Wireless Range Test:

Results:

It was found that the original transceivers did not provide the necessary range required. The transceivers were upgraded and with the new transceivers much better range was obtained. 

Setup:

Another big portion of testing was the capability of our XBee transceivers. These were tested by tying Tx and Rx together on one transceiver, powering it, and then sending out packets from the other. The same transmitted packet would then be received shortly after (due to the tied Tx/Rx) if there was a good comm link.

A alternate method of testing was tried out and found to be faulty. This method involved running the test capability in XCTU (XBee software) at a stationary location then simultaneously starting a GPS tracking app on a android phone. The idea was that while traveling with the phone and transceiver it would intermittently go in and out of reception. The GPS log and XCTU log could then be compared to see distances and locations of failure. In theory this was a could idea but shortcomings in both the GPS logger and XCTU made this method impractical.