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Antenna orientation

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Hi,

I have to put 7 wsn nodes in the same enclosure. It may seems strange, but its in the middle of a bridge so the wireless is still useful, and by the time a good way to use a multiplexer with wsn node will be found, it's the only way to have more than 4 channels. So, to save space in my enclosure I thought that it could be a good idea to place 4 nodes with the antenna pointing up, and 3 nodes with their antenna pointing down.

Does the nodes with their antenna pointing down will be responsive ?

 

Thank you.

 

Matt

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Hi Matt,

 

The antenna position will not have too much of an impact on responsiveness, instead, the distance between the gateway and the WSN nodes will be deciding factor on signal strength. If you do start having problems with co-channel interference, you can assign different channels to each node in Measurement & Automation Explorer.

 

 

 

Aldo A
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
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Distance is a factor in the signal strength but other factors such as line of sight and antenna orientation cannot be ignored. The antennas are omni directional and you will get the highest signal strength orienting the node's antenna perpendicular to the gateways antenna as the radiation pattern of the antenna is toroidal. That being said they should have very similar signal strength whether pointing up or down assuming both orientations are perpendicular to the gateway's (or router node's) antenna.

 

Please note that you cannot set nodes to different wireless channels unless they are connected to different gateways. Assuming all 7 nodes are connected to one gateway they will all have to be on the same channel. 

 

Cheers,

Brian A

R & D Product Support Engineer | WSN/Network DAQ/Academic

National Instruments 

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Hi Brian,

 

Just to be sure, when you said that the node's antennas should be perpendicular to the gateway's antenna, do you mean that if the gateway's antenna is vertical, the node's ones should be horizontal ?

 

Thank you

 

Matt

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Sorry for the confusion, I meant parallel not perpendicular. 

 

Cheers,

Brian A

R & D Product Support Engineer | WSN/Network DAQ/Academic

National Instruments 

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