RhinoPuck testing PeaceParks April

A set or RhinoPuck units with a range of tuning values has been produced for testing by PeaceParks in the actual rhino horn. The devices were tested in various configuration to acquire as much information as possible on the impact of the actual horn on the RF performance and establish design parameters.

spfcc8dd - GPS (1565MHz) - 0016C001F004B008 9118BDC9EA247203DEE14207E9235C6B
sp794c39 - GPS (1570MHz) - 0016C001F004B024 78A038472B994C5BA651AD34BB24B7B8
sp0ced81 - GPS (1575MHz) - 0016C001F004B03F E28E66D9F321606407BAB14F4FC16A18
sp3a0b5c - GPS (1575MHz) - 0016C001F00274EC EF1EDF5311FDAEE30787D5BEF5A65C06
spddf779 - GPS (1580MHz) - 0016C001F004B012 F21601B513CAF2105EDDAA7EE92F007E
sp1d0e4d - GPS (1585MHz) - 0016C001F004B018 B9D8D1EE028819E200858E5B4531C419

Test setup

A set of 4 different tests has been established to evaluate various impacts of placement and positioning on the RF performance.

• RhinoPuck positionied with sticker (antenna) side inwards to the horn and plugged with a dummy Vettec puck

• RhinoPuck positioned with sticker (antenna) side inwards to the horn and no dummy

• RhinoPuck positionied with sticker (antenna) side outwards to the horn and plugged with a dummy Vettec puck

• RhinoPuck positionied with sticker (antenna) side outwards to the horn and no dummy

Key test results

The testing conducted over a period of 2 days has shown several key results:

• GPS antenna is operating sufficiently well for Ublox GPS, but based on lab results a better performance should be possible which is required for LR1110 GPS

• High-power Ublox GPS is working and can provide a reliable GPS fix

• Low-power LR1110 GPS is not working due too low GPS satellite signal strength

Rhino horn impact on antenna is significant, thus the antenna tuning must be very well matched to the actual horn.

• Best overall performance was observed for sp3a0b5c tracker tuned at 1575MHz with Sticker out + dummy configuration (note however sp0ced81 was expected to have similar performance but it did not), up to 5 LR1110 satellites were observed

• Second best overall performance was observed for sp794c39 tracker tuned to 1570MHz with Sticker in + dummy configuration

• Notably good performance was observed on Sticker in + no dummy configuration on trackers in 1575MHz, 1580MHz and 1585MHz, however no Dummy is not a realistic solution as the trackers can not be deployed that way.

• Based on the best results, the C/N0 metric for Ublox has not exceeded 34, however based on lab results at least 37 should be achieved with better tuning and then LR1110 performance is expected