ESP-Now Range Test: Real-World Results for ESP32 Devices!
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- čas přidán 16. 06. 2021
- What's the range of ESP-Now on the ESP32? I got asked this a lot after the walky-talky project. Turns out you can get around 500m distance - pretty amazing!
Thanks to PCBWay for sponsoring this video, PCBWay offer PCB Production, CNC and 3D Printing, PCB Assembly and much much more. You can find their details here: www.PCBWay.com/?from=atomic
After the walky-talky project ( • ESP32 Walkie-Talkie: D... ) I got asked a lot of questions about the range of ESP-Now. I'd seen a lot of people do tests but I really wanted to do a proper "real world" test.
So, I've hooked up a GPS module ( • Revamped Audio PCB Wal... ) along with an SD Card ( • Record & Playback Audi... ) to an ESP32 and made a mobile logging system to record ESP-Now packets as I walk around.
I can get around 320m between two ESP32 modules with standard ESP-Now. If I switch into "Long Range" mode then I can trade off bandwidth for range and get 500m! Pretty amazing.
Theoretically, you should be able to get 1km in Long Range mode - but I think that would be under ideal conditions and not really "real world".
The code I used is here: github.com/atomic14/esp-now-r...
Components:
ESP32 TinyPico - amzn.to/3vVoONp
GPS module: amzn.to/3z4Gyru
ESP32 TTGO Display: amzn.to/3g8H5A9
SD Card: amzn.to/3zwmApX
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Patreon: / atomic14
ko-fi: ko-fi.com/atomic14 - Věda a technologie
Interested in ESP32 Audio: czcams.com/play/PL5vDt5AALlRfGVUv2x7riDMIOX34udtKD.html
Looking for all my ESP32 projects: czcams.com/play/PL5vDt5AALlRdN2KyL30l8j7kLCxhDUrNw.html
That was really interesting and you communicated the data very well. Makes me want to go play with ESP-NOW !!!
It's a great bit of tech.
This is the most instructive/interesting channel I've seen in a long time.
super cooool! I really liked the GPS visualizations.
Great video, clear concise and informative. Thank you!
I managed 800m using udp 512bytes at 44hz before things dropped off, from memory I was using 2dbi antennas. Great work!!
That's pretty impressive!
Super work. Love to see more experiments with new antennae
Excellent testing process
I love the aproach you had to this problem. This is a wonderfull video. Like and sub!!
I always look forward to your videos!
4:53 Loving the "Giant's Causeway" visualisation!
Nice tests, thank you!
This is literally the only video I’ve found that even slightly discusses espnows long range mode. Would is be possible to do a separate video going into more detail on this? Perhaps mentioning specifically which line(s) of code are needed and where? Unique content = ££ so it’d be a win win for both of us lol. Thanks for this video btw
I've been using ESP-Now for a year now for radio control. I have to say how impressed I am with it. Even with the bog-standard onboard antennas, I'm getting 100 to 200m which is ample for the application. It's amazing that you can build a decent RC Tx + Rx system for under £10.
Amazing work !!! I would love to see the same tests with an external antenna. I got some very cheap ones from ali and was surprised to see they actually performed excelent both in real world conditions and on the VNA. My tests were for BLE, but I guess same would apply for wifi since it's the same freq.
I wasn't sure how many people would have an antenna - but I'll add it to the list of projects as I think you're right it would be interesting as a follow up.
Would an RF Amplifier work?
Great engineering analysis bro with practical mind 🎉 thank you
You're such an idol, I hope you keep on
Thank you, I will
Thank you for the test, very interesting
Thanks for watching!
Very nice video thank you for the efforts! cheers!
It's Really a professional explanation
Thanks for watching - appreciate it.
Great testing and display of data. Although I would enjoy seeing a simple walkie-talkie distance test done with talking back and forth over various distances.
I did think of it, but the logistics of trying to record and walk at the same time felt too much :)
Indeed that would be the best use case (I'm thinking of UDP right now) but then again if you have some well placed stations (as opposed to mobile ones) you could get the extra range. Sensors would be the application I'm thinking about, less fuss than using LoRa and more bandwidth.
"If I look on my desk I got 5 esp devices and if I look in my boxes I might find another 10 or 20" ... Subscribed. lol
thank you. Very useful.
Excellent video :-)
Thanks! :)
I think it would be useful to have data for external antenna usage as well, since it's pretty easy to find modules that can utilize an external antenna, and they aren't too expensive. Also, if one is concerned with range, they will probably get a model that accepts an external antenna. It might be nice to be able to adjust one's expectations appropriately, before purchasing a model with an external antenna. The standard results are interesting and useful too, though. It's nice to know the basic range of a standard ESP32 board.
It might also be interesting if a test could be devised, to determine the feasibility and range of ESP-Now for real-time low bandwidth applications, like controlling a small vehicle. I know there are a few R/C projects out there. How much range could one expect, before control becomes erratic? In any case, I appreciate the tests. I have grown to really like these boards. They are extremely versatile. I appreciate the effort.
Thank you!
thankyou for this video, i want to test it
I did an identical type of test with NRF24L01s a few years back and got very similar results to the long range mode you describe. I wonder how similar the RF encoding is?
Interesting and very inspirational
Good to know, it tells me that I can use them on the sport fields as mesh network for the players. While testing the wifi range, did you also test the bluetooth range? Or maybe that’s for another video?
thank you for the video! i think its amazing that you can get 500m this surprised me as i rarely get more the 25m in my house.
question do you know if it is possible for the esp to work in regular mode and work in long range mode at the same time i am trying to see if it is possible to have a esp connect to a Wi-Fi network then have a long range transmission about 150m through trees and bushes and have another esp 32 take that and create a small network at the other end for devices to connect to? I have been unable to find much information on the capabilities of the esp32 in long range mode. Do you have any pointers?
I would be thankful for any help.
If you require quality and the highest number of packages delivered. It makes sense to go for point to point transmission or many to one (known MAC) And benefit of the ack callback function.
Nice video,thanks :)
Thanks :)
Amazing video, but I don't know how to set up my MCU to standard ESP-Now mode like 07:07 to compare throughput between 2 cases. Can you show me the way you did ? Thank you very much
A big problem with range is the fact that there are limited channels and in built up areas you will have a greater chance of co-channel interference. The use of unlicensed bands is a problem for long distance coms as user density is likely to be high. Also the only way an antenna can provide power gain is to concentrate the rf energy in one direction so you start to need beam steering if your going to move around a lot. So all the cards are stacked against you from the start.
Definitely, directional antennas would definitely improve things. If you were setting things up where both stations were fixed and you had flexibility on the hardware I think you could easily get the 1km range Espressif say is possible.
@@atomic14 The other problem is of course the ISM bands only allow for limit power and antenna gains. So to start to get a good range you will run fowl of the law. ;-)
I know people in the US have got some great ranges into several miles, but there it was flat than out in the country side where you are less likely to have another unit on the same frequency.
Now if you made it frequency hoping that would be fun.
Yes, I did find it very interesting.. and I'd like to know if you know of any way to lower the WiFi bit rate between two TTGO T-Dispalys using their standard PC Card antennas with the Arduino 2.1.0 IDE? my project works BUT I am right on the verge of excessive packet loss within the house and tho my Sensor/Sender is only about 60 feet/18 meters away.. to get my sensor data sent from the garage to the receiver in the Den or in front of the TV.. it must pass thru 3 stucco walls, a large refrigerator, microwave, and a gas range/ oven with large metal hood over it in direct line. I'm afraid of switching to the ESP IDE due to its complexity and I'm a genuine nubie at this. I don't want to change antennas either since they may be too fragile. Any thoughts?
Thank you verry much for the video..i have one question is that possible to transmitting video ..example espcam 32 and esp32 with tft ..distance 100m
The LR-protocol is very interesting. is the Modul power consumption much higher than in normal mode?
is there any engineering test mode to produce a 2.4ghz CW vfo? im after using one for a tiny qo100 transceiver
wow^^ didnt know esp can do this
Amazing
could anyone provide a list of all libraries/extensions used in this project?
Running espnow on esp32 with continuous data transfer heating esp board. Are there any specific requirements to throttle up data sending rate for optimum heating??
just wanted to know wheher this protocol is same to esp-now. they claim 10 kms of coverage? is it possible?
Greetings,
Sir, please suggest some module to test the 3.3GHz antenna
Hi
Can we use long range mode (LR Mode) with esp8266 (esp 12)
Nice work! Thank you. What was the antenna orientation please?
The base station just had the antenna pointed out over the park. For the mobile station it would have varied considerably as I walked around.
That IS amazing! Thank you! Any idea how far it would go WITH EXTERNAL ANTENNAS?
No idea - but it should make a big difference.
Hello Sr. I'm a student and i have a questions about interference of ESP32 and this protocol. For example if is a rainy or sunny day. How can i measure the lost packages with a map. like the video.
Mr, that was really interesting!!, Do you think if we can change the preambule per package, hypothetically, before transmit each package, it would be more successful?, my doubst means if the major problem to become more distance just could be the power supply?, it's a loose question!. Many Thanks
I think there's a lot of things that could be done to improve the performance. Espressif claim in their docs that LR mode can reach 1km.
I'd like to ask what about TX_power. Where is it set, I didnt find any info in the code. What is the default TX_power after wifi_init()? 0dBm or 20dBm? I think it is important for range test, dont you?
Very interesting video! I wonder if you considered noise in your tests? It would be very interesting compare urban and rural environments as ESP-Now is sharing the same band as WiFi etc.
That would definitely be interesting - and I think again it flags up the whole question of the test conditions. The "real world" range for one use case is going to completely different from the "real world" range of another use case.
@@atomic14 Take a look at the android app: wifiman, I have been using it to measure my own router and devices out and about, its very useful and it can give you a good indication of what noise levels maybe from 2.4GHz wifi routers. The LR mode is very interesting to, thanks for highlighting that. When I did some tests with ESP-Now, I found it useful to be able to set the RF channel to.
I'll have to install it on the wife's phone. I've read a few things about setting the channel - especially when trying to use WiFi at the same time as ESP-Now
Wonder if an couple of old KU band satellite TV dish would help increase the range?
I tried to use your code to measure Throughput but no matter what i set - I always getting 0.7 Mbit speed that means Long Range is not activated. Can you please help? I also tried old platform = espressif32 version 3.3.2 but it does not help. How to get that long range working?
Does the stationed esp32 receive the accurate data of the missing packet?
thank you for making the video, but I ran into a problem when I managed to make sure the recipient's MAC address was correct but the sender's serial monitor kept telling me that delivery failed. i can confirm the distance between ESP32 is very close. please help me, I'm dizzy.
considering we were starting with dial-up modems 0.2Mbps is fantastic ;-)
.2 is 200,000 bps and the first modems were 300 bps, that was commercial in the 60's. I didn't even now they had modems back in the 60's till just now
Amazing video! Could you provide average latency on LR mode 400-500m?
Normal mode 100m-300m?
Thanks !
I'm afraid I don't have those numbers readily available.
Hi atomic14! Your animations are so clean! Where do you create/edit your animations?
@@atomic14 ohh i see. Have you used something similar for windows?
Thanks for a good video :)
Could you please tell us what kind of software you used to record and display the packed loss ? (the graphic one)
I'm using kepler.gl for the maps - it's a really nice tool, just upload any data with location information and it will plot it. For the charts I used Python in a Jupyter notebook and matplotlib.
@@atomic14 Thanks for the information.
It looks really usefull :)
thank you for your video and hello from russia. please tell me, is it possible to enter mac addresses directly from the program? in "loop" can I enter the mac address from the serial port, and it is used for communication via esp now
Should be able to. I assume you are entering peer mac addresses. They are just 6 bytes in a mac address.
Very interesting video. It would be also quite nice to take a look at the code you wrote for this project
I’ve added the code to the description - it’s a bit rough and ready, but should give you enough to go on.
@@atomic14 Thank you so much
Does anyone know how to get an RSSI value when in the ESP_NOW mode?
I thought I replied to this, but a bunch of my comments seem to have gone AWOL. There's no API as far as I can tell unfortunately.
Thanks for answering my question.
Would this 90 packets/sec (0.2 Mbps) be enough to transmit speech? I think it would make for good texting only. Or sending XML data?
Definitely enough for speech - especially if you added compression.
@@atomic14 Excellent.
just fyi to anyone else reading, that's 200kbps, 8khz and 16kbps speex (or opus which uses speex for voice) is plenty for voice, not ideal.. but plenty. So you can have several VoIP channels going on that bandwidth.
Can we made espnow work as repeater to increase the number of devices in the network?
Should be possible, but you might want to take a look at ESP-MESH
Could you share your code for the two devices? Id like to see the rest of your setup and process in broadcasting for this method of using lr mode for espnow. Not much on the web for using lr with espnow
Here you go - it's quite rough and ready - github.com/atomic14/esp-now-range-test
@@atomic14 thank you!
How much cost ?
can we transmit 2000 samples per second without any dataloss
What about LoRa communication ?
increased the distance to 200km using uhf transmitter
Seems like a budget alternative to LoRa for distances beyond normal wifi and up to 1km with better antennas. I have LoRa setup about a km away, getting about 90% packet reception I am sending sensor data every 10 mins, and I can do retransmits if necessary, but not currently. receiver is inside a building and there are houses and trees in the way. I would like to see a test with esp-now and decent antennas, use case for sensors where lost packets are OK, just send more packets than you actually need to get
Houses and trees seem to completely kill ESP-Now as well. A test with proper antennas is definitely on the cards.
If you do use the non built-in antennas, please measure their tuning with a nanoVNA or similar device. Many non-namebrand antennas can be tuned improperly, resulting in sub-optimum conditions
@@horrorhotel1999 How do we find out if the antenna is compatible with ESP or not. Is there any guide or datasheet to do this antenna matching. I have tried some patch antenna and outdoor antenna as well, but dont know see much boost in the range.
Спасибо!
Why is your channel under rated? I see no reason after watching your knowledge transfer.
Thanks!
Thanks for the video and code.
I will go check my code again. It's hard for me to send over 100 packets/s even at very short distance, the error rate will go up.
What board are you using?
@@atomic14The regular ESP32 with PCB ANT.
ESPnow is rather rubbish at transmitting through brick walls. It's often these walls you want to transmit through because out in the countryside you don't really need these computers unless you are a farmer perhaps. So what i want to do is to use a mesh and now I'm wondering if I could hack the mesh to work with long range mode. I think with both these improvements it would be possible to get reliable communication in buildings. Sometimes I find I can trip it out simple by walking past. I've had a few problems where duff communication can crash the wifi stack and sometimes it can't recover.
I was very disappointed in the real world range.
pursuing the _LR route but no success yet.
nice
So 1 km with a proper antenna sounds realistic
1:21 actually that would mean a lot to me when I'm sneaking around in your house in the middle of the night! 😈🤣
good data.
now I have to see if there is one that shows with an antenna.
and then a pringles can : )
Chris that's a lot more distance then i got in my test.
could you do me a favor and use on both side the TTGO T-display.
As that was my setup. Also ... i did send bidirectional could that be any difference?
BTW, in my test the base station was inside the house. so that could be a bottle neck as well,
@@NielsNL68 Sounds very likely, mine was on the balcony so no walls in the way. I was also doing one way which would also make a big difference I think. 320 meters was the absolute maximum range I got any packets at all, I wouldn't want to use it for anything serious. I've only got one TTGO display unfortunately and the screen has just decided to die on me!
@@atomic14, how did you be able to do that, breaking that screen.
Are you sure you did not miss wrote some code. I was able to by 4 of them when they where still cheap
I saw some other ESP32 with the same kind of antenna. I just have the idea the one the pico much better then those one the printed board.
@@NielsNL68 I suspect you might be right
is it available library for arduino framwork?
You can use espnow with Arduino on the esp32
@@atomic14 okay, thanks. I'll try
The critical questions should include the following: What is the frequency of the transmission, power output and what absorbing materials are in the area. The reason why your cell phone works in a building is because Microwaves can penetrate though the material. That's my 2 cents, thanks for the videos!
Dear Darren, WiFi, in this case, works on 2.4 Ghz there is a good chance your phone works on a lower frequency e.g 2.2 Ghz or even 1.8 Ghz and in some rural areas eve 900 Mhz. The reason your mobile works in buildings is brute force. The output power of mobile towers is massive if you compare this with an esp 32 further the antenna gain is also huge. Another fact is as you up the frequency the capability of penetration decreases. As an example 125 Khz will penetrate a concrete wall.
Great video! I found a project with esp32, tiny, becaise i want hyde in my bike, and i dected she after stoled. Thats possible?
200 Kbps is good enough for multiple VoIP streams!
It might even support ssh!
Yes, I found this very interesting, except for one omission.
'In the real world', if anyone concerned about this data wants to actually build a mid-long range ESP32 wireless communications device, then they would most likely implement an external longer range antenna, which for some unknown reason, you immediately threw into the gutter. (?)
The most likely reason for discarding this test case is likely due to not having an esp32 with an external antenna connection. Most of the boards that provide more than one antenna type require modifications to the board to switch antenna type (moving a couple 0402 components). However, I do agree an external antenna that provides a higher gain would likely improve the reception quality some. I don't think it will improve data rate though.
@@atanisoftware Actually, one of the ESP32's shown at the beginning of the video has an external antenna connection.
True, the data rate wouldn't improve because that's dependent upon the software and MCU speed. But, with improved range the integrity of the data would also improve. How much, we don't know.
@@TheOleHermit I missed seeing that board as I was watching on mobile, but if it had an on board antenna (PCB trace, 3D antenna, ceramic, etc) then the external IPEX/uFL connection is not actually connected as it would create unnecessary noise.
I have a few ESP32 modules that have the IPEX/uFL connector on them (no on-board antenna) and they appear to have a better usable signal range. I also have a few modules which have both the IPEX/uFL and 3D metal antennas which works fairly well but would require modifications to use the IPEX/uFL.
@@atanisoftware Thanks for the info. Yes, I watch Andreas Spiess (the guy with the Swiss accent) and am aware of the mod to use the IPEX connection, instead of the onboard antenna.
Also have a collection of MCUs ranging from Arduino, ESP8266, ESP32, Teensy, Photon, PICO, & M5 Stack. Can't keep up.
Currently luvin' the CM4.
Happy making, whatever your project(s) may be. :-)
@@TheOleHermit Most of my projects are with variations of the ESP32 related to model trains, in some cases pushing the little guys further than they normally would be pushed.
Today Igot 1.5 km w'th external antena
That's amazing!
czcams.com/video/oz0a7Ur7nko/video.htmlsi=Vgr8GzDe8LdaK4FW&t=134
thought that was a certain Germain symbol on your board for a sec
FYI - I don’t speak meters - you could have translated but you didn’t - so you’re speaking Greek to me and your data is garbage
Ah sorry - 500m is pretty much half a kilometre - hope that helps!
Greetings,
Sir, please suggest some module to test the 3.3GHz antenna