There's a different (car alarm) transmitter on the ground, 5 stories below. I'm in an apartment building, 5th floor. The transmitter downstairs has the capability of sending data up here because the receiver (that it came with) catches it successfully. The SMAKN item above is for an additional aftermarket receiver I'm making.
I brought my Arduino device downstairs and had it working successfully. When I brought the Arduino back upstairs and tried testing, it no longer worked.
My assumption is that the receiver I purchased isn't strong enough to reach downstairs. I tried coiling up some basic hookup wire for an antenna, but didn't seem to affect anything.
What sorts of things should I try?
It's running on 5v, would increasing the power help?
Should I get a thicker wire for antenna?
Should I buy a newer more powerful receiver?
I'm open to trying whatever to get results, but looking for the most effective direction to walk in.
The receiver you have is a superregen , which are about the worst receivers you can buy, sensitivity wise.
If a better antenna doesnt work, then try a better receiver like a superhet.
Google the following for a bunch of easily built beam antennas: "yagi antenna 432 mhz".
@Paul: Those cheap radios don't have balanced antenna terminals, so it is not clear that a yagi will actually improve reception, without some sort of coupler. Do you know of anyone who has done this and made it work well?
jremington: @Paul: Those cheap radios don't have balanced antenna terminals, so it is not clear that a yagi will actually improve reception, without some sort of coupler. Do you know of anyone who has done this and made it work well?
No, I sure don't. However, a short Yagi would be an improvement over a short coil of wire. The OP should be willing to experiment.
I tried a few code bits, including ELECHOUSE_CC1101 stuff and Panstamp.
Since the other 433mhz receiver was able to at least receive signals from my transmitter, I figured the new one would be able to receive them too. After adding some of the basic demo code, none of them picked up my transmitter.
What could be the reason behind that?
Is the 3.3v receiver an issue? (the other was 5v)
I didn't connect it to 5v; the other receiver was 5v.
I ended up actually removing the 3.3v connector from the Uno and now it seemingly works. It's not picking up the transmissions I'm sending, which is strange, but it seems to be doing something and receiving some sort of data. It randomly picks up some packets, but I don't know from where. They're not the ones I'm trying to send. The ones I'm trying to send aren't being caught.
The CC1101 radio chip can be made to operate in ASK mode, which is what those cheap 433 Mhz ASK radios use, but thats about the only similarity.
You would have to decode the CC1101 data packet format somehow, or try and find out what it is.
It would be far easier to simply get another RF1100SE module.