How to collect channel status from RF Explorer?

RF Explorer

1. You can buy the RF Explorer in the following URL:

https://shop.nutsaboutnets.com/collections/rf-explorer-handheld-spectrum-analyzers/products/rf-explorer-handheld-spectrum-analyzer-worldwide-distributors?variant=32166366871692

1. Install RF Explorer utility for Windows PC Client

Download URL:

http://j3.rf-explorer.com/download/sw/win/RFExplorerWindowsSetup_v2_02_2009_5.zip

1. Power on RF Explorer

1. Connect RF Explorer and Laptop through USB cable

1. Execute (No OpenGL) RF Explorer utility

1. Modify the field separator of CSV to ”Comma(,)”

1. Pre-Configure the Center Frequency to 2442.5 and the field of SPAN to 85

1. After collecting a period of time (20~30 minutes), export the CSV data and save it

Discovery Better Channel

1. Mouse double-click the “Channel_Select.xlsx” file

2. Erase whole content in RAW_Data session

3. Import channel data to RAW_Data sheet

Data->Text file

Select your collecting channel data and import file by “RF Explore For Windows”

Choose delimiter option

Check “Comma” symbol only and click “Next” button

Check the data format to “Text” and finish

Note: the data must start at the initial upper left of field

1. Switch to “Result” session

   1. Check the result of the data format is PASS or FAIL.

      (If the result is FAIL, please confirm whether previous instructions are correct or not)

   2. Check if the result of Configuration is PASS or FAIL. (If the result is FAIL, please confirm the parameters of RF Explorer is correct or not)

   3. Confirm the Data Start Time is as same as the start time of RF Explorer

   4. Adjust the threshold level if needed

   5. Based on rank values to select a suitable channel in your operating environment (the lowest value is our suggested channel which means idle time is long at your site)

Appendix:

In the below picture, there are five parameters that we need to explain.

Channel: Zigbee channel in 2.4G and each channel is mapping to different frequencies.

Start Step、End Step: Start and end frequency mapping table and the mapping table is as below:

Below -70 dBm: Proportion of signal strength less than -70 dBm in one minute

Rank: The result of the analysis tool processing, green refers to the channel recommended subordinate.