QT PY ESP32-C3 poor wifi performance

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naething
 
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Joined: Wed May 17, 2023 9:07 pm

QT PY ESP32-C3 poor wifi performance

Post by naething »

I just completed a project with a QT PY ESP32-C3 and I am seeing really poor wifi performance.

I pulled out and reflashed the QT PY with the wifi scanner and while it (sometimes) can see my wifi router, it is showing ~30dBm lower than another microcontroller (an ESP-WROOM-32 I had lying around). About 10ft from my router I see an RSSI of -84 with the QT PY and -53 with the ESP-WROOM-32. I expected a slight difference due to the chip antenna vs. a PCB trace antenna, but that seems to be a bit extreme.

I tried a few different USB cables and different computers, so I don't think it is a brownout situation.

It is too bad because other than not working more than ~20ft from my router, I am really happy with the QT PY. I have it hooked up to a Neokey 1x4 and programmed it with ESPHome to be used as a four-button controller for controlling things in Home Assistant. I used the case from the Neokey Emoji Keyboard [1] modified so the NeoPixel from the QT PY can shine through . I thought the model was quite well done!

[1] https://learn.adafruit.com/neokey-emoji-keyboard

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naething
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed May 17, 2023 9:07 pm

Re: QT PY ESP32-C3 poor wifi performance

Post by naething »

I took a look at the schematic and did a bit more debugging.

I attached a snip from the schematic [1] and an annotated image [2]. In my annotated image I highlighted with a red square where I think L2 and C7/C9 are. It looks like C7 and C9 are not populated on either the stock images or my board.

I have continuity between the two green squares on that image (antenna pin on ESP32-C3 and the chip antenna).

If I carefully touch a ~6.2cm wire to the blue box (side of L2 away from chip) the RSSI from my AP drops from about -95dBm to -80dBm.

That seems like a good sign - but perhaps there is something wrong with this chip antenna.

[1] https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-qt- ... /downloads
[2] https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-qt- ... rd/pinouts
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