Hobbyist and low-cost antenna design software have been usually limited to basic theoretical calculations based on ideal EM equations that could be done on the back of the hand. It is only recently that full EM simulation has drifted down to the masses in a semi-affordable way. CENOS Antenna Design software is one of the… Continue reading First Look at CENOS Antenna Design Software
I became really interested in the capabilities of the nRF24L01 radio modules due to their insanely low price ~$2 in quantity, compared to something like a LoRa module ~$25. So you can basically have 10 for the price of one. Now I am not saying these are comparable devices, since the LoRa devices can be… Continue reading Measuring the Range of nRF24L01 Modules with CircuitPython
After about a week of running my Nebra Indoor Helium Hotspot, I began to look into upgrading my antenna. The stock antenna was doing pretty well and was picking up witnesses from 10s of kilometers away and its beacons could be heard by 10-12 other hotspots in my area. I was earning an average of… Continue reading Easy Helium Outdoor Antenna Upgrade
I previously create a PCB patch antenna using the Matlab antenna design toolbox and had some pretty good results, but the narrow bandwidth of patch designs means that small errors in the simulation parameters cause a shift away from your desired frequency. My old post into the details of my journey of learning about patch… Continue reading 2.4GHz PCB Patch Antenna V2 Design with Matlab
Diving deeper into antenna design you find really interesting antenna structures based on what parameter you are trying to optimize for. I was looking for antennas that had wide bandwidth and some directionality, to use in conjuncture with my LimeSDR Mini for one of my many projects, that's how I found out about the Vivaldi… Continue reading Vivaldi Antenna Design with MATLAB
