Last saturday I changed the power supply on my Pi Zero W based PiAware, since then I noticed a significant decrease in messages received and maximun range.
Otherwise everithing seems normal,
Does changing only the power supply may affect it?
Yes, that can be if the power supply doesn’t deliver it properly. That happens quite often if people aren’t using the original one but another one e.g. for a smartphone.
I am not an expert, but maybe @wiedehopf can tell you more about it.
Ok, in my case it was the apposite, I removed one from a phone and put in one from a Vilros kit (not the original Raspberry but supposedly designed for the raspberry.
Some phone power supplies (especially the newer ones) are offering enough power, but cheaper ones might not work properly.
I mean it’s quite obvious no?
Change it back.
Could also be noise even if it’s supplying the voltage.
If you care for good reception / stability, i’d go with a pi4 + original power supply anyhow.
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Previous power supply failed. Waiting for a new one to arrive.
Does increaing computing power (a more powerful Raspberry) would increase range/messages by itself (same receiver/antenna)?
I would say it may increase processed messages, but not range. I think it may randomly process a farther message that may be missed if its processing less msg/sec, so it’s more a probability than range issue. right?
It’s about supplying the SDR with proper power and noise coupling into the SDR.
It feels like rpi before 4 also kill sd-cards more often.
MLAT is often unstable on rpi before 4.
Bit of a convenience thing as well.
I was tired of hit or miss power supplies so I went with power over Ethernet (PoE) and my systems have been very stable ever since.
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Not necessarily. But it will give more ressources in the back if needed.
I moved from a Pi3 to Pi4 in the past. Not the same as moving from a zero, but it’s at least a good feeling not having the CPU running full throttle all the time.
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