ESP8266 Community Forum

- Fri Dec 12, 2014 10:14 am #4672

I have the opposite. It's weird

That is strange.

I grepped my log for survey calls as I have been using quite a few different boards, and all on my desk in the same place.

In general, a far AP is 10 to 15 dB (assuming the number returned in the survey string is really dB) better with the ESP-01s.

This is actually in agreement with theory. Ceramic antennas are beneficial for reducing mismatch due to nearby metal and bodies, but have lower "gain" than the larger PCB printed "wire" antenna. How they will compare in real life depends a lot on what resonant and non-resonant things are near the antenna and the chip's ability to maintain match over changing antenna impedance. So, the ESP-03 is expected to be better when there are hands or wires nearby. The ESP-01 is expected to be better if it is "in the clear".

What you can do, though, is add an external antenna to the ESP-03, in which case it will be much better.

ESP8266 for dummies, LuaLoader and project updates: http://benlo.com/esp8266

- Fri Dec 12, 2014 11:25 pm #4724 The ESC-07 is slightly different. You can't switch between the built-in ceramic antenna and the external. Once the external antenna is plugged in, both antennas are connected. That will change the impedance for sure. Would that dramatically increase the range and stability?

- Sat Dec 13, 2014 3:18 am #4731 A little OOT. The GPIO4 and GPIO5 on ESP-07 seems to have silkscreen flipped. Top pin from left to right should be TXD, RXD, GPIO5, GPIO4

My ESP8266 dev board https://www.tindie.com/products/Ba0sh1/ ... d-adapter/

- Sat Dec 13, 2014 3:19 pm #4757

The ESC-07 is slightly different. You can't switch between the built-in ceramic antenna and the external. Once the external antenna is plugged in, both antennas are connected. That will change the impedance for sure. Would that dramatically increase the range and stability?

An external antenna is sure to increase signal strength if the match is good.

As for matching, the specifications call for a Pi network external to the chip and speak of diversity reception as if it had multiple antennas, which it doesn't. I wonder if the die can be wired to different pins for more functions, such as bluetooth as well as WiFi.

It is not clear from the chips I have what matching network is on the PCB.

So, I think it comes down to experimenting...

Good luck.

ESP8266 for dummies, LuaLoader and project updates: http://benlo.com/esp8266