Can operating the mDot or mDot Box without an antenna damage the device?

[Frank A]

Hi,

At some point, I was reading something on the Internet about attaching the appropriate antenna to a radio module before starting using it, else the module could get damaged.

I went through a lot of your documentation about the mDot and I don’t recall having read anything like that for the mDot, but I’m asking you anyway here, just to be cautious. So, can the mDot be operated safely without an antenna attached to it?

Thank you for your time and support.

Frank

[Mike Fiore]

Frank,

The mDot (and all of our LoRa devices) can be operated safely without an antenna. Obviously, your range & output power will be diminished, but you don’t need to worry about damaging the devices.

It’s actually useful to remove one or both antennas if you have an endpoint and a gateway close to each other and are getting a lot of CRC errors. This is usually an indication of the devices overdriving the other’s RX paths (no damage, just packets getting distorted).

Cheers!
-Mike

[Frank A]

Hello again Mike,

Thank you very much for confirming that the mDot can be operated without an antenna, as well as for the useful information about cases in which one might prefer to actually use it (i.e. mDot) without one (i.e. antenna).

Obviously, I think it is a must that a module like the mDot can be used without an antenna, because, for some IoT use cases (e.g. for very small sensor devices), the antenna won’t be an option.

Thanks for your time and support. A+ 🙂

Frank

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