Decawave distance is obtained via Bluetooth or UWB of DWM1001 module?

Wireless Connectivity Ultra-Wideband
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Hello All,

I have just started learning about various indoor technology methods and then came across Decawave products. After few days of shelf study and going through discussions on Decawave forum, I understood that a tag node can calculate its location from fixed anchors similar to a GPS receiver does from satellites. The DWM1001 module has inbuilt Bluetooth radios, UWB chip and acclerometer etc. I got a few Decawave ( DWM1001 ) devices and set them up as anchors and tags to do some basic experiments. I connected USB cable to one of the tag and observed the distance of tag node from each of the anchors. However, my main doubt and confusion is:

  1. The distance between tag and anchors is calculated using UWB signals or it is obtained from RSSI measurements of Bluetooth from the same DWM1001 module.

  2. At this time, I understand that distance information is sent only via Bluetooth and not via UWB. So, can I assume now that the distance what I am seeing in Teraterm window is originally obtained from RSSI and not generated through USB chip? RSSI measurements can be converted to distance.

  3. Can a tag node transmit RSSI signals or broadcast other information?

Can someone please clarify these doubts. It would be very helpful to me to proceed further for my future works.

Thanks in advance.

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Distance is measured using UWB time of flight.

The Bluetooth is purely used for data transfer not for distance or position measurement. RSSI based methods give very poor position and distance accuracies.

The DWM1001 and the supplied firmware make use of the Bluetooth for system coordination and data transfer but it is possible to create your own firmware that does all of this without using Bluetooth.

1 Like
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Okay, Thank you. Got it.