[Tinyos-help] Heavy radio packet loss

[David]

On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 11:07 AM, Urs Hunkeler <uhu at gmx.ch> wrote:
> Hi David,
>
> You might have interference from other radio sources, such as WiFi. Try
> changing the radio channel. You could even probe the channels by measuring
> the energy in each channel while not transmitting yourself (there is a
> readRSSI interface in one of the CC2420 modules).
>

Actually, I've tried that before (printing RSSI levels when the motes
are quiet vs transmitting). There was very little noise in the
channel. The energy level jumped up a lot when the motes were
transmitting. So I don't think it's from wifi intereference. Also,
wifi interference wouldn't explain why those tricks of mine help.

I think it's probably a hardware issue. Maybe the usb cable creates
electrical/magnetic (not radio) interference of some kind in the radio
chip. Or, the mote is transmitting badly, and needs some kind of
multipath/absorption to be received properly (that doesn't even make
sense, but the evidence points to it).

David.