issue with the min/max ble timeslots window. I can confirm that the Trampa NRF dongle I have here does not have that issue with the latest nrf firmware, this unit was purchased in March of this year.

Could you describe which issues you’re seeing? Is the throttle laggy/sticking at times? I’ve observed this behavior on dongles running firmware without the timeslot fix.

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Exactly.
The dongle in question is pre-wand.
I have not noticed this on the dongle I got with the wand but this is on my Evo which also has a metr module so I don’t run it with my phone connected to it.

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