ANT Forum

Hi,

I am a newbie here. I am currently planning to develop a wireless voltage measurement application. The DMM measures the device voltage in wireless mode. Could I implement ANT in between the DMM and device as a medium of wireless communication?

Thank You      

Hi,

ANT's straightforward protocol and low power make it an excellent way to transmit voltage data from your voltage measurement device to your DMM.

For getting started with ANT I would recommend looking into the "Getting Started with ANT Development in Embedded Systems" thread and reading the "ANT Message Protocol and Usage" document.

Cheers      

Thank You hfchin. From the documentation I need to have one master and one slave ANT engine for the communication protocol. For example measuring the battery voltage, do I need a voltage sensor connecting to the master ANT system before sending to slave (DMM)?      

Yes, you would need a voltage sensor connected to a master ANT node which would transmit that data to your slave display (DMM).

Each ANT node (master or slave) consists of at the very minimum, a Host (MCU/PC/Phone/etc) and an ANT radio (module/chip).      

Now I am pondering on the communication distance in between 2 ANT devices. What is the maximum range of the ANT USB dongle that communicates with other ANT devices? Is it possible to implement a power amplifier to boost the transmission distance?      

Communication distance is almost totally dependent on the design of the RF hardware and the RF environment (RF noise, line of sight, antenna orientation, etc) but typically ANT nodes like the USB stick are designed with approximately up to 30m - 50m of range with line of sight in mind.

It is absolutely possible to boost the signal power using external components, but it's uncommon as ANT is typically going into commercial products meaning ANT modules have been designed to stay within FCC and other regulatory specs regarding maximum signal strength.      

What is the antenna gain of the built in antenna on the C7 module?      

Below are our real world power measurements from an ANT C7 Module at 0dBm and 4dBm source powers. The difference between average and max power is due to directionality.

ANTC7 (0dBm):
FREQ (MHz) Average Power (dBm) Max Power (dBm)
2400 -7.214 -3.056
2440 -8 -3.762
2480 -8.722 -4.348

ANTC7 (4dBm):
FREQ (MHz) Average Power (dBm) Max Power (dBm)
2400 -3.63 0.04
2440 -3.59 -0.06
2480 -3.95 -0.13