Campbell RF401 User manual

INSTRUCTION MANUAL
RF401/RF411/RF416 Spread
Spectrum Data Radio/Modem
5/05
Copyright (c) 2001-2005
Campbell Scientific, Inc.

Warranty and Assistance
The RF401 SERIES SPREAD SPECTRUM DATA RADIO/MODEMS are
warranted by CAMPBELL SCIENTIFIC, INC. to be free from defects in
materials and workmanship under normal use and service for twelve (12)
months from date of shipment unless specified otherwise. Batteries have no
warranty. CAMPBELL SCIENTIFIC, INC.'s obligation under this warranty is
limited to repairing or replacing (at CAMPBELL SCIENTIFIC, INC.'s option)
defective products. The customer shall assume all costs of removing,
reinstalling, and shipping defective products to CAMPBELL SCIENTIFIC,
INC. CAMPBELL SCIENTIFIC, INC. will return such products by surface
carrier prepaid. This warranty shall not apply to any CAMPBELL
SCIENTIFIC, INC. products which have been subjected to modification,
misuse, neglect, accidents of nature, or shipping damage. This warranty is in
lieu of all other warranties, expressed or implied, including warranties of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. CAMPBELL SCIENTIFIC,
INC. is not liable for special, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages.
Products may not be returned without prior authorization. The following
contact information is for US and International customers residing in countries
served by Campbell Scientific, Inc. directly. Affiliate companies handle
repairs for customers within their territories. Please visit
www.campbellsci.com to determine which Campbell Scientific company
serves your country. To obtain a Returned Materials Authorization (RMA),
contact CAMPBELL SCIENTIFIC, INC., phone [phone]. After an
applications engineer determines the nature of the problem, an RMA number
will be issued. Please write this number clearly on the outside of the shipping
container. CAMPBELL SCIENTIFIC's shipping address is:
CAMPBELL SCIENTIFIC, INC.
RMA#_____
815 West 1800 North
Logan, Utah 84321-1784
CAMPBELL SCIENTIFIC, INC. does not accept collect calls.

– CAUTION –
Where an AC adapter is used, CSI recommends
Item # 15966. This AC adapter is included as part of
Item # 14220 RF401 Series Base Station Cable/Power Kit.
Any other AC adapter used must have a DC output not
exceeding 16.5 Volts measured without a load to avoid
damage to the RF401 Series radio!
Over-voltage damage is not
covered by factory warranty!
(See Power Supplies, Section 4.2 for AC adapter requirements)
Power plug polarity

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i
RF401 Series Table of Contents
PDF viewers note: These page numbers refer to the printed version of this document. Use
the Adobe Acrobat® bookmarks tab for links to specific sections.
1. Introduction..................................................................1
1.1 RF400 and RF401 Differences.................................................................2
1.1.1 CR206, CR211, CR216...................................................................3
2. RF401 Series Specifications.......................................3
3. Quick Start....................................................................4
4. System Components...................................................8
4.1 RF401 Series Data Radio..........................................................................8
4.1.1 Indicator LEDs................................................................................8
4.1.2 Setup Menu.....................................................................................8
4.1.3 Networking—Transparent Mode..................................................11
4.1.4 Error Handling and Retries...........................................................13
4.1.5 Received Signal Strength..............................................................15
4.1.6 PakBus Networking ......................................................................15
4.2 Power Supplies .......................................................................................16
4.3 Serial Cables...........................................................................................18
4.4 Antennas for the RF401 Series...............................................................19
4.5 Antenna Cables and Surge Protection ....................................................23
4.5.1 Antenna Cables.............................................................................23
4.5.2 Electro-static Issues ......................................................................23
4.5.3 Antenna Surge Protector Kit.........................................................24
5. Software Setup...........................................................25
5.1 Point-to-Point..........................................................................................25
5.2 Point-to-Multipoint.................................................................................25
5.3 PakBus Configuration.............................................................................25
5.4 Example Setups ......................................................................................25
5.4.1 Direct PC to RF401 Series Base Station Setup.............................25
5.4.2 Remote Station Setup....................................................................28
5.4.3 LoggerNet Configuration..............................................................29
5.4.4 PC208W Configuration ................................................................30
6. Troubleshooting ........................................................32

RF401 Table of Contents
ii
Appendices
A. Part 15 FCC Compliance Warning .........................A-1
B. Setup Menu .............................................................B-1
C. RF401 Series Address and Address Mask............C-1
D. Advanced Setup Standby Modes ..........................D-1
E. RF401 Series Port Pin Descriptions ......................E-1
F. Datalogger RS-232 Port to RF401 Series Radio....F-1
G. Short-Haul Modems ................................................G-1
H. Distance vs. Antenna Gain, Terrain, and
Other Factors......................................................H-1
I. Phone to RF401 Series.............................................. I-1
J. Monitor CSAT3 via RF401 Series ............................J-1
K. RF401/RF411 Pass/Fail Tests.................................K-1
L. RF401/RF411 Average Current Drain
Calculations........................................................ L-1
M. PakBus Networking Details .................................. M-1
M.1 PB Aware, PB Node, and RF PakBus................................................M-1
M.2 Minimizing the Number of Small Link State Packets........................M-1
M.3 Maximizing the RF Packet Size .........................................................M-2
M.4 Establish an Ad Hoc Point-to-Point Link...........................................M-2
M.5 Net and Radio Address Settings.........................................................M-2
M.6 Hop Metric, Signal Strength, and Standby Modes.............................M-2
M.6.1 Hop Metric Code ......................................................................M-3
M.7 RF Router ...........................................................................................M-3
M.8 Optimization.......................................................................................M-4
M.9 Idiosyncrasies.....................................................................................M-4
Figures
1. RF411......................................................................................................... 2
2. RF401 Basic Point-to-Point Network ........................................................ 5
3. Point-to-Point LoggerNet Network Map ................................................... 6

RF401 Table of Contents
iii
4. Device Configuration screen for setting up the
RF401, RF411, RF416 radios..................................................................9
5. Device Configuration screen used when the
“PakBus Node” setting is chosen ..........................................................10
6. Some FCC Approved Antennas.......................................................... 20-22
7. Example COAX RPSMA-L Cable for Yagi or Omni Colinear................23
8. Antenna Surge Protector...........................................................................23
9. Enclosure with Antenna Surge Protector for RF401 ................................24
10. Point-to-Multipoint System ....................................................................30
11. PC208W Datalogger Generic Dial String...............................................32
G-1. Short-Haul Modem to RF401 Setup.................................................. G-1
I-1. LoggerNet Point-to-Multipoint Setup...................................................I-4
K-1. Loop-back Test without Antennas..................................................... K-3
K-2. Vertically Polarized 9 dBd 900 MHz Yagi ....................................... K-5
K-3. 3 dBd 900 MHz Collinear Omni Antenna......................................... K-6
Tables
1. Lacking 12 V on CS I/O Pin 8....................................................................6
2. Standard Setup Menu................................................................................11
3. 15966’s Voltage Regulation .....................................................................18
4. RF401 Series 12 V Power Supply Options...............................................18
D-1. Advanced Setup Menu ...................................................................... D-1
H-1. 900 MHz Distance vs. Path Loss (Lp in dB) per Three Path Types.. H-6
H-2. Path Type vs. Path Characteristics Selector ...................................... H-6
K-1. 900 MHz Gain Antenna Test Distances ............................................ K-6
L-1. Advanced Setup Menu........................................................................L-1

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1
RF401 Series Spread Spectrum Data
Radio/Modems
1. Introduction
This manual discusses the RF401, RF411, and RF416 spread spectrum radios.
These radios differ from one another primarily in the radio frequencies at
which they communicate. Most of the information provided in this manual is
also relevant for our RF400, RF410, and RF415 radios that were retired in May
2005. For simplicity sake, throughout the manual the term “RF401” will refer
to the RF401, RF411, and RF416 radios, unless specified otherwise, and the
term “RF400” will refer to the RF400, RF410, and RF415 radios.
The RF401 is a 900 MHz, frequency hopping, spread spectrum, data
radio/modem for point-to-point and point-to-multipoint communications. An
excellent receiver combined with 100 mW transmitter power make possible,
depending on path specifics, communication distances of 1/4 to 5 miles using
omni-directional antennas and 10 to 20 miles using 9 dBd directional antennas
(see Appendix H for a discussion of antenna gain and other factors affecting
distance).
The RF411 differs from the RF401 in that it operates at 922 MHz for regions
such as Australia, New Zealand, and Israel. The RF411’s communication
range is the same as that of the RF401.
The RF416 is a 2.4 GHz version with 50 mW transmitter intended mainly for
certain European and Asian markets. Communication distances vary from 300
feet (indoors) to ¼ mile (100 to 400 meters) with omni-directional antennas to
over 12 miles (19 kilometers) with gain antennas and optimal terrain.
Users do not normally need a communications authority license for the RF401
series configurations described in this manual including U.S. Government
Agencies regulated by NTIA Annex K. The 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz bands are
shared with other non-licensed services such as cordless telephones and with
licensed services including emergency, broadcast, and air-traffic control, so
band usage will vary from location to location as will man-made noise. Spread
spectrum technology resists noise and interference; however, the user may
wish to test communications on site using Quick Start (Section 3) before
committing to its use.
The RF401 operates from a 12 VDC power supply. The RF401’s low standby
current modes allow it to operate at remote sites on small power budgets.
The RF401 was designed for ease of installation. It works in many
applications “out of the box” with default settings.

RF401 Series Spread Spectrum Data Radio/Modems
2
FIGURE 1. RF411
The RF401 has a 9-pin serial CS I/O port and a 9-pin serial DCE RS-232 port.
The CS I/O port allows the RF401 to connect to a datalogger. The RS-232 port
allows direct PC connection for Setup Menu access and to create a direct
connect RF401 “base station” for point-to-point and point-to-multipoint
communications. Where necessary, a more distant base station can be set up
using short-haul modems or phone modems between PC and RF401.
Base Station power is usually provided by a wall adapter. For a remote RF401,
power is normally provided by the datalogger.
A PC running LoggerNet, PC208W, or PC208 is used for data collection,
program transfer, and other datalogger supported functions. The PakOS
software or a terminal program is used to configure the RF401 radios.
1.1 RF400 and RF401 Differences
Our RF400s and RF401s essentially function the same except the RF401s have
a choice of three protocol settings. By default, the RF401 is set to the
Transparent protocol, which is the protocol used by the RF400s. RF401s in
networks that also have RF400s must use the “Transparent” protocol setting.
The other protocol settings available for the RF401s are the PB Aware and PB
Node settings. Both of these settings are intended to make the radios easier to
use in a PakBus network. Changing it from Transparent (the default) to one of
the PakBus modes enables the new RF PakBus protocol. RF400s can be
upgraded to become RF401s by sending the RF400 to Campbell Scientific. An
RMA is required.