Increasing the wireless range

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Building a receiver with a bigger antenna  

Candle devices can act as repeaters so that you can spread your network wider. But if you have a pretty big house, or a lot of interference from neighbours, one solution is to replace the basic RF-Nano receiver with a stronger and more sensitive one.

You will need 3 parts:

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A normal Arduino Nano

‌If you can afford it, please buy your Arduino Nano from an official local supplier. This helps the Arduino company. 

Otherwise you could buy a cheap clone on Aliexpress. Get one from the RobotDyn company, and make sure it already has all the pins soldered on.

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NRF24 PA radio module

This more powerful and sensitive radio module will allow your Candle Controller to talk to devices that are further away.

One of the more popular brands on Aliexpress is eByte. Make sure you get a shielded module, as shown above. This will further increase range and limit interference.

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Nano Wireless Expansion Board

P‌lug the Arduino Nano and the stronger radio module into the expansion board, which you can buy on Aliexpress. The radio should "stick out" of the board.

Since you are no longer using the RF-Nano (which has a built in radio), make sure to untick the "RF-Nano" box when you create the new receiver using the Candle Manager. If uploading the new code proves troublesome, you may have to briefly disable the MySensors add-on, as it can sometimes be a bit to eager in trying to connect to the new radio, which interupts the upload process.

Upload the receiver code

Your new creation should work the same as a normal RF-Nano, except it's more modular and powerful.